topic Re: "...cannot open the data file" in SAS Enterprise Guide

"...cannot open the data file"

deleted_user — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:44:55 GMT

I recently tried "pulling in" a table from one of my libraries and received the following message: "Enterprise Guide cannot open the data file: ODSH.PERSON_DETAIL. Do you want to remove all references to this file from the project?"

I only get this message on this one table....other tables can be opened OK. If anyone has a suggestion on what (1) this means and (2) what migt br tried to fix the problem, I would be most grateful.

Thanks in advance!

Re: "...cannot open the data file"

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:53:04 GMT

It could be any of a number of issues.

Can you run any tasks on it? Or even just run from a code node:

proc print data=odsh.person_detail;

It's possible that some column values contain national characters (such as found in a native Polish name, for example) that cannot transcode into your SAS session encoding (wlatin1, good for English and Western Europe, usually).

Chris

Re: "...cannot open the data file"

deleted_user — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:50:31 GMT

Thanks for reply, Chris....

I'm in process of trying to set up a code node as we speak.

Also, if some of the columns contained national characters that don't transcode, if I can't see the table's data, how would I know if that was the case? Any suggestions are always most welcome.

Thanks again!

Re: "...cannot open the data file"

deleted_user — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:20:26 GMT

Hi, Chris,

I wasn't able to even do the "proc print data=odsh.person_detail;" you suggested; I got a message saying certain fields could not be found. It sounds like I have to figure out how to do a refresh of the "view" that is currently causing fits.

Is there a way to refresh the library or the table?

Re: "...cannot open the data file"

deleted_user — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:52:28 GMT

Guess what??? I got the problem fixed! Turns out that we receive script files from a software vendor that can at any time modify the structure of our Oracle or SQL tables; well, our Administrator had received a script that had erased two fields in the offending table, and my SAS EG was looking at an old view of the table. After we did some heavy-duty reviewing of the table, we figured which fields were causing the probelm, removed them from the old view, did a refresh, and now can see and use the table.

I asked our administrator how he knows what the scripts do and his response was that he didn't know what impact the scripts had, that he just runs them. Sound like the old "just following orders," doesn't it?

Thanks for your replies and for your suggestions....it's nice to know there are folks willing to help others out there.