topic Re: read all sas data in a folder in SAS Programming

read all sas data in a folder

CHL0320 — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:44:24 GMT

Hi, community,

I am seeking an automatic way to read all SAS data in a folder to do the same process.

Thank you so much.

Here is my manual code. It works but takes time to key in all filenames.

/**/

Libname path "C:\myfolder\SAS";
Data &filename;
set path.&filename;
sas statements;

.
run;

%let filename=a;

%let filename=b;

............

Re: read all sas data in a folder

PaigeMiller — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:55:50 GMT

proc sql;
    select memname into :names separated by ' ' from dictionary.tables where upcase(libname)='PATH';
quit;

%macro dothis;
    %do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&names));
        %let thisname = %scan(&names,&i,%str( ));
        data &thisname;
            set path.&thisname;
            /* other sas statements */
        run;
    %end;
%mend;

%dothis

Re: read all sas data in a folder

CHL0320 — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 13:03:49 GMT

Thank you. It works like magic.

Re: read all sas data in a folder

andreas_lds — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 13:04:12 GMT

So every dataset in the library has to be processed using the same statements. I am sure that such tasks have been solved many times - you will find them using the search function.

Here's just a recipe:

Write the step that process one file, have it fully tested.
Convert the step to a macro, a parameter for the dataset is mandatory.
Test the macro.
Write a data step reading sashelp.vtable with where statement to process only the datasets in your library.
use call execute to execute the macro for each dataset found.