Macros That Include the PARMBUFF Option

Macros That Include the PARMBUFF Option You can use the PARMBUFF option in a macro definition to create a macro that can accept a varying number of parameters at each invocation. The PARMBUFF option assigns the entire list of parameter values in a macro call, including the parentheses in a name-style invocation, as the value of the automatic macro variable SYSPBUFF.

General form, macro definition with the PARMBUFF option: %MACRO macro-name /PARMBUFF; text %MEND; where text contains a reference to the automatic macro variable SYSPBUFF.

The following macro definition creates a macro named Printz. Printz uses a varying number of parameters and the automatic macro variable SYSPBUFF to display the parameters that are specified in the macro call. The macro also uses a conditional loop to print the data sets that are named as parameters, and the %EVAL function to increment the macro variable num. You will learn more about the %EVAL function later in this lesson.      %macro printz/parmbuff;         %put Syspbuff contains: &syspbuff;         %let num=1;         %let dsname=%scan(&syspbuff,&num);         %do %while(&dsname ne);            proc print data=sasuser.&dsname;            run;            %let num=%eval(&num+1);            %let dsname=%scan(&syspbuff,&num);         %end;      %mend printz; If you submit a call to the macro that includes two parameters, the Printz macro writes the following line to the SAS log and causes two data sets to be printed:      %printz(courses, schedule) SAS Log Syspbuff contains: (courses,schedule) If you submit a call to the macro that includes one parameter, the Printz macro writes the following line to the SAS log and causes one data set to be printed:      %printz(courses) SAS Log Syspbuff contains: (courses) If the macro definition includes both a set of parameters and the PARMBUFF option, the macro invocation causes the parameters to receive values and the entire invocation list of values to be assigned to SYSPBUFF.