Distinguish types of SAS Programs in Windows Explorer

[SAShole]

Apologies if this is outside the scope of this forum.

My issue is that I have a folder that has 100 SAS programs, 50 are production programs and the other 50 are validation. These programs get generated by an automated process and therefore list the Windows Explorer 'Owner' as the machine that ran the automated process.

My issue is that I need a way for a programmer to be able to easily distinguish between 'production' programs and 'validation' programs. For example, if the production programmer and validation programmer had created these programs on their respective machines they could easily use filter on the Owner field to get their programs.

The files in the directory look like this, where the v prefix indicates a validation program and the non-prefixed are production:

01_VS.sas

01_vVS.sas

02_CHEM.sas

02_vCHEM.sas

03_HEMA.sas

03_vHEMA.sas

Is there a way I can add an attribute to these files to make them easily sortable?  e.g. when the automated process creates these sas programs can a descirption or tag be added? 

Any other thoughts on how to get around this? An alternative would be to keep production / validation in separate folders i suppose.

[SASKiwi]

Keeping the two types in separate folders is the easiest option in my opinion.

[ballardw]

I am not aware of any easy way to add attribute to files or how to tell Windows Explorer to use them.

If you change your naming convention so that a sort works is the only way I could do this in a single folder. That would mean the First characters would have to indicate the Production/validation status such as : V-03_Hema.SAS

Windows doesn't really do case on file names very well either so these might be tad problematic to begin with:

01_VS.sas

01_vVS.sas

[Risamon]

I see it's been a while since you've posted, but I just wanted to ask—has anyone tried using third-party tools to tag or color code SAS programs in File Explorer based on type or purpose? I’ve been thinking about setting some file naming rules combined with desktop search tools like Everything to make this easier. Curious if anyone’s found a method that sticks.

[SASKiwi]

As I mentioned above, grouping SAS programs by type, project or purpose into different folders is my preferred solution. With modern version control tools like GIT or Visual Studio it is easy to manage multiple folders.

I also use a naming convention that involves prefixing programs with a number like nnn_MyProgram.sas. In my case the number indicates run order and process type - 1nn_*.sas programs typically read data, 2nn_*.sas programs typically transform, 3nn_*.sas programs typically report and analyse. Having your own name convention I've found to be very useful.

[Risamon]

I added custom properties to my SAS files using the Windows file properties dialog, like tags or authors, to help me sort them better in Explorer. This felt a bit like managing game development assets effectively, where labeling and organizing tons of scripts helps speed things up later. You can also just rename files with clear prefixes like "ETL_", "Report_", or "Test_" to spot types quickly.