how to prevent SAS macro from interpreting "&" [SAS]

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From: xlr82sas on 28 Feb 2010 01:12

On Feb 26, 8:18 pm, xin...(a)STAT.PSU.EDU (xin) wrote:
> Hello, everyone:
> I am writing a string containing "&" into a macro variable. When I invoke
> this "&" containing macro variable in my code, SAS try to interpret
> this "&" as a presence of macro variable and as a result, gives warning
> msg "WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference XXXX not resolved". I am trying
> quote it with %bquote or %str, none of them works....
>
> thanks for any suggestion.

It is a little hard to offer a solution without seeing your code,
suppose you have

'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';

and you want sysdate to be resolved but not &Mikes.

%symdel ans;
%let mikes=Micheal;
%let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
%let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
%put &ans;

'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 25FEB10'

I like to keep the single quotes around until the last resolution.
This way I control the content and timing of resolutions.

I wish I could get back hours wasted on macro quoting functions.

From: Yu Zhang on 1 Mar 2010 12:18

On my WINXP SAS9.1, the code gives me error message, to me the '/' delimiter
is an offending character. I tried different Marco quoting function and
could not get it work. but it will work when i change the regular expression
delimiter to '!'.

Can someone verify to see if it will work on SAS9.2?
%symdel ans;
%let mikes=Micheal;
%let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
%let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.
>
> sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> %put &ans;
>

Thanks!

Yu

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:12 AM, xlr82sas <xlr82sas(a)aol.com> wrote:

> On Feb 26, 8:18 pm, xin...(a)STAT.PSU.EDU (xin) wrote:
> > Hello, everyone:
> > I am writing a string containing "&" into a macro variable. When I invoke
> > this "&" containing macro variable in my code, SAS try to interpret
> > this "&" as a presence of macro variable and as a result, gives warning
> > msg "WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference XXXX not resolved". I am trying
> > quote it with %bquote or %str, none of them works....
> >
> > thanks for any suggestion.
>
> It is a little hard to offer a solution without seeing your code,
> suppose you have
>
> 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
>
> and you want sysdate to be resolved but not &Mikes.
>
> %symdel ans;
> %let mikes=Micheal;
> %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
> %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> %put &ans;
>
> 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 25FEB10'
>
> I like to keep the single quotes around until the last resolution.
> This way I control the content and timing of resolutions.
>
> I wish I could get back hours wasted on macro quoting functions.
>

From: xlr82sas on 1 Mar 2010 22:06

On Mar 1, 9:18 am, zhangy...(a)GMAIL.COM (Yu Zhang) wrote:
> On my WINXP SAS9.1, the code gives me error message, to me the '/' delimiter
> is an offending character. I tried different Marco quoting function and
> could not get it work. but it will work when i change the regular expression
> delimiter to '!'.
>
> Can someone verify to see if it will work on SAS9.2?
> %symdel ans;
> %let mikes=Micheal;
> %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
> %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.
>
>
>
> > sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> > %put &ans;
>
> Thanks!
>
> Yu
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:12 AM, xlr82sas <xlr82...(a)aol.com> wrote:
> > On Feb 26, 8:18 pm, xin...(a)STAT.PSU.EDU (xin) wrote:
> > > Hello, everyone:
> > > I am writing a string containing "&" into a macro variable. When I invoke
> > > this "&" containing macro variable in my code, SAS try to interpret
> > > this "&" as a presence of macro variable and as a result, gives warning
> > > msg "WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference XXXX not resolved". I am trying
> > > quote it with %bquote or %str, none of them works....
>
> > > thanks for any suggestion.
>
> > It is a little hard to offer a solution without seeing your code,
> > suppose you have
>
> > 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
>
> > and you want sysdate to be resolved but not &Mikes.
>
> > %symdel ans;
> > %let mikes=Micheal;
> > %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
> > %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> > %put &ans;
>
> > 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 25FEB10'
>
> > I like to keep the single quotes around until the last resolution.
> > This way I control the content and timing of resolutions.
>
> > I wish I could get back hours wasted on macro quoting functions.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks a lot for educating me on the '!', I did not know that. It will
be useful. I wonder about other aliases.

!! also can be substituted for ||.

