topic Re: Libref and library in SAS Programming

Libref and library

ChuksManuel — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:32:42 GMT

Hello programmers,

I am trying to wrap my head around libref and library.

Any help would be appreciated

Libname nsch "C:\Users\Aba\Box\NSCH\nsch1617combined_drc";
Libname library "C:\Users\Aba\Box\NSCH\nsch1617combined_drc";

PROC FORMAT LIBRARY=LIBRARY;
/*Topical*/

.The error message was that libref and library are the same physical address. Please in what formats should the libref and library be in?

Re: Libref and library

Reeza — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:52:11 GMT

It's fine, it's not an error, it's a warning or note I believe just to let you know that two definitions point t the same location. This means that anything written to nsch is also written to library so it's not a super useful thing to do in most cases.

Re: Libref and library

Krueger — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:56:13 GMT

Libref is used to reference a library.

In your code above nsch is useless as it is being overwritten by library why are they both pointed to the same Physical location?

Re: Libref and library

ChuksManuel — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:01:32 GMT

Thank you for the response

Re: Libref and library

ChuksManuel — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:01:53 GMT

Thanks! That was helpful

Re: Libref and library

FreelanceReinh — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:16:09 GMT

Hello @ChuksManuel,

I wouldn't say it's useless to create the second libref because libref library has a special meaning when it comes to searching format catalogs (see FMTSEARCH= system option). It's not just an alias for nsch (in your case).

To avoid the note "... refers to the same physical library as ..." you can use this syntax

libname library (nsch);

referring to the existing libref nsch.

Re: Libref and library

ChuksManuel — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:22:48 GMT

Thanks!

Re: Libref and library

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 06:54:18 GMT

Just to dig a little deeper into why one uses the special name "library": if you want to send data to other SAS users that contain custom formats, defining those formats in the catalog library.formats and storing the datasets in the same directory enables you to cport the whole library into one blob, and when the receivers also use "library" when they cimport the blob, the formats will automatically be there and usable.

Note that you should still send the format code along in a .sas file.