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Specifying Physical Files

Wherever you specify the name of an physical file internally (in a SAS LIBNAME or FILENAME statement, LIBNAME or FILENAME function, in a DATA step, or in a SAS procedure, for example), the name can be in any of these forms:

• a fully qualified data set name such as 'SAS.SAS7.AUTOEXEC' or 'MY.PDS(MEMBER)'

• a partially qualified data set name such as '.CNTL'. SAS inserts the value of the SYSPREF= system option (which is usually userid by default) in front of the period. (See SYSPREF=.) In the following example, an OPTIONS statement is used to assign a value of USER12.SAS7 to the SYSPREF= system option. When SAS executes the FILENAME statement, it interprets '.RAW.DATAX' as 'USER12.SAS7.RAW.DATAX'.

  
  options syspref=user12.sas7;
  filename raw2 '.raw.datax' disp=old;

• a temporary data set name such as '&MYTEMP'.

  Note that names of physical files should be enclosed in quotes.

• Data sets in the directory structure of UNIX System Services or in a partitioned data set (PDS, PDSE) can be specified as a concatenation or with a wildcard. See Allocating External Files.

Here are examples of the INCLUDE command that illustrate the various ways you can specify physical files:

INCLUDE MYPGM

MYPGM is a fileref that was previously associated with the external file.

INCLUDE MYPGM(PGM1)

PGM1 is a member of the partitioned data set that is associated with the fileref MYPGM.

INCLUDE 'USERID.TEST.PGMS'

sequential data set name.

INCLUDE 'USERID.TEST.PGMS(AAA)'

data set name with member specified.

INCLUDE 'HFS:MYPGM'

name of a UNIX System Services file in the hierarchical file system. Alternate syntax of MVS: can be used if the FILESYSTEM= system option (see FILESYSTEM=) is set to HFS.

INCLUDE '/u/userid/test/pgms/aaa'

name of a UNIX System Services file.

INCLUDE '.TEST.MYPGM'

the first part of the name is the value of the SAS system option SYSPREF=, which defaults to the user's system prefix.

Handling of Nonstandard Member Names

You can use the SAS system option FILEEXT= to specify how extensions in member names of partitioned data sets are to be handled. See FILEEXT= for more information.

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