Q. What is the XPORT transport format, generally ?
A. Transport files that are created by the XPORT engine can be transferred across operating environments and read using the
XPORT engine with the DATA step or PROC COPY. For example a dataset created in SAS 9 can be read in SAS 8 or vice versa.
Here is the process for creating a transport file at the source computer and reading it on a target computer:
1. A transport file is created at the source computer using the XPORT engine with the DATA step or PROC COPY.
2. The transport file is read at the target computer using the XPORT engine with the DATA step or PROC COPY.
There are some limitations in data transfer. Please refer SAS manual (pp 31-pp 36) for further details
(http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/movefile/67439/PDF/default/movefile.pdf)
XPORT transport Generation SAS 9
(a) Example of creation of Xport file in SAS 9.4:
We select Xport-in library as the ‘SAShelp’ library in SAS 9 and ‘Class’ dataset in it as the input dataset.
libname xportout Xport 'C:\Wilson\help’; /* Xport-out Lib name */
/* (a.1) Using Data step */
data xportout.Class;
set SAShelp.Class;
run;
/* (a.2) Using Proc Copy */
proc copy in=SAShelp out=xportout memtype=data;
select Class; /* if select statement was omitted, whole library will be copied*/
run;
CAUTION: Do not omit the MEMTYPE=DATA option. Otherwise, SAS attempts to copy the entire contents of the
library (including catalogs and views) to the transport file. The XPORT engine does not support
the CATALOG or the VIEW member type. Error and warning messages are written to the SAS log.
Reading Xport files in SAS 9
(b) Example of Reading Xport files in SAS 9
Suppose file path of my XPORT transport file name 'xpt_infile.xpt' is 'C:\Wilson'
and target SAS dataset should be in the 'C:\Wilson\data', then SAS code will be
libname target 'C:\Wilson’;
/* (b.1) Using Data step */
data target .Class_new;
set xportout.Class; /* Previously xport out library is xport in library here */
run;
/* (b.2) Using Proc Copy */
proc copy in=xportout out=srs memtype=data;
select Class; /* if select statement was omitted, whole library will be copied*/
run;
Note: You can use the EXCLUDE statement in PROC COPY to omit explicitly the data
sets that you do not want instead of using the SELECT statement to specify the data
sets that you want.
