Keep only part of a symput address path stationary

[podarum]

I have a daily symput address path that I get from another team, the only changes to this path is the current day.  For example the name of this path is ABC_202305150700 and the next day it's ABC_202305160700, and so on every day - so I can hardcode the input path as ABC_TODAYSDATE0700.  However, the team that sends this file sometimes randomly changes the name to ABC_TODAYSDATE0701, and they don't know why this is happening.  Is there a way I can read this file and omit the last 4 digits of the path.. so if the name randomly changes it doesn't affect my input path address name?  Thank you

[PaigeMiller]

You can scan your operating system for the folder/path name. The exact instructions depend on what operating system you are using.

[Tom]

Looks like the last 4 digits represent the hour and minute.  So one some days there is a delay and the job doesn't run until 7:01 am instead at 7 am.

It is probably best if you get the list of filenames and then decide which one you want to read.

If you have XCMD option enabled you can just use a PIPE to run the operating system command to list the file names and read the output.

data files ;
  infile 'ls -d /path_where_files_live/ABC_*'  pipe truncover;
  input filename $256. ;
run;

Otherwise use some tool like https://github.com/sasutils/macros/blob/master/dirtree.sas that use SAS functions to read the filenames.

You could then find the filename with a DATE part of its name that matches today.

data todays_file;
  set files;
  date = input(substr(scan(filename,-1,'/'),5,??yymmdd8.);
  time = input(substr(scan(filename,-1,'/'),13,??hhmmss4.);
  format date yymmdd10. time tod5. ;
  if date=today();
run;

Now use that filename in your code. Either directly or by using CALL SYMPUTX() to create a macro variable you could reference in the code.

[ballardw]

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@podarum wrote:

I have a daily symput address path that I get from another team, the only changes to this path is the current day.  For example the name of this path is ABC_20230550700 and the next day it's ABC_202305160700, and so on every day - so I can hardcode the input path as ABC_TODAYSDATE0700.  However, the team that sends this file sometimes randomly changes the name to ABC_TODAYSDATE0701, and they don't know why this is happening.  Is there a way I can read this file and omit the last 4 digits of the path.. so if the name randomly changes it doesn't affect my input path address name?  Thank you

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Really, they can't read the code that assigns the value? Any bet they are pulling something from a clock and rounding? Sometimes the process takes just a tiny bit longer and rounds up to one more minute? I think the first time I saw values behave like this involved tape reading/writing in 1987 or so...

Maybe someone needs and introduction to a truncation function instead of a rounding function? If you don't have multiple files generated in a day then why do they bother appending something that looks very likely to be a TIME value? The system should be keeping track of such when needed.