Date:         Wed, 30 Jan 2002 08:28:20 -0500
Reply-To:     "Fehd, Ronald J." <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Fehd, Ronald J." <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: www.coronadoviews.com Style and Opinion
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

> From: Quentin McMullen [mailto:QuentinMcMullen@WESTAT.COM]
> > Could I ask the SAS community
> > what is this obsession with lotsa RUN; statements?
>
> > Certainly RUN; gets the titles associated with their procedures
> > but do I want to advertise that I don't know that titles
> > should come after the step boundary keyword 'proc'?
>
> I was recently convinced otherwise.  That is, I was converted
> to practice of putting my titles *before* a PROC.

surely we'll put this under the statistical category of 'regression'

>   title "My Data";
>   proc print data=x;
>     var x;
>   run;
>   title;
>
> This seems to have numerous benefits over the alternative:
>
>   proc print data=x;
>     var x;
>     title "My Data";
>
> 1.  How often in "real life" does a title *follow* the thing
> it is titling?

<sigh> One of the truly endearing 'features' of the SAS language:
global titles within a step.
I suppose one could consider a program to be similar to a mark-up language.
like html, LaTeX, WordStar, (t)roff, etc.

> 2.  Use of title statement in what looks like a part of the
> PROC step is
> misleading, since titles are global.
> 3.  As shown, use of run statement allows you to clear the
> title after you
> are done with it.
> Otherwise I guess you just leave the title hanging around,
> and promise that *every* PROC you run will have a title.
>
> Also in the macro world, non-mavens who don't care for run
> statements are likely to get choked up by something like:
>
>   data _null_;
>     call symput("MacVar","Look, mom a macro variable!");
>
>   %put MacVar=&MacVar;

ah, yes, if any pair of statements need a RUN; between them
this would be my -major- candidate.

thank you for reminding us of another item from the Collective Wisdom

Ron Fehd  the macro maven  CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2@cdc.gov