SAS 9.1 Language Reference Dictionary, Volumes 1, 2 and 3

Sets the token delimiters for the FGET function

Category: External Files

Syntax

FSEP ( file-id , character(s) )

Arguments

file-id

• specifies the identifier that was assigned when the file was opened, generally by the FOPEN function.

character

• specifies one or more delimiters that separate items in the File Data Buffer (FDB). Each character listed is a delimiter . That is, if character is #@, either # or @ can separate items. Multiple consecutive delimiters, such as @#@, are treated as a single delimiter.

• Default: blank

Details

FSEP returns 0 if the operation was successful, ‰  0 if it was not successful.

Examples

An external file has data in this form:

John J. Doe,Male,25,Weight Lifter Pat O'Neal,Female,22,Gymnast

Note that each field is separated by a comma.

This example reads the file that is identified by the fileref MYFILE, using the comma as a separator, and writes the values for NAME , GENDER, AGE, and WORK to the SAS log. Note that in a macro statement you do not enclose character strings in quotation marks.

%let fid=%sysfunc(fopen(myfile)); %let rc=%sysfunc(fsep(&fid,%str(,))); %do %while(%sysfunc(fread(&fid)) = 0); %let rc=%sysfunc(fget(&fid,name)); %let rc=%sysfunc(fget(&fid,gender)); %let rc=%sysfunc(fget(&fid,age)); %let rc=%sysfunc(fget(&fid,work)); %put name=%bquote(&name) gender=&gender age=&age work=&work; %end; %let rc=%sysfunc(fclose(&fid));

See Also

Functions:

• 'FCLOSE Function' on page 519

• 'FGET Function' on page 527

• 'FOPEN Function' on page 550

• 'FREAD Function' on page 558

• 'MOPEN Function' on page 656