Language Reference

PACKAGE HELP Statement

(Experimental)

  • PACKAGE HELP packagename<(collection )>;

The PACKAGE HELP statement is experimental in SAS/IML 14.1. If an installed package provides documentation, the PACKAGE HELP statement displays the documentation. The documentation often includes the syntax and purpose of the SAS/IML modules that the package defines. For more information about packages, see Chapter 9: Packages.

You must specify the following argument:

packagename

specifies the name of the package.

You can also specify the following option in parentheses:

collection

requests that only the specified collection be searched. Valid values for collection are PRIVATE, PUBLIC, and SYSTEM. For more information about collections, see the PACKAGE statement .

The following statement displays the help file for the AboveBelow package, which is installed in the SYSTEM collection: 

package help AboveBelow;

The following statement searches only the SYSTEM collection: 

package help AboveBelow(system);

If a package is named Pkg1, then valid names for the help files are Pkg1.pdf, Pkg1.txt, index.htm, and index.html. The help files are stored in the help subdirectory for the package. The file that is displayed depends on the files that exist and the interface that you use to run SAS/IML software as follows:

  • The IML procedure echoes the file Pkg1.txt to the SAS Log window.

  • The SAS/IML Studio application displays the first of the following files that it finds:

    1. Pkg1.pdf

    2. index.htm or index.html

    3. Pkg1.txt (opened in Notepad)