Date:         Fri, 15 Aug 1997 19:51:58 -0400
Reply-To:     Anthony Ayiomamitis <ayiomamitis@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Anthony Ayiomamitis <ayiomamitis@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Re: limits on SAS macro var (summary)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Angelo Tinazzi wrote:
>
> Hi SAS-l:
>
> as usual discussion in SAS 'comunity' is animated ;-)
>
> Regarding the question I posted few day ago I want to thank
> all the people gave me an answer.
>
> Thus, the limit of a SAS macro variable is system dependent,
> but under my WINDOWS 95 Pc is 32k so a macro variable can
> store up to 32768 chars.
> This limit is not valid when you create macro variable using
> call symput routine, since you assign the value of a SAS
> variable, and the its maximum length (datastep) is different.
>
> So thank you again and hear you at the next animated idea
> exchange :-O
>
 
Angelo,
 
     Any more trivial questions?  <g>
 
     Anyway, it is interesting to note that a macro variable, however,
defined within a data step, cannot exceed 200 bytes whereas any
definition and/or manipulation outside a data step can yield a macro
variable significantlty greater than 200 bytes.
 
Anthony.