Ian ,

LOL, yeah I am rather wordy guess its my Texas affinity to gab.

You are right in that Macro quoting isnt a simple subject. And I loved the simple example of %put eval( "&x" = "&Y" ) ;

What I dont like is that it returns a true value. Consider the following:

%let x = / ; %let y = %str(/) ;

%put %eval( %Superq(x) = &y ) ; %put %eval( %Bquote(&x) = &y ) ; %put %eval( "&x" = "&y" ) ;

All three comparisons return a true value. Intuitively I would expect the first two to return a true value and the last to return a false value. It is almost like %eval is picking and choosing when to remove the qouting. The only thing I can come up with is that when the macro var is used inside of the double quotes it removes the macro quoting.

Toby Dunn

From: Ian Whitlock <iw1junk@COMCAST.NET> Reply-To: iw1junk@COMCAST.NET To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str() Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 00:45:49 +0000

Clinton,

The simple explanation is that

%put _all_ ;

doesn't have to write values the way

%put &var ;

does. They doesn't even have to be processed by the same code. (Toby can never say anything in a few short sentences. He needs paragraph to get started.)

On the other hand, there's more to it than that. (Under Widows, the log shows little boxes instead of spaces.) Now try

%let x = / ; %let y = %str(/) ;

proc sql ; select name , value format = $hex6. label = "Value in hex" , ">>>" || put(value,$3.)||"<<<" label = "Printed Value in corners" from dictionary.macros where name in ( "X" , "Y" ) ; quit ;

to see what the boxes or spaces represent. Then ask yourself what might happen with

%put %eval("&x"="&y") ;

(The quotes are needed to hide the slash from %EVAL.) Yup, they are equal. So why doesn't %EVAL have to tell the truth? Sometimes a lie is more convenient than the truth. Consider how much work you would have to do in order to find out that the symbol held by Y is the same symbol as that held by X, if %EVAL wasn't willing to lie when it comes to macro quoting.

On the other hand, quoting is a mechanism to say the symbol doesn't have its expected meaning. Quoting isn't suppose to change the value. It's suppose to hide the meaning not the value. So maybe it is SQL that is lying and %EVAL is telling the truth.

Perhaps the question should be - why did you expect anything to be easy when entered the world of quoting? Of course it isn't SI, SAS, or macro that is the problem. It's quoting. Consider "BOSTON" and BOSTON. They both have the same 6 letters. So how is it that only one has more than a million people possible? If you still don't understand than read go "Alice in Wonderland".

Maybe Toby's explanation wasn't so bad after all.

In case it isn't clear, none of this has anything to do with EG and its pecularities. It just happens to be the scene of the crime.

Ian Whitlock ===============

Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 16:14:55 -0400 Reply-To: "Rickards, Clinton (GE Consumer Finance)" <clinton.rickards@GE.COM> Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" From: "Rickards, Clinton (GE Consumer Finance)" <clinton.rickards@GE.COM> Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str() Comments: To: toby dunn <tobydunn@hotmail.com> In-Reply-To: <BAY101-F21464D229780F3923D5410DE980@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Toby,

You're right, you wouldn't win any prizes with that explanation but it gets the point across. Thanks...

-----Original Message----- From: toby dunn [mailto:tobydunn@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 2:27 PM To: Rickards, Clinton (GE Consumer Finance); SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str()

Clinton ,

It gets complicated, well for me to explain in a few short sentences it does. Think about it like this %str and %nrstr quote the value at compile time. Which means that the value that is stored in the symbol tables is masked. When quoting macro vars values the characters that are quoted get transformed to a non printable characeter. All %put _User_ does is a dump from this table to the log. Hence you see the slashes as blanks (they are still nonprintable characters). The symbol tables just hold text values and rermember %put _User_ only asks for a dump of this to the log, not a dump and a full resolution of the characters in it. The macro quoting and unquoting and replacing of nonprintable characters for prinitng purposes gets done outside of the symbol tables.

