Date:         Wed, 4 Apr 2001 11:05:54 -0400
Reply-To:     Tim Williams <williamstim@PRAINTL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Tim Williams <williamstim@PRAINTL.COM>
Subject:      DDE from SAS Program (text file) for program metadata?

Hello SAS-L,

  I have a question that relates to the meta data that our programmers must
place in each of our SAS programs.  As a standard programming practice we
require a set of fields be placed in our program header (such as programmer
name, date, description of program, requirements...etc.)  This information
is also duplicated in another application - currently an Excel
spreadsheet.  This means our programmers must enter the information in two
places: once in the SAS program header and then again in Excel.

  I would like to streamline this process by placing our detailed
information about the programs in a MS-ACCESS database along with our QC
documents.  The next step would be to further streamline the process by
decreasing the amount of information that we must enter into the program
header. As I stated, we must have documentation in the SAS program header
as part of our standard procedures... so is there a way to link this
information into the header from a database?  Would DDE pass through be a
possiblity?

We are currently using UltraEdit to write our code for Version 6.12 on NT.
From the UltraEdit online help I read the following excerpt:

-------------------------------------------------------
UltraEdit supports the following DDE commands.  They are all part of
the "System" topic.

Command:   Function:

[open("filename")]  Opens the specified file.  Following the
filename any of the normal command line parameters may be specified for
macro running, positioning at line number etc.
The following example uses DDE open to open a file and run a macro:

[open("filename" /M,E,1="full path of macro file/macro name")]

-------------------------------------------------------

Would it be possible to use DDE to link this information into the header
section of our code?  Could I specify a macro that takes the name of the
SAS program, sends a query to the database and extracts the relevant
information for that file, then places the info into the header?

Or maybe I'm just a dreamer.....

I'd like to hear suggestions anyone may have on this topic. Any DDE guru's
out there?  I'm an obvious newbie to this kind of thing!

Thanks in advance for your help!


Tim


Tim Williams
Analysis Programmer
PRA International
Charlottesville, VA