reading version 9 SAS datasets in R

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
[mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of jude.ryan at ubs.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 1:40 PM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Cc: juderyan61 at yahoo.com
Subject: [R] reading version 9 SAS datasets in R

Hi,

 

I am trying to read a SAS version 9.1.3 SAS dataset into R 
(to preserve
the SAS labels), but am unable to do so (I have read in a CSV 
version).
I first created a transport file using the SAS code:

 

libname ces2 'D:\CES Analysis\Data';

filename transp 'D:\CES Analysis\Data\fadata.xpt';

 

/* create a transport file - R cannot read file created by 
proc cport */

proc cport data=ces2.fadata file=transp;

run;

 

I then tried to read it in R using:

 

library(foreign)

library(Hmisc)

fadata2 <- sasxport.get("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data\\fadata.xpt")

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

 

Next I tried using the libname statement and the xport engine 
to create
a transport file. The problem with this method is that variable names
cannot be more than 8 characters as this method creates a SAS 
version 6
transport file. 

 

libname to_r xport 'D:\CES Analysis\Data\fadata2.xpt';

 

data to_r.fadata2;

  set ces2.fadata;

run;

 

But I get an error message in the SAS log:

 

493  libname to_r xport 'D:\CES Analysis\Data\fadata2.xpt';

NOTE: Libref TO_R was successfully assigned as follows:

      Engine:        XPORT

      Physical Name: D:\CES Analysis\Data\fadata2.xpt

494

495  data to_r.fadata2;

496    set ces2.fadata;

497  run;

 

ERROR: The variable name BUS_TEL_N is illegal for the version 6 file
TO_R.FADATA2.DATA.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

WARNING: The data set TO_R.FADATA2 was only partially opened and will
not be saved.

 

Next I tried other ways of reading a SAS dataset in R, as shown below:

 

fadata2 <- sas.get("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data", mem=fadata)

Error in sas.get("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data", mem = fadata) : 

  Unix file, "D:\CES Analysis\Data/c(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 
1, 1, 1, 1,
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, .sd2 D:\CES 
Analysis\Data/c(NA, 64716,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 64716, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA,
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 

In addition: Warning message:

In sas.get("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data", mem = fadata) :

  D:\CES Analysis\Data/formats.sc? or formats.sas7bcat  not found.
Formatting ignored. 

 

ls()

[1] "fadata"

?read.xport

fadata2 <- read.xport("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data\\fadata.xpt")

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

?read.ssd

fadata2 <- read.ssd("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data", "fadata")

SAS failed.  SAS program at
D:\DOCUME~1\re06572\LOCALS~1\Temp\RtmpLqCVUx\file72ae2cd6.sas 

The log file will be file72ae2cd6.log in the current directory

Warning messages:

1: In system(paste(sascmd, tmpProg)) : "sas" not found

2: In read.ssd("D:\\CES Analysis\\Data", "fadata") :

  SAS return code was -1

sashome <- "C:\\Program Files\\SAS\\SAS 9.1"

fadata2 <- read.ssd(file.path(sashome, "core", "sashelp"), "fadata",

sascmd=file.path(sashome, "sas.exe"))

SAS failed.  SAS program at
D:\DOCUME~1\re06572\LOCALS~1\Temp\RtmpLqCVUx\file6df11649.sas 

The log file will be file6df11649.log in the current directory

Warning message:

In read.ssd(file.path(sashome, "core", "sashelp"), "fadata", sascmd =
file.path(sashome,  :

  SAS return code was 2

 

Is there any way I can read in a SAS version 9 dataset in R, so that I
can preserve the SAS labels?

If I have to change the SAS variable names to be 8 characters or less,
to create a SAS version 6 transport file, I could probably do without
the SAS labels as I have already read in the data into R from a CSV
file.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Jude