Using the APPEND Procedure

Appending Data Described by SAS/ACCESS View Descriptors and PROC SQL Views

You can use the APPEND procedure to append data that is described by SAS/ACCESS view descriptors and PROC SQL views to SAS data files. You can also update the data described by a view descriptor by appending to it the data from another SAS data set.
For an append operation to be successful, the variables in the BASE= (target) data set and the variables in the DATA= (source) data set must match, or you must use the FORCE= option to concatenate the data sets. The FORCE= option causes PROC APPEND to drop the extra variables and issues a warning..
You can append the data described by a view descriptor to a SAS 6 or later data file and vice versa. For variables that use the longer naming conventions in SAS 7 and later or for variables that otherwise do not match, use the RENAME= data set option in PROC APPEND to rename the variables.

Appending Data to a SAS Data File

In the following example, two managers have kept separate employee telephone lists. The Marketing manager kept records in the SYSTEM 2000 database Employee, which is described by the view descriptor Vlib.EmpPhon. The Corporation manager kept records for the executive telephone list in the SAS 6 SAS data file MyData.CorPhon. The two sources must be combined to create a telephone list of employees in both departments.
The data that is described by the view descriptor Vlib.EmpPhon and the data in the SAS data file MyData.CorPhon are displayed in the two outputs following the example.
    proc print data=vlib.empphon;
       title 'Marketing Phone List';
    run; 
 
    proc print data=mydata.corphon;
       title 'Corporation Phone List';
    run; 
Data Described by Vlib.EmpPhon
                        Marketing Phone List                              1
 
           OBS    LASTNAME      FIRSTNME      PHONE
 
             1    AMEER         DAVID         545 XT495
             2    BROOKS        RUBEN R.      581 XT347
             3    BROWN         VIRGINA P.    218 XT258
             4    CHAN          TAI           292 XT331
             5    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
             6    GIBSON        GEORGE J.     327 XT703
             7    GOODSON       ALAN F.       323 XT512
             8    JUAREZ        ARMANDO       506 XT987
             9    LITTLEJOHN    FANNIE        219 XT653
            10    RICHARDSON    TRAVIS Z.     243 XT325
            11    RODRIGUEZ     ROMUALDO R    243 XT874
            12    SCHOLL        MADISON A.    318 XT419
            13    SHROPSHIRE    LELAND G.     327 XT616
            14    SMITH         JERRY LEE     327 XT169
            15    VAN HOTTEN    GWENDOLYN     212 XT311
            16    WAGGONNER     MERRILEE D    244 XT914
            17    WILLIAMSON    JANICE L.     218 XT802
Data in MyData.CorPhon
   
                     Corporation Phone List                               1
 
           OBS    LASTNAME      FIRSTNME        PHONE
 
             1    BOWMAN        HUGH E.       109 XT901
             2    FAULKNER      CARRIE ANN    132 XT417
             3    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
             4    KNAPP         PATRICE R.    222 XT 12
             5    KNIGHT        ALTHEA        213 XT218
             6    MILLSAP       JOEL B.       131 XT224
             7    MUELLER       PATSY         223 XT822
             8    NATHANIEL     DARRYL        118 XT544
             9    SALAZAR       YOLANDA       111 XT169
            10    WATERHOUSE    CLIFTON P.    101 XT109
To combine the data described by these two sources, use PROC APPEND, as shown in the following program. The following output displays the data in the updated data file MyData.CorPhon. Notice that the combined data is sorted by last name. Also, because PROC PRINT was used to display the data, the variable names are used (for example, FIRSTNME), not the variable labels, which are the item names (for example, FORENAME).
    proc append base=mydata.corphon data=vlib.empphon;
    run; 
 
    proc sort data=mydata.corphon;
    by lastname;
 
    proc print data=mydata.corphon;
       title 'Corporation and Marketing Phone List';
    run; 
Appended Data
                Corporation and Marketing Phone List                      1
 
           OBS    LASTNAME      FIRSTNME      PHONE
 
             1    AMEER         DAVID         545 XT495
             2    BOWMAN        HUGH E.       109 XT901
             3    BROOKS        RUBEN R.      581 XT347
             4    BROWN         VIRGINA P.    218 XT258
             5    CHAN          TAI           292 XT331
             6    FAULKNER      CARRIE ANN    132 XT417
             7    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
             8    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
             9    GIBSON        GEORGE J.     327 XT703
            10    GOODSON       ALAN F.       323 XT512
            11    JUAREZ        ARMANDO       506 XT987
            12    KNAPP         PATRICE R.    222 XT 12
            13    KNIGHT        ALTHEA        213 XT218
            14    LITTLEJOHN    FANNIE        219 XT653
            15    MILLSAP       JOEL B.       131 XT224
            16    MUELLER       PATSY         223 XT822
            17    NATHANIEL     DARRYL        118 XT544
            18    RICHARDSON    TRAVIS Z.     243 XT325
            19    RODRIGUEZ     ROMUALDO R    243 XT874
            20    SALAZAR       YOLANDA       111 XT169
            21    SCHOLL        MADISON A.    318 XT419
            22    SHROPSHIRE    LELAND G.     327 XT616
            23    SMITH         JERRY LEE     327 XT169
            24    VANHOTTEN     GWENDOLYN     212 XT311
            25    WAGGONNER     MERRILEE D    244 XT914
            26    WATERHOUSE    CLIFTON P.    101 XT109
            27    WILLIAMSON    JANICE L.     218 XT802
PROC APPEND also accepts a WHERE= data set option or a WHERE statement to subset the observations from the DATA= data set that is added to the BASE= data set, as shown in the following program. (It is assumed that the data file MyData.CorPhon is in its original state before executing PROC APPEND in the preceding program.) The following output displays the results.
proc append base=mydata.corphon
  data=vlib.empphon(where=(lastname='AMEER'));
run; 
 
