Date:         Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:37:35 -0400
Reply-To:     Scott Bass <sas_l_739@YAHOO.COM.AU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Scott Bass <sas_l_739@YAHOO.COM.AU>
Subject:      Get external file last modified date and time regardless of
              regional settings

Hi,

This is more a Windows question, but here goes...

I need to get a directory list, including the last modification date ***in a
format independent of the regional settings***.

For example, my regional settings for date is dd-MMM-yy and time is HH:mm:ss
(24 hour time).

So a sample directory list is:

 Directory of c:\temp

25-Mar-10  13:22               100 temp.sas

which is likely different than your machine, esp. if you're in the US.

I need the last modified date/time of the file, and have confidence that my
code will get the correct results no matter the regional setting of the end
users machine.

I'm aware of the anydt* formats - perhaps these will work?  But I'd have to
try them with every combination of regional date settings.  And while the
date settings are pre-populated with a dropdown list, it looks like I can
overtype them to set my own settings.

Alternatively, are there any undocumented switches to dir that would format
the date/time of files consistently?

Finally, if any birdies are listening, here is a modified code snippet
straight from the FINFO function:

data info;
   length infoname infoval $60;
   drop rc fid infonum i close;
   rc=filename('abc','c:\autoexec.bat');
   fid=fopen('abc');
   infonum=foptnum(fid);
   do i=1 to infonum;
      infoname=foptname(fid,i);
      infoval=finfo(fid,infoname);
      output;
   end;
   close=fclose(fid);
run;

This gives me the oh-so-unhelpful list of filename, recfm, and lrecl.  C'mon
SAS, you're up to v9.2.  How about a few more external file attributes so I
can get this information portably, without exiting to the O/S?

Here would be a good list to start with:

In addition, substitution of FOR variable references has been enhanced.
You can now use the following optional syntax:

    %~I         - expands %I removing any surrounding quotes (")
    %~fI        - expands %I to a fully qualified path name
    %~dI        - expands %I to a drive letter only
    %~pI        - expands %I to a path only
    %~nI        - expands %I to a file name only
    %~xI        - expands %I to a file extension only
    %~sI        - expanded path contains short names only
    %~aI        - expands %I to file attributes of file
    %~tI        - expands %I to date/time of file
    %~zI        - expands %I to size of file
    %~$PATH:I   - searches the directories listed in the PATH
                   environment variable and expands %I to the
                   fully qualified name of the first one found.
                   If the environment variable name is not
                   defined or the file is not found by the
                   search, then this modifier expands to the
                   empty string

The modifiers can be combined to get compound results:

    %~dpI       - expands %I to a drive letter and path only
    %~nxI       - expands %I to a file name and extension only
    %~fsI       - expands %I to a full path name with short names only
    %~dp$PATH:I - searches the directories listed in the PATH
                   environment variable for %I and expands to the
                   drive letter and path of the first one found.
    %~ftzaI     - expands %I to a DIR like output line


Thanks for any ideas you can provide...

Regards,
Scott