GETVARC Function

Returns the value of a SAS data set character variable.

Category:

SAS File I/O

Syntax

GETVARC(data-set-id,var-num)

Required Arguments

data-set-id

is a numeric constant, variable, or expression that specifies the data set identifier that the OPEN function returns.

var-num

is a numeric constant, variable, or expression that specifies the number of the variable in the Data Set Data Vector (DDV).

Tips	You can obtain this value by using the VARNUM function.
	This value is listed next to the variable when you use the CONTENTS procedure.

Details

Use VARNUM to obtain the number of a variable in a SAS data set. VARNUM can be nested or it can be assigned to a variable that can then be passed as the second argument, as shown in the following examples. GETVARC reads the value of a character variable from the current observation in the Data Set Data Vector (DDV) into a macro or DATA step variable.

Example

This example opens the SASUSER.HOUSES data set and gets the entire tenth observation. The data set identifier value for the open data set is stored in the macro variable MYDATAID. This example nests VARNUM to return the position of the variable in the DDV, and reads in the value of the character variable STYLE.
```
%let mydataid=%sysfunc(open
                      (sasuser.houses,i));
%let rc=%sysfunc(fetchobs(&mydataid,10));
%let style=%sysfunc(getvarc(&mydataid,
                   %sysfunc(varnum
                   (&mydataid,STYLE))));
%let rc=%sysfunc(close(&mydataid));
```
This example assigns VARNUM to a variable that can then be passed as the second argument. This example fetches data from observation 10.
```
%let namenum=%sysfunc(varnum(&mydataid,NAME));
%let rc=%sysfunc(fetchobs(&mydataid,10));
%let user=%sysfunc(getvarc
                  (&mydataid,&namenum));
```