Kurt_Bremser Tracker

Re: SAS Programming 1: Essentials Lesson 6 Activity p106a02.sas

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 14 May 2026 08:06:06 GMT

I combined your posts, as they deal with the same issue: a non-existent macro variable.

Re: Scheduling Flows in SAS Viya 4

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:19:14 GMT

Do a Google search for „how to start sas viya job flows from the command line“ and start from there.

Re: Need help with first.

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:30:04 GMT

If all your combinations of

studyid site subjid

are unique, then

first.subjid

will always be true, and the whole condition always false. Your empty result dataset proves that all combinations are unique and you have no duplicates.

Multiple entries for a given subjid are obviously contained in different studies/sites.

Re: how to change the variable format during a proc import

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:09:49 GMT

When reading text files, don‘t waste your time with PROC IMPORT. Write the DATA step yourself, according to the documentation of the file.
You‘ll get much cleaner and easier to maintain code, and have the full flexibility if DATA step coding at your hand.
The accepted solution will make it impossible to correctly read numeric values, including dates and times.

Re: Setup Instructions for SAS Enterprise Guide

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 06:14:16 GMT

Run a Google search for „how is enterprise guide for sas on demand installed?" and see if the AI result is what you need.

Re: ERROR: All variables in array list must be the same type

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:10:54 GMT

When SAS tells you that the variable types don't match, then they do not match, period..

Run PROC CONTENTS to see where the issue is..

Re: import XPT file into SAS OnDemand Studio

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:21:43 GMT

The usual mistake that causes the "physical file does not exist" message comes from trying to read a local (residing on your PC) file in the remote (running on a server) SAS session. You must upload the file to the On Demand server first (Studio can do this) and then use the path on the server in your code. You can get the complete path through the properties of the file by right-clicking on it in the file navigation tab of SAS Studio.

Re: Is there a way to determine of a SAS programming running (in EG) or has crashed or?

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:59:40 GMT

ls is for listing files (similar to dir in Windows/DOS); ps is for listing processes.

Re: Is there a way to determine of a SAS programming running (in EG) or has crashed or?

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 06:41:35 GMT

You can log on to the server‘s commandline and use the ps command (or the Windows equivalent) to display the process status; by filtering for your username you can find your SAS session.
As admin, I provided a web page which ran such a command and displayed the top 10 processes in terms of CPU consumption, so it was easier for the SAS users to see if they had accidentally created a runaway process.

Re: How can SAS Web Application users be tracked on a SAS Linux platform?

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:28:08 GMT

How users authenticate is configured in the metadata server through the authentication domain(s). The default authentication domain is usually configured to check against the underlying operating system's authentication system. When users are configured to such an AD, SAS user == OS user. Different AD's can use other sources, e.g. LDAP-based.

When users authenticate to a SAS service is recorded in the metadata server logs.

Re: Apply "at least" condition in data step

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:10:18 GMT

You write that you want to flag whole ID's, but then you have the flags set only for particular observations within an ID.

Please describe in detail for every observation in your result dataset why the flag is set as it is.

Post this in a new answer, do not modify your original post! This is needed so it's easier to follow the flow of discussion.

Re: Import Data from Excel - DateTime column has mixed values

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:23:07 GMT

Using File - Save as in Excel with CSV as target does NOT modify the source file in any way.

Re: Import Data from Excel - DateTime column has mixed values

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:13:19 GMT

Save to a CSV file and read that with a DATA step. Both the "real" and character datetime values will appear in the same format, so you can read them with the E8601DT informat.

Disclaimer: I tested the "save to csv" with LibreOffice on a Mac, but I sincerely hope MS Excel will do the same.

Re: Every time I try to make a permanent data set I get a library does not exist message

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:22:38 GMT

With SAS On Demand, the actual SAS process (which you access through the SAS Studio web application) runs on a Linux-based cloud server. You must use UNIX-style syntax for file and path names. UNIX does not have drive letters, but a single directory tree which starts at "root", symbolized by a slash. You "own" your home directory, and the system provides a shortcut to it, symbolized by a tilde. So if you created a directory/folder called mydata in your home folder in the Studio navigation tab, in your code you would use

libname mydata "~/mydata";

Also note that UNIX operating systems are case sensitive, mydata and Mydata would be different objects.

In the future, always post the complete log of code that fails by copy/pasting the text into a window opened with this button:

The log is our primary diagnostic tool, see Maxim 2.

Re: Program Summary Issues

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 06:27:03 GMT

Which browser do you use? Safari does not completely support SAS Studio, Chrome is the better choice.

Re: I'm trying to get BRFSS data into SAS. When I try to import , it says data is invalid

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:15:09 GMT

Files in a ZIP archive need a two-step approach:
first, define a FILENAME for the ZIP file
then, in the DATA step you write to read the data, use the file reference and the name of the contained file as a member (see documentation of the INFILE statement)

Re: SAS/ACCESS SNOWFLAKE LIBNAME

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:31:57 GMT

Since SAS/ACCESS modules for relational databases make use of the native clients which have to be installed and configured on the SAS server, the SAS admins need to do this in cooperation with the DB admins. After they have done this, they can tell you which credentials to use.

Re: Code to Download a File from SAS Studio (Viya)

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:36:16 GMT

You need to set up storage that is accessible from your SAS server (e.g. through SSH or WEBDAV). Then a SAS program can write there.

Re: Using REPEAT function to calculate IRR

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 22:45:57 GMT

The macro code (%SYSFUNC) is resolved before the DATA step is even compiled, much less executed. Therefore you cannot use DATA step variable values there.

Please describe in detail what you want to achieve, including the data that shall drive the code.

Re: Code to Download a File from SAS Studio (Viya)

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:24:17 GMT

Please define "simple script". Shell script, SAS program, something else? Which client and server platform?