Date:         Wed, 9 Mar 2005 13:26:14 -0800
Reply-To:     cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Successful run of a SAS Program
In-Reply-To:  <20050309173130.46360.qmail@web54603.mail.yahoo.com>
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Jeff Morison <jmt_mtf@yahoo.com> wrote:
>   I am compiling a list of all things to check for a
> successful run of SAS program.  Any others I am
> missing.
>
> Like:
>
> 1. No syntax errors.
> 2. Certain NOTE messages.
> 3. Certain Warning messages.

We have hashed this over in SAS-L about a hundred times.
Your best bet is to look through the SAS-L archives for
threads where this has been discussed, because people have
identified dozens of important NOTE: messages to watch for,
as well as other key issues.

Last November, our inestimable Macro Maven wrote:
==================== RonQuote =============================
I recommend the following excellent NESUG paper
Program Validation: Logging the Log
by Adel Fahmy

http://www.nesug.org/html/Proceedings/nesug04/ap/ap09.pdf (8 pages)

This paper describes a program that scans SAS logs
for a list of over 90 keywords (error, warning ...)
or phrases (has not, must be, never been, no by, ...)
contained in a text file.

if you thought that searching your log
for Error or Warning was enough to get you off the hook
you'll be amazed at how much can go wrong
and you still get output!
================== end RonQuote ============================

Always listen to what Ron Fehd has to say.


> Interestingly one of my colleagues says a successful
> run of SAS program contains the words "SAS Institute
> Inc., SAS Campus Drive, Cary NC USA 27513-2414" at the
> bottom of the LOG file, I don't think this is true all
> the time, when I write the LOG to a FILE using PROC
> PRINTTO I don't see this message.

Expect to see this at the bottom of the log after batch jobs.
You won't see it with PROC PRINTTO or interactive logs saved after
the fact.  But there are two fun little problems with looking for
this.

[1] If you have the LINESIZE short enough, this will wrap.  That
means that you have to be really careful if searching for the entire
valid string.

[2] You can get this at the bottom of the log EVEN IF YOUR JOB
CHOKED.  Consider that you can have the following drastically bad
message showing up:


NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors
NOTE: SAS set option OBS=0 and will continue to check statements


So your job didn't work.  And then, at the end of the log, you'll
still get the message

"SAS Institute Inc., SAS Campus Drive, Cary NC USA 27513-2414"

with the clock information.  So you *cannot* count on this as a
signal that your job ran properly.

HTH,
David
--
David Cassell, CSC
Cassell.David@epa.gov
Senior computing specialist
mathematical statistician