topic Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac in SAS Programming

XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:34:39 GMT

I'm having a dandy of a time recognizing a simple .XPT file from the CDC. The code I am using is this:

libname xptfile xport 'folders/myfolders/LLCP2014.XPT ';
libname sasfile '/folders/myfolders';

I have the LLCP2014.XPT file in my shared folder, and have full permissions on it for use with SAS University Edition. These commands run successfully, but there is NO .sas7bdat file ever created in any library.

I've never had this problem before, and have completed a full research study using this method. Any ideas?

This is how I am trying to access the newly created dataset, but nothing is there.

data tmpb2014;
	set xptfile.LLCP2014;
run;

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:45:29 GMT

There are two issues with the code you posted.

Your first LIBNAME is using a relative path instead of an absolute path. That will not work since the default directory is NOT the root node.

Your data step is create a work dataset only. So you never TRIED to write any SAS datasets back to your shared folder, which would explain why they aren't there.

The first is probably just a typo since you said the code ran.

For the second one you just need to change your output dataset name in the DATA statement to use the libref you defined in your second LIBNAME statement. Or add another step to save it.

data sasfile.tmpb2014;
	set xptfile.LLCP2014;
run;

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

ballardw — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:48:41 GMT

Can you show your log?

XPORT engine does not support some SAS 9 features such as long variable names and should show warnings if that is the issue.

You might need to investigate Proc Cimport if the transport file was built using Proc Cport.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:52:57 GMT

 
 1          OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;
 72         
 73         *Objective:
 74         
 75         The objective of this analysis is to investigate the association between depression
 76         
 77         (yes versus no) and general health (Excellent/Very good versus good/fair/poor)
 78         
 79         
 80         after adjusting for gender and education in 2014 BRFSS data;
 81         
 82         libname xptfile xport 'Users/abbyjones/Documents/myfolders/LLCP2014.XPT';
 NOTE: Libref XPTFILE was successfully assigned as follows: 
       Engine:        XPORT 
       Physical Name: /opt/sasinside/SASConfig/Lev1/SASApp/Users/abbyjones/Documents/myfolders/LLCP2014.XPT
 83         libname sasfile '/folders/myfolders';
 NOTE: Libref SASFILE was successfully assigned as follows: 
       Engine:        V9 
       Physical Name: /folders/myfolders
 84         
 85         data sasfile.tmpb2014;
 86         set xptfile.LLCP2014 (where=((ADDEPEV2 in (1, 2)) and (GENHLTH in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5))
 87         and (educa in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)) ));
 ERROR: Physical file does not exist, /opt/sasinside/SASConfig/Lev1/SASApp/Users/abbyjones/Documents/myfolders/LLCP2014.XPT.
 88        
 89         
 90         if ADDEPEV2 in(1) then
 91         Depressed=1;
 92         *yes;
 93         
 94         if ADDEPEV2 in(2) then
 95         Depressed=0;
 96         *no;
 97         
 98         if GENHLTH in (1, 2) then
 99         hlthcat=1;
 100        *excellent or very good reported health;
 101        
 102        if GENHLTH in (3, 4, 5) then
 103        hlthcat=0;
 104        *good, fair, or poor reported health;
 105        
 106        if EDUCA in (1, 2) then
 107        educat=1;
 108        *'Less than 8';
 109        
 110        if EDUCA in (3, 4) then
 111        educat=2;
 112        *'9-12/GED';
 113        
 114        if EDUCA in (5, 6)then
 115        educat=3;
 116        *'College/Prof. Degree';
 117        run;
 
 NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
 WARNING: The data set SASFILE.TMPB2014 may be incomplete.  When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 6 variables.
 WARNING: Data set SASFILE.TMPB2014 was not replaced because this step was stopped.
 NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
       real time           0.01 seconds
       cpu time            0.00 seconds
       
 
 118        
 119        *table1;
 120        
 121        proc freq data=tmpb2014;
 122        tables (sex educat) *hlthcat / chisq;
 ERROR: Variable SEX not found.
 123        run;
 
 NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
 NOTE: PROCEDURE FREQ used (Total process time):
       real time           0.00 seconds
       cpu time            0.00 seconds
       
 124        
 125        *table2;
 126        
 
 
 127        proc freq data=tmpb2014;
 128        tables (hlthcat sex educat) * Depressed / chisq;
 ERROR: Variable SEX not found.
 129        run;
 
 NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
 NOTE: PROCEDURE FREQ used (Total process time):
       real time           0.00 seconds
       cpu time            0.00 seconds
       
 130        
 131        OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;
 143

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:55:00 GMT

It was built using PROC XPORT, and even comes with a prebuilt XPORT SAS file that I cannot get to work on my MAC. Again, I've done this many times and never had a problem with relative paths. I used shared drives on the appliance before with no problems.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:56:54 GMT

You need to fix the path to the export file.

