SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 6th Edition

Note: Database management system (DBMS) files are a special category of files that

can be read with SAS/ACCESS software. For more information about DBMS

files, see Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS Software,” on page 709 and the

SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.

Operating Environment Information

Using external files with your SAS jobs entails significant operating-environment-

specific information. For more information, see the SAS documentation for your

operating environment.

Referencing External Files Directly

To reference a file directly in a SAS statement or command, specify in quotation marks

its physical name. This is the name by which the operating environment recognizes it, as

shown in the following table:

Table 39.1 Referencing External Files Directly

External File Task Tool Example

Specify the file that contains

input data.

INFILE

data weight;

infile 'input-file';

input idno $ week1 week16;

loss=week1-week16;

Identify the file that the PUT

statement writes to.

FILE

file 'output-file ';

if loss ge 5 and loss le 9 then

put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=3';

else if loss ge 10 and loss le 14 then

put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=2';

else if loss ge 15 then

put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=1';

run;

Bring statements or raw data

from another file into your

SAS job and execute them.

%INCLUDE

%include 'source-file';

Referencing External Files Indirectly

If you want to reference a file in only one place in a program so that you can easily

change it for another job or a later run, you can reference a filename indirectly. Use a

FILENAME statement, the FILENAME function, or an appropriate operating system

command to assign a fileref or nickname, to a file.

1

Note that you can assign a fileref to a

SAS catalog that is an external file, or to an output device, as shown in the following

table.

1

In some operating environments, you can also use the command '&' to assign a fileref.

762 Chapter 39 • External Files