SAS Compare Two Text Files (Unix / Windows)

Question

I need to compare two text files (in different directories) to see if they are different (a binary result is fine). Given a dataset such as the one below, is this possible within a datastep?

Pathname
c:\one\text1.txt
c:\two\text1.txt
c:\one\text2.txt
c:\two\text2.txt

Alternatively, macro code would be fine! Checksum is a possibility, I need the code to run in both windows & unix.

If you can read the contents of the whole file into one variable, SAS has an `md5()` function you could use. But I'm not sure how to read a file that way. — itzy, Aug 13 '12 at 15:06

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '12 at 09:54

1

Pass it to the command line (via a pipe fileref)

In Windows, use the 'comp' command.

In Unix, use the 'diff' command.

answered Aug 13 '12 at 09:54

Chris J

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How would you do this using SAS? – Allan Bowe Oct 17 '12 at 16:29

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '12 at 17:24

0

Thanks to Chris J - this worked for me:

%let root=%sysfunc(pathname(work));
data;
file "&root.\x.txt";
put 'xxx';
data;
file "&root.\x2.txt";
put 'xx x';
filename x pipe "diff &root.\x.txt &root.\x2.txt ";
data;
infile x;
input x $1000.;
run;

answered Oct 17 '12 at 17:24

Allan Bowe

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SAS Compare Two Text Files (Unix / Windows)

2 Answers2