The SAS Companion for Windows has an example showing how to list multiple files in an INFILE statement. It is incorrect. SAS requires another set of quotation marks around the parentheses. In this example, since single quotation marks are used around the file names, double quotation marks should be used around the entire string. That can be reversed.

The documentation shows this incorrect syntax.

data new;
infile ('c:\myfiles\*.*','c:\myotherfiles\abc.dat');
input;
run;

The correct syntax is

data new;
infile "('c:\myfiles\*.*','c:\myotherfiles\abc.dat')";
input;
run;

If you use the incorrect syntax, you may get an ERROR in your log:

1562  infile ('c:\testin\*.*','c:\temp\testthis.txt');
                                                     -
                                                     22
                                                     76
ERROR: Undeclared array referenced: infile.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: +, =.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	Product Release		SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*	Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	Microsoft® Windows® for x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2008	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Enterprise x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Home Premium x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Professional 32 bit	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Professional x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows 7 Ultimate x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows Vista	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0
		Windows Vista for x64	9.3	9.4	9.3 TS1M2	9.4 TS1M0

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

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Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	medium
Topic:	Common Programming Tasks ==> Reading and Writing External Data ==> Multiple Files Common Programming Tasks ==> Reading and Writing External Data

Date Modified:	2013-04-04 15:26:02
Date Created:	2012-10-13 11:58:47