Advanced SAS® Macro Language

Role

SAS Programmer

Duration

2 Days

Description

This course emphasises advanced techniques that will enable students to take advantage of macro functionality. Portability, productivity and efficiency issues are discussed. Other topics include handling special characters within macro parameters; processing data using macro techniques; performing debugging and troubleshooting tasks and creating a library of macro utilities.

Prerequisites

Before selecting this course you should have completed the SASŪ Macro Language course or have equivalent knowledge and experience. Specifically you should be able to: Describe how macro processing takes place. Understand the differences between macros created at compilation and execution time. Create user-defined macro variables. Use automatic and user-defined macro variables. Write macros that make common programming tasks easier. Define and use macro programs. Write more dynamic and reduced maintenance production programmes. Debug programs that contain macro coding

SAS Modules Used

Base SAS, SAS/Graph

Course Topics

Handling Special Characters and Passing Parameters:

• Protecting special characters during compilation
• Protecting special characters during execution
• Passing parameters.

Processing Data using Macro Techniques:

• Calling functions and routines
• Performing calculations
• Reading and writing data
• Coordinating macro with the DATA step

Building a Library of Macro Utilities:

• Enhancing functionality
• Creating utility routines
• Using autocall macros.

Developing Macro Applications:

• Creating portable applications
• Debugging and troubleshooting
• Making jobs restartable
• Applying best practices (Self-Study)

Objectives

After attending this course, you will be able to: Apply advanced macro techniques to write dynamic code and interface with data sets and other files, Explain the need for macro quoting functions and apply appropriate function(s) for macro compilation and execution, Implement DATA step functions as macro equivalents, Create utility macros for common tasks, Use autocall macros supplied by SAS and access user-defined macros through the macro facility, Explain the principles of implementing SAS programs in a production environment.