Four Short Macro Functions

SAS macro functions are very useful routines to return a value like a regular SAS or custom function created by proc fcmp. This blog entry contains a collection of four short, simple and to the point macro functions that you may find of some value.

In his paper, "Is This Macro Parameter Blank" Chang Y Chung does a great job testing ways to determine if a macro variable is blank. The most solid way to do this is as follows:

  %macro isBlank( param ) ;
    %sysevalf( %superq( param ) =, boolean )
  %mend ;

The idea for the next function was obtained from Art Capenter's paper which returns the name of the SAS program being executed. It is important to test for SYSIN value first as that is how you get the program name from a batch invocation.

  %macro pgmname() ;
    %local retval ;
    %let retval = %sysfunc( getoption( sysin ) ) ; /* batch mode */
    %if %isblank( &retval. ) %then 
      %let retval = %sysget( sas_execfilepath ) ; /* interactive mode */
    &retval.
  %mend ;

SAS veteran, Peter Crawford was a featured presenter a SAS Global Forum 2015. I really liked his %now function to return the time, day of week and date using the TWMDY format. You can see his video here: Learn Hidden Ideas in Base SAS® to Impress Colleagues

  %macro now( fmt = twmdy. ) / des = 'timestamp' ;
    %sysfunc( strip( %sysfunc( datetime(), &fmt ) ) ) 
  %mend ;

The final short macro function is one I created to obtain attributes from a SAS data set. It can handle character or numeric return values by testing the value of the attribute to return. This macro utilizes the ATTRC and ATTRN functions.

  %macro getattr( dsn =, attr = nobs ) ;
    %local attrtype clist dsid retval ;
    %if %isblank( &dsn ) %then %do ;
      %put %str(E)RROR: the DSN value is missing ;
      %return ;
    %end ;

    %let retval = . ;

    %let clist = CHARSET ENCRYPT ENGINE LABEL LIB MEM MODE 
                 MTYPE SORTEDBY SORTLVL SORTSEQ TYPE ;

    %if %index( &clist., %upcase( &attr. ) ) %then %let attrtype = attrc ;
    %else %let attrtype = attrn ;

    %let dsid = %sysfunc( open( &dsn. ) ) ;
    %if &dsid. %then %do ;
      %let retval = %sysfunc( &attrtype.( &dsid., &attr. ) ) ;
      %let dsid = %sysfunc( close( &dsid. ) ) ;
    %end ;

    &retval. 
  %mend ;

Putting it all together in a program looks like this:

  data values ;
    length name value $64 ;
    name = "Program Name:" ;
    value = "%pgmname()" ;
    output ;
    name = "Now:" ;
    value = "%now()" ;
    output ;
    name = "Engine:" ;
    value = "%getattr( dsn = sashelp.class, attr=engine )" ;
    output ;
    name = "Obs:" ;
    value = "%getattr( dsn = sashelp.class )" ;
    output ;
  run ;