Create data set from macro variable SAS

Question

I have a macro variable which stores a string of names, for example:

%let operation = add subtract divide multiply;

I wanted to transpose each element (to appear as observation) in the macro into a data set variable. So the data set should look like:

<obs> <operation>
<1>   add
<2>   subtract
<3>   divide
<4>   multiply

Tom · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-12 16:49:09Z

4

Use the SCAN() function. The default delimiters will work for your example, otherwise you can specify the exact delimiters to use.

%let operation= add subtract divide multiply;
data want ;
  length obs 8 operation $20 ;
  do obs=1 by 1 until (operation=' ');
    operation=scan("&operation",obs);
    if operation ne ' ' then output;
  end;
run;

answered Oct 12, 2015 at 16:49

Tom

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5 Comments

Josh Over a year ago

Thanks for the response, to build on my question. Suppose I wanted to set an array to point to operations would I do it the following way: set want(keep=operation); array pointer(*) operation;

data _null_ Over a year ago

Are the words in macro variable operation referring to variable names in a SAS data set?

Josh Over a year ago

yes they are. I was basically treating this as an "arrays" exercise.

Tom Over a year ago

If OPERATION contains a list of variable names then use &OPERAtION where ever you would use a list of variable names. set want(keep=&operation); array op &operation; do i=1 to dim(op); ...

Robert Penridge Over a year ago

Nice loop structure, I like that better than the do while alternative. Seems shorter/cleaner.

data _null_ · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-12 19:16:29Z

2

I still don't know enough about what you have and what you want. This example is contrived but may give you some help regarding syntax etc.

%let operation = add subtract multiply divide;

data operation;
   length &operation 8;
   array operation[*] &operation (2 3 10 4);
   put 'NOTE: ' (operation[*])(=);
   run;

*data set of names;
proc transpose data=operation(obs=0) out=names name=operation;
   var &operation;
   run;
proc print;
   run;

answered Oct 12, 2015 at 19:16

data _null_

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