Unwanted deletion of WORK data when using multiple %INCLUDE statements

[techsassy]

Hello,

We have several SAS programs which utilize proc sql statements to pull different information. We have a master program which uses multiple %INCLUDE statements to run each of these programs and then parse the combined data. This master program runs fine in base SAS 9.4 but errors when attempting to run in SAS Enterprise Guide 9.4.

Reviewing the SAS log, I see that upon reading each new %INCLUDE statement, SAS is deleting all previous WORK datasets which were holding the datasets from the previous %INCLUDE statements.

Is there any way to prevent SAS from clearing the WORK data between %INCLUDE statements?

Please note that I would strongly prefer to not have to store this data in a permanent library; I would like to keep all data in the WORK library, if possible.

Thank you in advance for any help offered!

[collinelliot · Accepted solution]

Are you sure there is not code embedded in the %include files that is running proc datasets to delete files? WORK files should not be deleted just because they were generated as part of a %include.

[techsassy]

Yes, we happened to discover a deeply-buried kill statement shortly after posting. Thank you for the quick replies!

[Reeza]

Have you changed anything else in how you manage the code? 

Or is it a literal change of open program, run in EG, errors out?

Either way, this would be a good question to talk to SAS support because if there's an issue they either will or should know about it 🙂