The DATASETS Procedure

CHANGE Statement

Renames one or more SAS files in the same SAS data library.

CHANGEold-name-1=new-name-1
<...old-name-n=new-name-n>
</ <ALTER=alter-password>
<GENNUM=ALL|integer>
<MEMTYPE=mtype>>;

Required Arguments

old-name=new-name

changes the name of a SAS file in the input data library. old-name must be the name of an existing SAS file in the input data library.

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Manipulating SAS Files

Options

ALTER=alter-password

provides the alter password for any alter-protected SAS files named in the CHANGE statement. Because a CHANGE statement changes the names of SAS files, you need alter access to use the CHANGE statement. You can use the ALTER= option in parentheses after new-name or after a forward slash.

GENNUM=ALL|integer

restricts processing to a single generation file or to the entire generation group. Valid values for GENNUM= are

ALL: refers to the base name and all generation files of a generation group.
postive integer: refers to an explicit generation file.
negative integer: refers to a relative generation file.

The following statements change the name of A(GENNUM=3) to B:

proc datasets;
   change A=B / gennum=3;

proc datasets;
   change A(gennum=3)=B;

The following CHANGE statement produces an error:

proc datasets;
   change A(gennum=3)=B(gennum=3);

MEMTYPE=mtype

restricts processing to one member type (mtype).

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

Details

The CHANGE statement changes names by the order that the old-names occur in the directory listing, not in the order that you list the changes in the CHANGE statement.
If the old-name SAS file does not exist in the SAS data library, PROC DATASETS stops processing the RUN group containing the CHANGE statement and issues an error message. To override this behavior, use the NOWARN option in the PROC DATASETS statement.
If you change the name of a data set that has an index, the index continues to correspond to the data set.
The CHANGE statement can reference only a specific generation file or the entire generation group. Therefore, you cannot use HIST or REVERT with the GENNUM= option.

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