Importing and Exporting Data¶
In some cases we need to import external datasets, maybe a list of tracts or individual identifiers. We frequently export SAS datasets to Stata datasets since we mostly use SAS to clean and subset large datasets into more manageable datasets that we can analyze in Stata.
Importing Data with PROC IMPORT¶
To import datasets we use PROC IMPORT. The general syntax is below, optional arguments are placed in parantheses
proc import
datafile =
out =
(dbms =)
(delimiter = )
(replace);
getnames = ;
run;
Description of Options¶
OPTION |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
DATAFILE |
Specifies the complete path and filename |
OUT |
Specifies the output SAS dataset in libname.filename format |
DBMS |
Specifies the type of data to import. One of csv (.csv, default delimiter is comma), dlm (.dat or .txt, default delimiter is blank), jmp (.jmp), or tab (.txt, default delimiter is tab) |
DELIMITER |
Specify the delimiter (i.e. “,”, “&”, “|”) |
REPLACE |
Replace output dataset if it already exists |
GETNAMES |
Generate variable names from first row |
Example¶
Below, we load in a comma-separated .txt file
libname out "/XX/output";
proc import datafile = "../data/proc_import_example.txt"
out = out.proc_import_example
dbms = csv
replace;
getnames = yes;
run;
Note that we can add SAS data step options to the out argument. For instance, if we only wanted to keep people over age 20 in our example
libname out "/XX/output";
proc import datafile = "../data/proc_import_example.txt"
out = out.proc_import_example (where = (age > 20))
dbms = csv
replace;
getnames = yes;
run;
Exporting Data with PROC EXPORT¶
To export SAS datasets to other formats we use PROC EXPORT. The general syntax is
proc export
data =
outfile =
(dbms = )
(replace);
run;
Description of Options¶
OPTION |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
DATA |
The SAS dataset to export, specified as libname.filename |
OUTFILE |
Specifies the complete path and file name for the output file |
DBMS |
Specifies the type of data to export |
REPLACE |
Replace output dataset if it already exists |
Example¶
Below, we export a SAS dataset to a Stata dataset
libname raw "/XX/output";
proc export data = raw.clean_tax_records
outfile = "/XX/clean/clean_tax_records.dta"
replace;
run;
We can use SAS data step options in the data argument, like if we wanted to rename a variable
libname raw "/XX/output";
proc export data = raw.clean_tax_records(rename = (date_of_birth = dob))
outfile = "/XX/clean/clean_tax_records.dta"
replace;
run;