SAS Macro Language Magic

Chapter 10: Generating Text

10.1 Utilizing Generated Text

10.2 Counting Words in a String

10.3 Working with Lists

10.4 Prefer the Macro Solution

When macro language generates a word, the software figures out what to do with that word. The software might incorporate the word into a macro language statement, or it might embed the word as part of a SAS language statement. While that sounds simple, it leads to some interesting coding techniques.

10.1 Utilizing Generated Text

Here is some legitimate code that could appear within a macro definition:

data   %do quarter=1 %to 4;

                   q&quarter

          %end;

          ;

Each word, whether hard-coded or generated by macro language, gets incorporated into the SAS program, producing:

data q1 q2 q3 q4; ...