Date:         Wed, 14 Jan 2004 17:35:49 GMT
Reply-To:     bogdan romocea <br44092@GAWAB.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         bogdan romocea <br44092@GAWAB.COM>
Subject:      Re: save dataset contents as string
Comments: To: Tim Wade <wade_tj@YAHOO.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <20040114164846.46060.qmail@web12306.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

First use PROC CONTENTS with ODS OUTPUT and get the output data
set that contains the names of all the variables. Then do
something like this:

/*names of variables into macro variables*/
data _null_; set /*your data set*/ nobs=nvars;
call symput('var'||trim(left(put(_n_,8.))),trim(left(/*name of
column with variable names*/)));
call symput('nvars',trim(left(nvars)));
run;

/*then spit all those names as a string*/
%macro string;
%do i=1 %to %eval(&nvars);&&var&i %end;
%mend string;
/*your final string here*/
%let strg=%string;

That's it.



Tim Wade writes:

> Dear SAS experts and enthusiasts:
>
> I would like to save the names of all the variables in
> a SAS dataset as a string so that I can save it as a
> macro variable and use it in other functions. Is there
> an easy way to do this?
>
> For example:
>
>  %let varlist="LIST OF VARIABLE NAMES IN DATA SET
> TEST1";
>  data test1;
>   set test1;
>   if index(&varlist, xxx)>1 then do;
>    stuff
>    more stuff
>    end;
> run;
>
> Thanks much for any assistance or suggestions
>
> Tim
>
> =====
> wade_tj@yahoo.com
>
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