topic Re: Get size of binary file in bytes in SAS/IML Software and Matrix Computations

Get size of binary file in bytes

IanWakeling — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 13:08:18 GMT

I am attempting (for the first time) to read from binary data files directly into IML. Is there a way to get the size of the file I have opened with INFILE in bytes?

Re: Get size of binary file in bytes

Rick_SAS — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 13:59:57 GMT

I don't usually use the INFILE statement or deal with binary files, but I think the process is exactly the same as for the DATA step. Remember that you can call most Base SAS functions from SAS/IML. In particular, you can call the FINFO function and other file-related functions. Adapting the doc example to IML gives:

filename fref "C:\temp\myfile";
proc iml;
fid=fopen('fref');
/* for my OS, what FINFO options are available? */
infonum=foptnum(fid);
infoname = foptname(fid, 1:infonum);
print infoname;

/* looks like the 4th element is the file size on Windows */
size = finfo(fid, infoname[4]);
print size;
close=fclose(fid);

Re: Get size of binary file in bytes

IanWakeling — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 08:26:15 GMT

Thanks Rick, that works nicely.

Caution to others using this, the file size is returned as a character string.

Re: Get size of binary file in bytes

Ksharp — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:00:17 GMT

As Rick pointed out ,it is more like a data step question than a IML question.

filename x 'c:\temp\x.txt';
proc sql;
create table temp as
select *
 from dictionary.EXTFILES
 where fileref='X';
quit;