Using the SAS Clinical Standards Toolkit

The SAS Clinical Standards Toolkit global standards library contains the SAS metadata definition of all supported standards. This metadata definition, defined primarily as the reference_tables and reference_columns data sets, can be used as defined. The metadata definition can be modified or used as a template to build your own SAS representation of the CDISC standards provided by SAS or to build your own customized standard.
Sample driver programs are provided with each supported standard. These programs can be copied and modified to reflect your own data and metadata sources and the target location for any SAS process output. These drivers all follow the same general process workflow:
  • Set any process global macro variable values.
  • Define a root path for input and output files (unnecessary if you do not use relative paths and you specify explicit paths).
  • Create or reference a SASReferences data set that defines all input and output files.
  • Call the cstutil_processsetup macro that confirms a valid SASReferences structure, allocates any SAS librefs and filerefs, sets macro autocall for a specific standard, and formats search paths.
  • Call the primary macro of interest (such as validation or define creation macro).
  • (Optional) Perform any session cleanup.
For a more complete description of what a driver program does, see “Running a Validation Process” in Chapter 8, “Internal Validation,” in the SAS Clinical Standards Toolkit: User's Guide.