Re: Variable in export ascii export ascii aaa= “variable name “ –x

[Dan Coutu]

Richard Tartaglia wrote:

>With all the bad weather I hope everyone is doing ok.
>
>I have data that comes from the Commonwealth of
>Massachusetts, so there is no way the data is going to
>change. The file is fixed length ascii and contains a
>header record followed by data then another header
>record and more data and so on. 
>
>I would like to use a variable name in the export
>name, export ascii   aaa = “variable name“  - x.
>
>I have been trying different variations but can’t get
>any thing to work. Is it possible or am I wasting
>time.
>
>Thanks 
>
>Richard Tartaglia
>
>  
>
The magical incantation requires the use of parentheses. As a general 
rule you can use parentheses around a variable almost anywhere. So do 
this instead:

export ascii aaa = (MyVariable) -x

I really like using longer variables rather than two letter dummy 
variables, they are so much easier to understand when I go to modify the 
code a month later. This drove me nuts until I hit on the parentheses trick.

Dan