satya,

Okay here ya go it works for me th edesign sucks but I am running short on time so I will let you play with that:

%let varlist = c_d_sex c_d_wei1 c_d_wei2 c_d_age1 c_d_age2 c_d_age3 ; %let varpart = c_d_wei1 c_d_wei2 ;

%macro redolist ; %local stop I to from ;

%let stop = %eval(%sysfunc(countc(&varlist,' ')) + 1) ;

%do I = 1 %to &stop ;

%if ( %index(&varpart,%scan(&varlist , &i , ' ')) = 0 ) %then %do ;

%let to = b_%substr(%scan(&varlist , &i , ' '),3) ; %let from = %scan(&varlist , &i , ' ') ;

%let varlist = %sysfunc(tranwrd(&varlist,&from,&to)) ;

%end ;

%end ;

%mend redolist ;

%redolist

%put &Varlist ;

Toby Dunn

From: satya <satyaanam@HOTMAIL.COM> Reply-To: satya <satyaanam@HOTMAIL.COM> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: complement of a macro variable Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 19:08:24 -0800 dear sas-lers, here is my problem for today.

i have a macro variable that list some variables: %let varlist=c_d_sex c_d_wei1 c_d_wei2 c_d_age1 c_d_age2 c_d_age3; and a corresponding macroavr that list a part of it, say; %let varpart=c_d_wei1 c_d_wei2; i want to create a third macrovar, corresponding to varlist, in which each single string of the complement to varpart has a different prefix (b instead of c) that is: varlist1=b_d_sex c_d_wei1 c_d_wei2 b_d_age1 b_d_age2 b_d_age3

Here is important to have the same order of varlist: i will use this macrovar to define an array in a subsequent data step and has to match to another similar defined array.

Thanks in advance for any help satya ps i would also appreciate some links to resources, if any, that teaches this kind of management with macro variables