topic Save output of %sysexec to a dataset in SAS Programming

Save output of %sysexec to a dataset

ABurn — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 01:02:14 GMT

Hi, I'm fairly new to SAS, and I'm trying to get a list of folders in a specific directory saved as a dataset.

I can get the folders using %sysexec like so:

%sysexec(dir -l "<folder location>" );

This opens the command prompt, which is not desirable. My question is, is there a way to save the command line output generated by this command? Maybe in a new dataset call folder_list or something?

Re: Save output of %sysexec to a dataset

SASKiwi — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 01:11:05 GMT

Try running the DIR command inside a piped SAS FILENAME. This post explains how:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/New-SAS-User/How-to-define-the-output-of-sysexec-into-a-variable-so-that-it/m-p/529993#M5628

Re: Save output of %sysexec to a dataset

ABurn — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 01:22:42 GMT

unfortunately it keeps returning 0 observations. I am using macro variables inside the pipe:

filename tmp pipe 'dir "F:\PROJECTS\Active\&FULL_TRIAL.\Data Management\4. Data Validation and Checking\Data Cleaning Procedures\" /b /s';

but I know sometimes macro variables don't work with single quotes. Is there a way around that?

Re: Save output of %sysexec to a dataset

SASKiwi — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 02:06:11 GMT

Try this instead of a single quote:

%str(%')

Also test without the macro variable to ensure it is working correctly in the first instance.