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I have to put together a slide deck on PROC IMPORT for a school project. SAS documentation (http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/65145/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n18jyszn33umngn14czw2qfw7thc.htm) says that there are three required arguments:

1. Datafile=


2. Out=


3. Table=

It goes on to say that DBMS is optional.

For my slide deck, I'm trying to use an example that involves a TABLE= argument. However, I keep getting an error about not being able to have a FILE= and TABLE= statements together. In fact, in going back to other code to import data to do homework, I've noticed that none of the code uses a TABLE= argument. Instead, there's always a DBMS= statement. For example:

proc import
datafile = "C:Usersccedie1Downloadssurvey1.csv"
out = Survey
DBMS=csv;
run;
proc print data=Survey;
run;

It's my understanding that there are many versions of SAS and that a separate license is required for something called SAS/ACCESS Interface. I suspect that the school's computers have this additional license/functionality because it's not requiring a TABLE= statement. In fact, I can get this code to work even without the DBMS statement.

Please let me know what concept(s) I'm missing here. I obviously want my deck to be accurate. If I can't create an example that uses the TABLE= statement, I need to be able to explain why I can't do it. For example, I would like to say something like, "While the SAS documentation lists TABLE= as a required argument, it's not required when using SAS 9.4 on campus because _____________."

I realize I may not have done the best job explaining the problem/issue so my apologies for that.

Thanks in advance for any help.

The vertical bar in this line of the page you linked

DATAFILE="filename" | TABLE="tablename"

normally means or. Basically they are using Backus-Naur form.

So that means that one of the options listed is required, but you get to choose which one to use.

So when reading from a format that is stored in a physical file you must use specify datafile=, but when reading from a remote database you must specify the table= option.

Note that you linked to the older documentation for SAS version 9.3 instead of the current documentation.

The documentation is wrong. It should say something to the effect of "Table or Datafile required".

The import wizard in SAS 9.4 generates this code:

PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.test 
 DATAFILE= "C:UsersUserDesktopTesting.csv" 
 DBMS=CSV REPLACE;
 GETNAMES=YES;
 DATAROW=2; 
RUN;

No table statement.

Good luck in your class.