The ACCESS Procedure for PC Files

UNIQUE Statement

Generates SAS variable names based on PC file column names.

Valid:	for DBF, DIF, WK1, WK3, WK4, Excel 4, Excel 5, and Excel 95 file formats under Windows operating environments
Applies to:	view descriptor
Interacts with:	ASSIGN
Not allowed with:	UPDATE
Alias:	UN

UNIQUE =YES|NO|Y|N ;

Details

The UNIQUE statement specifies whether the SAS/ACCESS interface generates unique SAS variable names for PC file columns for which SAS variable names have not been entered. You cannot use the UNIQUE statement when you are updating a view descriptor.

An editing statement, such as UNIQUE, must follow the CREATE statement when you create a view descriptor.

See theCREATE Statement for more information about the order of statements. The UNIQUE statement is affected by whether you specified the ASSIGN statement when you created the access descriptor on which this view is based, as follows:

If you specified the ASSIGN=YES statement, you cannot specify UNIQUE when creating a view descriptor. YES causes SAS to generate unique names, so UNIQUE is not necessary.
If you omitted the ASSIGN statement or specified ASSIGN=NO, you must resolve any duplicate SAS variable names in the view descriptor. You can use UNIQUE to generate unique names automatically, or you can use the RENAME statement to resolve duplicate names yourself.

See the RENAME Statement for information about that statement.

If duplicate SAS variable names exist in the access descriptor on which you are creating a view descriptor, you can specify UNIQUE to resolve the duplication. When you specify UNIQUE=YES, the SAS/ACCESS interface appends numbers to any duplicate SAS variable names, thus making each variable name unique.

See the CREATE Statement.

If you specify UNIQUE=NO, the SAS/ACCESS interface continues to allow duplicate SAS variable names to exist. Resolve duplicate names before saving, and thereby creating the view descriptor.

Note: It is recommended that you use the UNIQUE statement. If you omit it and SAS encounters duplicate SAS variable names in a view descriptor, your job fails.

The equal (=) sign is optional in the UNIQUE statement. [cautionend]

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