Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 13:21:27 -0700
Reply-To: "Miller, John" <millerj@WSIPP.WA.GOV>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Miller, John" <millerj@WSIPP.WA.GOV>
Subject: Re: Missing %MEND statement.
Content-Type: text/plain
Excellent! Thanks. I will try this in the future. Your explanation was
very clear and I suspect others on SAS-L could benefit from it, so ...
-----Original Message-----
From: David Neal [mailto:DNeal@uaa.alaska.edu]
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 12:50 PM
To: 'Miller, John'
Subject: RE: Missing %MEND statement.
Yes it does. Remember that SAS will see anything that starts with a * and
ends with a semicolon as a comment unless it is processing a text string.
So, if you were missing a single quote and you submitted the line (and you
submitted *';*"; ), SAS would see the * as text and then close the test
string with a single quote. The second part (*";) would only appear as a
comment. Now if you were missing a double quote, it would read everything
up to the double quote as text but then close the text with the double
quote. The semicolon would then finish the line.
-----Original Message-----
From: Miller, John [mailto:millerj@wsipp.wa.gov]
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 11:42 AM
To: 'David Neal'
Subject: RE: Missing %MEND statement.
Yes, but I usually just use the offending value, like:
";
and, sometimes it does work - sometimes it doesn't and I'm off and running.
Does submitting the collection of *';*"; work better?
-----Original Message-----
From: David Neal [mailto:DNeal@uaa.alaska.edu]
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 12:37 PM
To: 'Miller, John'; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: RE: Missing %MEND statement.
Have you tried the old
*';*";
trick to close off quotes? (I usually put the one I'm most likely to have
used first but it doesn't matter. What matters is getting out of the
"whimsical world" so you can keep working.)
David
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Miller,
John
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 10:38 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Missing %MEND statement.
Does anybody have a better approach to this problem?
Every once in awhile I like to amuse myself by putting an odd number of
quotes in the macro I am developing so that I can get entangled in the
whimsical world of "Missing %MEND statement". I then enjoy a fast round of
play which goes like this:
- submit a quote in the hope that I can clear the problem
- submit a semi-colon for the same reason
- submit a %mend; to see if I have done any good
- sigh deeply and proceed to submit varying numbers of quotes,
semi-colons and %mends
- admit that I may have to kill SAS and start over to get out of
this loop
- stare menacingly at log statements like the following, then get a
cup of coffee:
19731 ";
WARNING: Missing %MEND statement.
19732 ";
WARNING: Missing %MEND statement.
19733 %mend;
ERROR: Macro keyword MEND appears as text. A semicolon or other delimiter
may be missing.
WARNING: Missing %MEND statement.
19734 %mend;
ERROR: Macro keyword MEND appears as text. A semicolon or other delimiter
may be missing.
WARNING: Missing %MEND statement.
. . .
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John Miller
Washington State Institute for Public Policy
110 East Fifth Avenue, Suite 215
Olympia, WA 98504-0999
(360) 586-9436
millerj@wsipp.wa.gov
website: www.wsipp.wa.gov <http://www.wsipp.wa.gov>
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