Hack 4.21 Using the WAKEUP Function to Put SAS Programs to Sleep

SAS Programming Professionals,

Did you know that you can use the WAKEUP function to put a SAS program to sleep and specify when it is to resume executing?

The WAKEUP function directs SAS to put your program to sleep for the duration that you specify within the function.  When that duration has passed, your SAS program wakes up and continues to execute, starting with the statements found directly after the statement containing the WAKEUP function. 

You can specify a date-time value, a time (in hours), or the number of seconds before/after midnight for SAS to wait until waking up and running the rest of your program.  Here is an example of each:

data _null_;

dozeuntil = wakeup("04JUL2017:12:00:00"dt);

put "The 4th of July picnic is just starting.";

run;

data _null_;
dozeuntil = wakeup("22:30:00"t);
put "Time for the Jimmy Kimmel Live show!";
run;


data _null_;

dozeuntil = wakeup(-7200);

put "It is 2-hours until midnight!";

run;

data _null_;

dozeuntil = wakeup(7200);

put "It is 2-hours past midnight!";

run;

The first DATA _NULL_ step will continue executing on July 4, 2017 at 12-noon.  The second will execute every night at 11:30pm.  The third DATA _NULL_ step will execute every evening at 10:00pm.  The last one will execute every morning at 2:00am.

There are more nuances to the WAKEUP function than can be covered in this publication; including limits on the durations that you can specify.  Check out the online documentation on support.sas.com to get more information on the WAKEUP function.

Best of luck in all your SAS endeavors!

---MMMMIIIIKKKKEEEE

(aka Michael A. Raithel)

Author of the new cult classic for computer programmers:  It Only Hurts When I Hit <ENTER>
Print edition:  http://tinyurl.com/z8bzx2e 
Kindle edition: http://tinyurl.com/zypgqa7 

The hack above is an excerpt from the book:  Did You Know That?  Essential Hacks for Clever SAS Programmers

http://tinyurl.com/zfd67rh