SAS/ACCESS Interface to SYSTEM 2000 Data Management Software: Reference

Updating a SAS Data File with SYSTEM 2000 Data

You can update a SAS data file with SYSTEM 2000 data described by a view descriptor just as you can update a SAS data file using another data file: by using a DATA step UPDATE statement. In this section, the term transaction data refers to the new data that are to be added to the original file. Because the SAS/ACCESS interface to SYSTEM 2000 uses the Version 6 compatibility engine, the transaction data are from a Version 6 source. The original file can be a Version 6 data file or a Version 7 data file. See the following sections for an example.

Updating a Version 6 Data File

You can update a Version 6 SAS data file with SYSTEM 2000 data described by a view descriptor the same as you did with Version 6 of the SAS System. Suppose you have a Version 6 data file, V6.BIRTHDY, that contains Marketing employee names and birthdays. The file is out-of-date, and you want to update it with data described by VLIB.EMPBD. To perform the update, enter the following SAS code:

    proc sort data=v6.birthdy;
       by lastname;
    run; 
 
    data mydata.newbday;
       update v6.birthdy vlib.empbd;
       by lastname firstnme;
    run;

In this example, the updated SAS data file, MYDATA.NEWBDAY, is a Version 6 data file. When the UPDATE statement references the view descriptor VLIB.EMPBD and uses a BY statement in the DATA step, the BY statement causes the interface view engine to automatically generate a SYSTEM 2000 ordering-clause for the variable LASTNAME. Thus, the ordering-clause causes the SYSTEM 2000 data to be presented to the SAS System in a sorted order so they can be used to update the MYDATA.NEWBDAY data file. The data file V6.BIRTHDY had to be sorted before the update, because the UPDATE statement expects the data to be sorted by the BY variable.

Data File to Be Updated, V6.BIRTHDY, Data Described by the View Descriptor, VLIB.EMPBD, and Updated Data File, MYDATA. NEWBDAY show the results of the PRINT procedure on the original data file, the transaction data, and the updated data file.

Data File to Be Updated, V6.BIRTHDY

V6.BIRTHDY Data File 1 OBS LASTNAME FIRSTNME BIRTHDAY 1 JONES FRANK 22MAY53 2 MCVADE CURTIS 25DEC54 3 SMITH VIRGINIA 14NOV49 4 TURNER BECKY 26APR50

Data Described by the View Descriptor, VLIB.EMPBD

Data Described by VLIB.EMPBD 1 OBS LASTNAME FIRSTNME BIRTHDAY 1 AMEER DAVID 10OCT51 2 BROOKS RUBEN R. 25FEB52 3 BROWN VIRGINA P. 24MAY46 4 CHAN TAI 04JUL46 5 GARRETT OLAN M. 23JAN35 6 GIBSON GEORGE J. 23APR46 7 GOODSON ALAN F. 21JUN50 8 JUAREZ ARMANDO 28MAY47 9 LITTLEJOHN FANNIE 17MAY54 10 RICHARDSON TRAVIS Z. 30NOV37 11 RODRIGUEZ ROMUALDO R 09FEB29 12 SCHOLL MADISON A. 19MAR45 13 SHROPSHIRE LELAND G. 04SEP49 14 SMITH JERRY LEE 13SEP42 15 VAN HOTTEN GWENDOLYN 13SEP42 16 WAGGONNER MERRILEE D 27APR36 17 WILLIAMSON JANICE L. 19MAY52

