How to rename an external file with SAS on Windows XP?

Question

I have a process in SAS that creates a .csv. I have another process in Python that waits until the file exists and then does something with that file. I want to make sure that the Python process doesn't start doing its thing until SAS is done writing the file.

I thought I would just have SAS create the .csv and then rename the file after it was done. Can I do the renaming in SAS? Then the python process could just wait until the renamed file existed.

Accepted Answer

You could make use of the X command after the SAS step that creates the .csv file. The X command gives you access to your operating system, effectively placing you in a cmd window in XP. It's likely you'll want to use options noxwait; which will return control to your SAS session after executing the operating environment command.

Something like:

options noxwait;

data _null_;
  file "C:\myFolder\dummyName.csv";
  * ...code that creates the .csv with dummy name... ;
run;

x 'ren C:\myFolder\dummyName.csv realName.csv';

Note that

depending on how you're executing SAS, the x command may not be enabled (for example if you're in EG, it's disabled be default), and
the execution context is the OS of the server running SAS, not your client, so if you're running SAS on a remote server, the file locations and references must be relative to the SAS server, not your local machine.

Answer 2

6

Edit: This suggestion is for version 9.2 and later (thanks @sasfrog for the heads up!).

SAS has a built in rename function that you can use. This bypasses the issues that you might run into with restrictions on the 'x' command and is portable to different hosts.

e.g.

data _null_;
  file "C:\temp\first.csv";
  put "1, 2, 3";
run;

data _null_;
  rc=rename('C:\temp\first.csv', 'C:\temp\second.csv','file');
run;

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answered 15 Nov '10, 20:11

cmjohns
584●1●5
accept rate: 50%

edited 16 Nov '10, 15:24

1

+1 I didn't know about this function - note that it is new for 9.2. I assumed the OP is using SAS 9.1.3, given he's on XP, but I could be wrong.

(15 Nov '10, 23:21) sasfrog

@sasfrog You are correct - this is 9.2 and later - I added an edit to clarify this point.

(16 Nov '10, 15:25) cmjohns

thanks to both of you. we actually have 9.2 on some of our xp machines and 9.1.x on some others, so i probably will not use rename for now. looks like a better solution though for down the road.

(18 Nov '10, 05:16) rstlne

How to rename an external file with SAS on Windows XP?

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