topic Combining Multiple Text Files without Formatting in SAS Data Management

Combining Multiple Text Files without Formatting

SmcGarrett — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:42:56 GMT

Hi all,

I am working with Daily data which comes in a Text File. The files have a row for each observation and are formatted in based on character length. So each row has the same length in terms of characters and using infile I am able to seperate the rows into distinct columns based on the position of the characters.

However, I would like to combine these files into weekly or monthly files without disturbing the formmating of these files. All I would like to do is have SAS read Files A, B, C, etc. and append them one on top of the other and then resave this file as a text file without having manipulated or formatted the files one bit.

When I use the point and click method to import the files, I am able to get them into SAS without manipulating the files but I cannot figure out how to code the system to read these files without it wanting some sort of formating to be done.

Garrett

Re: Combining Multiple Text Files without Formatting

ballardw — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:36:23 GMT

The result you are asking for, appending files could well be better done with operating system tools but if your really need a SAS solution something like this:

First a FILENAME statement to reference your files. If the files have a name that matches your sort order that you want for output you might be able to use wildcard but this is the base idea:

Filename input ("C:\path\Firstfile.txt" "C:\path\Secondfile.txt" ...); repeat the file names

IF all the files are in the same folder you might be able to use:

Filename input "C:\path\*.txt";

data _null_;
   infile input lrecl=10000;
   file "C:\Outpat\COMBINED.txt" lrecl=10000;
   input;
   put _infile_;
run;

the Lrecl needs to be as long as the longest line you expect.

NOTE: This does not create a SAS dataset, just reads lines and then writes them out again.

Re: Combining Multiple Text Files without Formatting

Reeza — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:04:53 GMT

This question was asked last week by someone else and I posted an OS based solution.

If UNIX command is cat, I can't recall Windows command but you should be able to find it via a search.