topic Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG? in SAS Enterprise Guide

Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

2015eva — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 13:11:21 GMT

Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

In a file system or in a database? Will it take c:\SASHome space?

I installed a SAS analytics pro on my notebook.

Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 14:05:05 GMT

A csv file is data before you import it. Once imported, data is in a dataset in a library. The library assignment defines the physical location.

Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

Tom — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 16:10:33 GMT

If you are using Enterprise Guide task to import a file that currently lives on the machine where you are running EG then I believe it will upload the CSV file (or perhaps a modified version of it) to the WORK directory of the SAS session you are connected to. So that CSV file will disappear when the session is over and so not take any space at all.

Now the dataset that the import generated will be where ever you told Enterprise Guide and/or SAS itself to put it. Normal SAS datasets are files on the disk. So if you wrote a permanent file using a normal SAS libref that is pointing to a directory then the file is in the directory. If you used a SAS libref that is pointing to some external database system (like Oracle) then the data is stored in a table in that database system and not as a physical SAS dataset.

Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

Sajid01 — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 19:42:51 GMT

Hello @2015eva
In a typical scenario when a csv file is imported and a dataset created, it is stored in the Work library which is a location on the filesystem. Have a look at the SAS EG log after the import. You will have an idea about it.
In case you desire to find the location of the work library (or for that matter any library -simply replace WORK with the library name) the following statement will output the location to the log.

%put %sysfunc(getoption(WORK));

Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

Tom — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 19:53:29 GMT

Wrong function. That returns the value of a system option. To get the location of a library use the PATHNAME() function.

For WORK they should both have the same value. But most libref name values are not also system option names, and if they are they could have completely different meanings and values.

Re: Where is the imported data (a .csv file) stored in EG?

Patrick — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 23:40:59 GMT

@Tom wrote:

Wrong function. That returns the value of a system option. To get the location of a library use the PATHNAME() function.

For WORK they should both have the same value. But most libref name values are not also system option names, and if they are they could have completely different meanings and values.

@Tom

I agree with you that using pathname() is preferable.

Chris Hemedinger tends to use %sysfunc(getoption(WORK)) in code shared in his blogs - which makes this a "widespread" coding option.