How to import text files into SAS?

---

You can use the PROC IMPORT statement to quickly import data from a text file into SAS.

This procedure uses the following basic syntax:

/*import data from text file called data.txt*/
proc import out=my_data
    datafile="/home/u13181/data.txt"
    dbms=dlm
    replace;
    getnames=YES;
run;

Here’s what each line does:

• out: Name to give dataset once imported into SAS
• datafile: Location of text file to import
• dbms: Format of file being imported (dlm assumes spaces are used as delimiters)
• replace: Replace the file if it already exists
• getnames: Use first row as variable names (Set to NO if first row does not contain variable names)

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Import Text File into SAS

Suppose we have the following text file called data.txt:

We can use the following code to import this dataset into SAS and call it new_data:

/*import data from text file called data.txt*/
proc import out=new_data
    datafile="/home/u13181/data.txt"
    dbms=dlm
    replace;
    getnames=YES;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc print data=new_data;

The data shown in the SAS output matches the data shown in the text file.

Note #1: We used getnames=YES when importing the file since the first row of the text file contained variable names.

Note #2: You can find the complete documentation for the PROC IMPORT statement .

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in SAS: