Date:         Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:14:02 -0800
Reply-To:     NMani <naveen.manivannan@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         NMani <naveen.manivannan@GMAIL.COM>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Passing variables from data step to macro while avoiding loops.
              Is it possible?
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Dear SAS Experts;

(1) I'm very confused. I thought I could exploit the data step to
avoid creating a program that doesn't need loops but I'm having
trouble understanding how to pass variable from the data step to the
macro within the data step itself. If I take the macro outside the
data step, the program will work but only for the 20th symbol the
"test1" dataset. I think the problem might be that the PDV initializes
null and that's messing up the program. I don't really know though.
Can someone offer me an idea on what's happening in the background and/
or any suggestions on making this program work.

(2) If my program runs into a symbol and returns an error
message(usually if the symbol cannot be found on yahoo's database)
then it stops. For those Visual Basic programmers there's a line of
code, "One Error Resume Next" that forces the program to continue even
if an error is generated. Is there a SAS equivalent?

Sincerely,

A student preparing for his base sas certification


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CODE:

data blah; *Random name, should be _null_ but keeping it blah for
testing reasons;

set test1(obs=20); *Contains the dataset with the ticker names under
the variable name "symbol";

call symput("stk", put(symbol, $10.)); *Creates the global variable
"stk" with whatever is in the PDV for symbol. I think???;

%quotes (symbol=&stk, start=11/1/45, end = 11/1/09); *Macro that
created a separate datasets based on the argument supplied for
"symbol=";

run;


LOG:
127  data blah;
128  set test1(obs=20);
129
130  call symput("stk", put(symbol, $10.));
131  %quotes (symbol=&stk, start=11/1/45, end = 11/1/09);
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
http://table.finance.yahoo.com:80/table.csv?s=&STK&a=10&b=1&c=1945&d=10&e=1&f=2009&g=d
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STK not resolved.

NOTE: There were 20 observations read from the data set WORK.TEST1.
NOTE: The data set WORK.BLAH has 20 observations and 5 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.05 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds


NOTE: Line generated by the macro variable "SYMBOL".
1     &STK
      -
      22
       ---
       202

ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, a
quoted string, /, ;, _DATA_,
              _LAST_, _NULL_.

ERROR 202-322: The option or parameter is not recognized and will be
ignored.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.STK may be incomplete.  When this step was
stopped there were 0
         observations and 7 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.02 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds


132  run;