Changing SAS File Formats
Changing a File's Format at the Source or Target Machine
You can change a SAS file's format at the source or target machine.
At the Source Machine
Create a SAS file in the format of the "foreign" target machine. Transfer the file to the target machine.
At the Target Machine
Transfer the file from the source machine to the target machine. At the target machine, change the file to the format of the native target machine.
Using the OUTREP= Option in the LIBNAME Statement
In order to create a SAS file in a "foreign" format for a supported member type, use the OUTREP= option in the LIBNAME statement.
The OUTREP= option applies the designated format to all SAS files that are created in the specified library.
| Note | Whereas the OUTREP= option in the LIBNAME statement applies to all files being created in the specified library, the OUTREP= option in the DATA step applies only to the specific data set being created. |
| Note | MDDB files cannot be updated on a target machine. CEDA supports MDDB files for read-only access. |
Example:
libname grades '/dev/app/unc' outrep=windows;
The libref GRADES points to the location for the application and its data sets. The data set output is represented in Windows format.
For supported values for the OUTREP= option, see the LIBNAME statement in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary .
Using the OUTREP= Data Set Option in the DATA Step
In order to create a SAS file in a "foreign" format for a supported member type, use the OUTREP= option in the DATA step.
The OUTREP= option applies the designated format to the specified data set.
| Note | Whereas the OUTREP= option in the DATA step applies only to the specific data set being created, the OUTREP= option in the LIBNAME statement applies to all files being created in the specified library. |
Example:
data chem.grades (outrep=HP_UX); input student $ test1 test2 final; datalines; Fred 66 80 70 Wilma 97 91 98 run;
The data set GRADES is created in HP_UX format.
For supported values for the OUTREP= option, see the DATA step in SAS LanguageReference: Dictionary .
Viewing the SAS Log at the Source Machine
Viewing the SAS log verifies that the output of the data set (UNIX) is in a format that is foreign to the native environment (Windows).
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The SAS System 10:15 Friday, December 19, 2003 1 The CONTENTS Procedure Data Set Name WORK.GRADES Observations 1 Member Type DATA Variables 4 Engine V9 Indexes 0 Created 11:03 Friday, December 19, 2003 Observation Length 32 Last Modified 11:03 Friday, December 19, 2003 Deleted Observations 0 Protection Compressed NO Data Set Type Sorted NO Label Data Representation HP_UX_64, RS_6000_AIX_64, SOLARIS_64, HP_IA64 [1] Encoding latin1 Western (ISO) Engine/Host Dependent Information Data Set Page Size 4096 Number of Data Set Pages 1 First Data Page 1 Max Obs per Page 126 Obs in First Data Page 1 Number of Data Set Repairs 0 File Name C:\TEMP\SAS Temporary Files\_TD228\grades.sas7bdat Release Created 9.0000M0 Host Created WIN_NT [2] Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes # Variable Type Len 4 final Num 8 1 student Char 8 2 test1 Num 8 3 test2 Num 8
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| [1] | The data set is represented in HP_UX format, which is "foreign" to the native Windows environment. |
| [2] | The native format is WIN_NT. |
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 109