reading no. of txt file together

[sas_9]

hi all,

can i read no. of txt files together from one directory? all txt has different no. of variables and different no. of raws. however all txt file has 3 variables in common. I want to combine all txt file into one dataset.

or

i have import seperately each and every txt file and then use SET statement to combine?

please guide...

Thanks.

[ballardw]

If the three variables in common are the first three it may be practical, otherwise it is probably going to be easier to read the three files separately.

[OS2Rules]

You didn't mention whether there are other files / different data types in the directory as well as your text files.

In this case I would run a directory listing into a temporary file and read that back into my program as data.  You can parse your text files from this and use a macro to read all the files - then concatenate with PROC APPEND.  When I read the text files I just read the entire line as a single variable and then parse the data I want out from that using substr or scan functions.  Maybe a more involved process, but tried and true.

[data_null__]

You can use the techniques described in example 2 of this paper to do exactly what you want.  The fields can be in any order or missing.

http://www.lexjansen.com/pharmasug/2011/TT/PharmaSUG-2011-TT04.pdf

I can send you a macrofied version of this program if you are interested.

[sas_9]

@ballardw - fortunately i ahve first 3 variable in common for all .txt file

@ OS2Rule - Thanks for your high level overview

@ data_null - i would really appreciate if i can get Macro regarding same coz i am not that expert at macro at all...

here is the background

this is all about census data sumamry file 1 data @ http://www2.census.gov/census_2010/04-Summary_File_1/. I am collecting data for Delaware state currently.

I have unzip delaware state data and rename all 47 file to .txt file- then saved all 47 .txt file under 'DELAWARE' directory which is stored on desktop.

delaware 'C:\Documents and Settings\xyz\Desktop'             /* delaware contains 47 .txt file) */

/* txt file name like

de0000012010.txt

de0000022010.txt

de0000032010.txt

.

.

.

de00000472010.txt

*/

these are raw data

all 47 .txt file has first 3 obs in common (SF1ST, DE, 000). variable name for all 3 obs mentioned in technical docs online which would be (FILEID=SF1ST, STUSAB=DE, CHARITER=000).

****really appreciate your time...*****;