R help - Dec 2002 - Part II Re: read.ssd {foreign} (Reading a permanent SAS d ataset into an R data frame)

Scot,

Thanks for the info.  I will try your code out to
verify the result, but before I do that, will your
code (SAS and R) work with variable names that are
longer than 8 characters long without truncating the
variable name in R?

Also, I wonder about using your method or the PROC
EXPORT method with larger data sets.  The data sets I
will be working with for the most part will not be
that large, but for larger data sets, I do not like to
create the intermediate csv file that PROC EXPORT
creates because I do not like having unused files
stored on my computer.

Thanks,

Stephen

--- Scot W McNary <smcnary at fellspt.charm.net>
wrote:
> 
> 
> Stephen,
> 
> I use SAS a lot and have to admit I use the proc
> export version to csv
> format you posted on a regular basis, however, I was
> able to get the
> transport version to work by using the xport engine
> in a libname statement
> as follows (SAS 8.2 on Windows98SE, rw1061):
> 
> 
> # using SAS
> libname check xport 'e:\testing.xpt' ;
> 
> data a;
> 
> do i = 1 to 10 ;
> 	x = 1 + i ;
> 	y = 50/x ;
> 	output;
> 	end;
> 
> run;
> 
> data check.a ;
> set a ;
> 
> run;
> 
> proc print data = check.a ;
> run;
> 
>     The SAS System     15:31 Tuesday, December 24,
> 2002   1
> 
> Obs     I     X       Y
> 
>   1     1     2    25.0000
>   2     2     3    16.6667
>   3     3     4    12.5000
>   4     4     5    10.0000
>   5     5     6     8.3333
>   6     6     7     7.1429
>   7     7     8     6.2500
>   8     8     9     5.5556
>   9     9    10     5.0000
>  10    10    11     4.5455
> 
> # now reading into R
> 
> > library(foreign)
> > test<-read.xport("e:/testing.xpt")
> > test
>     I  X         Y
> 1   1  2 25.000000
> 2   2  3 16.666667
> 3   3  4 12.500000
> 4   4  5 10.000000
> 5   5  6  8.333333
> 6   6  7  7.142857
> 7   7  8  6.250000
> 8   8  9  5.555556
> 9   9 10  5.000000
> 10 10 11  4.545455
> 
> The tricky part for me is having to suspend the
> metaphor of a "libname as
> folder" and think of the libname check as pointing
> to a file:
> "testing.xpt".  It works that way in trying to read
> spss files with the
> spss engine too.  I would assume it's also true for
> using bmdp and osiris
> engines, but I haven't had occasion to use them.
> 
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Scot
> 
> 
> 
> --
>   Scot W. McNary  email:smcnary at charm.net
> 
>