Kurt_Bremser Tracker

Re: Downloading a directory of *.sas files

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:46:52 GMT

This

filename out zip 'Batchfile 7.6.zip';

is your problem.

You did not use a fully qualified path name, so SAS tries to write to its current working directory, which is usually the place where the script file

WorkspaceServer.sh

is located, and where you do not have write permission.

Use a file name that includes the complete path starting at root (like you did for indir) and pointing to your home directory. You can also use the tilde shortcut for this:

filename out zip '~/Batchfile 7.6.zip';

Re: Weird SAS error messages on quoted strings and white spaces

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:40:47 GMT

Something unbalanced (unbalanced quotes, macro definition without a valid %MEND, ...) has caused your SAS session to become unstable. Start a new session and rerun your code, paying attention to the above.

Re: Allow Custom DateTime Display Formats

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:31:37 GMT

One must make such transformations (assignment of formats, extraction of sub-values etc.) when the dataset is prepared for analysis. This is a job for your data engineers.

Re: Display Numeric IDs Without Thousands Separators

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:51:02 GMT

Are these variables stored as character or numeric in the underlying dataset?

Re: Errors in Importing Excel Data from a Single Worksheet

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 08:27:17 GMT

You tried to use a library reference (libname) as infile in PROC IMPORT, which cannot work.
Either use a worksheet like a SAS dataset in your Excel library, or use the correct physical filename in the DATAFILE= option of the PROC IMPORT statement.

Re: Can someone explain the answer code for this challenge question?

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:27:52 GMT

@sfletc30 wrote:

Hey so just a followup question for number 3. So I understand what the code is saying now. If last.Code=1, then do these things (which includes writing to the output table with the OUTPUT statement). And last.Code=1 only exists four times in the dataset. So that explains why the rows went from around 140 to only 4.

But why do I have to explicitly tell SAS this? Why doesn't the implicit OUTPUT statement at the end of the code create the four rows that the explicit one does?

Because the implicit OUTPUT writes an observation for every iteration of the DATA step, unless the iteration is cut short by a subsetting IF. And the number of iterations is (in your case) determined by the observations read from the input dataset.

Re: SAS Studio repeated measures over time

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:36:12 GMT

Please show us an example of your input data (just enough observations to illustrate your case), and the expected result from it.

Re: Can someone explain the answer code for this challenge question?

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:33:28 GMT

My solution would have been shorter:

data snowforecast;
set winter2015_2016;
retain FirstSnow;
by Code;
if first.Code then FirstSnow=Date;
if last.Code;
LastSnow=Date;
WinterLengthWeeks=intck('week', FirstSnow, LastSnow, 'c');
ProjectedFirstSnow=intnx('year', FirstSnow, 1, 'same');
format FirstSnow LastSnow ProjectedFirstSnow date7.;
drop Snow Date;	
run;

The code will read all observations, but keep only the value of the first observation in a group in variable firstsnow.

Then, it will only proceed further if the last observation in a group has been read. All following statements (including the implicit OUTPUT at the end of each step iteration) are "jumped over" in all other cases.

This particular form of an IF statement is called "Subsetting IF"; if the condition is not met, the next iteration of the DATA step is immediately started.

Re: Transposing Data

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:19:21 GMT

Since you know the names of the target variables, a simple DATA step will do it:

data have;
input customer $ flag $ count;
datalines;
12345 COE 5
;

data want;
set have;
length coe non_coe 8;
coe = 0;
non_coe = 0;
select (flag);
  when ("COE") coe = count;
  when ("NON_COE") non_coe = count;
  otherwise putlog "ERROR: non-expected flag!";
end;
drop flag count;
run;

But do you really want that wide dataset, or is this for reporting purposes? What is your final goal, and what is your initial input data?

I ask this to avoid having an XY problem.

Re: SAS interruption and problems with reinstallation

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:42:29 GMT

This particular message can mean that SAS is not able to create the WORK library/directory.

Re: Capture SQL View Definition for Programmatic Change

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:59 GMT

UNIX systems have very nice tools for exactly such mass text change operations, e.g. awk. Just run that on the original source codes of the SQL views. If those source codes are not available, someone fucked up big time (see Maxim 27).

Re: Unable to open xls file

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:54:28 GMT

I just ran this on SAS On Demand, which is also on 9.4M8:

proc export
  data=sashelp.class
  file="~/class.xls"
  dbms=xls
  replace
;
run;

After downloading the file to my Mac, it opened successfully both in MS Excel and LibreOffice.

So it seems that you either have a problem with your particular SAS installation, or with the data itself.

Questions to answer:

on which particular platform is your SAS server installed?
on which particular desktop do you open your files (Windows/Mac/Linux)?
which application is used to open the files (include version/maintenance level)?
and finally we need to see your data; post it as a self-contained DATA step with DATALINES, so we can exactly recreate your dataset in our environments

Re: SAS installation blocked

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:42:24 GMT

For installation issues, it's best to get in touch with SAS technical support.

Re: p106a05.sas & PPTX Not Appearing in Output Folder

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 24 May 2026 13:19:30 GMT

IF(!) you run this on a UNIX system (e.g. SAS On Demand), then the correct shortcut for your home directory is the tilde (~), not the ampersand (&).

Re: p106a05.sas & PPTX Not Appearing in Output Folder

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 24 May 2026 10:32:37 GMT

Post the complete log of your code by copy/pasting it into a code box, from the ODS POWERPOINT statement to the ODS POWERPOINT CLOSE statement. Do not change or omit anything.

Re: p106a05.sas & PPTX Not Appearing in Output Folder

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 23 May 2026 16:01:07 GMT

SAS Studio uses ODS to fetch output for display in your browser. By issuing your own ODS statements, you might interfere with this. That's what this NOTE tells you.

Re: Radish RCBD Nimesh

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 17 May 2026 07:35:43 GMT

Hi and welcome to the communities!

What is your question?

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

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 16 May 2026 13:31:26 GMT

@ivarenho wrote:

I tried the code as you wrote it and It worked well except for the error regarding the CSV file:

ERROR: Physical file does not exist, S:\ \workshop\EPG1V2\data\storm_final.csv.

When you get an ERROR like this while trying to create a file, you either specified a directory path that does not exist, or where you do not have write permission.

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.