Prev: Can I make some block of my program in SAS 9.2 editor using
Next: Pass a variable as a macro parameter.
From: "Hixon, John" on 8 Mar 2010 08:22
Richard D,
Just a quick note. I've been absent from the SAS-L list for a long time. =
I still only scan the list in Digest Mode in a hit-or-miss nature. But, I =
do tend to focus on a posts from a few folks from whom I know I'll always l=
earn a few things. I saw your quick recent post and said to myself: "Hmmm=
, what is the %Dclanno macro". A quick check of on-line help shows:
%DCLANNO Macro=3D Automatically sets the correct length and data type for a=
ll Annotate variables except the TEXT variable.
Aha. Very useful. It's amazing how long I have been defining the length o=
f annotate variables 'the hard way', when this simple macro exists!

Thanks for making my life easier (again).

PS: Long ago, man was I guilty of shoddy annotate programming, which becam=
e apparent when Eastman Kodak moved from SAS 6.2 to SAS 8.2 about 8 years a=
go. In SAS V8 it became important to have those annotate macro variables c=
orrectly sized! I had a lot of 'useful' custom graphic output using annota=
te in SAS V6 that became pretty ugly because I had failed to dimension thos=
e annotate variables (they just defaulted to the length of the first detect=
ed value). This was especially apparent with the annotate variable 'color'=
-- Yuk, all of those very 'pretty' custom graphics became pretty horrible =
looking with all the wrong colors after upgrading from 6.2 to 8.2! Of cour=
se, since then, I've *always* declared the proper lengths for all annotate =
variables, but, I spent a lot of time correcting my sloppy annotate coding =
lo those many years ago at EK.

Best regards,

John Hixon
MSEE, MS Mathematical and Applied Statistics
Quality Engineer, Amgen
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: Can I make some block of my program in SAS 9.2 editor using
Next: Pass a variable as a macro parameter.