I am interested in hearing more user's views on whether it is good practice to always end macro variables with a dot (.). I attended Ron Fehd's presentation at NESUG 2007 and he suggested always ending macro variables with a dot (.). Now another expert on SAS-l (Don Henderson) has suggested the opposite.

Don - can you give some examples where an unnecessary dot at the end of a macro variable could cause problems?

Thanks,

Jack Clark

Jack Clark Research Analyst phone: 410-455-6256 fax: 410-455-6850 jclark@hilltop.umbc.edu

University of Maryland, Baltimore County Sondheim Hall, 3rd Floor 1000 Hilltop Circle Baltimore, MD 21250

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail may contain information that is legally privileged and that is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying of this e-mail, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of this e-mail and/or documents attributed to this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately by phone and delete this entire e-mail. Thank you.-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Henderson Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 7:21 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: tip: Macro Design Checklist

Roland,

I have to (pretty emphatically) disagree with you on your comment below. My rationale can be found at:

http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Talk:Macro_Design_Issues_Checklist

By discussing this on the Talk page, a concensus can be reached and the main article can be updated as appropriate to present a balanced view of the differing positions.

I commented as well on the convention to always end a macro variable reference with a dot (.) - a convention that I find to not be a good idea in general.

Regards, -don h