Reading a zipped JSON into SAS dataset

[A_SAS_Man]

I am attempting to read a JSON.gz file into SAS. I first tried using the JSON libname engine but I believe since the file is zipped it is having trouble, so I am now attempting to access the zip file first using the ZIP functionality in SAS, but am unsure if I can then use use the JSON engine after that.

I have a file stored on disk and I start with the following.

filename inzip ZIP '/data/file.json.gz';

This seems to run successfully, but I am unable to reference the filename inzip using the json libname engine, I have tried several ways but in general I'm trying to reference the filename within the libname statement like below which I realize is wrong. Is there a way to do this better or a correction to what I'm attempting? Any help is appreciated.

libname myfiles json '/data/inzip';

[Tom · Accepted solution]

You can just use the same name for the FILEREF and the LIBREF.  At least that works for normal files.  But test it as many other SAS tools (like PROC IMPORT) do not work right when the fileref is using a complex engine like ZIP.

Also to read a GZIP file you need to add the GZIP keyword. Otherwise the ZIP engine is expecting an actual ZIP file and not a GZIP file.

filename myfiles ZIP '/data/file.json.gz' GZIP;
libname myfiles json ;