Reading external files in SAS

[Aexor]

Hello,

Any methods to reacd external files in SAS except INFILE ??

[Tom]

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@Aexor wrote:

Hello,

Any methods to reacd external files in SAS except INFILE ??

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PROC IMPORT can be used to convert external files into SAS datasets.  Check the documentation for the types of files it can read.  Typically you use this to convert data that looks like a dataset, like a spreadsheet (Excel files for example), another database (dBASE, SPSS, STATA, etc)

[ballardw]

SAS/Access has modules to connect to many data sources.

ODBC can be used to connect to some.

The LIBNAME can also connect to some file types.

[mkeintz · Accepted solution]

Would it qualify as not using INFILE if the external file had a "datalines;" statement as its first line.  If so, then such a file can be %INCLUDEd (like c:\temp\t.txt below in the second data step.  

filename f 'c:\temp\t.txt';
data _null_;
  file f;
  put 'datalines;';
  put '1 1 1';
  put '2 2 2';
run;

data t;
  input a b c;
  %include 'c:\temp\t.txt';
run;

Those who are facile with their operating system commands can probably create a pipe with the "datalines;" statement dynamically inserted before streaming the file in question.  Then just %INCLUDE the pipe.

[Kurt_Bremser]

When reading text files, you will always have an INFILE statement, either written by you or by the IMPORT procedure.

What's so bad about INFILE? Did it bite you?

[Aexor]

Thanks 🙂 . I always prefer INFILE .
this question is asked by my colleague though i dont know any other ways except INFILE
so asked for help 🙂

This community is amazing. Thank you all!!