https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Create-an-external-datasets/m-p/2663#M873 Hi!<BR /> You can get that message if ANY part of your PATH is wrong. For example, let's say that I have a directory called "C:\temp" on my machine. This filename statement:<BR /> [pre]filename mytmp 'c:\tmp\newfile.txt';[/pre] would be WRONG because I misspelled the directory name (assuming that I don't have a c:\tmp directory). The message that I would get would be:<BR /> ERROR: Physical file does not exist, c:\tmp\newfile.txt <BR /> <BR /> because SAS went out to try and write newfile.txt and could not find the correct directory path already in existence. SAS will not create a directory, you must write to a directory path that already exists and that you have the permission to write to.<BR /> <BR /> I recommend that you double check your Path name and that you have write access to the directory in the path that you are trying to write to.<BR /> <BR /> cynthia Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:31:10 GMT Cynthia_sas 2007-03-30T15:31:10Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Create-an-external-datasets/m-p/2662#M872 Hello,<BR /> <BR /> since few days ( many many days <span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":disappointed_face:">😞</span> ), i try to create an exteranl file ( on a SAS server ) like this :<BR /> <BR /> <I>filename TAB_OUT '/_my_path_server_/.../_my_files_/_my_file_.txt' lrecl=21 ;<BR /> <BR /> data CREATE ; set TAB_IN ;<BR /> <BR /> sep = ';' ;<BR /> <BR /> file TAB_OUT ;<BR /> <BR /> put var1 3. sep $1.<BR /> var2 $16. sep $1. ; </I><BR /> <BR /> First - Is this syntaxe looks like correct ?<BR /> Second - Why SAS, when i run this prog, returm to me this message : <I>ERROR: Physical file does not exist, /_my_path_server_/.../_my_files_/_my_file_.txt</I>.<BR /> Sure, i know it does't exist anymore, i want to create it !!!!<BR /> <BR /> someone can <I>"light my lantern"</I>, please ? Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:19:09 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Create-an-external-datasets/m-p/2662#M872 gemax 2007-03-30T08:19:09Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Create-an-external-datasets/m-p/2663#M873 Hi!<BR /> You can get that message if ANY part of your PATH is wrong. For example, let's say that I have a directory called "C:\temp" on my machine. This filename statement:<BR /> [pre]filename mytmp 'c:\tmp\newfile.txt';[/pre] would be WRONG because I misspelled the directory name (assuming that I don't have a c:\tmp directory). The message that I would get would be:<BR /> ERROR: Physical file does not exist, c:\tmp\newfile.txt <BR /> <BR /> because SAS went out to try and write newfile.txt and could not find the correct directory path already in existence. SAS will not create a directory, you must write to a directory path that already exists and that you have the permission to write to.<BR /> <BR /> I recommend that you double check your Path name and that you have write access to the directory in the path that you are trying to write to.<BR /> <BR /> cynthia Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:31:10 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Enterprise-Guide/Create-an-external-datasets/m-p/2663#M873 Cynthia_sas 2007-03-30T15:31:10Z