Date:         Fri, 18 May 2001 12:51:17 -0600
Reply-To:     Darran Zenger <DZENGER@KLUNE.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Darran Zenger <DZENGER@KLUNE.COM>
Subject:      Re: Macro Variable Question
Comments: To: "Cassell.David@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV" <Cassell.David@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Thanks to those who send me suggestions now to combat this and learn more. I
appreciate it. I have been able to identify what I need and work around what
was suggested.

Thanks.
Darran

Darran Zenger
The SAS System
Programming
Klune Industries, INC
Spanish Fork, UT

 -----Original Message-----
From:   David L. Cassell [mailto:Cassell.David@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV]
Sent:   Friday, May 18, 2001 11:06 AM
To:     SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:        Re: Macro Variable Question

Darran Zenger wrote:
> Since most of you know I'm rather new here I've got a Macro question in
> need.  I'm wanting to put the current time in a title, but I don't want
to
> use the automatic variable &systime, as I want the actual date the job
was
> processing, not when the SAS session started.

Well, since you're new, you'll want to learn about searching the SAS-L
archives for cool stuff.  Search the SAS-L archives at:
    http://www.listserv.uga.edu/archives/sas-l.html
[I tend to keep my own copies of posts which I find interesting or
memorable,
and then search my own file first.]

Here's a snippet of an old post which contains just what you wanted.  But
this subject comes up about once a month, so you can find many other posts
with similar messages.

| Subject: formatting a macro variable
| From: peter.crawford@db.com
| Date: 06/08/00 03:15 PM
|
| There is now a built in formatting feature in the macro language  -- in
%sysfunc()
| The following notes assume you want to assign into a macro var, but that
isn't
| allways necessary.
|  %let <macvar name to receive formatted value>
|       = %sysfunc( <some data step function creating a value > ,
|                   <required format to present function result>
|                  );
| for example ( perhaps this is what you want ):-
|   %let maxNumb = %sysfunc( max( &a, &b, &c ), comma9 );
| and
|   %let titleDat = %sysfunc( date(), weekdate29 ) ;

So you can get the date/time in whatever SAS format you'd like, by using
this technique.  Thanks, Peter!

HTH,
David
--
David Cassell, CSC
Cassell.David@epa.gov
Senior computing specialist
mathematical statistician