/* deabbr.sas Daniel Brockman 070805 cvt var1-var99 to var1 var2 var3 ... */

* tested 070805 ;

%macro deabbr(List);

/* 
*  Usage example:  %deabbr(var3-var8);
*                  %let lhs=&greturn ;
*   
*    in this example, global var greturn contains
*
*         var3 var4 var5 var6 var7 var8
*
*  Converts a hyphenated (or unhyphenated) list of variable names to 
*  an unhyphenated list.
*  Returns the expanded list of variable names in global var greturn
*  Assigns values to global macro variables greturn* .
*  List should be list of variables syntactically correct for a datastep.
*  Incorrect lists can produce various kinds of errors, including some
*  hard to detect. deabbr doesn't attempt to check validity of the 
*  List.
*  Executes a data step, creating a temporary dataset subsequently 
*  deleted. 
*  Invokes macros getdsname, mkvarlist2, delds.
*  deabbr is a function-style macro: %let lhs=%function([arg [, arg [...]]]) 
*/

  %global greturn;
  
    %getdsname(deabbr);
    %let temp1=&greturn ;           /* name of tempo dataset */
  data &temp1 (drop=i);             /* create dataset containing the vars */
    array a(*) &List ;
  	do i=1 to dim(a);
  	  a(i)=i;
  	  end;
     ;                         /* mkvarlist2 needs >=1 obs */
  run;
  
  %mkvarlist2(&temp1);              /* list the vars in the dataset */
    /* mkvarlist2 assigns var greturn */
  %delds(&temp1);                   /* delete the tempo data set */


%mend deabbr;