Using SAS to Locate and Rename External Files

Lu Gan, Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC, Austin, TX

ABSTRACT
WhenreadinginexternaldataintoSAS,aprogramneedstospecifythedatafilelocationandfilename
intherelatedimportingstatements.Iftherawdatafileisnamedwithatimestamp,theimport
programwillrequireanextrastepwhichisupdatingthefilenameeverytimebeforeitsrun.Thiswill
beahassleiftheimportisneededonaroutinescheduleand/ortherearemultipleexternaldatafiles.
Therefore,aSASprogramcanbewrittentoeliminatetherepeatingmanualupdate.Thisapproach
includestwosteps,firstsearchingforthelatestdatafileinthespecificfiledirectory,thenrenamingit
byremovingthespecifictimestamp.Afterexecutionoftheabovesteps,theimportprogramwillbe
abletoreadinthedatafilesdirectly.
TheexamplesandsyntaxillustratedareinSAS9.2.Thispaperassumesthatthereaderhasabasic
understandingofDATAstepprogrammingandthemacrolanguage.
INTRODUCTION
Timesavingisalwaysagoalprogrammersliketoachieveindailywork.Insteadofmanuallyrenaming
externaldatafiles,usingSAStoprogrammaticallydoitundoubtedlyimprovesefficiency.Thereare
varioustypesofexternaldatafilesSAScanimport;inthispapertextfile(.txt)isusedasanexample.

Theapproachstartswiththedefinitionsofseveralmacrovariableswhicharegoingtobeusedinthe
samplecode.

** ' f i l epat h' i s t he f i l e di r ect or y st or i ng t he f i l e( s) whi ch wi l l be r enamed;
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** ' del i mi t er ' i s t he del i mi t er used i n f i l enames;
%LET del i mi t er = %NRBQUOTE( _) ;

** ' f i l e_ext ensi on' i s t he f i l e ext ensi on of t he ext er nal dat a f i l e( s) ;
%LET f i l e_ext ensi on= %NRBQUOTE( . t xt ) ;

** ' f i l ename_par t s' t el l s how many par t ( s) i n t he f i l ename excl udi ng f i l e
ext ensi on. Exampl e: i n f i l ename ' Sampl e_yyyymmdd_hhmm_Fi l en. t xt ' , t her e ar e 4
par t s del i mi t ed by t he del i mi t er ' _' ;
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** ' except _f i l e' i s a l i st of f i l e( s) t hat ar e wi t h same f i l e ext ensi on but
don' t want t o be r enamed;
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textfiles

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A

CONCLUSION
Thispaperd
alongwithse
othernecess
activities.Th
SASsystemb
solutionstot
REFERENCES
Schacherer,
SAS(R)9.2La
ACKNOWLED
N
escribedaw
everalsystem
saryproceed
epurposeo
beyondbasic
thedaytod
S
C(2011)The
anguageRef
DGEMENTS
waytolocate
mfunctions
dingandsuc
ofthispaper
cdatamanip
dayprogram
eFILENAME
ference:Dict
Fi g
Fi g
eandrenam
andcomma
ceedingstep
istryingto
pulationsoa
mmingactivit
Statement:
tionary,Four

gur e 11
gur e 12
meexternalfi
ands.Withth
pstoabatch
presentthe
astoachieve
ties.
Interactingw
rthEditionC
ile(s)usingS
heautomati
hjobtofully
ideaofexpa
emoreeffic
withthewo
Cary,NC:SAS
SASdataste
ionofrenam
yautomatee
andingthec
cientandmo
rldoutsideo
SInstituteIn
ps,macrola
ming,usersc
externaldat
capabilitieso
oreautomat
ofSAS
nc.

anguages
canadd
aimport
ofthe
ed
IdliketothankmycoworkerRanjanKarmakarfordiscussingwithmewhenIhadtheideaaboutthis
approach.IalsoappreciatethesupportfromtheprogrammingmanagementteamatPharmaceutical
ProductDevelopment,LLC.

SASandallotherSASInstituteInc.productorservicenamesareregisteredtrademarksor
trademarksofSASInstituteInc.intheUSAandothercountries.indicatesUSAregistration.Other
brandandproductnamesareregisteredtrademarksortrademarksoftheirrespectivecompanies.

CONTACTINFORMATION

Yourcommentsandquestionsarevaluedandwelcomed.Pleasecontacttheauthorat:

LuGan
PPD
7901E.RiversideDrive
Austin,TX78744
Lu.Gan@ppdi.com
(512)7475715