@PaulMcDonald-AZ wrote: Specific application aside, I'm still back with the FWRITE() fucntion and the overwrite (+) character.  Suggestions? Suggestions for what?  I explained what that does.  It does not replace anything in the file.  it just suppresses the LineFeed so when you type the file to the screen the line writes over the previous line. If that is not what you want then don't use it. ... View more

I've always said that SAS Documentation puts the TITLE statements in the wrong place.  FOOTNOTE too.  They really do belong outside/above the PROC and not inside/within. TITLE1 'SAS Baseball data' ; proc print data=sashelp.baseball ; run ; But the documentation always shows this... proc print data=sashelp.baseball ;    TITLE1 'SAS Baseball data' ; run ;   The TITLE statement declared remains in place until changed.  Logically, it belongs outside the PROC and not inside the PROC.  So far, they haven't listened to me on that one... ... View more

I took Bruno's idea and kind of went a little crazy with it...  Here's a macro that I put together that will return the results of a user declared format from any available format library. %macro fmtlist (format) /des='returns all values of a format to a square bracket listing' ;    %local format sblout fmtname liblist numlib i library cntlout startlst endlst hlolst           labellst notes sascode rc start end hlo label dsid memname ;    %let sblout = %sysfunc(getoption(missing)) ;    %if %length(&format)=0 %then %put NOTE: Argument 1 to macro function %nrstr(%FMTLIST) is missing or out of range. ;    %else %do ;       %let format = %upcase(&format) ;       %let fmtname = %sysfunc(compress(&format, %str($.))) ;       %let liblist = %translate(%sysfunc(getoption(fmtsearch)), ' ', '()') ;       %let numlib = %sysfunc(countw(&liblist)) ;       %if &numlib = 0 %then           %put NOTE: No libraries declared in SYSTEM OPTION FMTSEARCH=%sysfunc(getoption(fmtsearch)). ;       %else %do i = 1 %to &numlib ;          %let library = %scan(&liblist, &i, %str(%(%) )) ;          %if %cexist(&library..formats) %then %do ;             %let cntlout = %nextdata(work) ;             %let startlst = %str() ;             %let endlst = %str() ;             %let hlolst = %str() ;             %let labellst = %str() ;             %let notes=%sysfunc(getoption(notes)) ;             %let sascode = %str(options nonotes ;                                 proc format library=&library cntlout=&cntlout (where=(upcase(fmtname)="&fmtname")) ;                                 run ;                                 options &notes;) ;             %let rc = %sysfunc(dosubl(%superq(sascode))) ;             %if %obscnt(&cntlout) > 0 %then %do ;                %let dsid = %sysfunc(open(&cntlout)) ;                %syscall set(dsid) ;                %do %while (%sysfunc(fetch(&dsid)) = 0) ;                   %let startlst = &startlst {%strip(&start)} ;                   %let endlst = &endlst {%strip(&end)} ;                   %let labellst = &labellst {%strip(&label)} ;                   %if %length(&hlo) = 0 %then %let hlolst = &hlolst {.} ;                   %else %let hlolst = &hlolst {%strip(&hlo)} ;                %end ;                %let rc = %sysfunc(close(&dsid)) ;                %let i = &numlib ;                %let sblout = [LIBRARY: &library] [FMTNAME:%strip(&fmtname)] [START:%strip(&startlst)]                              [END:%strip(&endlst)] [HLO:%strip(&hlolst)] [LABEL:%strip(&labellst)] ;                %let memname = %scan(&cntlout, 2) ;                %let sascode = %str(options nonotes ;                                    proc datasets library=work nolist ;                                       delete &memname ;                                    quit ;                                    options &notes ; ) ;                %let rc = %sysfunc(dosubl(%superq(sascode))) ;             %end ;          %end ;       %end ;    %superq(sblout) %mend fmtlist ; Using Bruno's example format above, you could call it like this: %put FORMATS=%fmtlist($gender) ; The results are: 90 %put FORMATS=%fmtlist($gender) ; FORMATS=[LIBRARY: WORK] [FMTNAME:GENDER] [START:{F} {M} {**OTHER**}] [END:{F} {M} {**OTHER**}] [HLO:{.} {.} {O}] [LABEL:{female} {male} {others}] I put these into a "square bracket listing" where the list is parsed and grouped first into square brackets and can be labeled with a colon marker, then braces inside the square brackets to group each  component of the list.  It's not perfect, but can work.  Choose your own delimiters, it won't bug me. You'll note that the returned value shows which LIBRARY the format was found, and it is searched in order declared in the FMTSEARCH= option.  This way, if you have two libraries with the same named format in them, the value you get back will be the one that your program session will find as it goes through the different libraries in order. A few embedded macros I should explain:  %CEXIST is a variation of the CEXIST function and checks to confirm if a catalog exists.  %OBSCNT is my flavor of returning the observations of a data set.  %NEXTDATA returns the next availabe (unused) data set name in the given library (which is then deleted at the end of the macro).  %STRIP is simply a compressed version of %SYSFUNC(STRIP()), and %TRANSLATE is version of %SYSFUNC(TRANSLATE()). In just about every case, I do think it would be easier-faster-better-simpler to use CNTLOUT= on PROC FORMAT, or otherwise search catalogs. But this will do.  Your mileage my vary. ... View more

