topic Re: Only headers in csv when there's no data in SAS Programming

Only headers in csv when there's no data

PWS — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 13:11:34 GMT

Hi,

Is it possible to export a csv file with only the headers when there's no data to export?

For multiple purpose I automatically generate csv files that will be retrieved by other parties. They can only process the csv files when the column headers are always shown.

But now, when for some reason there's no data to export, also the column headers are left out. This causes fail overs at the receiving end.

Can someone help me?

This is the example of the way I now publish the csv file;

Re: Only headers in csv when there's no data

PeterClemmensen — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 17:38:19 GMT

The %DS2CSV Macro handles this

/* With observations */
%ds2csv(data=sashelp.class, runmode=b, csvfile=YourPathHere\class.csv);

/* Without Observations */
data NoObsClass;
   set sashelp.class(obs=0);
run;

%ds2csv(data=NoObsClass, runmode=b, csvfile=YourPathHere\NoObsClass.csv);

Re: Only headers in csv when there's no data

PeterClemmensen — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 17:39:33 GMT

You can read about the macro in the DS2CSV Documentation

Re: Only headers in csv when there's no data

Tom — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 19:37:40 GMT

The order of the statements in your data step is wrong. SAS will stop when the SET statement reads past the end of the data.

The order should look like this. Then it will write the headers even if the input has 0 observations.

data _null_;
  file ... ;
  if _n_=1 then ... ;
  set ... ;
  put ... ;
run;

Re: Only headers in csv when there's no data

PWS — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 08:06:23 GMT

Thanks! This works!