SAS Macro Functions - how to return a value

I've replaced this article with a newer one: http://bioinfornetics.blogspot.com/2011/01/sas-macro-variables-type-casting.html

Please visit that link to find out how to return a value using the SAS macro programming language.

Btw, formats are hard to remember for SAS, but here's a very useful resource that lists them: http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/TS_486_Functions,_Informats,_and_Formats