sas enterprise 5.1 guide export to excel template - sas

I'm having a wee bit of a problem and I was hoping someone out there has a magic solution.
At present we run a bit of code on SAS 9.3 that uses DDE to populate an excel template - populating text from cells B2:M24 - these are character or text fields with no formulae. This does work, but we're moving to Enterprise Guide 5.1 and I need something that will work on there.
I'm pretty new to Enterprise Guide and I've googled this until my head is about to explode and so far, nothing has worked. We can't just do a manual export as this will be a scheduled job.
Presumably there is a way to do this that I'm missing. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Managed to get it done through PC Files server using named range in Excel.
libname xls PCFILES path="C:\Template.xls" server=<Server> port=<port>
user= pass= ;
proc datasets lib=xls nolist;
delete <named range>;
quit;
data xls.<named range>;
set <named range>;
run;
libname xls clear;
Probably not the most elegant way but it got the job done.
Thanks anyway.

Related

Import xlsx file into SAS from static url link

I am new to SAS but used to working in python.
In python, I can read an xlsx file from a static Box.com link by calling pandas read excel function on the Box link.
pd.read_excel("https://box.com/shared/static/<url>.xlsx")
I'm hoping to do something similar in SAS. When I try
PROC IMPORT DATAFILE="https://box.com/shared/static/<url>.xlsx"
OUT=WORK.MYEXCEL
DBMS=XLSX
REPLACE;
RUN;
SAS tries to look for a document with the name "https://box.com/shared/static/.xlsx".
When I try
filename xlsxFile http "https://box.com/shared/static/<url>.xlsx";
PROC IMPORT DATAFILE=xlsxFile
OUT=WORK.MYEXCEL
DBMS=XLSX
REPLACE;
RUN;
I get
ERROR: This "filename URL" access method is not supported by "proc import". Please copy the file to local disk before running the
procedure.
Is there an easy way to have SAS access files from this type of URL? I've checked these few threads:
https://communities.sas.com/t5/General-SAS-Programming/import-excel-file-from-the-web/td-p/134158
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Importing-XLSX-from-URL-Issue/td-p/446758
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/proc-import-xlsx-from-url/td-p/635834
And it seems like I may need to do some work to get SAS to create a file object from the URL but I don't quite understand how the code is working and when I naively try something similar:
filename xlsxFile http "https://box.com/shared/static/<url>.xlsx";
data file;
n=-1;
infile xlsxFile recfm=s nbyte=n length=len;
input;
file "file_name.xlsx" recfm=n;
put _infile_ $varying32767. len;
run;
PROC IMPORT OUT= input DATAFILE= "file_name.xlsx"
DBMS=xls REPLACE;
SHEET="sheet_name";
GETNAMES=YES;
RUN;
I get the following error:
Spreadsheet isn't from Excel V5 or later. Please open it in Excel and Save as V5 or later
Requested Input File Is Invalid
ERROR: Import unsuccessful. See SAS Log for details.
Any help would be appreciated. The reason I'd like to do it this way is because the files at the static links are updated daily and I want to avoid having to copy files to the SAS server every day. So if this won't work I am also interested in other work arounds that would accomplish the same thing.
I can obviously write a script that will fetch the updated files and write them to the server where SAS can access them as needed, but wanted to see if I could get this to work first.
Using the Box API from within SAS would also be another option if anyone has successfully gotten that to work. As I mentioned I am new to SAS so trying to access the API seemed like it would be too difficult at the moment.
Thank you!
You'll definitely need to download the file. As Tom notes in comments, make sure to check this is really an xlsx file; but assuming it is, some suggestions for dealing with it.
Copying it over by hand like you're doing is doable, and I'll put some code that works at the bottom of the answer, but it's way overkill nowadays - you're probably reading decade-old papers from before the modern day of SAS. In particular, you should use PROC HTTP to GET the file, rather than using the URL directly - it's just much easier that way.
Another possibility is you could use python for this! Regardless of your SAS setup, you can use python to script SAS, or use SAS to run Python, very easily nowadays. SASPy project (on github) for SAS 9, or the SAS SWAT package (also on github I believe) for connecting to SAS Viya, lets you very easily talk back and forth with Python and SAS, even in production - I do it all the time. And on top of that, you can even write SAS user-written functions in python now - so there're a bunch of ways to get your Python into SAS, if you want. I am a SAS (primary) developer, but I use Python for web-related stuff, since it's just better at it. See my paper for more details, or lots of other resources on the subject.
Assuming you just want to import the file and don't want to keep track of the excel file ultimately, you can just read it from a temp filename, which will clean itself up afterwards:
filename _httpin temp;
proc http method="get"
url="https://github.com/snoopy369/SASL/raw/master/Excel%20Precision.xlsx"
out=_httpin;
run;
proc import file=_httpin out=test dbms=xlsx replace;
run;
If you want the excel file saved somewhere (sounds like you don't, but if you do), then instead of temp assign that httpin filename to a real location.
filename _httpin "c:\temp\whatever.xlsx";
If you really want to do that binary file copy business, do it this way:
filename _httpin temp;
filename _httpout "c:\temp\Excel Precision.xlsx";
proc http method="get"
url="https://github.com/snoopy369/SASL/raw/master/Excel%20Precision.xlsx"
out=_httpin;
run;
data _null_;
_in = fopen('_httpin','I',1,'B');
_out= fopen('_httpout','O',1,'B');
rec='20'x;
do while (Fread(_in) eq 0);
rc = fget(_in,rec,1);
rc = fput(_out,rec);
rc = fwrite(_out);
end;
rc = fclose(_in);
rc = fclose(_out);
run;
proc import file=_httpout out=test dbms=xlsx replace;
run;

SAS : ODS and code highlighting

When using R markdown for making statistical reports, I have the ability to echo the R code in my output document. I'm learning SAS and I was wondering if it was possible to highlight or echo the SAS code in my final ODS report ? I'm using a dirty hack right know to display the code in my document, which is using "ods text = ", but it seems quite redundant. Plus it doesn't add syntax highlighting.
That feature does not exist in the SAS language right now, but it has been mentioned in several talks by Amy Peters, principal product manager of the SAS programing environments, as a planned feature for a near-future SAS release (with no specific date yet, but hopefully in the next 2 years). It would likely be implemented in a similar fashion to Jupyter Notebooks, in that you write your code and get your output inline.
That said, SAS does support Jupyter Notebooks, which is the best current (third party) solution. Contact your SAS administrator for more information.
I have an idea here, I'm the type of guy who dosent take no for answer and find a way to fiddle and get it done... but i think this is abit far fetch... you can try still I think it will work with mostly evrything but may have a hard time to play with quotes when you have multiple semi colomns....
Check:
I started by creating a dumbass dataset :
data tata;
x=1;
run;
then we do the following:
%let code= select * from tata;
proc sql;
create table report as
&code.;
quit;
proc print data=report;
footnote "&code.";
run;
The rationale:
I think it you put your code in macrovariables and then execute those macro variables you would be able to print show the code after by printing the macrovariable following your text...
See the sample

How to find SAS version from SAS Enterprise Guide?

In my previous work place where I had access to base SAS (running SAS interactively on the server directly), I could find out the current SAS version easily (from the SAS log) by issuing the code proc setinit; run;
In my new work place there is no base SAS - only Enterprise Guide. I try running the same code but the SAS version does not appear in the SAS log.
I would like to easily find out the SAS version running on the server from Enterprise Guide. Is this possible or not? If so, how?
The values you're looking for are stored in automatic macro variables in your system. The code below retrieves the macro variables and prints them to the log for your information.
%put ** my information;
%put short version: &sysver;
%put version: &sysvlong4;
%put site #: &syssite;
%put cpu: &sysscp &sysscpl;
EDIT: Update answer
You can use PROC PRODUCT_STATUS which is great, since it will print the relevant information to the log.
proc product_status;run;
There are some other options available rather than using the global macro variables (&sysver and &sysvlong4), if you prefer point-click options.
First, under Help -> About SAS Enterprise Guide, if you select 'Configuration Details' you can see your SAS system version.
Second, if you select the server in the Servers tree (in the window on the bottom left), and right click->Properties, you will see the SAS version/etc. information.
Third, if you continue in that and select "View Initialization Log", it will show you the initialization log (the bit SAS shows when you start a session in the log). This includes the version number and some other useful information.
Just run the following code and all available information will be printed automatically.
proc setinit;
run;
You can also use
%put _all_;
that will display all macro variables available in your session.
proc setinit;
run;
You can run this set of code and check the results. It will tell you the version you are using.
%put &_clientversion; gives you version.
proc setinit;
run;
Or under the help tab in the top left of the enterprise guide.

Error W/ PROC GEOCODE

Hopefully someone out there will have run into this before. I'm trying to use the street level geocoding capability of SAS' PROC GEOCODE, but I keep getting a cryptic error. I couldn't find anything on the net about it (although to be fair I only spent a half hour looking).
First, I'm using SAS Enterprise Guide (I've tried on both v4.2 and v4.3), although I still prefer to program as I find the point and click interface quite limiting. Maybe this right here is my problem?
Anyway I first get the lookup data sets from http://support.sas.com/rnd/datavisualization/mapsonline/html/geocode.html and follow the instructions in the readme. I also use the pre-written SAS program to import the CSV files. My input dataset contains just 4 variables: street address, city, state, and zip. I then run the following code:
libname josh 'C:\Users\Josh\Desktop\Geocode\SAS files';
proc geocode
method=street
data=SASUSER.Home_Policy_Address_Detail
lookupstreet=josh.USM
out=test;
run;
However I get this error:
ERROR: Variable NAMENC not found in JOSH.USM data set.
Nowhere in the readme or the import program is a variable named "NAMENC" ever mentioned. This is what has me stumped. Is it something wrong with the simple PROC GEOCODE program I wrote? Is it due to me using SAS EG (although I've yet to run into a base SAS procedure that hasn't worked on EG)? Or something else?
Any help/guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Check your SAS version. You can use the 'Help' menu in DMS mode or submit this statement:
%put &sysvlong;
It looks like you are using SAS 9.3 but your lookup data JOSH.USM is the lookup data formatted for SAS 9.4.
PROC GEOCODE street lookup data comes in two slightly different formats, one for SAS 9.3 and another for 9.4. When you download the nationwide lookup data from the SAS MapsOnline geocoding page, make sure to download the version appropriate for your SAS release.

Export SAS data to SPSS, date and datetime

I have data inside SAS.
I want to store the datafile to SPSS format (*.sav)
I use the following program:
PROC export Data=SASdataToStoreInSPSS
FILE="Path\Filename_%sysfunc(today(),date9.).sav"
dbms=sav replace;
RUN;
This works great. Except when I open the file in SPSS the dates are strangly formatted.
For example:
156405 08:51:00
Should be
3-Jan-2011 08:51
I can manually change the data formats in SPSS. So the values are correct date values, except they are not automatically formatted in a readable format.
I tried to change the format in SAS before saving to DATETIME20. or DATETIME23.3. But this does not help.
I want this to work without having to open SPSS and run a Syntax there.
The SPSS files that SAS spits out have to be directly mailed to other users of the data.
I think this is either a bug with SAS's export, or an issue with SPSS where some default changed. What's happening is that SAS is storing it as a SPSS Date - but with width 16, which is not long enough to hold the complete datetime. I don't think you can use DBDSOPTS with DBMS=SPSS, so I don't know that there is a good workaround short of importing the file into SPSS.
You could do that automatically, though, using the SPSS Production facility; I've written an import script before and asked SAS to run spssprod with the batch file. That's an irritating workaround, but it might be the easiest, unless SAS Tech Support can help you (and certainly try that - they are usually only a few hours' turnaround for initial contact at least).
SAS mentioned it has to do with the SPSS driver they use. Apparently it is not an easy fix so they forwarded the issue to second-line tech support.
The workaround you will need is split the dates in two columns. One with date and one with time.
data SPSS2;
set SPSS;
date = put(datepart(DatumSPSS), date9.);
time = put(timepart(DatumSPSS), time8.);
run;
Or you can tell the end user how to change the format of the date in SPSS.
For an automated approach, try this .NET app. You need SPSS, but SAS is not required to convert a large collection of SAS files automatically.
Manual Process included code samples or Application Download