OK, yes, they're easy enough to create. However, I want to add a header line, with the name of the fields. This exercise has brought up two issues:

1) How can I remove the quotes around the header record? 2) What exactly is put (_all_) (:) doing? I can't find it in the archives or in the SAS documentation.

Here is the sample code I'm trying to run. It produces no errors, but gives me quotes around the header record... Removing the quotes around the put "&vnames" statement produces an error.

data test; input a $ b $; cards; michael jordan scotty pippen horace grant ; run; proc sql noprint; select trim(name) into :vnames separated by '|' from dictionary.columns where libname="WORK" & memname="TEST" order by varnum ; quit; data _null_; set test; file "desktop\helpme.txt" dlm="|" dsd lrecl=1000; if _n_=1 then do; put "&vnames"; end; put (_all_)(:); run;

_______________________________ Bruce A. Johnson Senior Data Analyst Solucient, LLC (847) 440-9635 bjohnson@solucient.com

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