SAS Component Language Dictionary

REPLACE

Substitutes a replacement string for a reference to an SCL variable in the SUBMIT block

Category:

Submit Block

Syntax
Details
Example

Syntax

REPLACE variable replacement-string;

variable

is the variable whose value the replacement value is substituted for.

Type: Character

replacement-string

is the text to substitute for the variable's value. This text can include a variable's value, but that is not mandatory.

Type: Character

Details

REPLACE substitutes a replacement string for a reference to an SCL variable in the SUBMIT block only if the variable is not blank. It functions as an implicit IF statement, determining when to substitute the string in the SUBMIT block. Using the REPLACE statement reduces the amount of code needed to generate statements to be submitted.

The REPLACE statement is evaluated when the program is compiled. Different replacement strings cannot be substituted based on conditions that exist at execution time. For example, the following statements cause errors when you compile the program:

if (x) then
      replace y '&y';
   else
      replace y '&z';

If you use multiple REPLACE statements for the same variable, the last REPLACE statement is used and a warning is generated by the compiler to that effect.

A good programming practice is to collect all the REPLACE statements in one place in your SCL program.

You can also use the REPLACE option in the ATTR window of a PROGRAM entry to specify the replacement string. However, this can be overridden by REPLACE statements in the SCL program.

SCL performs substitution according to the following rules:

If the value of the SCL variable is blank (or _BLANK_), no substitution is performed.
If the value of the SCL variable is not blank, SCL performs substitution into the replacement string for the variable and substitutes the resulting string into the SUBMIT block.

The replacement string can reference other SCL variables.

Note: Replacement strings are not recursive. When you refer to another variable in the replacement string, the program uses the current value of the variable, not the value that is based on its replacement string. [cautionend]

Example

replace tablename 'data=&tablename';
   ...more SCL statements...
submit continue;
   proc print &tablename;
   run;
endsubmit;

If TABLENAME contains ' '(or _BLANK_), the submitted statements are

submit continue;
   proc print;
   run;
endsubmit;

However, if TABLENAME contains work.sample , the submitted statements are

submit continue;
   proc print data=work.sample;
   run;
endsubmit;

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