how to write-protect variables of a SAS dataset

[dataMart87]

Is there a way to write-protect a variable of a SAS dataset?  Running on SAS 9.4.

[SASKiwi]

This isn't possible directly, but you could take a copy of the original dataset, amend the copy, then update the original table dropping any columns you didn't want updated. But what happens if you allow addition or deletion of rows? By definition you are changing the protected variables.

[ChrisNZ]

SAS does not offer this level of granularity. You can protect tables, but not variables or observations (except with SAS/SHARE, which can lock rows).