RENAME Statement (Optional)

The RENAME statement specifies that you want to change the names of the SYSTEM 2000 items associated with the listed SAS variables. The new component names go into the access descriptor and the view descriptor that are created for the new database.

variable-identifier can be either the SAS variable name or the positional equivalent in the LIST output, which is the number that represents the variable's place in the data file. For example, if you want to rename the item associated with the third SAS variable, submit the following statement:

  rename 3='employee name'; 

The name must be a valid SYSTEM 2000 component name. If the item name includes embedded blanks or invalid SAS name characters, such as the pound sign (#) or hyphen (-), you must enclose the item name in single quotation marks.

n is an integer from 1 to a maximum of 9,999.

The RENAME statement enables you to include variables that were deleted. For example, if you first submit the statement DELETE 3 and then submit RENAME 3=XYZ, the third variable will be included and assigned the name XYZ and the default item type.

If you do not use the RENAME statement, all SYSTEM 2000 item names default to the corresponding SAS names or to the SAS labels if you submitted the LABEL statement. You can list multiple variables in one RENAME statement. The RENAME statement overrides the LABEL statement for the items that are renamed.