Read the log carefully and my previous message and you should be able to do it yourself.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:05:44 GMT

The LIBNAME statement in your first post is much closer to being right than the version in your log.

There is no "User" folder on the unix virtual machine where SAS is running. Your files are under /folders/myfolders.

Remember that if the path does not start with a slash, / , also known as the root node, then it is a relative path. Look at how SAS interpreted the path in your SAS log.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:11:36 GMT

I already tried that without success. I think what I posted was revision two. Nothing is working. Very frustrating.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:17:02 GMT

Find the file in the Files and Folders tab. Open properties of the file to find the path and copy and paste it into your code.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:18:02 GMT

That's what I've been doing. It doesn't work.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:27:42 GMT

I even created a new share on the Virtual Machine, copied the paths from the properties,

libname xptfile xport '/folders/myshortcuts/brfss/LLCP2014.XPT';
libname sasfile '/folders/myshortcuts/brfss/';

I've done it both ways, with the trailing / on the sasfile statement and without it.

, and this is what I have, but the dataset is empty, so at least it is creating it here.

And this is how I am accessing it:

I continue to get

ERROR: Physical file does not exist, /folders/myshortcuts/brfss/LLCP2014.XPT.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 22:04:55 GMT

If you are using SAS University Edition then it is probably something like:

/folders/myfolders/brfss/LLCP2014.XPT

"Folder Shortcuts" is just how the GUI shows it, so I doubt that "myshortcuts" is actually part of the path.

That screen shot is showing that you have defined brfss as a shortcut that points to an actual directory on the virtual machine. So the above example I typed might not be right. You might has defined "brfss" as a pointer to some other path like: /folders/myfolders/My Sub Folder/BRFSS

But if you select that file name that represents the XPT file in that GUI interface and select properties what path does it show? That is the path you need to use, not what is shown in that screen shot.

Remember that Unix file names are case sensitive.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:56:20 GMT

Perhaps this is the reason. SAS is seeing this as a 0 byte file.

I navigate to the folder and it does have the appropriate size.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:59:36 GMT

I figured it out. The filename, when unzipped, automatically puts a space at the end of .XPT, which causes SAS to ignore it and misreport the size/format. Wow....bad job, Apple.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

Tom — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 02:57:45 GMT

That is not Apple's fault, or ZIP either, but is caused by the creator of the ZIP file adding the space to the filename.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:21:41 GMT

Hi Tom,

First off, please let me thank you and BallardW and everyone else for all of the assistance you offered yesterday. While it was a flukey thing that ended up being the culprit, I appreciate your valuable time.

On a side note, if these are the same data I used a year ago, and the files haven't been changed, it would appear that unzipping in Windows might be more effective at truncating that space. I cannot verify this as I do not have a Windows machine.

Thank all of you very much for your time and patience. I look forward to learning from you all.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

ballardw — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:32:47 GMT

I don't know if it makes you feel any better but I had to diagnose a similar issue when our IT department policies moved all of our work OneDrive.

I frequently use a macro variable to hold the path so I can have common use for multiple ODS documents without having to retype 100+ character strings, which got longer when the OneDrive required replacing C:\ with C:\Users\xxxxxxx\OneDrive - xxxx .

Previously a macro variable such as

%let path= c:\folder\otherfolder\;
ods rtf file="&path.filename.rtf";

worked just fine. When writing to OneDrive locations however, it was actually attempting to use the leading space before the drive letter and all of the code had to remove the space in the macro variable definitions.

And the error messages that SAS received from OneDrive were not obvious that a space was causing a problem.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:45:23 GMT

Well I am glad I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Glad we both fixed it.

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

zahidhasandipu — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 03:38:46 GMT

Hi,
I was wondering what study you did after xporting the LLCP2014 data set. May I know what variable you chose as an outcome variable and exposure variable, and what was the analysis about?

Re: XPORT BRFSS data on Mac

abbyrjones72 — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:43:21 GMT

I can post the study when I get off work.