Date:         Fri, 25 Jun 2004 16:51:41 -0400
Reply-To:     Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: %SYSFUNC and PUT function

For the SASWARE ballot: provide functions DUMMYN and DUMMYC to accept
single arguments and return them, having done absolutely nothing.

I suppose that such could actually be handy in certain situations.

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 13:25:08 -0400, Paul M. Dorfman <sashole@BELLSOUTH.NET>
wrote:

>Jim,
>
>Right, not to mention INT, which will leave an always integer date value
>utterly intact...
>
>Kind regards,
>----------------
>Paul M. Dorfman
>Jacksonville, FL
>----------------
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Groeneveld, Jim
>> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 10:58 AM
>> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: %SYSFUNC and PUT function
>>
>> Hi friends,
>>
>> Instead of ABS you could use MIN, MAX, MEAN, maybe SUM, maybe
>> RESOLVE, and possibly some more functions.
>>
>> Regards - Jim.
>> --
>> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>>
>> Jim Groeneveld, MSc.
>> Biostatistician
>> Science Team
>> Vitatron B.V.
>> Meander 1051
>> 6825 MJ  Arnhem
>> Tel: +31/0 26 376 7365
>> Fax: +31/0 26 376 7305
>> Jim.Groeneveld@Vitatron.com
>> www.vitatron.com
>>
>> Showing statistically significant differences between
>> football teams, generally all sporters, requires larger
>> samples than usually applied.
>>
>> [common disclaimer]
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Howard Schreier [mailto:Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV]
>> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 16:46
>> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: %SYSFUNC and PUT function
>>
>>
>> If you know that all of your values are non-negative, then
>> the ABS function has no effect. But try this variation on
>> Gordon's code:
>>
>>    %let mydate=25jun1959;
>>    %let prt_d=%sysfunc(abs("&mydate"d), mmddyy10.);
>>    %put &prt_d;
>>
>> The result is
>>
>>    07/09/1960
>>
>> because SAS dates are negative for 31 December 1959 and earlier.
>>
>> I have often used techniques which are tricky and/or
>> dependent on data properties which I know to hold. But if
>> there's an equally good alternative which is more
>> straightforward and bulletproof, I usually opt to use it. So
>> here I'd use PUTN.
>>
>> When using PUTN *in a DATA step* with a constant as the
>> second argument (the format), you *would* quote it. The
>> %SYSFUNC context is different.
>>
>> On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 09:45:40 -0400, Talbot Michael Katz
>> <topkatz@MSN.COM>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Hi, Gordon.
>> >
>> >I tried your trick,
>> >>%let v=%sysfunc(abs(&i), z4.);
>> >and it works fine.  Elegant.  Thank you.
>> >
>> >Using PUTN as others suggested also appears to work:
>> >%let v = %sysfunc(putn(&i.,Z4.));
>> >The syntax is exactly the same as what I wanted to do with
>> PUT, but it
>> >took me awhile to figure that out from the PUTN
>> documentation -- I kept
>> >wanting to put the format string in quotes.
>> >
>> >--  TMK  --
>>
>> On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 18:07:51 -0400, Buchanan, Gordon
>> <gordon.buchanan@GMACRFC.COM> wrote:
>>
>> >You can also use the fact the the %sysfunc function lets you
>> specify a
>> >format as the second parameter. This works fine:
>> >
>> >%let v=%sysfunc(abs(&i), z4.);
>> >
>> >Just use some function that does not change the value of
>> your number;
>> >in this case I use ABS.
>> >
>> >I often use this to reformat date macro variables as in:
>> >
>> >%let d=25jun2004;
>> >%let prt_d=%sysfunc(abs("&date"d), mmddyy10.);
>>
>> [snip]
>>