Date:         Wed, 27 May 2009 10:03:11 -0700
Reply-To:     Adam <news@SNOWSTONE.ORG.UK>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Adam <news@SNOWSTONE.ORG.UK>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      index(), vname() and a macro variable
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi All,

I'm trying to identify if a variable name is present in a macro
variable.

For instance, if a macro variable contains "list of possible variable
names" and one of the variables in a dataset is called "possible" then
I want to be able to tell.

I had hoped that something like this psuedo-code would work:

  %let macro_var = list of possible variable names;
  data _null_;
    set indataset;
    array allvars _numeric_;
    do i = 1 to dim(allvars);
      if index("&problem_vars.", vname(allvars{i})) then
        /* variable name is present in list */
  run;

but no matter what I do (including trying out %index, though I'm not
sure where the difference is), I can't get the if condition to work
(it just evaluates to 0 every time).

Any help much appreciated!
Thanks,
Adam