topic Re: Reading a .dat file in SAS Programming

Reading a .dat file

tejasvutu — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 23:32:38 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to read a .dat file into SAS. Have done this before using the DATA step, but for some reason, it am unable to read this particular file. Opened it with a text file, and the data looks like a tab-delimited, so tried using PROC IMPORT. That didn't work either. Attaching a screenshot of the data file.

Data screen shot:

DATA step code snippet:

data tv.alco;
infile  "/folders/myfolders/Trial/alcohol.dat" firstobs= 22;
input   Region $	Alcohol	Tobacco ;
run;

PROC IMPORT snippet:

proc import datafile="/folders/myfolders/Trial/alcohol.dat"
out = tv.alco dbms=dlm replace ;
delimiter= '09'x ;startrow=22;
run;

Any help is appreciated 🙂

Re: Reading a .dat file

Reeza — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 23:58:44 GMT

What does the log show?
Second of all, in NotePad++ you can show invisible characters, can you show a screenshot with that turned on?

data tv.alco;
infile "/folders/myfolders/Trial/alcohol.dat" firstobs= 22 dlm='09'x dsd;
input Region $ Alcohol Tobacco ;
run;

Does the above work?

Re: Reading a .dat file

tejasvutu — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 03:00:25 GMT

Thanks! That worked. Also got to learn about the DSD option.

The log in case of the DATA step is below. Basically a bunch of invalid reads from the file.

The Notepad++ screenshot with all the hidden characters:

Thanks for your help! 🙂