TOPIC: SOURCE CODE
Restrictions on SAS libraries when macro catalogs are used
8th June 2007When you open up a SAS macro catalogue so that its entries for use by other programs, it has a major impact on the ability to change the library reference used to access the catalogue after it has apparently been unlocked.
options mstored sasmstore=bld_v001;
Using the line above will open the catalogue for reading, but there is no way to close it to change the library reference or unassign it until the SAS session is shut down. Even this line will not do the trick:
options nomstored sasmstore='';
What it means in practice is that if you have a standard macro setting up access to a number of standard macro libraries, then that setup macro needs to check for any library references used and not try to reassign them, causing errors in the process.
Quoted strings in Oracle SQL
2nd May 2007Here's a gotcha that caught up with me on my journey into the world of Oracle SQL: string quoting. Anything enclosed in double-quotes (") is the name of an Oracle object (variable, table and so on) while values are enclosed in single quotes ('). The reason that this one caught me out is that I have a preference for double quotes because of my SAS programming background; SAS macro variables resolve only when enclosed in double-quotes, hence the convention.