You could use libname() funtion in data step to get job done. data _null_; response =libref("data"); put response=; if response ne 0 then rc=libname('data','c:\temp'); run; ... View more

I found this to be an interesting exercise and wanted to give it a whirl.  I'm working in a UNIX environment so I wondered what happened with the file information and compare that to the SAS Data Set metadata information.  I have a macro called %UNIX_STAT that runs a stat command on a given file and writes the results to a named SAS data set.  Details include atime (last access date-time), mtime (last modified date-time), and ctime (last change date-time).  I rename those to ACCESS_DATE, MODIFY_DATE, and CHANGE_DATE.   The results were interesting.  In my case, I noticed that the unix file data matched the START TIME of the data step, where the SAS metadata for CRDTE and MODTE marked the END TIME of the data step.  One could use this information to develop further the process of recording and measuring start time, end time, and run time of a data step.   However, those times would only reflect "real time" and not necessarily point to efficiency in a shared environment:  cpu usage, swap, and other measures could come in to play.   The results on a windows or other environment may vary. Here's my test: 31 *test data set ; 32 %put DATETIME=%sysfunc(datetime(), datetime.) ; DATETIME=12APR25:23:39:36 33 data mydata ; 34 do i = 1 to 10 ; 35 sleep = sleep (5, 1) ; 36 output ; 37 end ; 38 run ; NOTE: The data set WORK.MYDATA has 10 observations and 2 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 50.02 seconds cpu time 0.02 seconds 39 %put DATETIME=%sysfunc(datetime(), datetime.) ; DATETIME=12APR25:23:40:26 40 41 %macro datatimer (data) ; 42 %local data dsid crdte modte rc ; 43 %let dsid = %sysfunc(open(&data)) ; 44 45 %if &dsid %then %do ; 46 %let crdte = %sysfunc(attrn(&dsid, crdte), datetime.) ; 47 %let modte = %sysfunc(attrn(&dsid, modte), datetime.) ; 2 The SAS System 22:19 Saturday, April 12, 2025 48 %let rc = %sysfunc(close(&dsid)) ; 49 %end ; 50 51 %put &=crdte &=modte ; 52 %mend datatimer ; 53 54 %datatimer (mydata) ; CRDTE=12APR25:23:39:36 MODTE=12APR25:23:39:36 55 56 %unix_stat (file=%sysfunc(pathname(work))/mydata.sas7bdat, out=stat) ; NOTE: The data set WORK.STAT has 1 observations and 13 variables. NOTE: MACRO %UNIX_STAT used: real time 00:00.14 cpu time unknown 57 58 data _null_ ; 59 set stat ; 60 put access_date= modify_date= change_date= ; 61 run ; access_date=12APR25:23:40:26 modify_date=12APR25:23:40:26 change_date=12APR25:23:40:26 ... View more