topic Re: Update Metadata Based on Data in SAS Data Management

Update Metadata Based on Data

Anne_A — Wed, 10 May 2023 16:30:00 GMT

Dear all,

I have a situation where the "physical table metadata" (output of proc contents) are poorer than the "metadata server metadata" (metadata visible through e.g. DI Studio) so we would like to update the "physical metadata" based on the "server metadata" - the opposite of (as I understand) what PROC METALIB does. Any ideas 🤔?

Many grateful TIA

Anne.

Re: Update Metadata Based on Data

LinusH — Wed, 10 May 2023 16:45:58 GMT

Unfortenately there is no functionality OOTB to enforce metadata attributes to an existing table.

So this has to be managed more or less manually. I can imagine that there are some utility scripts out there, if you are lucky someone might share it.

The manual way is to use PROC DATASETS (for formats and labels). If your table has a Table Loader step, you can copy paste part of the code from there.

If the table structure has changed in other ways (data types/lengths, dropped/added/renamed columns) the table has to be recreated. In this case I would defintely go for a manually and controlled process - change/release management.

Question is how big the problem is.

If user access the libnames assigned by the server, most applications use metadata attributes in UI at least.

Re: Update Metadata Based on Data

Anne_A — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:05:26 GMT

ENORMOUS Thanks @LinusH!

Re: Update Metadata Based on Data

AllanBowe — Thu, 11 May 2023 22:10:35 GMT

You could use this macro to create an empty dataset using the metadata definition: https://core.sasjs.io/mm__createdataset_8sas.html

Then find some way to append the data into it. Perhaps by using this macro to export: https://core.sasjs.io/mp__ds2csv_8sas.html

You could then use a tool such as https://datacontroller.io to do the import (drag & drop the CSV back into the new table definition). Feel free to get in touch if you need assistance, we built the tool.