Adding variable names to an imported txt file

[tcg15d0]

I have imported a TXT file into my sas document that does not have any variable names and is being run as one column instead of 3. Please help, I'm lost

[ChrisBrooks]

Can you post a sample of the input data and show us how you tried to import it e.g. code or via a wizard.

[ballardw]

How do you know it is supposed to be three variables? Did you tell the method you used that information?

If you know because there is a delimiter such as a comma between each variable then your import method needs to be told to separate values with a comma. If you know that the values are in fixed columns then you need that information somewhere in the process.

If the data is not sensitive you might paste a few example lines into a codebox opened using the forum {i} menu icon. I suggest the codebox as the main message windows will reformat certain text elements and the pasted data may not be reliable for diagnosing the problem.

If your file has no column headers to use as variable names, or you don't like the ones used the SAS Proc Datasets can modify existing names, labels or formats for the variables. The code would look something like:

proc datasets library=work nolist nodetails;
    modify have;
     rename  
      var1=MyNameForVar1
      var2=MyNameForVar2
      var3=MyNameForVar3
     ;
quit;

the library would be the one that you placed the data set in, use your data set in place of Have in the above code, and change the old variable names var1 var2 var3 to the new ones using the pattern above.

Note that Proc datasets is one of the few procs that use Quit to end the proc because it can run in interactive mod and each modify or other action can be submitted individually when using interactive mode.