Practical and Efficient SAS Programming

Appendix A: Utility Macros

Introduction

Deleting Tables

Getting the Number of Records

Getting a Library’s Engine Name

Getting a Variable Keep List

Making ATTRIB Statements

Making a Basic Format

Making a Directory Path

Creating Macro Variables from SYSPARM

Setting Log Options

Displaying Macro Notes for Debugging

Refreshing Autocall Macros

Introduction

I have a set of utility macros that I usually have in my SASAUTOS library. These macros simplify tasks that I do regularly. This appendix provides documentation about each macro.

I use a number of standards when writing my utilities to keep them from conflicting with other programs:

●   The macro names always start with an underscore.

●   I use l_ at the beginning of all my local macro variable names, ...