checking for file existence

[Tal]

hello people,

the macro below  does not recognize "myinput1" and it only  throws an output :"The file myinput1 does not exist"

why? How can  fix this?  please anyone. Thx

filename myinput1 ftp " 'XYZ.C.M.DATA.XYZZ.G0049V00' " user=** pass=***   host="xyz.com";
                                                    
%let testfile = myinput1;

%macro findit;                                
  %if %sysfunc(fileexist(&testfile)) %then %do;
  %put good;                                       
  %end;                                         
  %else %put The file &testfile does not exist. ;
%mend;                                    
   
%findit;

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Read the documentation for fileexist():

Argument

file-name

is a character constant, variable, or expression that specifies a fully qualified physical filename of the external file in the operating environment.

You can't use a fileref.

[Tal]

thanks a lot sir! 

So there is no way  I can check for existence of file in the mainframe host?

[SASKiwi]

You can only use FILEEXIST to check for the existence of a file that is available locally to SAS, not remotely via an FTP link. You would actually have to try to read the file via FTP to confirm it exists or alternatively a "directory list" - not sure how to do this on a mainframe via FTP.  

[Shmuel]

I'm not sure it will help because you use ftp engine, but you may try:

%macro findit;                                 
  %let fid=%sysfunc(fopen(testfile));
  %if %eval(&fid) > 0  %then %do;
        %put good;                                        
  %end;                                          
  %else %put Cannot open the file &testfile  ;
%mend;      

[Tal]

Just  tried  but not working Shmuel,

Anyway so  I guess  this is not doable then. Thanks for your  help  guys

[Kurt_Bremser]

---

@Tal wrote:

thanks a lot sir! 

So there is no way  I can check for existence of file in the mainframe host?

---

Run a directory listing (filename ftp can do this), and check the output.

[Tal]

Sorry i dont know what you mean

[Kurt_Bremser]

---

@Tal wrote:
Sorry i dont know what you mean

---

Once again, I have to direct you to the SAS documentation:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000178980.htm#a000...

The first example shows how ro retrieve a directory listing from a remote ftp server.

While reading this infile, you can check the input line (_infile_) for the filename with the index() function.

Note that I referenced a 9.2 page, as the 9.4 online documentation seems to be mis-organized at the moment.

Edit: Link for the 9.4 documentation of the FILENAME statement, FTP method:

http://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.2&docsetId=lestmtsglobal&docsetTarget...