Question

%macro name_modal();
/*Create macro variables which contain the modalities of variables*/
%do i=1 %to &num_Var;
    data _null_;
        set  &lib..Table_variable_modal_&i.;
        call symputx('num_Mod'||compress(put(&i,4.)),_N_,"G");
        call symputx('table'||compress(put(&i,4.))||'modal'||compress(put(_N_,4.)),compress(&&name_Var&i.),"G");
    run;

%end;

/*Display modalities by variable*/
%do i=1 %to &num_Var;
    %put &&name_Var&i. has &&num_Mod&i. modalities ;
    %do j=1 %to &&num_Mod&i.;
        %put %nrstr(&&tableb&i.modal&j.);
    %end;
%end;
%mend name_modal;
%name_modal();

I hope the code is self-documenting.
I’ll explain the problems here.
Everything is working fine until I pass to the second of the program which serves to display the modalities by variables.

For example when the name of modalities being stocked in the macro variables are like
$100% BLO,
100% COLOR,
AVON & RAGOBERT,
BALLANTINE’S,
L’OREAL,
AT&T,
U-V-A
etc
I fail to use %put properly.
I’ve tried using %bquote and %nrstr, but the problem persists.
So far, the only solution I can see is to modify the name of the modalities but since the names come from a client, I don’t have the possibility to make amendment on the data.

Thank you

Answer 1

After trying a few times, I find %superq could solve this problem. Handling special characters in macro is troublesome. This page provides some useful tips on macro quoting.

I simplified your code here to the following

UPDATE: make it double-loop case.

data test;
 input name ~ &  $15.;
 datalines;
 100% BLO
 100% COLOR
 AVON & RAGOBERT
 BALLANTINE'S
 L'OREAL
 AT&T
 U-V-A
 ;
run;

%macro name_modal();
/*Create macro variables which contain the modalities of variables*/
%do i=1 %to 4;
    data _null_;
     set  test;
     call symputx('num_Mod1',_N_,"G");
     call symputx('tableb'||compress(put(&i,4.))||'modal'||compress(put(_N_,4.)),name,"G");
    run;
%end;

   %do i=1 %to 4;
    %do j=1 %to 7;
        %put %superq(tableb&i.modal&j);
    %end;
   %end;
%mend name_modal;
%name_modal();

The result will display correctly.

Note that it is %superq(tableb&i.modal&j) not %superq(&&tableb&i.modal&j) as superq accepts macro variable name without extra ampersand.