Read Text File with DSL (from Fraktal SAS Programming)

What is this?

SAS can read directly from any text file. Moreover SAS can read directly from any data source that has text file properties, such as FTP, HTTP, XML or named pipes and up to DDE hotlinks.

When intending to read from a plain text file, you simply specify path and filename along with a description of the record structure. The text file shall look like this:

Royal Inn#King's Suite#4#540 The European#Standard#1#120 St.Peter's#Business#2#333

Documented Code Example

Code executed	Function performed
data plaintext;	Initiate data step processing with a DATA statement
infile source "&PATH.\&FILENAME." dlm = '#';	Specify text file's location and name and introduce the number sign '#' as delimiter
length hotel $16 category $16 no_of_beds rate_in_GBP 8;	Declare structure by supplying the field's length in bytes and data type
input hotel $ category $ no_of_beds rate_in_GBP;	Read the text file by specifying order and type
run;	Terminate the data step