Hi Laura,

Long time no see. :o)

Add an ampersand to the %IF macro variable

i.e.

Change %if _hasobs = 0 %then To %if &_hasobs = 0 %then

Hope this is helpful.

Mark Terjeson Investment Business Intelligence Investment Management & Research Russell Investments 253-439-2367

Russell Global Leaders in Multi-Manager Investing

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laura Harmon Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 10:52 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Why doesn't this macro delete the empty dataset?

I modified code from a prior sas-l posting from Jonathan Goldberg:

%macro tst;

%let _dsid = %sysfunc(open(tempc.Moduletypetoquestionanswerid));

%let _hasobs = %sysfunc(attrn(&_dsid, any));

%if _hasobs = 0 %then

%do;

proc datasets nolist library=tempc;

delete Moduletypetoquestionanswerid;

quit;

%end;

%let _dsid = %sysfunc (close(&_dsid));

%mend;

%tst;

But it isn't deleting tempc.Moduletypetoquestionanswerid, any advice? Thanks in advance for your help.

Laura Harmon