metadata.sas

Most interesting information about a data set can be determined using the attrn() and attrc() functions.

Most interesting information about a data set's structure (it's columns and their metadata) can be determined using the varattr() functions. attr can be fmt, infmt, label, len, name, num, type

It is my personal style to _not_ write macros to return individual metadata values. Such macros are practically superfluous in my estimation.

SAS functions are accessed from macro by using the macro function %sysfunc

See your Online Help or Online Doc for more information about available attributes and functions. The same information is available via SASHELP.V* views, DICTIONARY.* tables and Proc CONTENTS.

%macro metadata (data=);

	%local dsid i j attrcs attrns attr attrv varfuncs varfunc;
	%local varname varnum;

	%let attrcs =
		CHARSET
		DATAREP
		ENCRYPT
		ENGINE
		LABEL
		LIB
		MEM
		MODE
		MTYPE
		SORTEDBY
		SORTLVL
		SORTSEQ
		TYPE
	;
	%let attrns =
		ANY
		ALTERPW
		ANOBS
		ARAND
		ARWU
		CRDTE
		GENMAX
		GENNEXT
		ICONST
		INDEX
		ISINDEX
		ISSUBSET
		LRECL
		LRID
		MODTE
		NDEL
		NLOBS
		NLOBSF
		NOBS
		NVARS
		PW
		RADIX
		READPW
		TAPE
		WHSTMT
		WRITEPW
	;

	%let varfuncs =
		VARTYPE
		VARLEN
		VARLABEL
		VARFMT
		VARINFMT
	;

	%let dsid = %sysfunc ( open ( &data ) );

	%put ATTRC;
	%put -----;
	%let i = 1;
	%do %while (%scan(&attrcs, &i, %str( )) ne );
		%let attr = %scan(&attrcs, &i, %str( ));
		%let attrv = %sysfunc (ATTRC(&dsid, &attr));
		%put &attr = &attrv;
		%let i=%eval(&i+1);
	%end;

	%put;
	%put ATTRN;
	%put -----;
	%let i = 1;
	%do %while (%scan(&attrns, &i, %str( )) ne );
		%let attr = %scan(&attrns, &i, %str( ));
		%let attrv = %sysfunc (ATTRN(&dsid, &attr));
		%put &attr = &attrv;
		%let i=%eval(&i+1);
	%end;

	%put;
	%put Variable functions;
	%put ------------------;
	%do i = 1 %to %sysfunc(ATTRN(&dsid,NVARS));
		%let j = 1;
		%put VARNUM = &i;
		%put VARNAME = %sysfunc (VARNAME(&dsid, &i));
		%do %while (%scan(&varfuncs, &j, %str( )) ne );
			%let varfunc = %scan(&varfuncs, &j, %str( ));
			%let attrv = %sysfunc (&VARFUNC(&dsid, &i));
			%put &varfunc = &attrv;
			%let j=%eval(&j+1);
		%end;
		%put ----------------;
	%end;

	%let dsid = %sysfunc ( close ( &dsid ) );

%mend;

%metadata (data=sashelp.class);