SAS Filename Extensions and File Headers

PROC CONTENTS: Identifying the Base SAS Engine Used to Create a SAS File

You can use the CONTENTS procedure on all operating environments that use SAS 6 and later to identify the Base SAS engine that was used to create a SAS file.

Note: Because z/OS operating environments do not use filename extensions, you must use PROC CONTENTS in order to identify the Base SAS engine that was used to create SAS files. [cautionend]

Here is an example of using PROC CONTENTS on a data set in the z/OS environment:

proc contents data=test.records;
run;

Here is an excerpt of the output:

    The SAS System
    The CONTENTS Procedure
Data Set Name: TEST.RECORDS
Member Type:   DATA
Engine:        V9

The output shows that the data set RECORDS is a member of type DATA, and that it was created with the V9 engine.

You can also use PROC CONTENTS to find out whether a data set's operating environment format is foreign or native to the accessing operating environment. For more information, see Identifying the Format of a SAS File.

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