=================================================================================

Yea it failed on my XP SAS. I think it is because SAS wants to devide.
I don't have access to unix right now and I think my options may have
something to do with why it worked on unix?

Works with !

%symdel ans;
%let mikes=Micheal;
%let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
%let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s!.sysdate!&sysdate!,99,&res));
%put &ans;

27 %symdel ans;
28 %let mikes=Micheal;
29 %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
30 %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s!.sysdate!&sysdate!,99,&res));
31 %put &ans;
'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 01MAR10'

Works in the datastep ( with ! or / )

data _null_;
res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
ans=prxchange("s!.sysdate!&sysdate!",99,res);
put ans=;
res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
ans=prxchange("s/.sysdate/&sysdate/",99,res);
put ans=;
run;

14 data _null_;
15 res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
16 ans=prxchange("s!.sysdate!&sysdate!",99,res);
17 put ans=;
18 res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
19 ans=prxchange("s/.sysdate/&sysdate/",99,res);
20 put ans=;
21 run;

ans=Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 01MAR10
ans=Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 01MAR10
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

Fails in XP

%symdel ans;
%let mikes=Micheal;
%let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
%let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
%put &ans;

22 %symdel ans;
23 %let mikes=Micheal;
24 %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
25 %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF
condition where a numeric
operand is required. The condition was: s/.sysdate/01MAR10/
ERROR: No pattern to process.
ERROR: The regular expression passed to the function PRXCHANGE
contains a syntax error.
WARNING: Argument 1 to function PRXCHANGE referenced by the %SYSFUNC
or %QSYSFUNC macro
function is out of range.
26 %put &ans;

From: xlr82sas on 1 Mar 2010 22:07

From: xlr82sas on 1 Mar 2010 23:07

On Mar 1, 7:07 pm, xlr82sas <xlr82...(a)aol.com> wrote:
> On Mar 1, 9:18 am, zhangy...(a)GMAIL.COM (Yu Zhang) wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On my WINXP SAS9.1, the code gives me error message, to me the '/' delimiter
> > is an offending character. I tried different Marco quoting function and
> > could not get it work. but it will work when i change the regular expression
> > delimiter to '!'.
>
> > Can someone verify to see if it will work on SAS9.2?
> > %symdel ans;
> > %let mikes=Micheal;
> > %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
> > %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.
>
> > > sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> > > %put &ans;
>
> > Thanks!
>
> > Yu
>
> > On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:12 AM, xlr82sas <xlr82...(a)aol.com> wrote:
> > > On Feb 26, 8:18 pm, xin...(a)STAT.PSU.EDU (xin) wrote:
> > > > Hello, everyone:
> > > > I am writing a string containing "&" into a macro variable. When I invoke
> > > > this "&" containing macro variable in my code, SAS try to interpret
> > > > this "&" as a presence of macro variable and as a result, gives warning
> > > > msg "WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference XXXX not resolved". I am trying
> > > > quote it with %bquote or %str, none of them works....
>
> > > > thanks for any suggestion.
>
> > > It is a little hard to offer a solution without seeing your code,
> > > suppose you have
>
> > > 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
>
> > > and you want sysdate to be resolved but not &Mikes.
>
> > > %symdel ans;
> > > %let mikes=Micheal;
> > > %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
> > > %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
> > > %put &ans;
>
> > > 'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 25FEB10'
>
> > > I like to keep the single quotes around until the last resolution.
> > > This way I control the content and timing of resolutions.
>
> > > I wish I could get back hours wasted on macro quoting functions.- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> I ran on SAS 9.1.3 will check 9.2 later tonight- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

It works under 9.2 with the slashes

7041 %put &SYSVLONG4;

9.02.02M0P01152009

7042 %symdel ans;
7043 %let mikes=Micheal;
7044 %let res='Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on &sysdate';
7045 %let ans=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/.sysdate/&sysdate/,99,&res));
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable SYSDATE resolves to 28FEB10
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable RES resolves to 'Joe&Mikes realty
Incorporated on &sysdate'
7046 %put &ans;
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable ANS resolves to 'Joe&Mikes realty
Incorporated on 28FEB10'
'Joe&Mikes realty Incorporated on 28FEB10'

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