Accessing Quandl data call from SAS using url method

Question

I was trying accessing Quandl(http://www.quandl.com) data. Quandl is an open website from where we can download readiliy available curated time-series data on many financial and economic topics. They have build it in such a manner that you can call it through R/Matlab/Eviews/Python etc. I was trying from SAS. When I tried website Normal csv download call for Quandl data "FRED/MSWP5" without any date condition it works fine and I am able to create SAS dataset. code is as below:

filename DAAA url "http://www.quandl.com/api/v1/datasets/FRED/MSWP5.csv?";
data BY_AAA(drop=dd);
length dd $10;
format date date9.;
infile DAAA dlm="," dsd;
input dd$ value;
date=input(dd,yymmdd10.);
if not missing(date) then output;
run;

success log:

NOTE: The data set WORK.BY_AAA has 152 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
  real time           0.88 seconds
  cpu time            0.03 seconds

But when I am trying to pass date condition with the same query it is giving error: new SAS code is as below: But I am able to achieve desired results with R/ Python/ Matlab with their respective code.

filename DAAA url "http://www.quandl.com/api/v1/datasets/FRED/MSWP5.csv? 
&trim_start=2000-07-01&trim_end=2013-02-01&sort_order=desc";
data BY_AAA(drop=dd);
length dd $10;
format date date9.;
infile DAAA dlm="," dsd;
input dd$ value;
date=input(dd,yymmdd10.);
if not missing(date) then output;
run;

it gives below error:

not working due to "&" sign is coming so SAS is saying
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference TRIM_START not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference TRIM_END not resolved.
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference SORT_ORDER not resolved.

I understand that this is an issue related to escape character handle. Can any body help me...I have tried below code also :

filename DAAA url "http://www.quandl.com/api/v1/datasets/FRED/MSWP5.csv?% 
26start_date=2012-07-01%26end_date=2013-02-01%26sort_order=desc" debug 
lrecl=8192; 

In this case no SAS log is coming, a blank dataset with 0 observation is getting created.

Answer 1

Those are not errors, per se. They're a note that you are writing something that looks like a macro variable; however, if they are not defined as a macro variable, they will still be passed forward as text including the & sign. I ran your code and received results.

If you change your " " double quotes to ' ' single quotes, SAS will not attempt to resolve macro variables inside the string, and the warnings will disappear.