SAS Companion for the CMS Environment

Return Codes from SAS Statements Submitted by a SASMACRO

In a REXX program, the special variable RC is always set when any command string is submitted to an external environment. Ordinary execs submit CMS commands. When the CMS command completes and control is returned to REXX, the RC variable is set to the return code from the CMS command.

The RC variable is set in a slightly different way for a SASMACRO. The strings that are submitted to SAS are not necessarily complete execution units. SAS collects SAS language elements until it encounters a RUN statement, at which point it runs the SAS step. The RC variable is set to 0 when partial program fragments are submitted. The SAS return code is assigned to the REXX variable RC only for the string that contains the RUN statement.

RC Values

The value of the REXX RC variable is set to the value of the &SYSERR automatic SAS macro variable in all but four cases:

when an attempt is made to enter the SAS subcommand environment recursively. In this case, the statement is ignored and the RC value is set to -2.
when a SASMACRO is active and the SAS session is terminated with a BYE command, or with an ENDSAS command or statement. In this case, the SAS session returns control to the SASMACRO. SAS statements that are subsequently submitted by the SASMACRO cannot be executed, and the RC value is set to -3 for each.
when a SASMACRO is active and SAS is interrupted with an attention and the SAS task is cancelled. In this case SAS statements that are subsequently submitted by the SASMACRO are not executed, and the RC value is set to -4 for each.
when an attempt is made to submit a command string that is longer than 132 characters. In this case, the statement is ignored and the RC value is set to -5. An error message and the first 132 characters of the string are written to the SASLOG.

The following RCTEST SASMACRO demonstrates when the REXX variable RC gets set:

/* RCTEST SASMACRO - a SAS REXX macro */
/* Show SAS statements in the log */
'++SASLOG'                 
'data x;'
'do i = 1 to 10;'
'output;'
/* show rc in the SAS log */
'++SASLOG The RC value is:' rc
'run;'
/* show rc in the SAS log */
'++SASLOG The RC value is:' rc
exit

SAS Log for RCTEST shows the resulting SAS log.

SAS Log for RCTEST

1 rctest; ++++ data x; ++++ do i = 1 to 10; ++++ output; ++++ The RC value is: 0 ++++ run; 5 run; - 117 ERROR 117-185: There were 1 unclosed DO blocks. NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors. WARNING: The data set WORK.X may be incomplete. When this step was stopped, there were 0 observations and 1 variables. ++++ The RC value is: 1012

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