Date:         Mon, 1 Dec 2008 12:29:44 -0800
Reply-To:     "Pardee, Roy" <pardee.r@GHC.ORG>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Pardee, Roy" <pardee.r@GHC.ORG>
Subject:      Re: interactive prompt function in base sas?
Comments: To: Dave Scocca <dave@scocca.org>
In-Reply-To:  <4935D5301C9081B9276F6D32@[10.8.2.178]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Thanks Dave, and Nat and Randy!  I think %window is going to set me up.  It does not appear to work across rsubmit boundaries, but that's close to an outlandish expectation I guess anyway.

Thanks!

-Roy

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Scocca [mailto:dave@scocca.org]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 11:01 AM
To: Pardee, Roy
Cc: SAS(r) Discussion
Subject: Re: [SAS-L] interactive prompt function in base sas?



--On 12/1/2008 10:34 AM -0800 Pardee, Roy wrote:

> Several flavors of the base sas filename statement cause an
> interactive prompt to pop, for e.g., passwords and such.
>
> Is there a general function or call routine in base sas that would
> allow me to write a macro that would interactively prompt the user for input?
> Optimally this would be something from base sas (my macro needs to run
> at multiple sites & I don't know who's got what licensed other than
> base &
> stat) and would work both in batch and interactive sas (and even
> across rsubmit boundaries if possible).

You want the base SAS WINDOW statement.  Syntax is complicated, but there are examples in the online help.

E.g.:

data _null_;
   window start
          #9  @26 'WELCOME TO THE SAS SYSTEM'
                  color=black
          #12  @19 'THIS PROGRAM CREATES'
          #12  @40 'TWO SAS DATA SETS'
          #14 @26 'AND USES THREE PROCEDURES'
          #18 @27 'Press ENTER to continue';
    display start;
    stop;
run;

Dave Scocca