https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/DATA-STEP/m-p/12461#M1340 I don't have any authoritative knowledge about this, but my understanding has always been that DATALINES was added because using the word CARDS to indicate in-stream data became dated, obsolete, and quite possibly confusing to people whose experience doesn't include decks of 80-column punch cards with interspersed JCL, program statements, and data records.<BR /> <BR /> CARDS was okay in 1980. In 2008, not so much. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:12:20 GMT Tim_SAS 2008-04-21T13:12:20Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/DATA-STEP/m-p/12460#M1339 can any tell me the difference between DATALINES and CARDS, I had an argument on this if there is no difference then why did they have two for the same purpose Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:05:27 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/DATA-STEP/m-p/12460#M1339 deleted_user 2008-04-21T11:05:27Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/DATA-STEP/m-p/12461#M1340 I don't have any authoritative knowledge about this, but my understanding has always been that DATALINES was added because using the word CARDS to indicate in-stream data became dated, obsolete, and quite possibly confusing to people whose experience doesn't include decks of 80-column punch cards with interspersed JCL, program statements, and data records.<BR /> <BR /> CARDS was okay in 1980. In 2008, not so much. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:12:20 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/DATA-STEP/m-p/12461#M1340 Tim_SAS 2008-04-21T13:12:20Z