SAS® Macro Language 1: Essentials Training in Belgium

Before attending this course, you should have completed the SAS Programming 2: Data Manipulation Techniques course or have equivalent knowledge. Specifically, you should be able to

• use a DATA step to read from or write to a SAS data set or external file
• use DATA step programming statements such as IF-THEN/ELSE, DO WHILE, DO UNTIL, and iterative DO
• use SAS data set options such as DROP=, KEEP=, and OBS=
• use character functions such as SUBSTR, SCAN, INDEX, and UPCASE
• form subsets of data using the WHERE clause
• create and use SAS date values and constants
• use SAS procedures such as SORT, PRINT, CONTENTS, MEANS, FREQ, TABULATE, and CHART.

This course addresses Base SAS software.

This course is appropriate for students who are using SAS 9 software.

Who should attend

Experienced SAS programmers who have a sound understanding of DATA step processing and who want to write SAS programs that are reusable and dynamic

• perform text substitution in SAS code
• automate and customize the production of SAS code
• conditionally or iteratively construct SAS code
• use macro variables and macro functions.

Introduction

• course logistics
• purpose of the macro facility
• program flow

Macro Variables

• introduction to macro variables
• automatic macro variables
• macro variable references
• user-defined macro variables
• delimiting macro variable references
• macro functions

Macro Definitions

• defining and calling a macro
• macro parameters

DATA Step and SQL Interfaces

• creating macro variables in the DATA step
• indirect references to macro variables
• creating macro variables in SQL

Macro Programs

• conditional processing
• parameter validation
• iterative processing
• global and local symbol tables

Learning More

• SAS resources
• beyond this course

Supplemental Materials

• program flow