The DATASETS Procedure

EXCHANGE Statement

Exchanges the names of two SAS files in a SAS data library.

Featured in: Manipulating SAS Files

EXCHANGE name-1=other-name-1
<...name-n=other-name-n>
</ <ALTER=alter-password>
<MEMTYPE=mtype> >;

Required Arguments

name=other-name: exchanges the names of SAS files in the procedure input library. Both name and other-name must already exist in the procedure input library.

Options

ALTER=alter-password

provides the alter password for any alter-protected SAS files whose names you want to exchange. 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). You can only exchange the names of SAS files of the same type.

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

Details

When you exchange more than one pair of names in one EXCHANGE statement, PROC DATASETS performs the exchanges in the order that the names of the SAS files occur in the directory listing, not in the order that you list the exchanges in the EXCHANGE statement.
If the name SAS file does not exist in the SAS data library, PROC DATASETS stops processing the RUN group that contains the EXCHANGE statement and issues an error message. To override this behavior, specify the NOWARN option in the PROC DATASETS statement.
The EXCHANGE statement also exchanges the associated indexes so that they correspond with the new name.
The EXCHANGE statement only allows two existing generation groups to exchange names. You cannot exchange a specific generation number with either an existing base name or another generation number.

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