SAS 9.1 Language Reference Dictionary, Volumes 1, 2 and 3

Documents the purpose of the statement or program

Valid: anywhere

Category: Log Control

Syntax

*message ;

or

/* message */

Arguments

* message ;

• specifies the text that explains or documents the statement or program.

• Range: These comments can be any length and are terminated with a semicolon.

• Restriction: These comments must be written as separate statements.

• Restriction: These comments cannot contain internal semicolons or unmatched quotation marks.

• Tip: Inside a macro, a comment in this form is often disregarded:

  *message;

  • When creating macros, therefore, use the PL/1-style comment:

    /* message */

/* message */

• specifies the text that explains or documents the statement or program.

• Range: These comments can be any length.

• Tip: These comments can contain semicolons and unmatched quotation marks.

• Tip: You can write these comments within statements or anywhere a single blank can appear in your SAS code.

• Tip: This is the only style of comment that can be used to actually comment out code.

Details

You can use the comment statement anywhere in a SAS program to document the purpose of the program, explain unusual segments of the program, or describe steps in a complex program or calculation. SAS ignores text in comment statements during processing.

CAUTION:

• Avoid placing the /* comment symbols in columns 1 and 2. In some operating environments, SAS may interpret a /* in columns 1 and 2 as a request to end the SAS program or session. For details, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.

Examples

These examples illustrate the two types of comments:

• This example uses the * message ; format:

  *This code finds the number in the BY group;

• This example uses the * message ; format:

  *---------------------------------------* This uses one comment statement to draw a box. *---------------------------------------*;

• This example uses the /* message */ format:

  input @1 name . /* last name */ @200 test 8. /* score test */ @50 age 3.; /* customer age */

• This example uses the /* message */ format:

  /* For example 1 use: x=abc; for example 2 use: y=ghi; */