"INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

dheaney

I am trying to delete a file and it had created a copy of itself in my library and my data. I am unable to delete it because it says "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Tom

@dheaney wrote:

I am trying to delete a file and it had created a copy of itself in my library and my data. I am unable to delete it because it says "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

How are you trying to delete it?

Did you run code? Show the code and the log from the execution of the code.

Did you use some interactive feature? What interactive tool are you using? What action did you take (what menu did you use)?

tom_grant

Can you post a screenshot of the file in the directory?

SAS Skill Builder for Students

dheaney

I got this error

{}

[TRACEBACK]

tom_grant

You should be able to find the file on the Server Files and Folders tab (in one of your subfolders under Files(Home)) & then just right-click -> Delete.

SAS Skill Builder for Students

dheaney

It won't allow me to delete it

dheaney

I get a pop up:
Invalid physical name

tom_grant

Can you post a screenshot of the file in your Server Files and Folders tab?

SAS Skill Builder for Students

dheaney

I would like to delete the following:

MyData
- student_performance_factors2.sas7bdat
- Student_performance_factors2.sas7bdat
My Library
- student_performance_factors2.sas7bdat

JackieJ_SAS

Hi,

Try the PROC DATASETS code in the solution of this other post:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Software-for-Learning/Deleting-Files-in-SAS-Studio-SAS-on-Demand-...

The code deletes all the datasets in a library. PROC datasets allows you to delete individual datasets as well, but that may not work given the problem you are having with the filename. I suggest you copy any datasets you want to keep to another folder, then delete all the datasets in the folder that contains the datasets you want to delete.

JackieJ_SAS

By the way- I think the issue here is the mixed casing in the dataset names. I think SAS is expecting dataset names in all lower case. If you create a dataset using code within SODA, it will always have a name in all lowercase, but you may have imported a file with mixed case.

dheaney

HI Jackie,
I tried to do that and got the following.
WARNING: Library MYLIB does not exist.
ERROR: Library MYLIB does not exist.
Devon

JackieJ_SAS

That error is telling you that you aren't pointing to the correct folder. Make sure to change the folder path in the code to the folder where the files are.

dheaney

I do not know what to change

JackieJ_SAS

OK. Here is the original code:

libname mylib "~/MyFolder";

proc datasets library=mylib kill;
run; quit;

The part you want to change is what is in quotes:

"~/MyFolder";

On SODA, your Files(Home) is your root directory, and you can call that with:

"~/"

I see you want to delete datasets from two subfolders-- MyData and MyLibrary.

So run the code once like this:

libname mylib "~/MyData";

proc datasets library=mylib kill;
run; quit;

Then run it again like this:

libname mylib "~/MyLibrary";

proc datasets library=mylib kill;
run; quit;

Make sense?

"INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

Re: "INVALID PHYSICAL NAME"

SAS Innovate 2025: Call for Content

Classroom Training Available!