L

library engine

an engine that accesses groups of files and puts them into the correct form for processing by SAS utility windows and procedures. A library engine also determines the fundamental processing characteristics of the library, presents lists of files for the library directory, and supports view engines. See also engine, view engine.

libref (library reference)

a name that is temporarily associated with a SAS library. The complete name of a SAS file consists of two words, separated by a period. The libref, which is the first word, indicates the library. The second word is the name of the specific SAS file. For example, in VLIB.NEWBDAY, the libref VLIB tells SAS which library contains the file NEWBDAY. You assign a libref with a LIBNAME statement or with an operating system command.