What is .bak file and do I need it?

[Nietzsche]

I did the following code as shown in the video in the Programming 1 course and it created a .bak file replication of the excel file that I exported.

Do I need this .bak file? some sort of back up? Can I delete it or not create it in the first place?

[Patrick]

It is a backup and you can delete it. Not sure if you can instruct SAS to not create a backup in first place.

[Nietzsche]

Weird when I use same code and no .bak file was created for storm45.xlsx

So SAS just randomly create .bak file or is it based on some rule?

[Nietzsche]

I ran the same code again few times, but this time no .bak was created

libname myxl clear;

has not effect on create of .bak file it seems.