SAS Companion for UNIX Environments

Accessing an External File or Device

To read or write to an external file or device, refer to the file or device in the appropriate SAS statements in one of two ways:

specifying the pathnames for the files.
assigning a fileref to a device, one or more files, or a directory and using the fileref when you want to refer to the file or device.

In most cases, you will want to use a fileref. A fileref is nickname that you assign to a file or device. You simply assign the fileref once, and then use it as needed. Filerefs are especially useful when

the pathname is long and has to be specified several times within a program
the pathname might change. If the pathname changes, you need to change only the statement that assigns the fileref, not every reference to the file.

You can assign filerefs in the File Shortcuts window of the Explorer, with the FILENAME statement, with the FILENAME function,(footnote 1) or by defining the fileref as an environment variable.

To access the external file or device, you will need to specify its pathname or fileref in the appropriate SAS statements:

FILE: specifies the current output file for PUT statements.
%INCLUDE: includes a file containing SAS source statements into the Program Editor.
INFILE: identifies an external file that you want to read with an INPUT statement.

FOOTNOTE 1: For a complete description of the FILENAME statement and the FILENAME function, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
Top of Page