Importing multiple (14)text dlm file into SAS at the same time

[philjones820]

Hello, I have a folder of 14 text delimited files that I need to import into SAS. Is it possible to import them all in at the same time rather than one at a time and is there any sample code and macro that anyone could recommend? Is there possibly a way to loop through each file from 1 to 14 and pull all 14 of the files in simultaneously?

[mkeintz]

Are the files identically formatted?  That would make it a far simpler programming structure to process all of them in a single data step.

If they are all the same format then you could list all 14 filenames in a single FILENAME statement.  The list would be a comma-separated list of file names, all wrapped in parentheses:

filename inall ('c:\temp\t1.txt','c:\temp\t2.txt');
data want;
  infile inall;
  input a b c .... ;
run;

BTW, I don't know what "text delimited" means. Comma delimited, TAB delimited yes - but text delimited?   I suppose you mean you have field delimiters in the 14 files.  If so, then modify the INFILE statement accordingly - using whatever options you would use for any single file (again, assuming all files have the same delimiter).

There is no doubt a limit on the length of the delimited file list, but I assume SAS will tolerate a list of 14 files.  

I put the INPUT statement there as a placeholder for whatever variables you will be sasifying.