Date:         Mon, 14 Apr 2003 15:41:56 -0700
Reply-To:     cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: SAS EMAIL in the if-then DO statement
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

"Workman, Rob" <Rob.Workman@CARBOMEDICS.COM> sagely advised:
> Another option is to use macros if that is more familiar to you.  Here
is an
> example.
>
> %macro eml(state);
>
>   %if &state = TX %then
>     %do;
>  . . . . . .

While I never disagree with Rob (:-)) I will recommend here
that you write your code as

    %if "&STATE." = "TX" %then

instead.  I believe Ron Fehd was the first to point out in
SAS-L the dangers inherent in mixing state codes and macro code.
After all, what happens when your state is Oregon, or Nebraska?
Answer:  Bad Things.

Your code becomes

    %if &state = OR %then

and the macro compiler parses that as

    %if (&state = ) or () %then

and you get a nasty but confusing error message.  Since
Nebraska has NE (that's Not Equal) for its state code, it
can cause problems as well.


In addition, I thought I would point out that SAS does not handle
socket connections particularly well.  So when there is a problem
with the connection to your Mail Transport Agent of choice, you
just get a failure with a cryptic error message.  For this reason,
I still prefer to use Perl for my email processes, even when monitoring
SAS programs.  I would also recommend Python for this task.  Either
langauge has sufficient error-handling to allow you to deal with
email glitches.

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