topic Re: taking latest available date from file in SAS Procedures

taking latest available date from file

woo — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:04:04 GMT

Hello please help me on how can i use latest available date from all similar list of files.

lets say i have 50 text files with same name uploaded on different date in directory "d:\woo" and lets say latest date file is 9/11/2014 and i want to use that file - how can i get that file in use...

/*i am using this code to read all files at once*/

/*but then how can i use latest file*/

%let ext=txt;

%let dir=f:\woo\;

data files_list;

length fname1 $200;

infile "dir &dir.*.&ext /tw " pipe truncover lrecl=3000 ;

input fname1 $200.;

run;

Thanks -

Re: taking latest available date from file

Reeza — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:16:49 GMT

Since you can't have multiple files with the same name in a directory, your description of the problem is missing something.

How are the files named?

Re: taking latest available date from file

woo — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:27:24 GMT

oppsss...my bad...files are like this;

filename date_modified

test_file_123567_8756453 09/11/2014

test_file_365435_8755454 08/11/2014

test_file_025489_4587001 07/10/2014

Re: taking latest available date from file

Reeza — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:04:07 GMT

What does your file_list dataset look like?

Re: taking latest available date from file

woo — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 04:08:11 GMT

test_file_123567_8756453

test_file_365435_8755454

test_file_025489_4587001

Re: taking latest available date from file

Reeza — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 04:51:05 GMT

Run the dir command in a windows cmd line to see what the output looks like then modify your input statement to read the correct variables.

sort by date and take the first.

I'm also 99% sure this question has been asked on the forum before so searching may be easier.

Re: taking latest available date from file

bl_jyskebank_dk — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 05:59:42 GMT

Here is an example:

%let ext=txt;

%let dir=c:\path\;

data files_list;

length fname1 $200;

length date 8;

length time $5;

length size $10;

length fname $128;

infile "dir &dir.*.&ext /tw " pipe truncover lrecl=3000 ;

input fname1 $200.;

if index(fname1, "&ext");

date = input(scan(fname1,1,' '),DDMMYY10.); format date YYMMDD10.;

time = scan(fname1,2,' ');

size = scan(fname1,3,' ');

fname = scan(fname1,4,' ');

run;

proc sort data=files_list;

by date time;

run;

This is what it looks like in the sorted dataset:

Re: taking latest available date from file

jakarman — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 09:16:11 GMT

Instead of piping and analyzing that output you could use the dinfo function. This sample gives a dir listing.

SAS(R) 9.4 Companion for Windows, Third Edition (dinfo proc)

Note the " error in the source example second tempdir, it is easy to correct

This code also runs unchanged under Unix only the returned list is different. The advantage is no failures in analyzing that returned output.

Re: taking latest available date from file

RamKumar — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 09:33:34 GMT

infile "dir &dir.*.&ext /tw " pipe truncover lrecl=3000 ;

In this infile statement, why we've used /tw?

Re: taking latest available date from file

Reeza — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:45:59 GMT

//Tw is the windows command to include last modified time in the output.

Re: taking latest available date from file

Tom — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:40:10 GMT

Sounds more like a question on how to use the DOS DIR command.

/tw - will tell it to use the WRITE date

/o-d - will tell it to sort with most recent first.

/b - will tell it to only list the names.

%let ext=txt;

%let dir=f:\woo\;

data _null_;

infile "dir /tw /o-d /b &dir.*.&ext" pipe truncover obs=1 ;

input fname $256. ;

call symputx('fname',fname);

run;

data want ;

infile "&dir.&fname" .... ;

....

Re: taking latest available date from file

jakarman — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:02:56 GMT

could be avoided using dinfo

Re: taking latest available date from file

woo — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:05:53 GMT

thanks all for your quick response...i would go with PIPE option though...Thank you...