Date:         Sun, 4 Feb 2001 19:50:22 -0600
Reply-To:     Jonathan_Goldberg@MASTERCARD.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jonathan Goldberg <Jonathan_Goldberg@MASTERCARD.COM>
Subject:      What do I unquote?
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I'm writing some code to help me manage GDGs.  The platform is V8 running under
Solaris 5.6  As one step, I wish to count the number of back generations of
selected GDGs under the assumption that I know what library they're in.  The
information needs to be passed into macro variables.  I wrote this macro:

%macro GetNofGens;
  %local GDataset i;
  %let i = 1;
  %let GDataset = %scan(&GDGS, &i);
  %do %while (&GDataset ^=);
    %unquote((&GDataset
    select put(count(*), 1.) into :&GDataset.count
    from dictionary.tables
    where
    memname contains '#' and
    upcase(memname) contains upcase(%str(%')&GDataset%str(%'))
    )
    ;
    %let i = %eval(&i + 1);
    %let GDataset = %scan(&GDGS, &i);
  %end;
%mend GetNofGens;

The variable GDGS will be set to the list of GDGs in which I am interested.
This is intended to be part of a proc sql invocation, and to read from
dictionary.tables the information I need.

When I first ran this, the generated code looked correct but failed.  This is
usually diagnostic of quoting/tokenization problems.  I tried %unquote in
various places;  finally, as above, I unquoted the entire generated text.  The
run-time result is:

290        proc sql;
291          %GetNofGens
MPRINT(GETNOFGENS):   select put(count(*), 1.) into :oldclusterscount from
dictionary.tables where memname contains '#' and upcase(memname) contains
upcase('oldclusters') ;
MPRINT(GETNOFGENS):   select put(count(*), 1.) into :basedatacount from
dictionary.tables where memname contains '#' and upcase(memname) contains
upcase('basedata') ;
MPRINT(GETNOFGENS):   select put(count(*), 1.) into :statusLcount from
dictionary.tables where memname contains '#' and upcase(memname) contains
upcase('statusL') ;
MPRINT(GETNOFGENS):   select put(count(*), 1.) into :accountscount from
dictionary.tables where memname contains '#' and upcase(memname) contains
upcase('accounts') ;
MPRINT(GETNOFGENS):   select put(count(*), 1.) into :deptsprtcount from
dictionary.tables where memname contains '#' and upcase(memname) contains
upcase('deptsprt') ;
292        ;
293        quit;

This code runs, and counts the data sets correctly.  However, the macro
variables are *not* set:

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference OLDCLUSTERSCOUNT not resolved.
294
295        %put oldclusterscount is &oldclusterscount;
oldclusterscount is &oldclusterscount

I can kludge are my most pressing requirements by hard-coding;  if I don't use
the macro everything works.  I can see other ways to approach the problem.

My questions to you, oh sages of SAS-L, are: what is wrong with *this* approach;
and, how can it be fixed?

Jonathan