Getting Information about Your SAS Data Sets

Requesting a Directory Listing for a SAS Data Library

A directory listing is a list of files in a SAS data library. Each file is called a member, and each member has a member type that is assigned to it by SAS. The member type indicates the type of SAS file, such as DATA or CATALOG. When SAS processes statements, SAS not only looks for the specified file, it verifies that the file has a member type that can be processed by the statement.

The directory listing contains two parts:

heading
list of library member names and their member types

Listing All Files in a Library

To obtain a directory listing of all members in a library, you need only the PROC DATASETS statement and the LIBRARY= option. For example, the following statements send a directory listing to the SAS log for a library that contains climate information. The LIBNAME statement assigns the libref USCLIM to this library.

options pagesize=60 linesize=80 nonumber nodate;
libname usclim 'SAS-data-library';

proc datasets library=usclim;

The following output shows the resulting SAS log, which contains the directory listing:

Directory Listing for the Library USCLIM

      
22   options pagesize=60 linesize=80 nonumber nodate;
23   libname usclim 'SAS-data-library';
NOTE: Libref USCLIM was successfully assigned as follows: 
      Engine:        V8 
      Physical Name: external-file
24   
25   proc datasets library=usclim;
                              -----Directory----- 1 

                   Libref:            USCLIM                
                   Engine:            V8                    
                   Physical Name:     external-file
                   File Name:         external-file
                   Inode Number:      1864992               
                   Access Permission: rwxr-xr-x             
                   Owner Name:        userid                
                   File Size (bytes): 4096                  


                                        File
               #  Name 2     Memtype 3   Size   Last Modified
               --------------------------------------------------
               1  BASETEMP   CATALOG   20480   15NOV2000:14:38:35
               2  HIGHTEMP   DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:26:48
               3  HURRICANE  DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:29:11
               4  LOWTEMP    DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:30:08
               5  REPORT     CATALOG   20480   15NOV2000:14:39:02
               6  TEMPCHNG   DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:30:41

The following list corresponds to the numbered items in the preceding output:

Heading	gives the physical name as well as the libref for the library. Note that some operating environments provide additional and different information. For example, not all operating environments have an inode number.
Name	contains the second-level SAS member name that is assigned to the file. If the files are different member types, then you can have two files of the same name in one library.
Memtype	indicates the SAS file member type. The most common member types are DATA and CATALOG. For example, the library USCLIM contains two catalogs of type CATALOG and four data sets of type DATA.

Listing Files That Have the Same Member Type

To show only certain types of SAS files in the directory listing, use the MEMTYPE= option in the PROC DATASETS statement. The following statement produces a listing for USCLIM that contains only the information about data sets:

proc datasets library=usclim memtype=data;

The following output shows the SAS log, which lists only the data sets that are stored in USCLIM:

Directory Listing of Data Sets Only for the Library USCLIM

7    options pagesize=60 linesize=80 nonumber nodate;
8    libname usclim 'SAS-data-library';
NOTE: Libref USCLIM was successfully assigned as follows: 
      Engine:        V8 
      Physical Name: external-file
9    
10   proc datasets library=usclim memtype=data;
                              -----Directory-----

                   Libref:            USCLIM                
                   Engine:            V8                    
                   Physical Name:     external-file
                   File Name:         external-file
                   Inode Number:      1864992               
                   Access Permission: rwxr-xr-x             
                   Owner Name:        userid               
                   File Size (bytes): 4096                  


                                        File
               #  Name       Memtype    Size  Last Modified
               --------------------------------------------------
               1  HIGHTEMP   DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:26:48
               2  HURRICANE  DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:29:11
               3  LOWTEMP    DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:30:08
               4  TEMPCHNG   DATA      16384   15NOV2000:14:30:41

Note: Examples in this documentation focus on using PROC DATASETS to manage only SAS data sets; you can also list other member types by specifying MEMTYPE=. For example, MEMTYPE=CATALOG lists only SAS catalogs. [cautionend]

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