I don't see it on the online doc, but I may not have searched for the correct string. I would expect a sas note in the tech support section of sas.com but I failed to find that too.

It does make for rather non-portable code, doesn't it?

I tend to write code that works on all the data it finds in the specified libref (using the dictionary tables). If someone places a '_totals' out there in one of the directories that my code is supposed to process, my code is going to fail to process their data and it won't even mention it!! Luckily that code is running on Unix right now, but there are thoughts of moving it to NT. Ack!

I don't recall who originally posted this problem, but THANKYOU for the heads-up!

--And, as we've already established it is only those datasets starting with _TO - sorry (for once) I actually removed TOO MUCH of the previous message(s)--

> -----Original Message----- > From: Vyverman, Koen [SMTP:koen.vyverman@FID-INTL.COM] > Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 12:50 PM > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: Re: Vanishing Act: data set name oddity > > Ah ... A strange feature then, if _TX, _TT, _HOOPLA, and any > other data sets whose name starts with an underscore _are_ > in fact very much visible to the System. Just the ones having > the misfortune of starting with _TO are truly temporary? > Could the birdy point us towards wherever this is documented? > > Thanks, > Koen. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kirkland, Tammie L [mailto:tlk94092@GLAXOWELLCOME.COM] > Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 6:39 PM > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: Re: Vanishing Act: data set name oddity > > > It is host specific and it is intentional. > > The birdie speaketh thusly: > > This is a feature. The '_' character indicates a temporary file to the > SAS System and those files will not be visible through the SAS Explorer, > etc. as indicated below. > > For the SAS System on Unix, the temporary file prefix is the '#' > character. Platform specific features... > >