topic Re: %dir_contents in SAS Programming

%dir_contents

GN0001 — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 23:36:23 GMT

Hello team,

I have inherited SAS code that I need to understand:

This the code:

 %dir_contents (dir=&mypath., ext=, dsoub=theseFiles, attribs=N);

The top captures all files names from the requested directory, and the file names as observations within a SAS dataset.

When I run this code:

it gives me 3 variables. basefile, pathname, file_seq

and it has 3 rows.

Are these 3 fields named automatically?

The next line of the code is:

Proc sql;

delete from thislibname.control where sentfile in (select distinct basefile from thesefiles);

run;

Regarding 1, this code reaches to files inside folders in a directory, not the folders that reside inside the directory. It goes one layer deep.

%while dir_contents is the list of files in a directory.

Can anyone talk about this and resolve this difference?

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

PaigeMiller — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 22:51:44 GMT

We don't know what the macro %dir_contents does, but yes, the macro must be assigning the names to the variables.

If you need more detail about what the macro is doing, please post the code of the macro and state your questions clearly.

Re: %dir_contents

SASKiwi — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 01:30:39 GMT

Is there no one in your company who can explain to you how these company-developed macros work? If you have to ask the Community how macros developed in your own company work then somebody is not doing their job when handing them over to you.

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 01:35:11 GMT

Hello PaigeMiller,

Thanks for the response.

I will tell you what it does:

It creates a list of files in a directory and stores them in SAS dataset. It creates 3 variables for output:

basefile, pathname and file_seq.

This is the output:

basefile pathname file_seq

fileA /dataset1/...... 1

fileB /dataset2/...... 2

fileC /dataset2/...... 3.

I wonder if this macro access the files which resides in fileA, because from the codes following this %dir_contents, that is what can be understood.

The code is:
proc sql;
delete from production.table1 where filename in (select distinct basefile from myfiles).

Hope this makes sense.

Respectfully,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 01:37:39 GMT

Hello,

%dir_contents is not a company developed macro. It is a built-in Macro in SAS.

The code works well and they didn't hand over their job to me. They want me to learn how to write code in future.

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

Patrick — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 04:15:59 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Hello,

%dir_contents is not a company developed macro. It is a built-in Macro in SAS.

The code works well and they didn't hand over their job to me. They want me to learn how to write code in future.

It is NOT a built-in SAS macro and though also not documented in SAS documentation.

"...they didn't hand over..." If "they" is SAS consulting then this makes such a macro still not "built-in".

If you add option mautolocdisplay; to your code then the SAS log will tell you where the .sas file with the macro code is taken from.

Re: %dir_contents

PaigeMiller — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 10:42:16 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Hello PaigeMiller,

Thanks for the response.

I will tell you what it does:

It creates a list of files in a directory and stores them in SAS dataset. It creates 3 variables for output:

basefile, pathname and file_seq.

This is the output:

basefile pathname file_seq

fileA /dataset1/...... 1

fileB /dataset2/...... 2

fileC /dataset2/...... 3.

I wonder if this macro access the files which resides in fileA, because from the codes following this %dir_contents, that is what can be understood.
The code is:
proc sql;
delete from production.table1 where filename in (select distinct basefile from myfiles).

Can we see the entire code from this macro?

What is your question?

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 17:52:10 GMT

Hello,

%dir_contents have documentation. If it was a company built-in Macro, there wouldn't be a docs for it.

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

SASKiwi — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:37:52 GMT

I just checked for this macro at documentation.sas.com and didn't find it. It also doesn't exist on our SAS installation. I'm curious to know where you found documentation for it. Could it be a third-party add-on?

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 20:22:20 GMT

Thanks for the response!

It gives errors.

How to add it?

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

SASKiwi — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 20:27:47 GMT

If you are getting an error like this when calling the macro:

ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order.

It means it doesn't exist and you need to get the source code for it.

Re: %dir_contents

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 20:43:24 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Hello,

%dir_contents have documentation.

Where? Post the URL.

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 21:59:10 GMT

Hello team,

This is where I have found it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+does+%25+dir_contents+do+in+SAS&ei=PSN3YdvYK8T99APs3pHoCA&ved=0ahUKEwib6_GrwubzAhXEPn0KHWxvBI0Q4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=what+does+%25+dir_contents+do+in+SAS&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyCAghEBYQHRAeOgcIABBHELADOgQIABBDOgUIABCRAjoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6DgguEIAEELEDEMcBEKMCOhEILhCABBCxAxCDARDHARCjAjoICAAQgAQQsQM6DgguEIAEELEDEMcBENEDOggILhCABBCxAzoFCAAQgAQ6BQguEIAEOggIABCABBDJAzoFCAAQkgM6BggAEBYQHjoECAAQDToICAAQFhAKEB46CAgAEA0QChAeOgYIABANEB46BQghEKABOgcIIRAKEKABOgUIIRCrAjoFCCEQkgNKBQhAEgExSgQIQRgAUMm7JVjMkCZgnpMmaAJwAXgAgAHGAYgBhxuSAQUyNS4xMJgBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

and it makes sense.

Respectfully,

blue blue

Re: %dir_contents

Patrick — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:05:00 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:
It gives errors.

WHAT error! SAS log please.

And after "re-engineering the URL": https://www.pharmasug.org/proceedings/2015/QT/PharmaSUG-2015-QT23.pdf

So you found this macro in some paper so it's definitely not SAS OOTB provided.

Re: %dir_contents

Patrick — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:12:04 GMT

Below worked for me once I've run the macro definition as found in this paper AND also fixed the name of the parameter in your code.

