dBase DBF MEMO Files

When you use the DBFMEMO engine to import dBase Memo fields into the SAS System, the fields can be imported into multiple variables with numeric suffixes appended. When a Memo field is imported, each line of the field is imported as a separate variable. Each variable is given a numeric suffix to distinguish the particular line of the Memo field that was read. For example, a dBase Memo field of AE1 is imported as AE11, AE12, and so on.

All versions of dBase under Linux, UNIX, and Microsoft Windows are supported. Memo files have a .dbt (dBase) or .fpt (FoxPro and Visual FoxPro) file extension.

If a memo file exists with the same filename but with a .dbt or .fpt extension, the driver also reads the memo text for that file. It scans the memo file to determine how many lines comprise the largest individual memo and the lengths of the longest lines. It then splits memos into one variable per memo line. For example, the first three lines of a memo file called xyz would be named xyz01, xyz02, and xyz03.

This example imports data from a DBF file named orders.dbf into a SAS data set named TEST.

PROC IMPORT OUT=WORK.TEST
    DATAFILE='orders.dbf'
    DBMS=DBFMEMO REPLACE;
RUN;