topic Re: help reading messy data from csv in SAS Programming

How do I read messy CSV data in SAS without using PROC Import?

kekou — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 20:58:31 GMT

I have CSV data. Can anyone help reading it in SAS without using proc import?

Re: help reading messy data from csv

art297 — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 16:11:06 GMT

If you run proc import SAS will write and run the data step that you would otherwise have to write to read in the file.

Proc import saves you the time of getting the variable names from the first records, determining which variables are numbers and which are characters, and identifying each variable's length.

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

Re: help reading messy data from csv

kekou — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 16:13:33 GMT

please without using proc import

Re: help reading messy data from csv

art297 — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 16:19:43 GMT

If you run proc import it will not only do the job, but show you the code that answers your question.

On the other hand, if you want a lesson, take a look at: https://support.sas.com/techsup/technote/ts673.pdf

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

Re: help reading messy data from csv

Reeza — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 20:57:23 GMT

@kekou wrote:

i have a CSV data. can anyone help reading it in SAS without using proc import?

Is this a file that should be public and available to anyone or does it contain confidential information? If this is a work file you may have violated confidentiality rules.

Re: help reading messy data from csv

Vince_SAS — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 00:45:18 GMT

Why can't you use PROC IMPORT?

Vince DelGobbo

SAS R&D

Re: How do I read messy CSV data in SAS without using PROC Import?

Tom — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 00:51:31 GMT

CSV files are easy to read. Something like your file with only three variables is easier to read WITHOUT using PROC IMPORT.

data want ;
  infile 'zipcode.csv' dsd truncover firstobs=2;
  input var1-var3 ;
run;

Now if you want you can use more meaningful names for your variables.

If it really was a messy file then you could try reading the fields as characters strings and adding extra code to convert the strings into the types of values you need.