ds_contents

Retrieve the list (possibly ordered by varnum) of variables/fields in a given dataset.

%ds_contents(dsn, _varlst_=, _lenlst_=, _typlst_=, varnum=yes, lib=);

Arguments

• dsn : a dataset reference;
• varnum : (option) boolean flag (yes/no) set to order the output list of variables by varnum, i.e. their actual position in the table; default: varnum=yes and the variables returned in _varlst_ (see below) are ordered;
• lib : (option) name of the input library; by default: empty, i.e. WORK is used.

Returns

• _varlst_ : name of the output macro variable where the list of variables/fields of the dataset dsn are stored;
• _typlst_ : (option) name of the output macro variable storing the corresponding list of variables/fields types; the output list shall be of the same length as &_varlst_; encoding: 1 for numeric variable, 2 for char variable; default: it will not be returned;
• _lenlst_ : (option) ibid with the variable lengths; default: it will not be returned.

Examples

Consider the test dataset #5:

f	e	d	c	b	a
.	1	2	3	.	5

One can retrieve the ordered list of variables in the dataset with the command:

%let list=;
%ds_contents(_dstest5, _varlst_=list);

which returns list=f e d c b a, while:

%ds_contents(_dstest5, _varlst_=list, varnum=no);

returns list=a b c d e f. Similarly, we can also run it on our database, e.g.:

libname rdb "&G_PING_C_RDB"; 
%let lens=;
%let typs=;
%ds_contents(PEPS01, _varlst_=list, _typlst_=typs, _lenlst_=lens, lib=rdb);

returns:

• list=geo time age sex unit ivalue iflag unrel n ntot totwgh lastup lastuser,
• typs= 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2,
• lens= 5 8 13 3 13 8 1 8 8 8 8 7 7.

Another useful use: we can retrieve data of interest from existing tables, e.g. the list of geographical zones in the EU:

%let zones=;
%ds_contents(&G_PING_COUNTRYxZONE, _varlst_=zones, lib=&G_PING_LIBCFG);
%let zones=%list_slice(&zones, ibeg=2);

which will return: zones=EA EA12 EA13 EA16 EA17 EA18 EA19 EEA EEA18 EEA28 EEA30 EU15 EU25 EU27 EU28 EFTA EU07 EU09 EU10 EU12.

Run macro %_example_ds_contents for more examples.

Note

In short, the program runs (when varnum=yes):

PROC CONTENTS DATA = &dsn 
    OUT = tmp(keep = name type length varnum);
run;
PROC SORT DATA = tmp 
    OUT = &tmp(keep = name type length);
    BY varnum;
run;

and retrieves the resulting name, type and length variables.

References

1. Smith,, C.A. (2005): "Documenting your data using the CONTENTS procedure".
2. Thompson, S.R. (2006): "Putting SAS dataset variable names into a macro variable".
3. Mullins, L. (2014): "Give me EVERYTHING! A macro to combine the CONTENTS procedure output and formats".

See also

%var_to_list, %ds_check, CONTENTS.