Replacing Spaces in a macro variable value with the quotes with space

1
votes

I want to replace space between variables passed in a macro variable with double quotes with space, i.e. " ". Please find below the code I am using for the same and the result I am getting.

%let str7=ABC DEF UVW XYZ;

%let str8 = %qsysfunc(quote(%qsysfunc(tranwrd(%qsysfunc(compbl(%qsysfunc(strip(%upcase(&str7.))))),%str( ),%nrstr(%")))));

%put ^^^^&str8;

The Log Displays:

18 %put ^^^^&str8;

^^^^"ABC""DEF""UVW""XYZ"

I need this to be "ABC" "DEF" "UVW" "XYZ".

I have also tried the following...

proc fcmp outlib=work.funcs.funcs;

    function delimit_words(iString $) $;    
    result = '"' || tranwrd(cats(compbl(iString))," ", '" ,"') || '"';    
    return (result );
    endsub;

run;


%let x =   A  B  C   ;
%let y = %sysfunc(delimit_words(&x));
%put &y;

but it gives me following error...

ERROR: The DELIMIT_WORDS function referenced in the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is not found.

I have used the following approach given by Jeff. 

   data test;
   id =1; _var="ABC"; output;
   id =1; _var="DEF"; output;
   id =1; _var="UVW"; output;
   id =2; _var="UVW"; output;
   id =3; _var="ABC"; output;
   id =3; _var="UVW"; output;
   id =3; _var="XYZ"; output;
   id =4; _var="ABC"; output;
   id =4; _var="XYZ"; output;
run;

%macro __test1(_byvar=, _qnam=, _id=);
    proc sort data= test out=_test;
        by &_byvar.;

  %if %superq(_qnam) ne %then
  %do; 
            %let __tmpmv_qnam = %qsysfunc(prxchange(%bquote(s/\b/"/),-1,%bquote(&_qnam))); 
            *";
            %put ^^^^^&__tmpmv_qnam.;
      where upcase(&_id) in (&__tmpmv_qnam);
  %end;

    run;

%mend;

%__test1 (_byvar=id ,_qnam = ABC UVW, _id=_var);

The log diaplayed following error:

SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable _QNAM resolves to ABC UVW  
ERROR: Literal contains unmatched quote.

Please help on this one.

4
sassas-macro

4 Answers

1
votes

Your FCMP works fine if you add the line

options cmplib=work.funcs;

to your code, if you're running in SAS 9.3 or later.

In general, the best approach is not to do this: instead create the macro variable with quotes in the first place. How did you create this? If you created it from a dataset, for example, you could have done:

proc sql;
  select quote(strip(name)) into :varlist separated by ','
  from sashelp.class;
quit;

which returns

"Alfred","Alice","Barbara","Carol","Henry","James","Jane","Janet","Jeffrey","John","Joyce","Judy" ,"Louise","Mary","Philip","Robert","Ronald","Thomas","William"

1
votes

As long as you want to use double quotes then I think you are working way too hard.

%let str7=ABC DEF UVW XYZ;
%let str8="%sysfunc(tranwrd(&str7,%str( )," "))";

Now if your original string is not well formed and might contain multple spaces between words then you will first need to use %COMPBL() to clean it up.

%let str8=%sysfunc(compbl(&str7));
%let str8="%sysfunc(tranwrd(&str8,%str( )," "))";
0
votes

Without debugging either of your approaches above, I can offer a third:

%let str8 = %sysfunc(prxchange(%bquote(s/\b/"/),-1,%quote(&str7.)));
*";

The prxchange() function tells SAS to replace every word boundary (\b) with a ". As far as when to use bquote(), vs quote(), it's all documented online, but honestly I usually resort to trial and error.

The *"; does nothing, but it makes things look nicer if your editor's syntax highlighting gets confused by the single quote (like mine does).

0
votes

Try this:

%let str7=ABC DEF UVW XYZ;

%let str8 ="%bquote(%sysfunc(tranwrd(%sysfunc(strip(&str7.)),%str( ),%nrstr(%",%"))))";

%put ^^^^&str8;