R help - Apr 2005 - Importing SAS transport data

I have encountered a problem reading SAS transport files on both a Mac 
(OS X) and Linux (RedHat 9), both using R2.0.1.

After loading "foreign", the command:
read.xport("V1622101_050304.xpt")

yields:
Error in lookup.xport(file) : File not in SAS transfer format

In Linux, I can "cat" the file.  The first few lines are:
**COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** 
**COMPRESSED********LIB CONTROL WIN_PRO<BC>^BWIN^@8 
SAS8.2<BC><AB>D701DATALIB 
ACM<BC><9B>VC30<BC><81>CC14537<BC><85>RL507<BC><87>1<BC><87>S
0  0  20
CHAR

In contrast, I can read.xport a different file successfully.
That file (and others that I can import successfully) contains the 
following first line:
HEADER RECORD*******LIBRARY HEADER 
RECORD!!!!!!!000000000000000000000000000000  SAS     SAS     SASLIB  
6.12    WIN_NT                          
21OCT02:13:30:0721OCT02:13:30:07

I know little about SAS but I wonder whether the problem relates to the 
export characteristics of different versions of SAS.  If so, it appears 
that read.xport may not work with newer versions of SAS.  If so, is 
there a new function to read SAS transport files?

Thanks for any possible help.



Dennis Fisher MD
P < (The "P Less Than" Company)
Phone: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784)
Fax: 1-415-564-2220
www.PLessThan.com


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On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 17:38 -0700, Dennis Fisher wrote:
> I have encountered a problem reading SAS transport files on both a Mac 
> (OS X) and Linux (RedHat 9), both using R2.0.1.
> 
> After loading "foreign", the command:
> read.xport("V1622101_050304.xpt")
> 
> yields:
> Error in lookup.xport(file) : File not in SAS transfer format
> 
> In Linux, I can "cat" the file.  The first few lines are:
> **COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** **COMPRESSED** 
> **COMPRESSED********LIB CONTROL WIN_PRO<BC>^BWIN^@8 
> SAS8.2<BC><AB>D701DATALIB 
>
ACM<BC><9B>VC30<BC><81>CC14537<BC><85>RL507<BC><87>1<BC><87>S
0  0  20
> CHAR
> 
> In contrast, I can read.xport a different file successfully.
> That file (and others that I can import successfully) contains the 
> following first line:
> HEADER RECORD*******LIBRARY HEADER 
> RECORD!!!!!!!000000000000000000000000000000  SAS     SAS     SASLIB  
> 6.12    WIN_NT                          
> 21OCT02:13:30:0721OCT02:13:30:07
> 
> I know little about SAS but I wonder whether the problem relates to the 
> export characteristics of different versions of SAS.  If so, it appears 
> that read.xport may not work with newer versions of SAS.  If so, is 
> there a new function to read SAS transport files?
> 
> Thanks for any possible help.
There are two transport formats for SAS.  The older one (XPORT) is an
open format ( http://support.sas.com/techsup/technote/ts140.html ).  The
newer one (CPORT) has been available since SAS version 6. It is a
proprietary format, so there is little chance of being able to read this
data into R.

NB The CPORT transpor format is in addition to, rather than a
replacement for, the XPORT format. You can still create XPORT transport
files in the latest version of SAS, so this is what you need to ask for.

Martyn