From:

To:

%macro dir_contents(
      dir= /* directory name to process */
      , ext= /* optional extension to filter on */
      , dsout=work.dir_contents /* dataset name to hold the file names */
      , attribs=N /* get file attributes? (Y/N ) */
  );
  %global _dir_fileN;
  %local _syspathdlim _exitmsg _attrib_vars;

  %* verify the required parameter has been provided.;
  %if %length(&dir) = 0 %then
    %do;
      %let _exitmsg = %str(E)RROR: No directory name specified - macro will exit.;
      %goto finish;
    %end;

  %* verify existence of the requested directory name.;
  %if %sysfunc(fileexist(&dir)) = 0 %then
    %do;
      %let _exitmsg = %str(E)RROR: Specified input location, &dir., does not exist - macro
        will exit.;
      %goto finish;
    %end;

  %* set the separator character needed for the full file path:;
  %* (backslash for Windows, forward slash for UNIX systems);
  %if &sysscp = WIN %then
    %do;
      %let _syspathdlim = \;
    %end;
  %else
    %do;
      %let _syspathdlim = /;
    %end;

  /*--- begin data step to capture names of all file names found in the specified
  directory. ---*/
  data &dsout(keep=file_seq basefile pathname);
    length basefile $ 40 pathname $ 1000 _msg $ 1000;

    /* Allocate directory */
    rc=FILENAME('xdir', "&dir");

    if rc ne 0 then
      do;
        _msg = "E" || 'RROR: Unable to assign fileref to specified directory. ' ||
          sysmsg();
        go to finish_datastep;
      end;

    /* Open directory */
    dirid=DOPEN('xdir');

    if dirid eq 0 then
      do;
        _msg = "E" || 'RROR: Unable to open specified directory. ' || sysmsg();
        go to finish_datastep;
      end;

    /* Get number of information items */
    nfiles=DNUM(dirid);

    do j = 1 to nfiles;
      basefile = dread(dirid, j);
      pathname=strip("&dir") || "&_syspathdlim." || strip(basefile);

      %if %length(&ext) %then
        %do;
          /* scan the final "word" of the full file name, delimited by dot character. */
          ext = scan(basefile,-1,'.');

          if ext="&ext." then
            do;
              file_seq + 1;
              output;
            end;
        %end;
      %else
        %do;
          file_seq + 1;
          output;
        %end;
    end;

    /* Close the directory */
    rc=DCLOSE(dirid);

    /* Deallocate the directory */
    rc=FILENAME('xdir');
    call symputx('_dir_fileN', file_seq);
finish_datastep:

    if _msg ne ' ' then
      do;
        call symput('_exitmsg', _msg);
      end;
  run;

  %if %upcase(&attribs)=Y and &_dir_fileN > 0 %then
    %do;

      data _file_attr(keep=file_seq basefile infoname infoval);
        length infoname infoval $ 500;
        set &dsout.;

        /* open each file to get the additional attributes available. */
        rc=filename("afile", pathname);
        fid=fopen("afile");

        /* return the number of system-dependent information items available for the
        external file. */
        infonum=foptnum(fid);

        /* loop to get the name and value of each information item. */
        do i=1 to infonum;
          infoname=foptname(fid,i);
          infoval=finfo(fid,infoname);

          if upcase(infoname) ne 'FILENAME' then
            output;
        end;

        close=fclose(fid);
      run;

      /* transpose each information item into its own variable */
      proc transpose data=_file_attr out=trans_attr(drop=_:);
        by file_seq basefile;
        var infoval;
        id infoname;
      run;

      proc sql noprint;
        select distinct name into : _attrib_vars separated by ', '
          from dictionary.columns
            where memname='TRANS_ATTR' and upcase(name) not in('BASEFILE', 'FILE_SEQ')
              order by varnum;
      quit;

      /* merge back the additional attributes to the related file name. */
      data &dsout.;
        merge &dsout. trans_attr;
        by file_seq basefile;
      run;

      proc datasets nolist memtype=data lib=work;
        delete _file_attr trans_attr;
      run;

      quit;

    %end;

  %if %length(&_exitmsg) = 0 %then
    %let _exitmsg = NOTE: &dsout created with &_dir_fileN. file names;

  %if %length(&ext) %then
    %let _exitmsg = &_exitmsg where extension is equal to &ext.;
  %let _exitmsg = &_exitmsg from &dir..;

%finish:
  %put &_exitmsg;

  %if %length(&_attrib_vars) ne 0 %then
    %do;
      %put;
      %put NOTE: File attributes were requested and have been added to &dsout.. Variable
        names are &_attrib_vars.;
    %end;
%mend dir_contents;


option mautolocdisplay;
%let mypath=c:\temp;

%dir_contents (dir=&mypath., ext=, dsout=theseFiles, attribs=N);

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:37:35 GMT

Hello team,

I am not getting errors. I just asked if the macro access to the files in each path.

Regards,

BlueBlue

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:38:43 GMT

Hello team,

It doesn't matter it is from SAS docs or not. It takes care of some stuff.

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:42:03 GMT

Hello team,

I didn't say it doesn't work. I just aske if it accesses to the files in subdirectory.

Regards,

blueblue

Re: %dir_contents

Patrick — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 23:15:35 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Hello team,

I didn't say it doesn't work. I just aske if it accesses to the files in subdirectory.

Regards,

blueblue

Why don't you just execute the macro in your environment. That should answer your question. ...or even better try to actually understand the macro code.

Re: %dir_contents

GN0001 — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 04:58:01 GMT

Hello teammate,
Actually, it lists the files in subdirectory.
It is abstract. From what I see in the output, I can say, it creates an dataset, observations for this dataset is folder names. %dir_contents list the files in each folder name. It displays folder name in output dataset, but it access to content of each folder.

Regards,
blueblue