SAS 9.4 Macro Language, 5th Edition

Status Variable Contains

SYSSTARTID The ID generated from the last STARTSAS

statement

SYSSTARTNAME The process name generated from the last

STARTSAS statement

SYSTCPIPHOSTNAME The host names of the local and remote operating

environments when multiple TCP/IP stacks are

supported

SYSTIME The character value of the time at which a SAS

job or session began executing

SYSTIMEZONE The time zone name based on TIMEZONE option

SYSTIMEZONEIDENT The time zone ID based on TIMEZONE option

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

28 Chapter 3 • Macro Variables

Macro Facility,” on page 389. 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.

4. A macro variable name cannot contain double-byte character set (DBCS) characters.

5. A macro variable name cannot contain any special characters other than the

underscore.

6. Macro variable names are case insensitive. For example, cat, Cat, and CAT all

represent the same variable.

7. 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 for automatic macro variables. Thus, using one of

these prefixes can cause a name conflict with an automatic macro variable. For a

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

Words in the Macro Facility,” on page 389. If you assign a macro variable name that

is not valid, an error message is printed in the SAS log.

Assigning Values to Macro Variables

The simplest way to assign a value to a 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 value of a macro variable is simply a string of characters. The

characters can include any letters, numbers, or printable symbols found on your

keyboard, and blanks between characters. The case of letters is preserved in a macro

variable value. Some characters, such as unmatched quotation marks, require special

treatment, which is described later.

If a macro variable already exists, a value assigned to it replaces its current value. If a

macro variable or its value contains macro triggers (% or &), the trigger is evaluated

before the value is assigned. In the following example, &name is resolved to Cary and

then it is assigned as the value of

city in the following statements:

%let name=Cary;

%let city=&name;

Generally, the macro processor treats alphabetic characters, digits, and symbols (except

& and %) as characters. It can also treat & and % as characters using a special treatment,

Macro Variables Defined by Users 29