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FILE

FILE

Specifies the current output file for PUT statements

Valid: in a DATA step
OS/2 specifics: Valid values for file-specification; valid options for host-option-list

Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

FILE file-specification <option-list> <host-option-list>;

file-specification
can be any of the file specification forms discussed in Referencing External Files.

Note:    The words CON, NUL, PRN, LPT0 - LPT9, and COM1 - COM9 are reserved words under OS/2. Do not use them as filerefs.  [cautend]

host-option-list
names external I/O statement options that are specific to the OS/2 operating environment. They can be any of the following:

BLKSIZE=block-size
BLK=block-size
specifies the number of bytes that are physically read or written in an I/O operation. The default is 8K. The maximum is 1M.

BLOCK | NOBLOCK
is used only in the context of named pipes. This option indicates whether the client is to wait if no data are currently available. BLOCK is the default value.

BYTE | MESSAGE
is used only in the context of named pipes. This option indicates the type of pipe. BYTE is the default value.

COMMAND
is used only in the context of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). This option enables you to issue a remote command for applications that do not use the SYSTEM topic name. For more information, see to Referencing the DDE External File and Controlling Another Application Using DDE.

EOFCONNECT
is used only in the context of named pipes and is valid only when defining the server. This option indicates that if an end-of-file (EOF) character is received from a client, the server should try to connect to the next client.

HOTLINK
is used only in the context of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). For a complete description and an example of using this option, see Using the DDE HOTLINK.

LRECL=record-length
specifies the record length (in bytes). Under OS/2, the default is 256. The value of record-length can range from 1 to 1,048,576 (1 megabyte).

MOD
specifies that output should be appended to an existing file.

NOTAB
is used only in the context of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). This option enables you to use non-tab character delimiters between variables. For more information about this option, see Using the NOTAB Option with DDE.

OLD
is not supported by the SAS System under OS/2.

RECFM=record-format
controls the record format. The following values are valid under OS/2:
F indicates fixed format.
N indicates binary format and causes the file to be treated as a byte stream.
P indicates print format.
S370V indicates the variable S370 record format (V).
S370VB indicates the variable block S370 record format (VB).
S370VBS indicates the variable block with spanned records S370 record format (VBS).
V | D indicates variable format. This is the default.

The S370 values are valid with OS/390-style files only-that is, files that are binary, have variable-length records, and are in EBCDIC format. If you want to use a fixed-format OS/390 (formerly known as MVS) file, first copy it to a variable-length, binary OS/390 file.

RETRY=seconds
is used only in the context of named pipes. This option specifies how long a named pipe client should wait for a busy pipe. The minimum (and default) value for seconds is 10.

SERVER | CLIENT
is used only in the context of named pipes. This option specifies the mode of a named pipe. The default value is SERVER.

Details

The FILE statement routes the output from the PUT statement to either the same external file to which procedure output is written or to a different external file.
See Also


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