Save column descriptions when exporting SAS dataset to CSV

Question

I've been given SAS data which I'd like to export to CSV, so that I can analyze it using R. I've never used SAS but I found Efficiently convert a SAS dataset into a CSV, which explains how to convert to CSV using code like this:

proc export data=sashelp.class outfile='c:\temp\sashelp class.csv' dbms=csv replace; run;

This works, but I've noticed that I end up with what I'll call short column names in the CSV, whereas I see long, verbose column descriptions when I look at the data in SAS (i.e. using the SAS software).

I'd like to programmatically save those column descriptions to a txt file, so that I can read them into an R vector. In other words, I'm happy having the short column names in my CSV header (i.e. the first line of my CSV), but I'd like to also have a second file, with only one line, containing the longer column descriptions. How do I do that? I googled and didn't notice anything helpful.

To give an example, the long column descriptions I see in SAS might be something like "Number of elephants in Tanzania", with a corresponding short column name of "ElephTanz".

Jeff Jeff · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-18T20:29:38

You can use the SAS "dictionary" library to access this kind of info. The following code creates a table work.column_labels that has two columns: the "short name" you're seeing and the longer label that appears when you view the data in SAS. (Note that the sashelp.class data doesn't happen to have labeled columns to this particular example will have the second column empty.)

proc sql;
    create table work.column_lables as
    select Name,label
    from dictionary.columns
    where libname = 'SASHELP'
        and memname = 'CLASS';
quit;

Then you can export this table to a csv using code similar to what you already have.

Save column descriptions when exporting SAS dataset to CSV

1 Answers