Date:         Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:01:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Quentin McMullen <QuentinMcMullen@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Quentin McMullen <QuentinMcMullen@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Deleting a macro variable? SYMDEL FLUFF
Comments: To: "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> From: Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO) [mailto:rjf2@CDC.GOV]
> > From: Ian Whitlock [mailto:WHITLOI1@WESTAT.com]
> > What is your system smoking?
> > Mine is SAS 8.2 under Windows 98.
> > Maybe you need an anti-smoking patch for your 8.2.
>
> by golly, you're right, Ian!
> Little Birdies must have read my whining note to TechSupport
> in v8.(<2)
> and took pity on me for trying to set %global macro variables
> in one macro
> and then try to erase them in another macro.
>
> Note to Self: go find and fix that
> call execute('%symdel ' !! "&MVAR.");
> inside my second macro.
>

Indeed,

Even if you *tried* to use symdel to delete a local macro variable, it won't
work.  Below shows that with a global and local macro variable of the same
name, %symdel inside a macro will delete the global var.  Which is in line
with the help info:
  "%symdel Deletes the specified variable(s) from the MACRO global table"

I guess if someone wanted to delete a local macro variable, they're out of
luck.  But that seems fair, since local macro vars are kind enough to go
away by themselves...

4281  %let junk=1;        /*global macro var &junk*/
4282  %macro me;
4283    %local junk;      /*local &junk*/
4284    %let junk=2;      /*local &junk*/
4285    %symdel junk;     /*deletes global &junk*/
4286    %put junk=&junk;  /*puts local &junk*/
4287  %mend me;
4288  %me
junk=2
4289  %put junk=&junk;
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference JUNK not resolved.
junk=&junk

Kind Regards,
--Quentin