View Data Windows

The View Data window is available in the tree views on the desktop and in process flows in the Job Editor. It works in two modes: browse and edit. The browse mode enables you to view the data displayed in a SAS table or view, in an external file, in a temporary output table displayed in a process flow diagram, or in a DBMS table or view that is part of a SAS library for DBMS data stores. The table, view, or external file must be registered and must exist in physical storage.

Use the edit mode to perform simple editing operations on the data in the View Data window. For example, you can overwrite the data in a cell, copy and paste rows of data, and delete data. You can even create completely new tables. However, this editing mode is enabled only on SAS tables that are stored in a Base SAS engine library that is assigned to a SAS Workspace Server.

The View Data window typically uses the metadata for a data store to format the data for display. Accordingly, the View Data window can be used to verify that the metadata for a data store is appropriate for use in the intended job. If the window does not correctly display the data in the selected data store, then you might have to update the corresponding metadata before you use it in a job.

The following display shows a typical View Data window.

The title bar in the View Data window displays the name of the object that is being viewed and the total number of rows. If a column has a description, the description displays in the column heading in the View Data window. Otherwise, the physical name of the column displays in the column heading. A round icon to the left of the name indicates that the column is numeric, and a pyramid-shaped icon to the left of the name indicates that the column contains character data.

To customize the data view displayed in the View Data window, right-click on a column name, row number, or table cell. Then, select an appropriate option from the pop-up menu. To display Help for the View Data window, press F1.

Use the View File window to display the raw contents of an external file. Unlike the View Data window, the View File window does not use SAS metadata to format the contents of the corresponding external file. It reads the structure of the external file directly and displays the data accordingly.

The external file must exist in physical storage. You cannot use the View File window to view an external file that is accessed with user-written code.

The following display shows a typical View File window.