Using External Files

Other Ways SCL Interacts with External Files

There are other SCL functions that enable you to determine the names and values of attributes that your operating system maintains for external files. These functions are listed in the following sections and are described completely in the appropriate entry in SAS Component Language Dictionary.

Determining Attributes and Attribute Values

Files and directories have several operating system attributes that are assigned and maintained by the file management system (for example, the date modified and name attributes). These attributes can vary among operating systems and are described in the SAS documentation for your operating environment. You can use the following SCL functions to determine the attributes and attribute values for external files:

FOPTNUM	reports the number of attributes maintained for files in your operating system.
FOPTNAME	returns the name of a file attribute.
FINFO	returns the value of a file attribute.

Determining Information about an FDB

You can also use SCL functions to find a file's record length and the position of the column pointer in the FDB.

FRLEN	returns the length of a record in the FDB.
FCOL	returns the position of the column pointer in the FDB.

Renaming and Deleting an External File

You can use SCL functions to rename or delete an external file.

DELETEFDELETE	delete an external file.
RENAME	renames an external file.

Top of Page