SAS Certified Professional Prep Guide

Using Dictionary Tables

A Brief Overview

Metadata is a description or definition of data or information.

SAS session metadata is stored in Dictionary tables, which are special, Read-Only SAS tables that contain information about SAS libraries, SAS data sets, SAS macros, and external files that are available in the current SAS session. Dictionary tables also contain the settings for SAS system options and SAS titles and footnotes that are currently in effect. Dictionary tables are commonly used to monitor and manage SAS sessions because the data is easier to manipulate than the output from procedures. You can use the SQL procedure to access the metadata stored in Dictionary tables. For example, you can query a Dictionary table to find out ...