That reminds me of my mother's questioning her children, and upon no culprit confessing to whatever heinous crime was alleged, would respond "So Mr Nobody did that...".

Puts me in mind of the often overlooked humour in names: why is Hugh Laurie's series named "House"? Was someone at Disney having a quiet giggle when the animated movie about a lost clown fish was titled "Finding Nemo"?

It being Thursday here, this might be an early entry for the Friday off topic humour. On the other hand, I might just be waiting...

Kind regards

David

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Howard Schreier <hs AT dc-sug DOT org> Sent: Thursday, 8 February 2007 8:51 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Creating 1 macro variable for multiple rows in dataset

On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 20:11:23 -0000, Peter Crawford <Peter.Crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK> wrote:

>I'm completely in agreement with Mr _null_

We have a profound gender imbalance in this group, so until more information surfaces, can we assume it's Ms. Null?

> >My posting was made to introduce the logical alternative to sql into >:mVar that is relevant when the information flows from processing in a data step. > >It needs to be appropriate, rather than large. I have no need or wish >to accumulate information from many rows in a single variable for the >sole purpose of loading a macro variable. > >Peter Crawford >Crawford Software Consultancy >UK > > >-----Original Message----- >From: data _null_; [mailto:datanull@gmail.com] >Sent: 07 February 2007 14:08 >To: Peter Crawford >Cc: SAS-L@listserv.uga.edu >Subject: Re: Creating 1 macro variable for multiple rows in dataset > >No you don't have to worry about the 32K limit rather the 64K limit. > >5851 + ,"Judy" >ERROR: The text expression length (65538) exceeds maximum length >(65534). The text expression has > been truncated to 65534 characters. > > >Instead of figuring out ways to put more data into macro variables we >should be thinking about ways to keep data out of macro variables. > >We (the L) are always warning users about how bad it is to put data >into meta data but we are happy to show folks how to put more data in >more and more macro variables. > >I've seen code to put an entire data set into macro variables. While I

>never say never there is surely a better way to accomplish whatever the

>task may be, than taking data out of a data set and putting it into >macro variables. > >I asked the OP to tell us more about what he is trying to accomplish >but he has not seed fit to provide that information. > >I suspect that if the OP told us what he wanted to do with these >strings then there would be many "better" solutions that do not use >macro variables at all, and are more efficient. > >SAS has many more powerful tools than MACRO. The data step for one. > > >On 2/7/07, Peter Crawford <peter.crawford@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: >> another datastep approach ~ which won't ru out of the 32K limit of >> data step variable widths >> >> This method uses call execute() to stack a %let statement; >> >> %let sourceD = sashelp.class; ** a simple demo dataset; %let sourceV >> = name ; >> >> %let target= ; *initialize your receiving macro variable; >> data _null_; >> call execute( '%nrstr(%%)let target= ' ); >> do until( end_of_source ); >> set &sourceD end= end_of_source ; >> call execute( ',' !! quote( trim( &sourceV )) ) ; >> *on principle, I always use function quote() >> to deal with any embedded quotes correctly ; end; call >> execute( ';' ); stop; run; %let target = %substr( %superq(target), 2

>> ) ; >> *** removing initial comma; >> >> %let target = %sysfunc( translate( %superq(target) >> ,%str(%'),%str(%") ) ); >> *** replacing double- with single-quotes; >> >> %let target = %sysfunc( tranwrd( %superq(target) >> ,%str( ,),%str(,) ) ); >> *** removing 3 blanks preceeding each comma >> >> This has all been tested on windows-XP-pro. >> Your platform may implement differently, so beware!; ; >> >> Peter Crawford >> >> >> >> On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 15:34:10 -0500, Fehd, Ronald J. (CDC/CCHIS/NCPHI) >> <rjf2@CDC.GOV> wrote: >> >> >> From: Ross, Michael D >> >> I'm looking to create 1 macro variable containing "y" (rows 1-3),

>> >> with single quotes around each value and commas seperating them >> >> for each instance of "z". So, I would have 2 macro variable in >> >> the example below that would look like: >> >> >> >> &var1 = 'bbbbbbbb','dddddddd','ffffffff'; >> >> &var2 = 'hhhhhhhh','iiiiiiii'; >> >> >> >> Also, I know how to do this in Proc Sql - I was just wondering >> >> how to do it in the Data step. >> > >> >stick with sql; >> >you'll run out of space for your character variable doing this in a >> >data step >> > >> >DATA _Null_; >> >attrib Concatenation length = $ 200; retain Concatenation ' '; do >> >until(EndoFile); >> > set Test end = EndoFile; >> > Concatenation = cat(Concatenation,y); >> > end; >> >call sumputX('var1',Concatenation); >> >stop; >> >run; >> >%Put Var1<&Var1.>; >> > >> >Ron Fehd the macro maven CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2 at cdc dot gov >> > >> >--> cheerful provider of UNTESTED SAS code from the Clue?Gee!Wrx <-- >> > >> >> data test; >> >> input y $8. z $8. ; >> >> datalines; >> >> bbbbbbbb xxxxxxxx >> >> dddddddd xxxxxxxx >> >> ffffffff xxxxxxxx >> >> hhhhhhhh yyyyyyyy >> >> jjjjjjjj yyyyyyyy >> >> ; >> >> run; >> >> >> >> >>

************** IMPORTANT MESSAGE ***************************** This e-mail message is intended only for the addressee(s) and contains information which may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please advise the sender by return email, do not use or disclose the contents, and delete the message and any attachments from your system. Unless specifically indicated, this email does not constitute formal advice or commitment by the sender or the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ABN 48 123 123 124) or its subsidiaries. We can be contacted through our web site: commbank.com.au. If you no longer wish to receive commercial electronic messages from us, please reply to this e-mail by typing Unsubscribe in the subject line. **************************************************************