The SAS code formatter: more than a pretty face

A customer phoned up SAS Technical Support the other day with a problem. (Yes, that happens occasionally...) When he ran a certain program through SAS Enterprise Guide, the program didn't seem to complete and no results were returned. Here is a snippet of the program (modified a bit to make it less proprietary) :

proc sql noprint;
connect to teradata as tera2
(user=&user pw=&password server=&server
mode=teradata FASTEXPORT=YES);
create table buyers as
select * from connection to tera2
(select id,
trxn_dt,
sum (ln_itm_qty) as Items,
sum (ext_prc_amt as Sales
from store.linetrxn a
join cust.indv_xref b
on a.rid = b.rid
/* remainder removed for brevity */

Can you spot the problem? Other than the use of a user ID and password, which can be avoided, what else is wrong with this program? Why does it fail to finish?

The SAS code formatter in SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 can tell you. Click Ctrl+I, and the code formatter scans your program and attempts to indent it for proper readability. But for this program, it stops short of that with this message:

Formatting Error
Please check for an unmatched parenthesis on line 7.

Now you know: there is an unmatched parenthesis! And every SAS programmer knows that a missing parenthesis, unmatched quote, or missing semicolon can cause problems for the SAS language parser. (Rick Wicklin calls this a "parse-time error" in his post about finding and fixing programming errors.)

But where is the unmatched paren in this program? The message says "line 7", but line 7 looks okay. There is an open paren for the inner SELECT clause. But starting there, there must be a missing matching parenthesis within the clause. To find it, use the arrow keys in the program editor to navigate the program and visit every parenthesis character in the region. The program editor in SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 highlights the matching parentheses pairs as you navigate:

You can also use the Ctrl+[ (open bracket) key to move the cursor from one parenthesis to its match, if there is one. If no match can be found, the program editor emits a friendly beep to tell you, "sorry, can't find a match".

In this example, you don't have to look further than line 10, where the programmer has left off a closing parenthesis. The line should read: sum (ext_prc_amt) as Sales

People are really starting to appeciate the new SAS program editor (including the formatter). Earlier this week I received an unsolicited phone call from a SAS programmer (who happens to work at SAS). She was calling just to say that this feature is "AWESOME" and that it has saved her countless hours as she maintains legacy SAS programs. Angela Hall also highlights it in her blog about real-world BI experiences.

I love to hear these stories. Have you started using SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 yet? What do you like about it? And what could be improved? Let us know, either here in the comments or via SAS Technical Support.