Date:         Thu, 20 Apr 2000 15:33:30 -0400
Reply-To:     "Brucken, Nancy" <Nancy.Brucken@WL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Brucken, Nancy" <Nancy.Brucken@WL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Macro and comment lines question
Comments: To: "WHITLOI1@westat.com" <WHITLOI1@westat.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Ian,
   Thank you very much!  I just must not have tried putting a SAS comment
between %END and %ELSE before (must have either been lucky, or forgotten
about the error messages generated).  Thank you also to the others who
responded to my question (Ron Fehd, Pete Lund, Michael Bramley, Walter
Smetsers and Ed Confer).
   Nancy

-----Original Message-----
From: WHITLOI1@westat.com [mailto:WHITLOI1@westat.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 12:41 PM
To: Brucken; Nancy
Subject: Re:Macro and comment lines question


Nancy,

* anything ;  is a SAS statement not a macro comment.  When it is placed
between
the %END
and %ELSE the chain is broke and the %ELSE is not expected.  If you like the
non-working form then use %* anything ;  This is a macro comment and the
macro
compiler can handle it
as a comment, so it doesn't end the chain.

Ian Whitlock <whitloi1@westat.com>

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    Macro and comment lines question
Author: "Brucken; Nancy" <Nancy.Brucken@WL.COM>
Date:       4/20/2000 10:49 AM

Hi all,
    Does anyone have any idea why the following piece of macro code works:

    %if &iarxlab ne %str() %then %do;
    <lots of stuff>
  %end;

  %else %do;


*========================================================================*;
    *  If treatment group labels have not been specified, then use dummy
*;
    *    labels.
*;

*========================================================================*;
    data demo (drop=rxgrp);
      set demo;
      length cmed $ 30;
      cmed = 'Drug ' || trim(left(rxgrp));
      MED=index('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ',upcase(trim(left(rxgrp))));
    run;

  %end;

while the following code produces error messages regarding the existence of
a %ELSE without a matching %DO, and a %END without a %DO:

 %if &iarxlab ne %str() %then %do;
    <lots of stuff>
 %end;

 *========================================================================*;
 *  If treatment group labels have not been specified, then use dummy     *;
 *    labels.                                                             *;
 *========================================================================*;

 %else %do;

    data demo (drop=rxgrp);
      set demo;
      length cmed $ 30;
      cmed = 'Drug ' || trim(left(rxgrp));
      MED=index('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ',upcase(trim(left(rxgrp))));
    run;

 %end;

The only difference between the two pieces of code is the placement of the
comment lines relative to the %ELSE.  Everything else is identical between
the two versions (and in fact, the first version was created by merely
cutting and pasting the comment line before the %ELSE- there were no stray
characters in the comment lines).
    Thank you very much,
          Nancy

Nancy Brucken
Parke-Davis, Clinical Informatics
(734) 622-5767
E-mail address:  Nancy.Brucken@wl.com