topic Re: How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode? in SAS Data Management

How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode?

Babloo — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 12:39:36 GMT

I've created the WORK datasets under precode and postcode and I would like to see how the data was populated. However I'm unable to figure out where this dataset is physically located in DI studio 4.9.

If I see the physical storage of other WORK datasets which was created as part of other transformation e.g. Extract, Sort...I could see as 'Job's default library for temporary tables' under Location. Is there a way that we can find the location without any support from SAS admin?

Re: How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode?

Ksharp — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 12:57:35 GMT

%let work=%sysfunc(pathname(WORK));

%put &work ;

Re: How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode?

Babloo — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 13:30:44 GMT

It is pointing to the folder where it is not accessible. I wonder if that
folder exists.

Re: How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode?

Reeza — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:52:11 GMT

If you're running in batch the work folder only exists when you're running a session and is deleted after so it doesn't take up space so it won't exist. Ensure your timing is set up correctly when checking for the existence of work folders. Usually they go to the same place so you can go up a level and use the parent folder size if needed. Problem with that approach is if you have sessions that terminate abruptly you'll have the leftover work spaces.

Re: How to find the physical storage of WORK dataset which was created under precode and postcode?

Patrick — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 00:20:28 GMT

@Babloo

For such cases I normally just copy/paste the DIS generated code into EG and run it from there as this gives you easy access to all the tables in Work whether registered in metadata or not.

I normally try to avoid pre- and post-code especially when it's creating tables/data. I'd rather go for a user written code node pre/post the transformation where I then create the work tables also as metadata (green tables). In doing so you can easily investigate the tables directly within DIS. It also makes such user written code "visible" in the job flow and it better support impact analysis as at least table level dependencies will show in the analysis.