Yo, SAS Whizards(tm)!

I have several requests for my Very Large Macro %ARRAY. Imagine my surprise! ;-)

it's actually less than 100 lines of code, preceeded by two pages of how-to and followed by a page of example usage

Well, folks, be good at 'scope' aka 'referencing environment' when you use this macro. Note that there is no step boundary <RUN;> at the end of the macro, see %ARRAY.SAS in later e-mail. and that in the example usage below there is a <RUN;> _before_ the mac-vars can be used.

There is no easy way to determine how many is enough %local statements for the mac-vars created by this routine. Generally I look to context: if I'm using this macro with an Identifier-list then I use DIM = 3; I use this macro in my CHECKALL and SHOWCOMB routine to handle a list of variables, there I use 50 -- or was it 100? here is code from CHECKALL which shows typical usage within a macro

note: data set V&SERIES. is a list of variable names from proc CONTENTS

* MACRO: CHECKALL NOTE: uses macro ARRAY * * * * USAGE: 1) %CHECKALL(series-name);*assumes a data set contains vars * * 2) %CHECKALL(series-name,LIST=var1 var2 var3 .. varN); * ... %local DIM_VAR; %IF "&LIST"="DATA" %THEN %NOBS(DIM_VAR,DATA=&LIBRARY..V&SERIES.); %ELSE %LET DIM_VAR = 100; run; %DO I = 1 %TO &DIM_VAR;%local VAR&I.; %END; %IF "&LIST"="DATA" %THEN %ARRAY(VAR,DATA=&LIBRARY..V&SERIES.,VAR=Name); %ELSE %ARRAY(VAR,&LIST.); run;%*mac-vars created by %ARRAY are local to CHECKALL;

%*2: macro: if LIST=DATA then concatenate elements into LIST; %MACRO VAR_LIST;%DO I = 1 %TO &DIM_VAR; &&VAR&I. %END; %MEND; %IF "&LIST"="DATA" %THEN %LET LIST = %VAR_LIST;

I would appreciate critique from users of this macro. SAS-L has helped me become the Whizard that I am. A little more help is always welcome.

Ron Fehd the macro maven CDC Atlanta GA