Date:         Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:47:15 -0700
Reply-To:     "Richard A. DeVenezia" <rdevenezia@WILDBLUE.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Richard A. DeVenezia" <rdevenezia@WILDBLUE.NET>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Re: How to Read Row Oriented External Files?
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

On Sep 26, 2:35 am, siigm...@yahoo.com wrote:
> How to Read Row Oriented External Files?
> I have a txt file where all the information is stored in one row. On
> record contains 152 variables separated by space. The first record
> starts at several positions into the line, position 1970 and lasts
> until 3339. The following records have the same length as the first
> one.
>
> Normally, in the external files I have to read into SAS, the records
> are stored one in each row. For that purposes the following program is
> fine.
> DATA  out1_9;
> INFILE "f:\SAS\out1.dat" LRECL=3939 FIRSTOBS=1;
> INPUT
> @1970   t1      6.
> @1976   t2      13.5
> @1989   t3      13.5
> .
> .
> .
> @3926   t152    13.5
> ;
> RUN;
>
> All on one long line:
> nspec =  6…………… 1      0.00000     50.11175      0.00000      0.00000
> 2      0.00000     50.11175      0.00000      0.0000…..
>
> The obstacle is to modify this program or make another program to
> repeat along the row by a %DO sentence/loop.

There is no need for macro here.  The input @ operator accepts a
variable name, so you can manipulate the value of that variable to
dynamically change where you are inputting from.

This will read three fixed sized records that are in the same input
line:

offset=1970;
do count = 1 to 3;
input
  @(offset+0) t1
  @(offset+6) t2
  @(offset+19) t3
...
;
  offset+1970;
end;

--
Richard A. DeVenezia
http://www.devenezia.com