proc print data=mydata.corphon;
  title2 'Appended Data with a WHERE= Data Set Option';
run; 
Appended Data with a WHERE= Data Set Option
                 Appended Data with a WHERE= Data Set Option              1
 
                 OBS    LASTNAME      FIRSTNME        PHONE
 
                   1    BOWMAN        HUGH E.       109 XT901
                   2    FAULKNER      CARRIE ANN    132 XT417
                   3    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
                   4    KNAPP         PATRICE R.    222 XT 12
                   5    KNIGHT        ALTHEA        213 XT218
                   6    MILLSAP       JOEL B.       131 XT224
                   7    MUELLER       PATSY         223 XT822
                   8    NATHANIEL     DARRYL        118 XT544
                   9    SALAZAR       YOLANDA       111 XT169
                  10    WATERHOUSE    CLIFTON P.    101 XT109
                  11    AMEER         DAVID         545 XT495

Appending Data to SAS 7 or Later Data Files

In the previous example, if the Corporation manager kept records in a SAS 7 data file named V7.CorPhon (see the following output) and used variable names longer than eight characters, the data in Vlib.EmpPhon could be appended by using the following program:
  proc append base=v7.corphon
     (rename (firstname=firstnme))
     data=vlib.empphon;
  run;

  proc sort data=v7.corphon;
     by lastname;

  proc print data=v7.corphon;
    title2 'Corporation and Marketing Phone List';
  run;
Data in V7.CorPhon
               Corporation Phone List      

  Obs    lastname      firstname       phone
    1    BOWMAN        HUGH E.       109 XT901
    2    FAULKNER      CARRIE ANN    132 XT417
    3    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
    4    KNAPP         PATRICE M.    222 XT 12
    5    KNIGHT        ALTHEA        213 XT218
    6    MILLSAP       JOEL B.       131 XT224
    7    MUELLER       PATSY         223 XT822
    8    NATHANIEL     DARRYL        118 XT544
    9    SALAZAR       YOLANDA       111 XT169
   10    WATERHOUSE    CLIFTON P.    101 XT109
In this example, the RENAME= data set option is used to reconcile a character-length discrepancy between the FIRSTNAME variable in the V7 data file and the FIRSTNME variable in the view descriptor. The following output shows a portion of the data in the updated data file V7.CorPhon.
Data in V7.CorPhon with Appended Data from Vlib.EmpPhon
           Corporation and Marketing Phone List 

      Obs    lastname     firstnme        phone

       1    AMEER         DAVID         545 XT495
       2    BOWMAN        HUGH E.       109 XT901
       3    BROOKS        RUBEN R.      581 XT347
       4    BROWN         VIRGINA P.    218 XT258
       5    CHAN          TAI           292 XT331
       6    FAULKNER      CARRIE ANN    132 XT417
       7    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
       8    GARRETT       OLAN M.       212 XT208
       9    GIBSON        GEORGE J.     327 XT703
      10    GOODSON       ALAN F.       323 XT512
      11    JUAREZ        ARMANDO       506 XT987
      12    KNAPP         PATRICE R.    222 XT 12
      13    KNIGHT        ALTHEA        213 XT218
      14    LITTLEJOHN    FANNIE        219 XT653
      15    MILLSAP       JOEL B.       131 XT224
      16    MUELLER       PATSY         223 XT822
      17    NATHANIEL     DARRYL        118 XT544
      18    RICHARDSON    TRAVIS Z.     243 XT325
      19    RODRIGUEZ     ROMUALDO R    243 XT874
      20    SALAZAR       YOLANDA       111 XT169
      21    SCHOLL        MADISON A.    318 XT419
      22    SHROPSHIRE    LELAND G.     327 XT616
      23    SMITH         JERRY LEE     327 XT169
      24    VANHOTTEN     GWENDOLYN     212 XT311
      25    WAGGONNER     MERRILEE D    244 XT914
      26    WATERHOUSE    CLIFTON P.    101 XT109
      27    WILLIAMSON    JANICE L.     218 XT802

Appending SAS Data to a View Descriptor

When appending SAS data to a view descriptor, you cannot sort the data unless you specify an output data file. To sort the data in the view descriptor, you would have to sort the SYSTEM 2000 database, which is not recommended.
For more information about the APPEND procedure, see the SAS SQL Procedure User's Guide.