Functions and CALL Routines under OpenVMS

LIBNAME Function: OpenVMS

Assigns or deassigns a libref for a SAS library.

Category:	SAS File I/O
OpenVMS specifics:	Valid values for SAS-library
See:	LIBNAME Function in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary

Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

LIBNAME('libref'<,'SAS-library'<,engine<,options>>>)

libref

is a character constant, variable, or expression that specifies the libref that is assigned to a SAS library. The value for libref must be enclosed in single or double quotation marks.

SAS-library

is a character constant, variable, or expression that specifies the physical name of the SAS library that is associated with the libref. The value for SAS-library must be enclosed in single or double quotation marks. You can omit this argument if you are specifying only the engine for a libref or an OpenVMS logical name that you have previously assigned.

If the library that you specify does not exist, then you must create it before you attempt to use the libref that you have assigned to it.

Details

If the LIBNAME function returns a 0, then the function was successful. However, you could receive a non-zero value, even if the function was successful. A non-zero value is returned if an error, warning, or note is produced. To determine whether the function was successful, look through the SAS log and use the following guidelines:

If a warning or note was generated, then the function was successful.
If an error was generated, then the function was not successful.

Under OpenVMS, if you specify a SAS-library of '[]' (with or without a space between the brackets), SAS assigns a libref to the current directory. If you do not specify a SAS-library or if you specify a SAS-library of '' (with no space between the quotation marks), then the LIBNAME function dissociates the libref from the data library.

OpenVMS logical names (created by using the DCL DEFINE command) can also be used to refer to SAS libraries. For more information, see Assigning OpenVMS Logical Names.