%put &Test3

The value from the resolution of test3 is still quoted, so for compile and exectution time they are masked from the macro facility, but for printing purposes SAS will replace the nonprintable chars with the correct ones.

This is probably a really bad explaination I will have to work on it some more.

Toby Dunn

From: "Rickards, Clinton (GE Consumer Finance)" <clinton.rickards@GE.COM> Reply-To: "Rickards, Clinton (GE Consumer Finance)" <clinton.rickards@GE.COM> To: SAS-L Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str() Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:48:51 -0400

All,

Interesting... %PUT of the individual variable works but _all_ and _user_ does not in my environment (EG 3.0 talking to 9.1.3 on Solaris). Any rational reason why not?

11 %let slashes = %str(//test/test2) ; 12 %let test3 = &slashes./test4 ; 13 %put %unquote(&slashes); //test/test2 14 %put %unquote(&test3); //test/test2/test4 15 16 %put #############; ############# 17 %put _ALL_; GLOBAL _EGUSERID 222016322 GLOBAL _EGHOSTNAME srapdm01.usc.consfin.ge.com GLOBAL _CLIENTUSERID 222016322 GLOBAL _EGUSERNAME 222016322 GLOBAL _EGSERVERNAME FraudMain GLOBAL _EGMACHINE MYUSLWSHL203604 GLOBAL _SASHOSTNAME srapdm01.usc.consfin.ge.com GLOBAL SLASHES test test2 GLOBAL _CLIENTAPP SAS Enterprise Guide GLOBAL TEST3 test test2 /test4 GLOBAL _CLIENTUSERNAME 222016322 <snip> 18 19 %put #############; ############# 20 %put _user_; GLOBAL _EGUSERID 222016322 GLOBAL _EGHOSTNAME srapdm01.usc.consfin.ge.com GLOBAL _CLIENTUSERID 222016322 GLOBAL _EGUSERNAME 222016322 GLOBAL _EGSERVERNAME FraudMain GLOBAL _EGMACHINE MYUSLWSHL203604 GLOBAL _SASHOSTNAME srapdm01.usc.consfin.ge.com GLOBAL SLASHES test test2 GLOBAL _CLIENTAPP SAS Enterprise Guide GLOBAL TEST3 test test2 /test4 GLOBAL _CLIENTUSERNAME 222016322

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of toby dunn Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 1:34 PM To: SAS-L Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str()

Jiann ,

When you reference a the macros in a %put statement they dont need to be unquoted:

77 %let slashes = %str(//test/test2) ; 278 %let test3 = &slashes./test4 ; 279 280 %put &test3 ; //test/test2/test4 281 %put &Slashes ; //test/test2

Toby Dunn

From: Jiann-Shiun Huang <Jiann-Shiun.Huang@AMERUS.COM> Reply-To: Jiann-Shiun Huang <Jiann-Shiun.Huang@AMERUS.COM> To: SAS-L Subject: Re: enterprise guide peculiarities - %str() Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:02:56 -0500

Hans:

Use %unquote to restore the significance of symbols as the following shows.

60 %let slashes = %str(//test/test2) ; 61 %let test3 = &slashes./test4 ; 62 %put %unquote(&slashes); //test/test2 63 %put %unquote(&test3); //test/test2/test4

J S Huang 1-515-557-3987 fax 1-515-557-2422

>>> Hans Schneider <hschneider@CMEDRESEARCH.COM> 05/24/06 11:44 AM >>> Dear Listeners,

I stumbled over an irritating macro var resolution, using EG:

%let slashes = %str(//test/test2) ; %let test3 = &slashes./test4 ;

%put _all_ ; GLOBAL SLASHES test test2 GLOBAL TEST3 test test2 /test4

Slashes are not correctly reproduced (and brackets as well ?), when the string is enclosed in %str()...

...strange...

Any ideas ?

Cheers,

Hans