Track program dataset dependencies

[xio]

Hi all,

how would you track dataset dependencies for a program? That is, given a program, is there a reliable way to tell which datasets it uses?

Simply grep'ing the program source code might not work as the datasets could potentially be referenced using macro variables. Grep'ing SAS log sounds like a better idea, but if a dataset is used by a proc sql, it won't show up in the log unless the proc sql is envoked with "_method" argument, plus modifying the existing codebase isn't always feasible.

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Run proc scaproc before and after your code run (assuming you have 9.2 or greater) and this will give you information about inputs/outputs, macros etc:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/61895/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a003199745.htm

[xio]

You know what, that's perfect.