The DATASETS Procedure

AGE Statement

Renames a group of related SAS files in a library.

Featured in: Aging SAS Data Sets

AGE current-name related-SAS-file(s)
</ <ALTER=alter-password>
<MEMTYPE=mtype>>;

Required Arguments

current-name: is a SAS file that the procedure renames. current-name receives the name of the first name in related-SAS-file(s).
related-SAS-file(s): is one or more SAS files in the SAS data library.

Options

ALTER=alter-password

provides the alter password for any alter-protected SAS files named in the AGE statement. Because an AGE statement renames and deletes SAS files, you need alter access to use the AGE statement. You can use the ALTER= option in parentheses after the name of each SAS file or after a forward slash.

MEMTYPE=mtype

restricts processing to one member type (mtype). All the SAS files you name in the AGE statement must be the same member type.

Aliases:	MTYPE=, MT=
Default:	If you do not specify MEMTYPE= in the PROC DATASETS statement, the default is DATA.
See also:	Restricting Member Types Available for Processing

Details

The AGE statement renames current-name to the name of the first name in related-SAS-file(s), renames the first name in related-SAS-file(s) to the second name in related-SAS-file(s), and so on until it changes the name of the next-to-last SAS file in related-SAS-file(s) to the last name in related-SAS-file(s). The AGE statement then deletes the last file in related-SAS-file(s).
If the first SAS file named in the AGE statement does not exist in the SAS data library, PROC DATASETS stops processing the RUN group containing the AGE statement and issues an error message. The AGE statement does not age any of the related-SAS-file(s). To override this behavior, use the NOWARN option in the PROC DATASETS statement.
If one of the related-SAS-file(s) does not exist, the procedure prints a warning message to the SAS log but continues to age the SAS files that it can.
If you age a data set that has an index, the index continues to correspond to the data set.

You can age only entire generation groups. For example, if A and B are generation groups, then the following statement deletes generation group B and ages (renames) generation group A to the name B:

age a b;

For example, suppose the generation group A has 3 historical generations and the generation group B has 2 historical generations. Then aging A to B has this effect:

Old Name GENNUM New Name GENNUM

A
B

A 1 B 1

A 2 B 2

A 3 B 3

B
is deleted

B 1 is deleted

B 2 is deleted

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Old Name	GENNUM	New Name	GENNUM
A		B
A	1	B	1
A	2	B	2
A	3	B	3
B		is deleted
B	1	is deleted
B	2	is deleted