topic Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server in SAS Enterprise Guide

How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

alepage — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:16:11 GMT

Hello,

I need to run the following Kernel script and it works perfectly

#!/bin/bash
rm -f path1/log/*.log
rm -f path1/data/*.sas7bdat
rm -f path1/output/*.txt
cd path1/saspgm/
sas -sysparm '20250131#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202501.log
sas -sysparm '20250228#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202502.log
sas -sysparm '20250331#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202503.log
sas -sysparm '20250430#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202504.log
sas -sysparm '20250531#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202505.log
sas -sysparm '20250630#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202506.log
sas -sysparm '20250731#' path1/saspgm/HYFI_INTExpSF.sas -log path1/log/Hyfiprep_202507.log

When all the HYFI_INTExpSF.sas are executed, many output file are produced like:

path1/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202502.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202503.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202504.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202505.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202506.txt
path1/output/HyFIPrems202507.txt

Similar file already exist like:

path2/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202502.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202503.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202504.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202505.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202506.txt
path2/output/HyFIPrems202507.txt

Then when the output files are generated, I would like to execute a proc compare like

sas proc compare base=path1/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt compare =path2/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt;

run;

How to declare two libname in a Kernel Script and excute successive proc compare

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

LinusH — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:26:26 GMT

PROC COMPARE compare SAS data sets, not flat files.

To be able to compare those files, you need to import them back again into SAS.

You could try to add a PROC COMPARE step for the data sets that is the basis for the files, depending on how they are created of course.

Maybe you could look at UNIX commands as diff and comm instead?

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

AhmedAl_Attar — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:26:58 GMT

If you are generating text files (*.txt), they you would be better off using Linux native tools for comparing these text file, such as
$diff file1 file2

Hope this helps

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

alepage — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 15:25:10 GMT

I agree with you that the diff function could be use. But my colleages are famillar with proc compare

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 19:18:18 GMT

What you show is a shell script. Kernelscript is something completely different.

Maxims 14 & 15:

14: Use the Right Tool

Which, in this case, is the UNIX utility diff.

15: Know Your Playing Field

In this case, UNIX and the gazillion of powerful tools coming with it, of which diff is one.

Great programmers have already thrown their skills into giving you a superb text comparison tool; use it.

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

Ksharp — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 07:30:27 GMT

As Linus pointed out, proc compare does not compare flat txt file,it just compare sas dataset.

So firstly you need to change these txt file into sas dataset and then invoke PROC COMPARE.

data a;
infile 'path1/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt' length=len;
input x $varying200. len;
run;

data b;
infile 'path2/output/HyFIPrems202501.txt' length=len;
input x $varying200. len;
run;

proc compare base=a compare=b transpose brief;
run;

Re: How to execute a proc compare in a Kernel Script on a Unix server

Patrick — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 08:42:01 GMT

We can't know what your SAS scripts like HYFI_INTExpSF.sas are actually doing but if the create text files then it's highly likely that they use a SAS table as source to create these text files.

As others already mentioned Proc Compare works on SAS tables and not text files. If your current scripts create these text files as a 1:1 export from SAS tables AND if these SAS tables are permanent, then you could of course write another SAS script that uses Proc Compare and compares the source SAS tables.