topic Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened" in SAS Programming

"Table Cannot Be Opened"

pawaterman — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:49:28 GMT

Hi All,

I created a permanent SAS data set and I cannot open the the file.

The error reads 'The table "FINAL1.MERGED_DATA" cannot be opened because it does not contain any columns'

Any insight into why I cannot open the file would be most helpful and much appreciated.

Below please find my code:

data dataone;
infile '/folders/myfolders/DATA1.TXT' firstobs=7;
input DATE YYMMDD6. DAY BP CD DM;
run;

data datatwo;
infile '/folders/myfolders/DATA2.TXT' firstobs=7;
input DATE YYMMDD6. DAY JY SF;
run;

proc sort data=dataone;
by DATE;

proc sort data=datatwo;
by DATE;
run;

data merged_data;
format DATE YYMMDD6. DAY BP CD DM JY SF;
merge dataone datatwo;
by DATE;
run;

libname final1 '/folders/myfolders/final1';
data final1.merged_data;
run;

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

MaikH_Schutze — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:54:40 GMT

Did you get any other errors, for instance for you infile statements?

The data step merge probably also has an error. The format statement applies the YYMMDD6. format to your date variable but subsequently listing the other variables in the format statement without supplying a format might also cause an error.

Any error along the way will stop a data set from being created.

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

JoshB — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:56:41 GMT

Assuming you don't have any errors before this point, you are missing the part of your last data step that writes out the table you created above.

libname final1 '/folders/myfolders/final1';
data final1.merged_data;
  set merged_data;
run;

If you do have other errors, please post.

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

RW9 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:11:33 GMT

Yes, as JoshB has stated, because you are missing the set statement from the final datastep, SAS creates an empty dataset which has no observations or columns. Hence you get that error of no columns.

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

pawaterman — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:38:47 GMT

Thanks so much JoshB!

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

pawaterman — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:40:04 GMT

Much appreciated RW9!

Re: "Table Cannot Be Opened"

pawaterman — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:42:23 GMT

Good points.

However, I did not have any errors .