Import CSV into SAS

[LearnByMistk]

How to check tab delimited file metadata before importing in sas via proc import ,I mean suppose I write a proc import with columns a,b,c with their informat and format in place but in second data refresh if I get a new column D ,how to check it before proc import fails.

[Kurt_Bremser]

proc import (most probably) won't fail, as it always does its best to make sense of input data, but the result will not match your previous results (structurally).

The proper method for handling such issues is that you have an agreement in place where the structure of files is described, and the agreement has to be changed and communicated so that import steps can be adapted. Production import steps have to be data steps that have the file structure hardcoded, no proc import there.

[andreas_lds]

Afaik tab-delimited files don't have any metadata in them.

Proc import does not allow to set (in)formats, so you will have to use a data step.

[Tom]

You can read the header line and check.

Say your input file is NEWCSV and expected structure is described by the SAS datasets TEMPLATE.

* Read headers from new delimited file ;
data new_names ;
  length name $50 ;
  infile newcsv obs=1 dsd dlm='09'x ;
  input name @@ ;
run;

* Get names from template structure ;
proc transpose data=template(obs=0) out=old_names;
  var _all_;
run;

* Compare;
proc compare data=old_names compare=new_names;
run;

PROC COMPARE will actually set a macro variable you can test to see if there are differences.  Or you can use some other methods to compare.