Check and delete windows directory

[jp007_uk]

I would like to check if a windows directory is empty, if so delete it otherwise end.

Is this possible via SAS Base 9.4 and Windows 7

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Its possible, and there are a few options.  You could stream in a dir pipe (not tested):

filename tmp pipe 'dir "c:\temp" /b';

data _null_;

  infile tmp dlm="¬";

  input buffer $;

  if buffer="your dir" then found=1;

run;

Or you could do it in a macro:

http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Tips:Check_if_a_directory_exists

And to delete:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000245893.htm

The question is, why.  I generally try to avoid doing OS manipulations through SAS, especially through macro, as an unresolved macro, or problem url could lead to all kinds of problems.  Most of the time I find there are systematci problems if your having to do this anyways.