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INFILE

INFILE


Specifies an external file to read with an INPUT statement

Valid: in a DATA step
Windows specifics: Valid values for file-specification; valid values for host-options

Syntax
See Also

Syntax

INFILE file-specification <options> <host-options>;

file-specification
identifies the source of input data records, usually an external file. The file-specification argument can be any of the file specification forms discussed in Referencing External Files. The reserved fileref CARDS enables the INFILE statement to reference instream data.

Note:   The words CON, NUL, PRN, LPT1 - LPT9, and COM1 - COM9 are reserved words under Windows. Do not use them as filerefs.  [cautionend]

host-options
names external I/O statement options that are specific to the Windows 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. The default value is BLOCK.

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

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 Windows, the default is 256. The value of record-length can range from 1 to 1,048,576 (1 megabyte).

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

RECFM=record-format
controls the record format. The following are valid values under Windows:
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.

See Also


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Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.