the LibnameZIP package

yabwon — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 11:53:29 GMT

Hi SAS-C,

The other day I was talking with Stu Sztukowski (@Stu_SAS) about size of SAS data sets compared with DuckDB tables and, as the discussion drifted, we came to a conclusion that (to save some space) it would be cool to have a ZIP library engine in SAS. An engine that allows to read and write SAS data sets from a ZIP file, similarly to (for example) XLSX or JSON engines, or the filename ZIP.

As some of you know, my "internal problem solver mode" is enabled by the "you probably cannot do something like this in SAS" sentence. This was the case too...

Allow me to share the LibnameZIP package. A package that emulates the requested behavior, i.e., reading and writing SAS data from a ZIP file.

If you have the latest SAS Packages Framework, simply run:

%requestPackage(LibnameZIP)

read the latest release notes: https://github.com/SASPAC/libnamezip/releases

check out the documentation: https://github.com/SASPAC/libnamezip/blob/main/libnamezip.md

and give LibnameZIP a try!

Since this is still an "experimental" phase, your feedback is most appreciated!

Bart

topic the LibnameZIP package in SAS Programming

the LibnameZIP package