SAS Consulting, Department of Statistics 

Creating and Using Macro Variables in SAS/IML

Sample Code:

proc iml;
    x= { 1 1 1,
        1 2 4,
        1 3 9,
        1 4 16,
        1 5 25,
        1 6 36,
        1 7 49,
        1 8 64 };
    
    n=nrow(x);  /* assign n a value - number of observations */

    call symput('n',left(char(n)));   
         /* create the macro variable n with CALL SYMPUT -
         need to make the scalar a character with CHAR function */


    n2={3.5};   /* can be integer or floating point number  */
    call symput('n2',left(char(n2)));
   

    new=J(&n);   /* can use immediately within IML   */
    print new;
   
quit;

%put _user_; /* List the value of user created macro variables */