SAS/SPECTRAVIEW Software User's Guide

Assigning Librefs to Data

The SAS System requires that data stored in a SAS library or a specific SAS data set in a SAS library must have a libref (library reference) assigned to it. A libref is an arbitrary name that you make up to symbolically represent a SAS library. The SAS System uses a libref to associate a SAS library with its physical location.

The SAS System automatically provides the librefs SASUSER and WORK. SASUSER is for permanent SAS data sets; WORK is for temporary SAS data sets that are discarded at the end of a SAS session. You must assign librefs for any data library other than the libraries associated with SASUSER and WORK.

To assign a libref, issue the LIBNAME statement. You must assign a libref outside SAS/SPECTRAVIEW, for example, from the SAS PROGRAM EDITOR window. The most common form of the LIBNAME statement contains only the libref and the physical location for the SAS library, for example:

libname mylib 'mypath';

Note: You can include LIBNAME statements in an autoexec file, which is an external file containing SAS statements that are executed automatically when the SAS System is invoked. Then each time you bring up the SAS System, your librefs are automatically assigned. [cautionend]

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