If a macro parameter is set equal to itself, then the following type of warning message is issued and the macro variable is set to null:

   WARNING: The text expression &AA contains a recursive reference to the 
   macro variable AA.  The macro variable will be assigned the null value.

Here is the code that would cause the warning above:

   %macro test(aa=&aa);
     %put &aa; 
   %mend test; 
                                       
   %test(aa=100)

Even if the macro variable AA existed before running the code above, the warning is still issued, and the value is set to null.

The only way to avoid the warning would be to avoid the recursion, for example:

   %macro test(aa=);
     %put &aa; 
   %mend test; 
                                       
   %test(aa=100)

Receiving this warning is the correct and expected behavior.

If you want to suppress the warning message, issue the following OPTIONS statement AFTER applying the hotfix:

options NOMWARNDEFAULTARGRECURSION;

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3 is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3 on z/OS is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.3 on z/OS 64-bit is available at: