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2011•Unpublished venueRequires access

SAS® DICTIONARY: Step by Step

Patrick K. Thornton

Open publisher page 4 citations

Abstract

This paper offers a step by step visual review of SAS® 9.2 DICTIONARY tables for the beginning to intermediate SAS user who is generally unfamiliar with PROC SQL and macro programming. The content of the DICTIONARY tables, such as data set names, variable names, labels, and types, option names and values, titles and footnotes, format and macro program catalog entries, and external file and library paths, is visually explored using common procedures and SASHELP views. The paper demonstrates that DICTIONARY is easily accessible, reviews in plain terms many valuable uses of DICTIONARY, shows some alternative techniques for obtaining metadata when applicable, and directs users to papers that feature advanced techniques using DICTIONARY.

About this research paper

What this paper is about

This paper offers a step by step visual review of SAS® 9.2 DICTIONARY tables for the beginning to intermediate SAS user who is generally unfamiliar with PROC SQL and macro programming. The content of the DICTIONARY tables, such as data set names, variable names, labels, and types, option names and values, titles and footnotes, format and macro program catalog entries, and external file and library paths, is visually explored using common procedures and SASHELP views. The paper demonstrates that DICTIONARY is easily accessible, reviews in plain terms many valuable uses of DICTIONARY, shows some alternative techniques for obtaining metadata when applicable, and directs users to papers that feature advanced techniques using DICTIONARY.

Why it matters

OpenAlex reports 4 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

Key contribution

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Available abstract

This paper offers a step by step visual review of SAS® 9.2 DICTIONARY tables for the beginning to intermediate SAS user who is generally unfamiliar with PROC SQL and macro programming. The content of the DICTIONARY tables, such as data set names, variable names, labels, and types, option names and values, titles and footnotes, format and macro program catalog entries, and external file and library paths, is visually explored using common procedures and SASHELP views. The paper demonstrates that DICTIONARY is easily accessible, reviews in plain terms many valuable uses of DICTIONARY, shows some alternative techniques for obtaining metadata when applicable, and directs users to papers that feature advanced techniques using DICTIONARY.

Key concepts: Computer science, Macro, Information retrieval, Metadata, Set (abstract data type), Data dictionary, SQL, Feature (linguistics)

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