Updated Data File, MYDATA. NEWBDAY

MYDATA.NEWBDAY Data File 1 OBS LASTNAME FIRSTNME BIRTHDAY 1 AMEER DAVID 10OCT51 2 BROOKS RUBEN R. 25FEB52 3 BROWN VIRGINA P. 24MAY46 4 CHAN TAI 04JUL46 5 GARRETT OLAN M. 23JAN35 6 GIBSON GEORGE J. 23APR46 7 GOODSON ALAN F. 21JUN50 8 JONES FRANK 22MAY53 9 JUAREZ ARMANDO 28MAY47 10 LITTLEJOHN FANNIE 17MAY54 11 MCVADE CURTIS 25DEC54 12 RICHARDSON TRAVIS Z. 30NOV37 13 RODRIGUEZ ROMUALDO R 09FEB29 14 SCHOLL MADISON A. 19MAR45 15 SHROPSHIRE LELAND G. 04SEP49 16 SMITH JERRY LEE 13SEP42 17 SMITH VIRGINIA 14NOV49 18 TURNER BECKY 26APR50 19 VAN HOTTEN GWENDOLYN 13SEP42 20 WAGGONNER MERRILEE D 27APR36 21 WILLIAMSON JANICE L. 19MAY52

Updating a Version 7 Data File

Versions 6 and 7 of the SAS System support different naming conventions, therefore, there may be character-length discrepancies between the variables in the original data file and the transaction data. You have two choices when updating a Version 7 data file with the data described by a view descriptor:

let the compatibility engine truncate names exceeding 8 characters. The truncated variables will be added to the updated data file as new variables.
rename the variables in the Version 7 data file to match the variable names in the descriptor file.

The following example resolves character-length discrepancies by using the RENAME DATA step option with the UPDATE statement. The Version 7 data file V7.CONSULTING_BIRTHDAYS, which contains Consulting names and birthdays, is updated with data described by VLIB.EMPBD.

    proc sort data=v7.consulting_birthdays;
       by last_name;
    run; 
 
    data newdata.new_birthdays;
       update v7.consulting_birthdays
       (rename=(last_name=lastname 
                first_name=firstnme
                birthdate=birthday)) vlib.empbd;
       by lastname firstnme;
    run;

In this example, the updated SAS data file NEWDATA.NEW_BIRTHDAYS is a Version 7 data file stored in the Version 7 SAS library associated with the libref NEWDATA. The RENAME= DATA step option is used with the UPDATE statement to rename the variables before the updated data file NEWDATA.NEW_BIRTHDAYS is created.

Data File to be Updated, V7.CONSULTING_BIRTHDAYS and Updated Data File, V7.NEW_BIRTHDAYS show the results of the PRINT procedure on the original data file and the updated data file.

Data File to be Updated, V7.CONSULTING_BIRTHDAYS

V7.Consulting_Birthdays Data File 1 obs last_name first_name birthdate 1 JOHNSON ED 30JAN65 2 LEWIS THOMAS 25MAY54 3 SMITH AMANDA 02DEC60 4 WILSON REBECCA 13APR58

Updated Data File, V7.NEW_BIRTHDAYS

V7.NEW_BIRTHDAYS Data File 1 obs lastname firstnme birthday 1 AMEER DAVID 10OCT51 2 BROOKS RUBEN R. 25FEB52 3 BROWN VIRGINA P. 24MAY46 4 CHAN TAI 04JUL46 5 GARRETT OLAN M. 23JAN35 6 GIBSON GEORGE J. 23APR46 7 GOODSON ALAN F. 21JUN50 8 JOHNSON ED 30JAN65 9 JUAREZ ARMANDO 28MAY47 10 LEWIS THOMAS 25MAY54 11 LITTLEJOHN FANNIE 17MAY54 12 RICHARDSON TRAVIS Z. 30NOV37 13 RODRIGUEZ ROMUALDO R 09FEB29 14 SCHOLL MADISON A. 19MAR45 15 SHROPSHIRE LELAND G. 04SEP49 16 SMITH AMANDA 02DEC60 17 SMITH JERRY LEE 13SEP42 18 VAN HOTTEN GWENDOLYN 13SEP42 19 WAGGONNER MERRILEE D 27APR36 20 WILLIAMSON JANICE L. 19MAY52 21 WILSON REBBECA 13APR58

For more information on the UPDATE statement, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

Note: You cannot update a SYSTEM 2000 database directly using the DATA step, but you can update a SYSTEM 2000 database using the following procedures: APPEND, FSEDIT, FSVIEW, QUEST, and SQL. See Browsing and Updating SYSTEM 2000 Data for more information on updating SYSTEM 2000 data. [cautionend]

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