topic Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library in SAS Programming

How to import sas7bdat file to work library

catkat96 — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 11:47:58 GMT

I'm at work, and I can't create a new library due to permissions.

I need to transfer one file (sas7bdat format) that's on one folder in my computer to the work library in SAS. Whenever I open it in sas through Open-> Data, it's left on the "process flow" but it's not visible on the Work library.

Is there any way to do this?

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 12:13:48 GMT

Do you use SAS on a server, or local?

Which interface (Enterprise Guide, SAS Studio, Display Manager) do you use?

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

catkat96 — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 12:42:40 GMT

I'm using enterprise guide 7.15 locally

Edit: actually I'm not sure if it's locally or on a server. It's installed on my PC but I access the team's server to get datasets usually (not this case, clearly)

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

Tom — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 13:10:40 GMT

I don't use EG but ...

If the file is already on the machine where SAS is running.

I am not sure how/why they could prevent you from defining a new libref that points to the folder where SAS lives but you can always reference the file by its actual physical filename.

proc contents data="/some folder/mydataset.sas7bdat"; run;

If the file is on your local machine and not accessible on the machine where SAS is running then I believe there should be a file upload tool in Enterprise Guide. See if you can use that to place the file into the WORK folder. You can use %sysfunc(pathname(WORK)) to find the path to where your current session's work folder is located. Also if your SAS session is running on Unix then make sure you upload the file using a lowercase letters in the filename. So if you uploaded mydataset.sas7bdat to your work folder you could this code to check it.

proc contents data=work.mydataset; run;

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

catkat96 — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 13:52:01 GMT

When I try the first option the error message says "the physical file name is too long". What can I do if the path is long?

When I tried the second option, the error mesage was "file work.filename.data not found"

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

Tom — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 14:12:34 GMT

So is your SAS session running on Unix or Windows? Check the macro variables &SYSSCP and &SYSSCPL.

Make sure you are using paths that reflect how to reference the files on that operating system.

If it is running on Windows and the path is too long then that usually means you are referencing a network share. So the trick to shorten the path is to mount a drive letter to include part of the path and use the driver letter in your references. But that option is probably not going to be available to you without talking to the administrator of the machine where SAS is running.

If SAS says dataset filename does not exist in the WORK directory then that means there is no file named filename.sas7bdat in that directory. Remember that if SAS is running on Unix then filenames are case sensitive and SAS will only use lowercase letters. So if the file is actually named with mixed or uppercase letters like Filename.sas7bdat or FILENAME.SAS7BDAT then SAS will not see it as a dataset.

Re: How to import sas7bdat file to work library

Reeza — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 15:08:09 GMT

Is there not an upload data task in EG?