SAS Programming

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arunvaibhav
Obsidian | Level 7

Hello All,

 

I'm trying to understand the basic difference between PROC CONTENTS and PROC DATASETS, but have no clear idea.

 

Can any one please explain the basic difference between these along with some examples?

 

Appreciate your effort.

 

Thanks.

3 REPLIES 3
Reeza
Super User

Proc contents is a subset of proc datasets, but PROC datasets can do more than proc contents, for example modify variable labels or formats. Proc contents can read sequential files, PROC datasets, contents statement cannot. 

 

 

arunvaibhav
Obsidian | Level 7

I'm sorry. Can you please provide some more details?

Thanks for the quick response. 

What is a sequential file in this context? Why PROC DATASETS cannot read it?

 

Thanks!

RW9
Diamond | Level 26 RW9
Diamond | Level 26

Yes, this is exactly what the Manual is for:

Proc contents:

https://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/hostwin/63047/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p02vdgvofvi65sn12...

 

Proc datasets:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/hostwin/63047/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n0yyy9zscyifkln1i8...

 

Contents lists the dataset metadata (structure).  Datasets does a lot more on top of that.

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