/*** TIP 00377 ***/

I want to capture from the user a 4-digit year value via a desktop icon.
The year value becomes part of a path value in a SAS process opened via
the same icon.  Presumably, the user could type the year value or select it
from a list of year values.

Any suggestions as to how to accomplish this?

Solution #1 
Author: Mark Terjeson
Email: mark.terjeson@nwcsr.com

%window GET_YEAR
    rows=9
    columns=35
    irow=1
    icolumn=2
    color=black

    #2  @8  'Enter the year:'
        color=gray
        @24 theYear 4
        required=yes
        attr=underline
        color=yellow
    ;

%display GET_YEAR;

%put NOTE: The year ready for use is &theYear;



libname mylib "c:\foobar\blah\&theYear\mystuff";

data mylib.mydata;
    set blah...
run;


Solution #2
Author:  Arto Raiskio 
Email: arto.raiskio@SUOMENPOSTI.COM

vbs sample below, this runs a short file called c:\windows\thedate.vbs (save
the code via notepad into this file)
and writes output to g:\tmp\thedate.txt (change to suit your needs), ie.
today as 21.07.2003

option explicit
dim today
dim outputstring
dim logfile
dim fso
dim fsout

logfile = "g:\tmp\thedate.txt"

const forreading = 1
const forwriting = 2
const forappending = 3

set fso = createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set fsout = fso.OpenTextFile(logfile,ForWriting,True)
outputstring = date
fsout.WriteLine outputstring
fsout.Close
WScript.Quit 0

Solution #3
Author: Nathaniel Wooding
Email: Nathaniel_Wooding@dom.com

*the following code, when invoked, opens a data step data entry window 
and asks the user for a date and time that were recorded improperly by 
a data logger as well as the correct date and time. When the user closes 
the window, the time interval needed to adjust the incorrect date is 
calculated and returned in the window.
************************************;
DATA _NULL_;

 WINDOW D1
    COLOR = RED IROW =1  ICOLUMN = 5
                ROWS=15  COLUMNS= 60
    #3 @39 D1 YYMMDD6.   #5 @39 TIME1
    #7 @39 D2 YYMMDD6.   #9 @39 TIME2
    REQUIRED = YES PROTECT=NO DISPLAY = YES
    #1 @2 'DATE TIME CORRECTION FACTOR INPUT'
    #3 @2 'ENTER THE INCORRECT DATE (YYMMDD): '
    #5 @2 'ENTER THE INCORRECT TIME (  HH  ): '
    #7 @2 'ENTER THE CORRECT   DATE (YYMMDD): '
    #9 @2 'ENTER THE CORRECT   TIME (  HH  ): '  ;

 DISPLAY D1  ;
V1=COMPRESS(PUT( D1,DATE7.)]]':']] TIME1]]':00') ;
S1=INPUT(V1,DATETIME.);
SD1=S1;
V2=COMPRESS(PUT( D2,DATE7.)]]':']] TIME2]]':00') ;
S2=INPUT(V2,DATETIME.);
DIF=S2-S1;
DIFS=INTCK('HOUR',S1,S2);
 WINDOW D2
    COLOR =CYAN IROW =16 ICOLUMN = 5
                 ROWS=10  COLUMNS= 60
    #14  @35 DIFS
    REQUIRED = YES PROTECT=NO DISPLAY = YES

#14  @2  'THE INTERVAL TO BE ADDED IS ';

 OUTPUT;
 DISPLAY D2  ;
STOP;
RUN;

A little comment on what is happening with regarding this 
particular set of code.

As you will see, it may be somewhat useful from 
the standpoint of the original application or as a means of finding the 
seconds interval between two date-time variables.

In our particular case, we had some aging dataloggers whose on-board clock 
batteries were dieing and, when they did so, reverted to the earliest date 
that the clock chip could handle. The data were good but I needed to adjust 
the date/time stamp of each hour's observation.  I used the code in a 
mainframe clist in order to calculate the time correction and then added 
this to my update program. 

Nat


You can write a VB Script that axes the user for the year and
then start SAS using the SYSPARM option (it will create a macro
variable SYSPARM containing the year:

varInput = 0
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
varInput = InputBox("please type a year")
WshShell.Run ("sas -sysparm '" & varInput & "'")

This will start SAS in interactive mode, but it is possible to run a
SAS program completely invissible in batch mode.
For example you could make the script run a SAS program that creates a
HTML report based on the value the user types. The only thing the user will
see is the report.

Actually, it is possible to run processes on other machines as well -
check out the script "ReRun.vbs", Written by Martin Krolik
(martin@krolikconsulting.com).

This means that the user does not need SAS at all!

Hope this helps (and thanks for thinking the possibility!)
Stig Eide
stigeide@YAHOO.COM


From Michael Bramley -

You could use the Window (macro or base) routine to define a dialogue
box/window to prompt for and obtain the year.

data _null_;                                                                                                                            
   window getyear                                                                                                                       
          #9  @26 'WELCOME TO JULES'' SYSTEM'                                                                                           
                  color=black                                                                                                           
          #12  @19 'PLEASE ENTER THE YEAR '                                                                                             
         YearVal                                                                                                                        
          #14 @27 'Press ENTER to continue';                                                                                            
    display getyear;                                                                                                                    
    call symput( 'yearval', put(yearval,z4.));                                                                                          
    stop;                                                                                                                               
run;                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                        
%put &yearval; 
  

Lex Jansen's SUGI Papers on WINDOW/%WINDOW

Finally, last evening I went to Lex Jansen's SUGI papers website
http://www.lexjansen.com/sugi/
where I found the following SUGI papers/posters about WINDOW/%WINDOW.  These
items came up, among others, with a search on %WINDOW.

21-28
192-27
22-25
76-25
92

/*** end of tip 00377 ***/