Using the INFILE/FILE User Exit Facility

Introduction

The INFILE/FILE User Exit Facility provides an interface for accessing user exit modules during the processing of external files in a SAS DATA step. A user exit module (or user exit) consists of several functions that you write in order to perform special processing on external files. For example, you can write user exits that inspect, modify, delete, or insert records. Here are some more specific examples of how user exits can be used:

encrypting and decrypting data
compressing and decompressing data
translating data from one character encoding to another

If a user exit is active, SAS invokes it at various points during the processing of an external file.

Note: The INFILE/FILE User Exit Facility is provided for host access methods only. These methods include BSAM, BPAM, VSAM, and VTOC. Portable access methods, such as FTP, HTTP, e-mail, socket, and so on, do not use this facility. [cautionend]

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