SAS Certification Prep Guide, 4th Edition

Understanding Session-Compiled Macros

In Creating and Using Macro Programs, you learned that you can submit a macro definition in order to compile a macro. For example, when you submit the macro definition shown here, the macro processor compiles the macro Prtlast:

%macro prtlast;
   %if &syslast ne _NULL_ %then %do;
      proc print data=&syslast(obs=5);
         title "Listing of &syslast data set";
      run;
   %end;
   %else
      %put No data set has been created yet.;
%mend;

By default, the Prtlast macro is stored in a temporary SAS catalog as Work.Sasmacr.Prtlast.Macro. Macros that are stored in this temporary SAS catalog are known as session-compiled macros. Once a macro has been compiled, it can be invoked from a SAS program as shown here:

proc sort data=sasuser.courses ...