Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 2009 08:22:55 -0500
Reply-To:     "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: %sysfunc with CATS function
Comments: To: "ajs2004@bigfoot.com" <ajs2004@bigfoot.com>
In-Reply-To:  <3ed1fd17-b5df-41da-b75f-aa525925b530@m11g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

You don't need CATS in macro language to concatenate strings.  There
may be some useful application of CATS in macro language but this it
not one of them.

9223   %let string = THE_TIME_IS_&hhmm;
9224   %put string = &string;
string = THE_TIME_IS_0905


On 10/8/09, ajs2004@bigfoot.com <ajs2004@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> The program below sets up a variable &hhmm with a value of '0905'.
>
> If I use the CATS function in the data step, it returns, as I expect,
>
> string=THE_TIME_IS_0905
>
> but if I use the CATS function from the %SYSFUNC function, the result
> is different:
>
> string=THE_TIME_IS_905
>
> ... with the leading '0' disappeared.
>
> How can that possibly happen? "Macro variables contain only character
> data", according to
> http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/mcrolref/61885/HTML/default/a002293823.htm
>
> So I don't understand how the leading '0' can have been removed, when
> it should never have been treated as numeric in the first place. Is it
> a bug, or am I missing something?
>
> How can I put it right? Does it need some sort of macro quoting
> function somewhere?
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
>  %let t = '09:05't;
>
>  %let hhmm = %sysfunc(compress(%sysfunc(putn( &t, tod5.)),":"));
>  %put hhmm = &hhmm;
>
>  %let string = %sysfunc ( cats( THE_TIME_IS_, &hhmm ) );
>  %put string = &string;
>
>  data _null_; string = cats ( "THE_TIME_IS_", "&hhmm" ); put string=;
> run;
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> 1          %let t = '09:05't;
> 2
> 3          %let hhmm = %sysfunc(compress(%sysfunc(putn( &t,
> tod5.)),":"));
> 4          %put hhmm = &hhmm;
> hhmm = 0905
> 5
> 6          %let string = %sysfunc ( cats( THE_TIME_IS_, &hhmm ) );
> 7          %put string=&string;
> string=THE_TIME_IS_905
> 8
> 9          data _null_; string = cats ( "THE_TIME_IS_", "&hhmm" ); put
> string=; run;
>
> string=THE_TIME_IS_0905
> _____________________________________________________________
>