SAS VA Autoload - Number of Observations

[ScottJP]

Hello - We've recently started using the Autoload feature on our SAS server to load small files into Visual Analytics. However, some CSV files, depending on how they are ordered, may have 50% blank values in some columns. When Autoloaded, SAS is obviously reading 'n' number of observations to determine the type, meaning that observations that DO have values at the end of the dataset get truncated or the fields are of the wrong type to use. The only workaround we can think of is having dummy data in the CSV files. We did try using the Data Prep tool to build a LASR table FROM the one that Autlooad created, but it's too late by that point. 

Does anyone know if there is a way to set the number of observations analysed by the Autoload process somewhere please?

We're using SAS Management Console 9.4 on Windows 2012 Server, and our Autload folder is the default (\Lev1\AppData\SASVisualAnalytics\VisualAnalyticsAdministrator\AutoLoad).

Thanks in advance, 

Scott

[alexal · Accepted solution]

@ScottJP,

Open SAS Management Console -> right-click on the LASR server library -> Properties -> Extended Attributed and increase the value of attribute VA.AutoLoad.Import.RowsToScan.

VA.AutoLoad.Import.RowsToScan
specifies the number of rows to scan to determine the data type and length for each column in an imported table. You can specify a positive integer or the value ALL. The default value is 500. For the administrative reporting library, EVDMLA, the initial value is ALL.

[ScottJP]

Thanks very much - this works 🙂 

[alexal]

@ScottJP,

You are welcome!