topic Re: PROC IMPORT: ignore trailing delimiter in SAS Programming

PROC IMPORT: ignore trailing delimiter

texasmfp — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 07:11:33 GMT

I am importing data from a website. It uses a semicolon as a delimiter for three fields. Unfortunately, for some reason, a fourth, trailing delimiter exists (I can't change the webpage). Can I tell SAS to ignore the last ";" Currently, it creates a fourth field called VAR4. Its not fatal, but its cloying. Thanks

A header and first line of data:

 DATE;CANADAI;CANADAR;
  03JAN1992; 0.871612; 0.871612;

filename infile temp;
proc http
 url="https://...website.../&insheet..txt"
 method="GET"
 out=infile;
run;

/* Tell SAS to allow "nonstandard" names */
options validvarname=any;

proc import datafile=infile
out=root.&insheet
dbms=dlm
replace;
delimiter=';';
getnames=yes;
run;

Re: PROC IMPORT: ignore trailing delimiter

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 09:08:03 GMT

With just three columns, there is absolutely no need for IMPORT. You already have the data step code in the log, take it from there and remove VAR4.

Re: PROC IMPORT: ignore trailing delimiter

ChrisNZ — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 09:41:22 GMT

As @Kurt_Bremser said, proc import is best avoided.

If you really want to keep proc import you can drop the variable

out=ROOT.&insheet(drop=VAR4)

Re: PROC IMPORT: ignore trailing delimiter

texasmfp — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 04:07:42 GMT

Thank you Kurt and Chris. Unfortunately, I have to keep the Proc Import because &insheet sometimes resolves to a long characters string. So, I just drop it at that 2nd step.