Dictionary Views

1
Dictionary Views

• An introduction to SAS dictionary views.
• Doug Gordon
• Department of Family and Community Services
• May 2002

2
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary views store information about your
  SAS session, data and user options.

3
Dictionary Views
Dictionary views contain information on

• libraries
• datasets
• variables
• catalogs

• macros
• indexes
• external files
• options

4
Dictionary Views

• There are three main ways to access this
  information
• Dictionary views (SQL)
• Sashelp library (Datastep)
• SAS procedures Datasets, contents, catalog.

5
Dictionary Views

• This presentation will focus on
• Dictionary views
• How you can access them, and some examples of
  their use.

6
Dictionary Views

• Why would you want to access this information?
• To find out about the structure of your data.
• For input to macros or data steps

7
Dictionary Views

• Potential uses include
• To change your data
• To manipulate input
• To manipulate output

8
Dictionary Views

• Many of the dictionary views replicate
  information found in other dictionary views.
• As with most SAS elements - there are always
  alternative ways to achieve the same outcome.

9
Dictionary Views

• Basic code to view contents
• proc sql
• select from dictionary.views
• quit

10
Dictionary Views
Dictionary.columns contains

• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• NAME Column Name
• TYPE Column Type
• LENGTH Column Length

11
Dictionary Views
Dictionary.columns contains

• NPOS Column Position
• VARNUM Column number in table
• LABEL Column label
• FORMAT Column format
• INFORMAT Column informat
• IDXUSAGE Column Index type

12
Dictionary Views

• You can use the information in dictionary.columns
  to change your data
• variable names for labels
• change formats
• reorder variables

13
Dictionary Views

• To create utility programs
• map your data holdings
• output data to flatfiles

14
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.catalogs contains
• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• OBJNAME Object Name
• OBJTYPE Object Type
• OBJDESC Object Description
• MODIFIED Date Modified
• ALIAS Object Alias

15
Dictionary Views

• Uses of the dictionary.catalogs
• check for existence of a format
• listing formats

16
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.extfiles contains
• FILEREF Fileref
• XPATH Path Name
• XENGINE Engine Name
• xpath only contains 80 characters so be careful
  with long path and file names,

17
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.indexes contains
• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• NAME Column Name
• IDXUSAGE Column Index Type

18
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.indexes contains
• INDXNAME Index Name
• INDXPOS Position of Column in Concatenated
  Key
• NOMISS No-miss Option
• UNIQUE Unique Option

19
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.members contains
• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• ENGINE Engine Name
• INDEX Indexes
• PATH Path Name

20
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.macros contains
• SCOPE Macro Scope
• NAME Macro Var Name
• OFFSET Offset into Macro Var
• VALUE Macro Var Value

21
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.titles contains
• TYPE Title Location
• NUMBER Title Number
• TEXT Title Text

22
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.options contains
• OPTNAME Session Option Name
• SETTING Session Option Setting
• OPTDESC Option Description
• These options do not always contain platform
  dependent options.

23
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.tables contains
• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• MEMLABEL Dataset Label
• TYPEMEM Dataset Type
• CRDATE Date Created
• MODATE Date Modified
• NOBS Number of Observations

24
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.tables contains
• OBSLEN Observation Length
• NVAR Number of Variables
• PROTECT Type of Password Protection
• COMPRESS Compression Routine
• REUSE Reuse Space
• BUFSIZE Bufffer size
• DELOBS Number of Deleted Observations
• INDXTYPE Type of Indexes

25
Dictionary Views

• Dictionary.views contains
• LIBNAME Library Name
• MEMNAME Member Name
• MEMTYPE Member Type
• ENGINE Engine Name

26
Dictionary Views

• References
• Davis, Michael, An Introduction to SASHELP
  Dictionary Views, SUGI 26, paper 17-26
• Hamilton, Jack, Some Utility Applications of the
  Dictionary Tables in SQL, Western Users SAS
  Conference, 1998
• SAS Institute Inc. SAS Procedures Guide,
  Version 8, SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, 2000
• SAS Institute Inc., SAS Online Doc Version 8, SAS
  Institute Inc., Cary, NC, 1999