topic Re: Can't open an existing SAS dataset? in SAS Programming

Can't open an existing SAS dataset?

christinagting0 — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 22:15:33 GMT

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm trying to open an existing SAS dataset that is saved on my computer.

The code I'm using to try an open the dataset is the following:

%let fpath = xxxx;

libname effct "&fpath";

data efficiency;
set effct.omrdataset;
run;

but when I try to run this I get the following error:

ERROR: The format SITEF was not found or could not be loaded.

What am I doing wrong? I'm pretty sure I've opened SAS datasets this way before

Re: Can't open an existing SAS dataset?

Reeza — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 18:19:43 GMT

The dataset has a custom format applied to it that you don't have in your system.

Do you have any code to go along with the data?

Otherwise, you can tell SAS to ignore this error using the option below.

option nofmterr;

Re: Can't open an existing SAS dataset?

christinagting0 — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 18:22:51 GMT

Hi Reeza,

Can you explain more by what you mean? What do you mean it has a format that I don't have on my computer?

The sas dataset is one that my colleague created and I'm trying to work off their dataset?

Will using the statement to ignore the format cause any problems?

Re: Can't open an existing SAS dataset?

Reeza — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 18:30:36 GMT

Your colleague created a format to display a variable a certain way, ie they recoded age into groups and applied a format rather than create a new variable. However, formats aren't stored within a dataset so they need to give you the format code as well.

WIll it cause issues, yes, you'll see the variables differently. For example, if it was age, you would see the individual ages but they would see the age categories.

I would ask your colleague for the SAS format code.

Re: Can't open an existing SAS dataset?

christinagting0 — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 18:38:56 GMT

sweet. thanks for that awesome and clear explanation!

I will ask them:)