SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 3rd Edition

Extended Attributes

Definition

You can think of extended attributes as customized metadata for your SAS files.

Whereas common SAS attributes such as Labels for data sets, or Length and Label for

variables are predefined SAS system attributes, extended attributes are attributes that

you define yourself. They are organized into name-value pairs and are associated with

either a variable within a SAS data set or a SAS data set in general. Extended attributes

are organized into (name, value) pairs and for the BASE engine. Their data is stored in a

separate SAS data file with file extension sas7bxat.

Enabling and Manipulating Extended Attributes

You can create, add, delete, update, remove, and specify options for extended attributes

using various XATTR statements in the DATASETS procedure. You can also use PROC

CONTENTS to display data set and variable extended attributes. For more information

about extended attributes, see “Extended Attributes” in Chapter 16 of Base SAS

Procedures Guide.

The following output shows the results of running PROC CONTENTS on a SAS data set

with extended attributes.

Output 26.6 PROC CONTENTS Output Showing List of Extended Attributes

Extended Attributes 637