Date:         Tue, 4 Nov 2008 12:57:00 -0500
Reply-To:     Gerhard Hellriegel <gerhard.hellriegel@T-ONLINE.DE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Gerhard Hellriegel <gerhard.hellriegel@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject:      Re: How Can Reslove a macro in If statement ??

Only a few remarks to the macro facility:
of course you can write a %let statement into a data-step, that will only
not do what you want!
Macro is a meta-language which does nothing more than generating text.
That text is generated before a data-step is compiled and executed, so
contents of a datastep variable are not available in that moment.
That is very useful in many circumstances. You can dynamicly change
programs which is a strong feature, but like Joe wrote, not in your case!
For your purpose, you are in a DATA step and have all the strengths of the
SAS language available.
Macro facility might be useful in such a program for importing a date-
value from somewhere into the step, or to export one of the values (eg.
the max-date) to make it globally available for another step or a title,
footnote, ...
That you must do while the datastep is active, the CALL SYMPUT
("macrovar",value) is available for that.
Gerhard


On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 11:51:31 -0500, Joe Matise <snoopy369@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>You can't use macro let statements inside the data step.  You should be
able
>to do this without a macro variable...
>
>
>Data test ;
>  set test ;
>  format date $20.;  *make sure this is long enough;
>  date = Mehbegdf; *if necessary, and make sure it's the right length for
>possible values;
>
> If date not In ('nd' 'un' '' 'na' ) Then Do;
>
> If Length(date) = 9 Then
>
>Mhstdtc=Cats(Substr(date,6,4),'-',Put(Substr(date,3,3),$Monthf.),'-
',Substr(date,1,2));
> Else If Length(date) = 7 Then
>Mhstdtc=Cats(Substr(date,4,4),'-',Put(Substr(date,1,3),$Monthf.));
> Else Mhstdtc = date;
>Run;
>
>However, I suspect your best answer is going to be to figure out how to
>input your date string into an actual SAS date, and then output it into
the
>format you prefer.  If you have more detailed specifications for what
>format(s) it can start out in, this would be fairly easy to do.
>
>-Joe
>
>
>
>On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 10:45 AM, SAS_learner <proccontents@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>> Hello _all_,
>>
>> I am doing something like for getting the dates into ISO 8601 format,
but
>> somehow date is not getting resolved after IF statement
>> I am not sure If I need to make date as global to get it resolved ??
>>
>> If you think of a better way to write this macro please let me know
>>
>> Data test ;
>>   set test ;
>> %let  date = %str(Mehbegdf);
>>
>>  If &date. Not In ('nd' 'un' '' 'na' ) Then Do;
>>
>>  If Length(&date.) = 9 Then
>>
>>
>> Mhstdtc=Cats(Substr(&date.,6,4),'-',Put(Substr(&date.,3,3),$Monthf.),'-
',Substr(&date.,1,2));
>>
>>  Else If Length(&date.) = 7 Then
>>   Mhstdtc=Cats(Substr(&date.,4,4),'-',Put(Substr(&date.,1,3),$Monthf.));
>>  Else Mhstdtc = &date.;
>>
>> Run;
>>
>> TIA
>> SL
>>