Reviewing Columns for CA-Datacom/DB Data

If you want to use CA-Datacom/DB data that is described by a view descriptor in your SAS program but cannot remember the SAS column names or formats and informats, you can use the CONTENTS or DATASETS procedure to display this information.

The following example uses the DATASETS procedure to give you information about the view descriptor VLIB.CUSPHON, which is based on the CA-Datacom/DB table CUSTOMERS.

proc datasets library=vlib memtype=view;
   contents data=cusphon;
run;

The following output shows the information for this example. The data that is described by VLIB.CUSPHON is shown in Data That Is Described by the View Descriptor VLIB.CUSPHON.

Using the DATASETS Procedure with a View Descriptor

                                 The SAS System                                1
                               DATASETS PROCEDURE

Data Set Name: VLIB.CUSPHON                            Observations:         22
Member Type:   VIEW                                    Variables:            3
Engine:        SASIODDB                                Indexes:              0
Created:       11:19 Friday, October 12, 1990          Observation Length:   80
Last Modified: 12:03 Friday, October 12, 1990          Deleted Observations: 0
Data Set Type:                                         Compressed:           NO
Label:

                  -----Engine/Host Dependent Information-----


             -----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes-----

     #    Variable    Type    Len    Pos    Format    Informat    Label
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     1    CUSTNUM     Char      8      0    $8.       $8.         CUSTOMER
     3    NAME        Char     60     20    $60.      $60.        NAME
     2    PHONE       Char     12      8    $12.      $12.        TELEPHONE

Note the following points about this output:

You cannot change a view descriptor's column labels using the DATASETS procedure. The labels are generated as the complete CA-Datacom/DB field name when the view descriptor is created, and they cannot be overridden.
The Created date is when the access descriptor for this view descriptor was created.
The Last Modified date is the last time the view descriptor was updated or created.
The Observations number shown is the number of records in the CA-Datacom/DB table.

For more information about the DATASETS procedure, see the Base SAS Procedures Guide.