Date:         Wed, 3 Jul 1996 06:14:43 GMT
Reply-To:     baldur@park.tartu.ee
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Baldur Kubo <baldur@PARK.TARTU.EE>
Organization: AS Resta
Subject:      Re: Re[2]: Detecting Missing Files (WIN3.1 )?

Hi!
 
Jack Hamilton <Jack_Hamilton@HCCOMPARE.COM> wrote:
 
>Karsten Self <kmself@IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote:
 
>>With SAS 6.11, SCL functions are available to the DATA step and Macro
>>facility.  The FEXIST function should provide what you are looking for.
>>Syntax for SCL functions, as well as macro enhancements alse introduced with
>>6.11 are available as a postscript document from
>>
>>    ftp://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/misc/macroenh.psl
>>
>>...very much worthwhile.  I'd give you the syntax, but I don't have a
>>postscript viewer and my hardcopy is at the office....
 
>This URL didn't work, so I called SAS Technical Support to find out if the
>file had been renamed or moved.
 
Due to a newsreader bug the articles about SCL functions in datastep
disappeared from my computer, so I had to pick them up from the search engine
at http://www.dejanews.com/. (when searching articles of SAS-L put the filter
to comp.soft-sys.sas , if you think you are a polite person )
 
 
/*Some example code posted to the list by Mark Shephard*/
 
data _null_;
dsid = open('sasuser.mactnq1','i');
obs = attrn(dsid,'NVARS');
dsid = close(dsid);
call symput('obs',put(obs,3.));
stop;
 run;
 
And this was was a clarification by
 
Scott Maurer
 JHU/APL
mauresg1@jhuapl.edu
 
This capability was basically alluded to in Jeff Polzin's SUGI 20 paper
"Macro Facility Enhancements for Release 6.11".  In appendix 1, he describes
"an additional set of SAS system functions that are supplied with the 6.11
SAS system".  Don Stanley is right-on,  25 SCL functions were documented by
Mr. Polzin.  I.E., ATTRC, ATTRN, CLOSE, CUROBS, DROPNOTE, DSNAME, EXIST,
FETCH, FETCHOBS, GETVARC, GETVARN, NOTE, OPEN, POINT, REWIND,SET, SYSMSG,
SYSRC, VARFMT, VARINFMT, VARLABEL, VARLEN, VARNAME, VARNUM and VARTYPE.
 
I noticed that a paper with the same title is scheduled to be presented at
SUGI21 next month.  Hopefully, the information to be presented  at SUGI 21
will be an expansion of these, rather than a rehash of the information
presented last year.  Maybe we'll see SCL List functions available to the
Data Step ... and really boggle some minds.
-------
 
So, was there a paper about this at SUGI ?
Greetings!
 
Baldur