Use do loop index in macro variable definition

Question

I would like to define multiple macro variables in a data step. In this case I would like to create the variables &buffer1, &buffer2, &buffer3, &buffer4. The number of buffers is variable, so I am not able to hard code the creation of these variables.

Here is the data step and do loop I am currently using:

%let buffers = 4;
data buffer;
    do buffer_number = 1 to &buffers;
        buffer_queue = 0;
        buffer_index = 0;
        output;
    end;
run;

What I would like to do is add a line within the do loop like %let buffer_buffer_number = 0;. This obviously doesn't work, since it just creates the variable &buffer_buffer_number.Is there some way I can use the do loop index (buffer_number) to create the macro variables?

DomPazz · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-17 20:15:08Z

1

Try the call symput() subroutine.

call symput(catt("buffer_",buffer_number),0);

The first argument takes a string that contains the macro variable name. Here I use the CATT() function to concatenate the values into the string you want.

The second argument is the value to put into the macro variable.

answered Dec 17, 2015 at 20:15

DomPazz

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1 Comment

Tom Over a year ago

Use the newer call symputx() as it has more options and handles automatic conversion of numeric variables.

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