SAS 9.4 Macro Language: Reference, Fourth Edition, 4th Edition

Status Variable Contains

SYSTIMEZONEOFFSET The current time zone offset based on

TIMEZONE option

SYSUSERID The user ID or login of the current SAS process

SYSVER The release or version number of SAS software

executing

SYSVLONG The release number and maintenance level of SAS

software with a 2-digit year

SYSVLONG4 The release number and maintenance level of SAS

software with a 4-digit year

SYSWARNINGTEXT Text of the last warning message formatted for

display on the SAS log

Macro Variables Defined by Users

Overview for Defining Macro Variables

You can create your own macro variables, change their values, and define their scope.

You can define a macro variable within a macro, and you can also specifically define it

as a global variable, by defining it with the %GLOBAL statement. Macro variable

names must start with a letter or an underscore and can be followed by letters or digits.

You can assign any name to a macro variable as long as the name is not a reserved word.

The prefixes AF, DMS, SQL, and SYS are not recommended because they are frequently

used in SAS software when creating macro variables. Thus, using one of these prefixes

can cause a name conflict with macro variables created by SAS software. For a complete

list of reserved words in the macro language, see Appendix 1, “ Reserved Words in the

Macro Facility,” on page 379. If you assign a macro variable name that is not valid, an

error message is printed in the SAS log.

You can use %PUT _ALL_ to view all user-created macro variables.

Creating User-Defined Macro Variable Names

The simplest way to create a user-defined macro variable is to use the macro program

statement %LET:

%let dsname=Newdata;

DSNAME is the name of the macro variable. Newdata is the value of the macro

variable DSNAME. The following are the rules for creating a macro variable:

1. SAS macro variable names can be up to 32 characters in length.

2. The first character must begin with a letter or an underscore. Subsequent characters

can be letters, numeric digits, or underscores.

3. A macro variable name cannot contain blanks.

26 Chapter 3 • Macro Variables