Hi Eugenio,

Here are two methods. First, utilizing the CALL SYMPUT() function to get your datastep working, along with matching up variable type conversions a little bit, try this first example. Secondly, for those who like to trim down to smaller code a second example using a %LET and a %SYSFUNC() is provided in the second example. (These examples tend to take your sample of using fixed literal date values, if these are more dynamic, you will have to expand from here.)

%macro name(macname); data _null_; month = 06; year = 2001; day = 30; x = mdy(month,day,year); call symput("&macname",put(x,8.)); run; %mend;

%name(y)

%put &y;

%macro name(macname); %global &macname; %let &macname=%sysfunc(mdy(6,30,2001)); %mend;

%name(yy)

%put yy is >&yy<;

Hope this is helpful, Mark Terjeson Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Division of Research and Data Analysis (RDA) mailto:terjemw@dshs.wa.gov

-----Original Message----- From: Draschner, Eugenio A [mailto:eugenio.draschner@OTS.TREAS.GOV] Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 9:39 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Macros and global variables

Wondering if any one of you could help with the following macro problem.

I have a macro which I want to use to create a global macro variable. I want the name of this variable to be passed to the macro. I then want the macro to assign a SAS date value to that global variable. I have the following code, but I am not getting what I want. The local variable x has the value (15156) I am trying to pass to the global variable (y), but the y variable ends up with 'x' as a value. Any help would be most appreciated.

Regards to all.

%macro name(macname); data _null_; month = '06'; year = '2001'; day = '30'; x = mdy(trim(month),trim(day),trim(year)); %global &macname; &macname = x; put &macname; run; %mend;

%name(y)

%put &y;