Development Tips

Although you can edit and execute processes directly within JMP Life Sciences, you might want to perform serious development work in an independent SAS session. You will need at least one test data set, and it is convenient to have a trimmed-down version of a larger problem. Using this version during the process construction can save time, especially for numerically intensive procedures.

To successfully run the process in your own SAS session, you must provide valid specifications for all of the input macro variables. You can create a separate working file that first %include's the macro as-is. Although this will generate an error message, it will still define the macro. You can then specify your own %let statements for each parameter and then invoke the macro directly. Another method is to work directly in the macro file itself and define or %include a file with data-specific macro variable specifications. If you take this approach, make sure you clean or comment out blocks of code appropriately before loading the updated macro into the system.

When creating a new process, it is usually convenient to begin with an existing one as a template. When working on the new process, it is also usually expedient to cut-and-paste relevant sections from other processes. Be careful when doing this to make sure that all variables are appropriately renamed. If you find the need to cut-and-paste a certain section more than once or twice, please consider making it a generic utility macro so that code is maintained in one place.

Next: Code Reuse