Comment Statement

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; */