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Archive of Past Presentations

Late Winter meeting - Friday, 04Mar2005, 9am

Take an In-Depth Look at the %EVAL Function

Beilei Xu, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ
Lei Zhang, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ

%EVAL is a widely used yet frequently misunderstood SAS(r) macro language function due to its seemingly simple form. However, when its actual argument is a complex macro expression interlaced with special characters, mixed arithmetic and logical operators, or macro quotation functions, its usage and result become elusive and problematic.

In this paper, we aim to explore and demystify the intricate part of %EVAL. First, we explain the mechanism that the SAS macro processor uses to invoke %EVAL, and point out the subtle difference between the implicit and explicit uses of %EVAL calls. Then, we reveal a series of hidden rules that %EVAL uses to manipulate its actual macro argument embedded with different types of special characters. Examples are provided to illustrate those rules and exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Beilei Xu is a Sr. Statistical Programmer at Merck & Co., Inc. She has six years of SAS programming experience.

Lei Zhang works as a senior statistical programmer at Merck & Co. Inc.. He is a SAS certified professional with 10+ years of SAS programming experience. He has written several technical papers for PharmaSUG, NESUG, and SUGI. His favorite topics are advanced SAS macro programming, data manipulation with SQL and Data/Proc steps, Java tools and SAS utilities for clinical study analysis and reporting.
 


A Guide to Understanding Web Application Development

Authors: Rob Girardin + Corey Benson
Speaker: Scott Leslie, SAS Institute / Cary, NC.

You have been asked by your manager to port a legacy, fat-client application to the web. There are so many directions you can take in completing this project. It is hard to know where to start and what technologies to use. The main focus of this paper is to introduce you to server-side Java. We will answer questions like:

  • What are the main benefits of using server-side Java technology?
  • What are servlets, JavaServer Pages and custom tags?
  • How do they all fit together?
  • Why should you work Model 2 into your application design?
  • How does the Struts framework enable you to control the flow of your application and component interactions?
  • How do you customize the look of your web application using styles and templates?
  • How do you deploy your web application?
  • What are the pieces and parts?

    • These topics will be covered while also highlighting how Version 3 of AppDev Studio makes it easier for you to build web applications that are lightweight, easy to manage and instantly connect to SAS software.

    Scott Leslie joined SAS Institute in 1994 in the Display Products division developing parts of SAS/AF. He is an original member of the AppDev Studio development team and serves as a Software Manager for Java component development. His primary areas of development have been JavaBeans and model components which provide access to SAS data and services. He has a BS in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.