Macro %str() Tip

Today's post is just a quick little SAS MACRO tip. Suppose you are working in a macro and you need to compare a macro variable to an empty string. You can simply say:

%if &myVar = %then ...;

But that is not the most intuitive, especially when you have more complex logic such as:

%if &myVar = and &nextVar = something %then ...;

Looks a little confusing. Like I forgot to type something after the equals sign!

I like to handle this by using %STR( ). That way you can see that I am definetly testing for a blank. Such as:

%if &myVar = %str( ) %then ...;

Happy coding!