Date:         Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:53:23 -0400
Reply-To:     Quentin McMullen <qmcmullen.sas@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Quentin McMullen <qmcmullen.sas@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      macro determine name of calling macro
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi All,

Is it possible to have a helper macro determine the name of the macro
that it is helping (i.e. determine the name of the macro that invoked
it)?

I want to have something like:

%macro inner(dummy);
  %put Macro Inner was called by: &calledby;
%mend inner;

%macro outer(dummy);
  %inner()
%mend outer;

And have it return:
  Macro Inner was called by: OUTER

I had thought I could come close to what I want with:

%macro inner(calledby=);
  %put Macro Inner was called by: &calledby;
%mend inner;

%macro outer(dummy);
  %inner(calledby=&sysmacroname)
%mend outer;

%outer()
But that returns:
  Macro Inner was called by: INNER

So apparently &sysmacroname is updated as soon as a macro is invoked,
even before the parameters are passed to it.

In the past I have resorted to:
%macro outer(dummy);
  %inner(calledby=outer)
%mend outer;

But was wondering if I could save myself a few keystrokes, and have
%inner figure out who it was called by, rather than having to tell
%inner who is calling it.

Obviously SAS knows that %inner was called by %outer, and it can
display this information in the log if options MPRINTNEST is on.  But
can I get this information?

Thanks (and happy Friday),
--Quentin