in a DATA step, specifies
the fileref to assign to an external file. In a DATA step, fileref can
be a character expression, a string enclosed in quotation marks, or
a DATA step variable whose value contains the fileref. If fileref is
a literal fileref name, it must be in quotation marks. If fileref is
the name of a character variable whose value is a fileref name, it
must not be quoted.
In a macro (for example,
in the %SYSFUNC function), fileref is
the name of a macro variable (without an ampersand) whose value contains
the fileref to assign to the external file. In a macro, fileref can
be any expression.
filename
specifies the external
file. Specifying a blank filename ('
') deassigns the fileref that
was previously assigned.
Optional Arguments
device
specifies the type
of device if the fileref points to an output device rather than to
a physical file:
DISK
specifies a disk.
DUMMY
specifies that output
to the file is discarded.
PIPE
specifies an unnamed
pipe.
PLOTTER
specifies an unbuffered
graphics output device.
PRINTER
specifies a printer
or printer spool file.
TERMINAL
specifies the user's
terminal.
TAPE
specifies a tape drive.
TEMP
creates a temporary
file that exists only as long as the filename is assigned. The temporary
file can be accessed only through the logical name and is available
only while the logical name exists. If a physical pathname is specified,
an error is returned. Files manipulated by the TEMP device can have
the same attributes and behave identically to DISK files.
host-options
are host-specific options
that can be specified in the FILENAME statement. These options can
be categorized into several groups. For details, see the following
sections:
You can specify host
options in any order following the file specification and the optional device specification.
When specifying more than one option, use a blank space to separate
each option. Values for options can be specified with or without
quotation marks. However, if a value contains one of the supported
national characters ($, #, or @), the quotation marks are required.
Details
FILENAME returns 0 if
the operation was successful, and a nonzero number if it was not successful.