topic Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File in SAS Programming

Importing/Exporting ASCII File

corsan — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:51:30 GMT

Hello,

I am hoping there are some solutions to my problem. I have imported an ASCII file with over 500 variables into SAS using the Infile and Input statements as listed below:

Data WantImport;

Infile "File.txt" lrecl=4906 truncover;

Input

@1 Var1 Best4.

@5 Var2 $Char1.

@6 Var3 $Char35.

@41 Var4 $Char35.

@76 Var5 $Char20.

.....

run;

I then modified the file using a second database as a comparison file. Now I am wanting to export the ASCII file from SAS back into an ASCII file.

The proc export examples I have seen as shown below

proc export data=datawant

outfile="filename.txt"

dbms=dlm replace;

delimiter='';

putnames=no;

run;

does not account for the original ASCII format as referenced by the Input statement above. There are no delimiters just the variable name, length,type and other values written in the input statement.

Is there a special export statement for ASCII files?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File

RW9 — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:59:18 GMT

Not being able to see the file, means its very difficult to say. In the read statement you do not say what the delimiter in that file is, so is the file not delimited, but actually uses fixed widths? Afraid its just guess work as we cannot see the file.

As to the final point, no there is nothing special to an ASCII file, all that means is its a text file, just like an rtf, or a csv or html or xml. There are numerous methods to writing data out to text files, again without seeing what is needed, I can't advise.

Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File

corsan — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:12:49 GMT

Thank you for responding. Yes the file uses fixed widths. Please see attached. I have attached the varialbe order, length and type for the 529 variables.

Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File

Tom — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:20:24 GMT

Just use another DATA step to write the file. Instead of INFILE and INPUT you would use FILE and PUT.

data _null_;
  set WantImport;
  file "File.txt" ;
  put
    @1 Var1 Best4.
    @5 Var2 $Char1.
    @6 Var3 $Char35.
    @41 Var4 $Char35.
    @76 Var5 $Char20.
    ....
  ;
run;

Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File

corsan — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:37:44 GMT

Thank you for the response! It worked. I appreciate it.

Re: Importing/Exporting ASCII File

RW9 — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:05:16 GMT

Please mark @Tom 's answer as the correct answer, not your response to him.