SAS-L gurus -

I have a confusion about %str(), which has been a headache to me for long long time. The following code explains what happened and need your guys help.

******************* EXAMPLE CODE *****************

data okk;

set interval_15min_plot(firstobs=1 obs=10);

call symput ('dtm',compress(put(dt,datetime18.))); /* assume variable "dt" is a datetime variable*/

run;

%put dtm=&dtm; /* output of it is 13JAN05:02:30:00 */

%macro test(dtm);

data okk1;

set okk (where=(dt le &dtm));

run;

quit;

%mend test;

%test(&dtm); /* errors show that "(where=(dt le &dtm))" has problems */

%let dtm1=%str(%')&dtm%str(%'dt);

%test(&dtm1); /* errors show that "(where=(dt le &dtm))" has problems */

%test('13JAN05:02:30:00'dt); /* this is correct */

************* EXAMPLe CODE DONE *****************

My question is why macro "dtm1" is not equivalent to '13JAN05:02:30:00'dt? I used %str(%') trying to generate same quote "'"

Detailed error from SAS log is

SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable DTM resolves to '13JAN05:02:30:00'dt

SYMBOLGEN: Some characters in the above value which were subject to macro quoting have been

unquoted for printing.

Thanks for help

Steven