Programmatically determine which ODS destinations are open

[Robert_Bardos]

(SAS release 9.1.3)

Is there a way to programmatically determine which ODS destinations are open (other than meticulously tracking all opens and closes myself) ? SAS can warn us about "No active ODS destinations" so it has this information available somewhere.Would be nice if this information could be externalized.

Why would I want to know this? In short: so that I can temporarily close one destination, write to another destination (let's say a quick diagnostic proc print to the listing destination) and then resume writing to the first destination. Think of this quick diagnostic proc print as a swiss army knife like include member or macro that could just be dropped into existing code without doing any harm to currently active destinations.

Clear as mud? A reply along the lines "Nope, can't be done but makes for a nice suggestion for the next ballot" would suffice. Am hitting the dictionary tables next.

Regards
Robert (whose consulting gig is about to end on Thursday which means 'no SAS, no z/OS' for an unforeseeable period ... sigh)

[sbb]

Available with SAS 9.2 per SAS support website - DICTIONARY.DESTINATIONS or SASHELP.VDEST otherwise.


See this tech/usage note revealed from the search argument below:
Usage Note 33590: You can determine the open ODS destinations programmatically
http://support.sas.com/kb/33/590.html

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Suggested Google advanced search argument, this topic / post:

determine current ods destination status site:sas.com

[Robert_Bardos]

Great, thanks Scott (once again I should say as Scott has been a 'most valuable' resource back in my MICS days already).

9.2 is installed here but not in production yet. I'll mention the possibility to the guys here.


Greetings from Berlin (and soon from Zurich again)
Robert