SAS - Fails to load program with long name from Windows Explorer

Question

I am using Base SAS 9.4 on Windows 7. For various reasons, which are detailed below, some of my programs have extremely long names. Exacerbating this further, the programs are stored deep in the abyss of a network drive. This causes problems when trying to open from Windows Explorer. I believe the problem lies with SAS, but have tagged the question with Windows in case not. I'm hoping there is some way to address this problem via a configuration file or an edit to the registry.

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To open a program, I typically double click on the .sas file in Windows Explorer. This opens the Enhanced Editor after a brief waiting period in which a SAS message box states:

The SAS System is processing requests. Please wait...

When a program's full name, including path and extension, exceeds 182 characters (i.e. has form: \\network-location\a\bunch\of\....\folders\program path exceeding 182 char.sas), the same "SAS System is processing requests" message appears, but then a Windows error is generated.

Not surprisingly, no solution is proffered by Windows.

When the program name is such that the full path is exactly 182 characters, nothing happens. I double click on the program and the only result is to select the file in Windows Explorer. If I monitor "Processes" within the Windows Task Manager, no new processes are started when such a program is double clicked.

When the program name is such that the full path is less than 182 characters, the program opens in the Enhanced Editor as expected.

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According to MSDN, the max path is 260 characters. Clearly, 182 is well below that limit. SAS is the only application which has a problem with the path length. For example, I can copy the file name and extension, create a new text document with the same name (plus .txt) and open the file in Notepad, Notepad++, Word, Wordpad, Emacs, etc.

I have deduced two workarounds for working with names exceeding 182 characters. If I open SAS via SAS.exe, I can load a program through the Open dialog with a path exceeding 182 characters just fine. This is not a good solution, however, as the Open dialog does not allow paths to be copy/pasted. The entire file path must be traversed. I can also drag such a program into the editor window within SAS to load it. This too is not a good solution, as a program will only load if there is a blank editor window. If the program is accidentally dragged on the the log window, it will execute automatically. Also, the program does not open in a convenient location. It opens in the middle of the Enhanced Editor and must be manually resized. That the programs can be loaded and executed at all leads me to believe that there is some way to fix this problem. It seems that somewhere in the process of loading the file, SAS violates some variable limit.

Of course, people would suggest that I use a different network location or shorter names. To the former, I am required to use a specific network location. To the latter, these programs are being developed in parallel with various reports. Many of the programs are similar and the corresponding references (table/figure numbers) in the reports change multiple times/aren't always communicated to me. Through experience, I've found the surest way to work with these uncertainties is to simply name the file by the label it's given in the report. Otherwise, I need to adopt unclear abbreviations, bad organizational practices, or introduce intermediate steps (like creating codes or a document which indexes the programs).

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Edit: Per Joe's comment, it seems that the Open dialog allows copy and paste for specific file names. A file path can be copied in Windows Explorer via Shift + Right Mouse Click > Copy as Path and pasted into the "File Path" box in the Open dialog.

To avoid traversing the tree, the Current Folder may be updated before accessing the Open dialog. This is located at the bottom right of the Enhanced Editor.

The Open dialog starts at whatever the Current Folder location is set to.

Answer 1

I suspect your issue is that your 260 limit is in fact applicable.

When you double-click a program file, it doesn't just copy the path to SAS. Instead, what happens is SASOACT.exe is called, with a command of something similar to this:

"C:\Program Files\SAS94\SASFoundation\9.4\core\sasexe\sasoact.exe" action=Open datatype=Access filename="%1" progid=SAS.Application.940

That's well over 100 characters already by itself; presumably, behind the scenes, you end up with something like

"C:\Program Files\SAS94\SASFoundation\9.4\core\sasexe\sasoact.exe -open ""%1"""

Which adds around 70 or 80 characters to what you're passing it. Thus the 260 character limit.

You should use one of the workarounds - I personally prefer to just file->open, myself, but really whatever works best for you is fine. You could also consider using another editor for the simple double-click actions, though any editor you chose would still have some issues.

You could also consider asking IT to install SAS itself in a location that had a shorter path name, though realistically that might save 10 characters or so.

As for pasting; you can paste a path name just as easily as a file name into the file->open dialog. I have no idea why you don't seem to think you can, but I just did so now with no more difficulty than any other folder dialog...

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Another workaround to consider, by the way, is mapping a drive letter to the network path. I.e., if your network path is

//myserver/projects/financial/projectnumber/.../

You map some letter (let's say R: arbitrarily) to that root path, //myserver/projects/financial/projectnumber, which is not changing anything other than how you refer to it locally. Then you can use:

R:\...\filename.sas

And you don't have to navigate paths, etc. You'd have to repeat that mapping process on any machine that you wanted to do this on, but if this mostly about your own workflow, that shouldn't be an issue. Just don't refer to R: inside the program itself and nobody else will ever know that you've changed anything.