Viewing or Updating External File Metadata

Problem

You want to view or update the metadata for an external file that you have registered in SAS Data Integration Studio.

Solution

You can access the properties window for the table and change the settings on the appropriate tab of the window. The following tabs are available on properties windows for tables:

General
File Location (not available for user-written external files)
File Parameters
Columns
Parameters
Notes
Extended Attributes
Authorization

Use the properties window for an external file to view or update the metadata for its columns, file locations, file parameters, and other attributes. You can right-click an external file in any of the trees on the SAS Data Integration Studio desktop or in the Job Editor window. Then, click Properties to access its properties window.

Note that any updates that you make to an external file change the physical external file when you run a job that contains the file. These changes can have the following consequences for any jobs that use the external file:

Changes, additions, or deletions to column metadata are reflected in all of the jobs that include the external file.
Changes to column metadata often affect mappings. Therefore, you might need to remap your columns.
Changes to file locations, file parameters, and parameters affect the physical external file and are reflected in any job that the includes the external file.

You can use the impact analysis and reverse impact tools in SAS Data Integration Studio to estimate the impact of these updates on your existing jobs.