Input parameters are defined in SAS Management Console
as prompts. You can add prompts or prompt groups when you are using
the
New Stored Process wizard to register
a new stored process or when you are viewing properties for a currently
registered stored process. The following features are available with
prompts:
Dynamic prompts allow
the lookup of possible prompt values from a data source such as a
SAS data set or information map.
dependencies between prompts
When you create a set
of prompts, you sometimes want the prompts to be interrelated. You
might want the values of one prompt to depend on the value that is
selected for another prompt. In that case, you would want to set up
dependencies between the prompts.
For example, you have
a prompt whose values are the names of the divisions in your organization.
You also have a prompt whose values are the names of the departments
in those divisions. If you want the end user to see only the departments
for the selected division, then you set the department prompt to be
dependent on the division prompt. After you select a value for the
division prompt, the department prompt is then populated with only
the names of the departments from that division.
shared prompts and prompt groups
A shared prompt is
a prompt that is stored in a shared location and that can be accessed
by multiple users, applications, and software features. Prompt groups
can also be shared. Sharing prompts is helpful when that prompt is
complex or when you might need to reuse that prompt (perhaps in other
applications or contexts). The following examples are good candidates
for sharing:
-
dynamic prompts with complex configurations
-
-
groups of prompts that are often
reused (like chart options)
Use a selection group
when you want the user to choose from several prompt groups. Selection
groups contain selection-dependent groups. Each selection-dependent
group is displayed as one of the selections for its parent selection
group. The contents (subgroups and prompts) of a selection-dependent
group are displayed to the end user only after the user selects that
group for the parent selection group. For example:
-
A user is given a choice of
Laptop or
Desktop for
a computer type prompt.
-
If the user selects
Laptop as the value of the computer type prompt,
then the user receives prompts for
Battery Type,
Hard Drive Size, and
Processor Speed.
-
If the user selects
Desktop as the value of the computer type prompt,
then the user receives prompts for
Hard Drive Size,
Processor Speed, and
Type of Keyboard.
When you run a stored
process that contains prompts, one or more macro variables is generated
for each prompt. The values that are specified for the prompts at
run time are assigned to the generated macro variables. When a prompt
generates more than one macro variable, suffixes such as _REL, _MIN,
and _MAX are appended to the prompt name to create unique names for
these macro variables. Because macro variables are limited to 32 characters
in length, you must use caution when specifying a prompt name. If
a suffix of _REL (4 characters long) is added to the prompt name to
generate a macro variable, then you should not specify a prompt name
that is more than 28 characters long. For more information about how
macro variables are generated and the suffixes that are used, see
the prompt Help in SAS Management Console.