If the body of macro A includes a call to macro B, the call can use
macro arguments (including !*) and macro variables as part of
arguments to B. For !TOKENS arguments, the argument or
variable name counts as one token regardless of the number that it
expands into; for !CHAREND and !ENCLOSE arguments, the
delimiters come only from the call, not the expansions; and
!CMDEND ends at the calling command, not any end of command
within an argument or variable.
Macro functions are not supported as part of the arguments in a macro
call. To get the same effect, use !LET to define a macro
variable, then pass the macro variable to the macro.
When macro A calls macro B, the order of their DEFINE commands
doesn’t matter, as long as macro B has been defined when A is called.
Macros and command terminators require care. Macros honor the syntax differences between interactive and batch syntax (see Syntax Variants), which means that the interpretation of a macro can vary depending on the syntax mode in use. We assume here that interactive mode is in use, in which ‘.’ at the end of a line is the primary way to end a command.
The DEFINE command needs to end with ‘.’ following the
!ENDDEFINE. The macro body may contain ‘.’ if it is
intended to expand to whole commands, but using ‘.’ within a
macro body that expands to just syntax fragments (such as a list of
variables) will cause syntax errors.
Macro directives such as !IF and !DO do not end with
‘.’.
Macros do not expand within comments, whether introduced within a line
by /* or as a separate COMMENT or ‘*’ commands
(see COMMENT). (SPSS does expand macros in COMMENT and ‘*’.)
Macros do not expand within quoted strings.
Macros are expanded in the TITLE and SUBTITLE commands
as long as their arguments are not quoted strings.
Some macro bodies might use the SET command to change certain settings. When this is the case, consider using the PRESERVE and RESTORE commands to save and then restore these settings. See PRESERVE and RESTORE.