Create a data set to be referenced that lives in SAS

[SmcGarrett]

Hello,

I have a data set in Excel which lists attributes of about 5000 variables. When I read in data into SAS, I build a dataset and if I need to add these attributes I have to these attributes I do a merge ...similar to a vlookup... to retrieve the additional information from the excel sheet and put it into the SAS data set I'm creating. Is there a way I could read the excel sheet into SAS, and save it in such a way that whenever I need to do a merge or request information from that sheet, it's not tied to the excel sheet? 

Garrett

[Reeza]

Save the dataset in a permanent library. 

Libname mydata 'C:\Project1';

Data mydata.attributes;
Set attributes;
Run;

Then the next time you need to use it, create the libname reference and use the saved dataset as (mydata.atteibutes). 

[ballardw]

I'm not quite sure if you have ever read this data into SAS. Have you? If so then creating and assigning a permanent library as @Reeza suggests is the way to go.

If you have never  actually read the data into SAS then I would suggest 1) save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. Use the import wizard to import the data. If you have a permanent library with your other data then import it into that library.