topic Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file in SAS Procedures

Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

cbrotz — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:25:17 GMT

I am using the following code to see the members in a library called "sasdata". It is creating a report file. Is there an option in proc datasets to output a data file instead?

options pagesize=60 linesize=80 nonumber nodate;

proc datasets library=sasdata;

Thank you.

Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

Haikuo — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:29:32 GMT

Please do RTM. Pay extra attention to statement 'contents' and 'out=/out2=' options.
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/65145/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p1v2467vdjbp7xn1222c7t3sejz3.htm

Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:36:21 GMT

And for 9.4, there is the new documentation website: https://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.3&docsetId=proc&docsetTarget=p1sy9ca8n2tv03n1savk4p9cmeq0.htm&locale=en#p17vojw133aeyfn1u8modmp2mig9

Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

cbrotz — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:27:49 GMT

I just want to manipulate the list of dataset names in the library by file size, etc. The Contents gives the detail fields of the individual datasets. I ended up just changing the output to Excel from Report and sorted the data in Excel. If there was another way to do this, it was not clear from what I read.

Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:43:02 GMT

Output to Excel is one way to do it -- good job figuring that out.

ODS generates SAS tables for all of the output steps, and you can redirect these to SAS data sets for further manipulation. See this tip from @Ron_Cody for more information.

Here's an example for you:

/* discover the ODS tables that we can grab */
ods trace on;

/* Save member attributes */
ods output datasets.members=Members; 
/* Save variable attributes for select data sets */
ods output Datasets.DataSet.Variables = Variables;

proc datasets lib=sashelp;
 contents data=cars;
 contents data=class;
 contents data=air;
quit;

Then you can use PROC SQL, SORT, or any other procedure to report on what you want.

Re: Output from Proc Datasets as a data file

Reeza — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:43:30 GMT

It's already in a data set in the SASHELP library.

VTABLE has table level information - number of variables, observations, size, type etc

VCOLUMN has variable level information - variable types, name, lengths, formats, etc.

data demo;
set sashelp.vcolumn (obs=3);
run;

@cbrotz wrote:

I just want to manipulate the list of dataset names in the library by file size, etc. The Contents gives the detail fields of the individual datasets. I ended up just changing the output to Excel from Report and sorted the data in Excel. If there was another way to do this, it was not clear from what I read.