list all the datasets in a folder and number of observations in each dataset

[SSH2]

Hi,

I need to write a program to create a table with 2 columns. One column lists all the datasets names in a folder, one column lists the number of observations for the corresponding dataset.  Is there an easy way to do it? My code worked but it is looks not efficient and not neat enough.

Thank you.

[MarkWik]

Hi @SSH2  Can you please share your code that you deem inefficient? I think it's a good practice to eliminate duplicate redundancies to avoid somebody to come up with the same code you wrote. Thank you

[Reeza]

Are these SAS data sets?

If so use SASHELP.VTABLE.

data want;
set sashelp.vtable;
where libname='WORK';
keep libname memname nobs;
run;

[SSH2]

Thank you very much Reeza!

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

Or similar to @Reeza's approach if looking for SAS datasets.

Proc sql;
   create table want as
   select memname, nobs
   from dictionary.tables 
   where libname='LIBRARY'
   ;
run;

The library name should be in uppercase as that is the way SAS stores the information.

If the folder doesn't currently have a library associated then run a libname statement pointing to that library before the Proc SQL.

I use the dictionary table version as I have a moderate number of permanently libraries and the SQL version runs notably faster than the datastep version for most tasks.

This will send the various things you may request from the dictionary.tables to the Log:

Proc sql;
   describe table dictionary.tables 
   ;
run;

[SSH2]

Thank you very much!!