topic Work in the current directory in SAS Procedures

Work in the current directory

JuanVte — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:54:02 GMT

Hi everybody!

I would like to define a SAS library in a folder inside the current folder where I am working.

For example the program Import_data.sas is located in c:\temp. This program imports some datasets and I would like to save them in c:\temp\data.

I would like to do something like we do in html

libname data '.\data';

where "." means the current directory where the program is located.

Thanks for your help!!
Juanvte

Re: Work in the current directory

sbb — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:14:06 GMT

From the LIBNAME documentation, there is no provision for what you are asking. Your allocation effect makes no "PWD" or current drive/directory assumptions.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

SAS Windows Companion (example OS): LIBNAME Statement
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/hostwin/61924/HTML/default/chloptfmain.htm

Re: Work in the current directory

JuanVte — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:06:47 GMT

Thanks Scott,
I think that I found a solution. I adapted the syntax from
http://www.studysas.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-determine-executing-program-name.html

As follows:

proc sql noprint;
select scan(xpath,-1,'\') into :progname from sashelp.vextfl
where upcase(xpath) like '%.SAS';
quit;

%put &progname;

proc sql noprint;
select xpath into :progpath
from sashelp.vextfl where upcase(xpath) like '%.SAS';
quit;

%put %substr(&progpath,1,%length(&progpath)-%length(&progname)-1);

Best regards,
JuanVte.

Re: Work in the current directory

Doc_Duke — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:06:25 GMT

For the ".\data" syntax to be supported, it has to be supported at the OS level.

Although
libname data '.\data';
may not work in Windows,
LIBNAME data './data';
does work in Unix.

Re: Work in the current directory

data_null__ — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:22:39 GMT

It works in Winders too

[pre]
1 libname here '.\data';
NOTE: Libref HERE was successfully assigned as follows:
Engine: V9
Physical Name: C:\Documents and Settings\datanull\My Documents\My SAS Files\9.1\data
[/pre]

Depending on how the program is started it may not point to where you think. For me when I run my program in BATCH '.' is usually the same directory where the source program is stored.

Re: Work in the current directory

JuanVte — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:02:12 GMT

Yes, it works but as you commented you have to define first the working directory.

In html this directory is just the directory where you execute the syntax. 😞

thank for all your comments!!
Juanvte