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Like so many things, it's explained in P-222, Changes and Enhancements
to Base SAS Software, Release 6.07. It's also in the version 8
documentation. CALL EXECUTE was introduced in version 5.18, but wasn't
in the initial release of version 6, which is why you couldn't find
it in the documentation.
Basically (and this is a simplification), you call it in a datastep,
passing it a string expression. Typically (but not always) you call
it multiple times. All of the string expressions are concatenated
together and executed after the data step finishes execution. You're
using SAS code to generate more SAS code (a self-modifying program).
Here's a very simple example:
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1 data _null_;
2 call execute('proc contents data=sasuser.iris; run;');
3 run;
NOTE: DATA statement used the following computer resources:
Buffered IO: 37 Elapsed time: 0 00:00:00.44
Direct IO: 29 CPU time: 0 00:00:00.08
Page Faults: 56
NOTE: CALL EXECUTE generated line.
1 +proc contents data=sasuser.iris; run;
NOTE: PROCEDURE CONTENTS used the following computer resources:
Buffered IO: 36 Elapsed time: 0 00:00:00.23
Direct IO: 35 CPU time: 0 00:00:00.04
Page Faults: 47
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Typically, you would construct more complicated SAS code
based on your data.
Alternatives to CALL EXECUTE include writing code to a file
and then %INCLUDE'ing that file, using the macro language, and
using the INTO clause of PROC SQL; each approach has its own
advantages and disadvantages.
--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Development Manager, Technical Group
METRICS Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA
>>> "David F Bocobo" <David.Bocobo@BMS.COM> 07/07/2000 11:35 AM >>>
Could someone please explain call execute to me.
I've been searching through the SAS version 6 manuals and can't find it.
Thanks.
Dave Bocobo
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