sassas-macro

remove trailing spaces inside SAS macro

I want to remove the trailing spaces on variable inside the macro, i have tried TRIM, STRIP, %LET nothing is working. Can I get help on this please?

%MACRO DRY(count);
data _NULL_;
inpcount = "&count";
baseref1 = substr(jobid,4,2);   ------ value of the jobid is 75412
if inpcount < 10 then do;
   baseref = baseref2 || inpcount ;
end;
else do;
   baseref = baseref2 || inpcount ;
end;
call symputx('baseref',baseref,'g');
run;

%put baseref: &baseref;

--- I am getting the value as "SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable BASEREF

resolves to 38   1
baseref: 38   01"

Expected result should be baseref: 3801

Solution

  • There is nothing wrong with your MACRO variable.

    The mistake is in the SAS code the macro generates, your use of the || operator. Use the cats() function instead.

    baseref = cats(baseref2,inpcount) ;

    Also you need to decide if INPCOUNT should be a character variable or a numeric variable.

    You create it as character.

    inpcount = "&count";

    But then compare it to a number.

    if inpcount < 10 then do;

    If you want to convert a number to a string with leading zeros use the Z format. For example to always generate two digits even when the number INPCOUNT is less than 10 use the Z2. format.

    baseref = cats(baseref2,put(inpcount,z2.)) ;