Functions and CALL Routines under OpenVMS

CALL SYSTEM Routine: OpenVMS

Submits an operating system command for execution.

Category:	Special
OpenVMS specifics:	Issues DCL commands; some commands execute in a subprocess, others in the parent process
See:	CALL SYSTEM Routine in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary

Syntax
Details
Comparisons
Example
See Also

Syntax

CALL SYSTEM(DCL-command);

DCL-command

can be any of the following under OpenVMS:

a DCL command enclosed in single or double quotation marks
an expression whose value is a DCL command
the name of a character variable whose value is a DCL command.

Details

In the windowing environment, a new window is displayed when the command executes. Any output from the command is displayed (for example, a directory listing). Select the File menu and click on Exit to remove this window.

Note that some DCL commands execute in the parent OpenVMS process and some execute in a subprocess. For more information, see Issuing DCL Commands during a SAS Session.

Comparisons

The CALL SYSTEM routine is similar to the X statement, the X command, the %SYSEXEC macro, and the VMS function; however, it can be called conditionally. In most cases, the X statement, the X command, or the %SYSEXEC macro are preferable because they require less overhead. However, the CALL SYSTEM routine can be useful in certain situations because it is executable, and because it accepts expressions as arguments. The benefit of the CALL SYSTEM routine being callable is that it is not executed unconditionally at DATA step compile time, whereas other methods are.

Example

The following is an example of the CALL SYSTEM routine:

data _null_;
   call system('define mylib [mydir.datasets]');
run;