Date:         Wed, 5 Nov 2008 05:00:39 -0500
Reply-To:     Gerhard Hellriegel <gerhard.hellriegel@T-ONLINE.DE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Gerhard Hellriegel <gerhard.hellriegel@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject:      Re: Why suddenly this warning?

if the future brings lowercase or mixed case libnames (don't think that SI
will do that), you still will not be lucky with

.... libname = upcase('work') ...

maybe with
  upcase(libname) = 'WORK'

Gerhard



On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:56:37 -0800, Nordlund, Dan (DSHS/RDA)
<NordlDJ@DSHS.WA.GOV> wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Lou
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 5:13 PM
>> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Why suddenly this warning?
>>
>> "Gerhard Hellriegel" <gerhard.hellriegel@T-ONLINE.DE> wrote in message
>> news:200811041001.mA40WsEA025506@malibu.cc.uga.edu...
>>
>> (snip)
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > By the way: upcase('work') ??? Why not 'WORK' ?
>>
>>
>> I can come up with a couple of reasons.
>>
>> First, and perhaps most immediate, is that the "find" command is case
>> sensitive.  It may be slightly easier to initially write code
>> in mixed case,
>> but for anything that will potentially require maintenance
>> sometime down the
>> road (and that's everything you write that you don't delete
>> immediately)
>> it's easier in the long run if everything is in one case.
>>
>> Second, you never know what's going to happen in a future
>> release - at one
>> time, variable names in datasets (and in the dictionary
>> tables) were always
>> in upper case, but that's no longer true.  At the moment,
>> library names are
>> always in upper case in the dictionary tables, but who knows
>> what the future
>> will bring.
>>
>
>Those are good reasons for using the upcase() function on a character
variable.  But I think the question is, if you are going to hard code a
string (in this case 'work'), why not use 'WORK' and eliminate the need
for upcase()?
>
>Dan
>
>Daniel J. Nordlund
>Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
>Planning, Performance, and Accountability
>Research and Data Analysis Division
>Olympia, WA  98504-5204