Call to a (nested?) macro

[Luca Meyer]

Can someone help me with the following:

(1) Within the main syntax I call a macro with something like:

!callmacro file1="c:\etc\etc\file1.sav" /file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav".

(2) the macro runs just file and later on I try a:

get file !file2.

but it doesn't work and I get:

>Warning # 210 in column 11.  Text: !file2
>A macro symbol is invalid in this context.

What am I doing wrong? I would like to avoid specifying again the same
file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav" before running get file....

[Raynald Levesque]

Hi

When you execute the line:

!callmacro file1="c:\etc\etc\file1.sav" /file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav".

The definition of file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav"
is only valid for this macro call.

Try  the following:


DEFINE !file2() "c:\etc\etc\file2.sav" !ENDDEFINE.

!callmacro file1="c:\etc\etc\file1.sav" /file2=!file2.

* then the following command will work.
get file !file2.

Regards,

Raynald Levesque [hidden email]
Website: www.spsstools.net

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Luca Meyer
Sent: March 24, 2007 3:59 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Call to a (nested?) macro

Can someone help me with the following:

(1) Within the main syntax I call a macro with something like:

!callmacro file1="c:\etc\etc\file1.sav" /file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav".

(2) the macro runs just file and later on I try a:

get file !file2.

but it doesn't work and I get:

>Warning # 210 in column 11.  Text: !file2
>A macro symbol is invalid in this context.

What am I doing wrong? I would like to avoid specifying again the same
file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav" before running get file....

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

Hi Luca,

It seems that you use macro argument '!file2' from
macro1 in macro2, probably without having specificed
it in the latter. Perhaps it would work with a !LET
statement and an !EVAL statement, e.g.

!LET !a = "c:\etc\etc\file1.sav".
!LET !b = "c:\etc\etc\file2.sav".

!EVAL(callmacro !a / !b).

get file = !b.


Note that I omitted the exclamation mark from your
macro name. I always wonder how a string is parsed in
a nested macro if that macro's name 'looks' like a
macro argument, ie. it has a "!" sign.

It's untested, but I hope it works. I ran into this a
couple of times and I never felt I thoroughly grasped
what was going on.

Cheers!!
Albert-Jan

--- Luca Meyer <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Can someone help me with the following:
>
> (1) Within the main syntax I call a macro with
> something like:
>
> !callmacro file1="c:\etc\etc\file1.sav"
> /file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav".
>
> (2) the macro runs just file and later on I try a:
>
> get file !file2.
>
> but it doesn't work and I get:
>
> >Warning # 210 in column 11.  Text: !file2
> >A macro symbol is invalid in this context.
>
> What am I doing wrong? I would like to avoid
> specifying again the same
> file2="c:\etc\etc\file2.sav" before running get
> file....
>

Cheers!
Albert-Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you know that 87.166253% of all statistics claim a precision of results that is not justified by the method employed? [HELMUT RICHTER]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't get soaked.  Take a quick peek at the forecast
with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather