Referencing External Files Indirectly

If you want to reference a file in only one place in a program so that you can easily change it for another job or a later run, you can reference a filename indirectly. Use a FILENAME statement, the FILENAME function, or an appropriate operating system command to assign a fileref or nickname, to a file.(footnote1) Note that you can assign a fileref to a SAS catalog that is an external file, or to an output device, as shown in the following table.

External File Task	Tool	Example
Assign a fileref to a file that contains input data.	FILENAME	filename mydata 'input-file';
Assign a fileref to a file for output data.	FILENAME	filename myreport 'output-file';
Assign a fileref to a file that contains program statements.	FILENAME	filename mypgm 'source-file';
Assign a fileref to an output device.	FILENAME	filename myprinter <device-type> <host-options>;
Specify the file that contains input data.	INFILE	data weight; infile mydata; input idno $ week1 week16; loss=week1-week16;
Specify the file that the PUT statement writes to.	FILE	file myreport; if loss ge 5 and loss le 9 then put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=3'; else if loss ge 10 and loss le 14 then put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=2'; else if loss ge 15 then put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=1'; run;
Bring statements or raw data from another file into your SAS job and execute them.	%INCLUDE	%include mypgm;

FOOTNOTE 1:In some operating environments, you can also use the command '&' to assign a fileref.[return]