Date:         Tue, 11 Jun 1996 20:29:27 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Stanley <dstanle@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Don Stanley <dstanle@IBM.NET>
Organization: Perpetually in limbo
Subject:      Re: Reading IBM tape with data in EBCDIC fmt.

Ann Fowler wrote:
>
>           Hi All,
>
>           I have several IBM tapes with data in the EBCDIC format.
>           The data include packed decimals.  I've been told that the
>           only tape machine we have is a HP3000 MPE (I've no idea what
>           that is).  Our computer guy uploaded the tape onto the HP
>           and then ftp the file (using the binary option??) to our
>           network.  My job is to read the data (using SAS) and
>           creating a SASdata set.  After many attempts, all I've been
>           able to get is part of the first observation (with clean
>           data) and the rest just junk (computer characters etc.).
>           I've a suspicion that the problem is with the uploading of
>           the tape.  I have read EBCDIC data before (including pcaked
>           decimals) without any problem but this time, it's not
>           working.
>
>           Anyone out there with any idea as to what may be wrong or
>           what options I can look into?
>
>           I would be extremely grateful for any suggestions.  Thanks.
>
>           Ann Fowler
>           Fred Hutchinson Cancer Res. Ctr
 
This may help ... I had the same problem on a UNIX box and it turned out that
unless I specified RECFM=F and LRECL=<the real record length) it had exactly
the
problem you describe. Something to do with the binary FTP stripping out end of
line characters I believe.
 
A good indicator of whether you need LRECL and RECFM is to view the file using
FSLIST. If you see just one very long record then that is what your data step
will see and using LRECL and RECFM will generally fix the problem for you.
 
Don
 
==========================+++++============================================
Don Stanley
Don Stanley Consulting Services
NEW ZEALAND             DSTANLE@IBM.NET