topic Re: Writing fixed-width text files in SAS Programming

Writing fixed-width text files

newbi — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 20:52:13 GMT

Good afternoon,

I need help writing fixed-width text files from SAS dataset. I have SAS data set – Product with Product ID – 1, 2 and 3.

And I’m using following code to create text file.

filename outfile "/mnt/data01/test.txt"

data _null_;

file outfile ;

set WORK.Product;

put @1'Product ID'n 10. ;

run;

Result of the output is

123

I would like the output to be

Product ID

Thanks

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

FloydNevseta — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 05:31:07 GMT

The simplest fix is to add the following line code after your SET statement:

if _n_=1 then put 'Product ID';

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

ballardw — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:49:23 GMT

Is your product id a numeric or character variable? You may have issues geting a numeric to left justify in this context.

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

Reeza — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:55:31 GMT

Do a proc export to a text file and see the code generated in the log. That will let you know how to specify your code.

Something like the following may work as well (untested)

filename outfile "/mnt/data01/test.txt"

data _null_;

file outfile ;

set WORK.Product;

if _n_=1 then put 'Product ID';

put 'Product ID'n 10. ;

run;

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

newbi — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:20:41 GMT

i used the if _n_ =1 then put .....and i'm still getting data in one line

Product ID

123

I woulud like the result to be:

Product ID

Thanks

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

Reeza — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:36:00 GMT

Post your code.

That isn't happening for me.

filename outfile "C:\_localdata\test.txt";

data _null_;

file outfile;

set sashelp.class;

if _n_=1 then put "Name";

put name $8.;

run;

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

newbi — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:56:50 GMT

Would this work on Linux ? Outfile file is on linux server.

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

stat_sas — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:02:36 GMT

I think your dataset cotains one row 123. If that is the case then try this.

data product;
infile datalines;
input product_id $;
datalines;
123
;

filename outfile "C:\_localdata\test.txt";

data _null_;
file outfile;
set Product;
if _N_ = 1 then put 'Product_id';
do _N_ = 1 to length(Product_id);
id=substr(Product_id,_N_,1);
put @1'id'n 10.;
output;
end;
run;

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

Reeza — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:07:08 GMT

Yes it works on unix.

What does your data look like?

Another possibility is your text editor is garbling it. Try viewing it in something else or via the more command in unix.

You still haven't posted your code though.

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

newbi — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 01:13:45 GMT

Reeza,

I use the following code and when I transfer the file from Linux to windows files out put is - Product_id 123.

However, when I edit the file out put is different -

Product ID

Reeza wrote:

Yes it works on unix.

What does your data look like?

Another possibility is your text editor is garbling it. Try viewing it in something else or via the more command in unix.

You still haven't posted your code though.

data product;
infile datalines;
input product_id $;
datalines;
1
2
3
;

filename outfile "/mnt/data01/test.txt";

data _null_;
file outfile Encoding=u;
set Product;
if _N_ = 1 then put 'Product_id';
do _N_ = 1 to length(Product_id);
id=substr(Product_id,_N_,1);
put @1'id'n 10.;
output;
end;
run;

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

Tom — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 22:47:51 GMT

Sounds like your file is getting converted somehow in transit.

SAS is actually very good at looking at what is actually in your file.

Try this simple data step on your file.

data _null_;

infile outfile ;

input;

list;

run;

Also try it using RECFM=F and LRECL=80 in the INFILE statement and then you can see what characters are placed between the lines.

Windows normally expects CR+LF ('0D0A'X) at the end of every line and Unix will normally just have LF ('0A'x). In the old days Mac's used just CR ('0D'X) but I don't think they do that any more.

Re: Writing fixed-width text files

newbi — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 20:31:37 GMT

Thanks for all your help. I was able to resolve the issue by using the "termstr=CRLF" option.

http://support.sas.com/kb/14/178.html

Thanks