Dot Notation and DATA Step Component Objects

Definition

Dot notation provides a shortcut for invoking methods and for setting and querying attribute values. Using dot notation makes your SAS programs easier to read.

To use dot notation with a DATA step component object, you must declare and instantiate the component object by using the DECLARE statement.

Syntax

object.attribute

object.method(<argument_tag-1: value-1<, ...argument_tag-n: value-n>>);

Arguments

object: specifies the variable name for the DATA step component object.

attribute

specifies an object attribute to assign or query.

When you set an attribute for an object, the code takes this form:

object.attribute
                           = value;

When you query an object attribute, the code takes this form:

value = object.attribute;

method: specifies the name of the method to invoke.

argument_tag

identifies the arguments that are passed to the method. Enclose the argument tag in parentheses. The parentheses are required whether or not the method contains argument tags.

All DATA step component object methods take this form:

return_code = object.method(<argument_tag-1: value-1
                           <,...argument_tag-n: value-n>>);

The return code indicates whether the method is successful or failed. A return code of zero indicates success; a nonzero value indicates failure. If you do not supply a return code variable for the method call and if the method fails, an error message is printed to the log.

value: specifies the argument value.