Import data file

In most cases, the data that you use for clinical trial analyses are found in some kind of computer file external to the SAS System. The data you need may be found in a permanent SAS data set, a relational database table found in Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, a Microsoft Access or Excel file, a simple delimited ASCII text file, or even an XML file. In any case SAS provides a wide array of ways in which to import data files into SAS. We explore these tools and the advantages and disadvantages of each in this chapter. 

The JCAMP-DX file format is split into the sections CORE and NOTES with the intention of keeping less important data separated from the essential content. The CORE itself contains CORE HEADER and CORE DATA. NOTES are just between HEADER and DATA (see Figure 4-4 for an example). 

Neuron dimension the neuron dimension is detemiined by the number of descriptors chosen for an object and should be such that all the important (numerical) columns of the data file are included. 

Data Save/Export/Import- subsets of data files can be saved data can be exported to or imported from "dbf format,... 

Data Create- data files can be edited in advanced mode- new files can be created and information imported,... 

After importing the data file into MLC-i-i- and selecting gain-ratio as splitting method, the program builds the full tree shown in Fig. 4-16. The tree has 631 nodes, 316 leaves and 107 attributes. Attributes are molecular key features and leaves are CSPs. 

Data file FILLTUBE.xls.dat contains a set of 20 in-process controls (IPC) of n = 50 simulated weighings each. The first 10 vectors are for EU conditions (/i = 20.02 g), the others for Swiss regulations (/r = 20.35 g) a = 0.75 g. The default settings can be changed. Pressing [F9] initiates a new simulation. The results can be captured and incorporated into a. dat file, see program DATA, option (Import Data from Excel). For one specific simulation, the results were as follows. 

As. dat files (some programs, like DATA and SIMILAR, create or add to data files). The data structure is such that a. dat file can easily be imported into Excel by invoking (Open. ) and choosing the (Separated by Comma) option. 

Purpose Create a new SMAC data file or edit/modify an existing one import (parts of) an existing Excel spread sheet and convert to SMAC format. 

Instructions) and (Import Data from Excel) allow a portion of an Excel spreadsheet to be copied into a SMAC-data file the necessary steps are as follows (1) open the Excel file, mark the range to be copied and press [Copy] (2) open DATA and create a new or open an existing data file (3) select (Input Data) (Import Data from Excel) and position the cursor on an appropriate cell, e.g. cell (1,1). The imported data replaces any data that was in that cell range. If the imported cell range needs more columns or rows than are presently available, the data array is correspondingly increased in size. Headers and dimensions can be added later. 

Modify Table) Once a data table is established, it can be manipulated in various ways The option offers Add/Delete Row/Column, and Change Entry choose the option and click on the appropriate item. If many rows or columns need to be added or deleted, it is easier to read the data file into Excel, do the modifications there, and reimport it using the (Import from Excel) option. 

On occasion you may find that you need to import data from ASCII text files for analysis. In this section, traditional rectangular ASCII text files are discussed. Although XML files are composed of ASCII text, they pose unique challenges that are discussed later in this chapter. Some examples of ASCII text data that you might need to import include... 

You begin the process in the interactive SAS windowing environment by selecting File from the toolbar and then Import Data..from the drop-down menu. You will see a window like the following ... 

At this point the data have been imported as work.LABNORM. The data file looks like the following ... 

From within a project in SAS Enterprise Guide, select File and then Import Data... from the toolbar. Select where to open the data from in the pop-up file selection window and click Open. A data import options window like the following will appear ... 

Because Microsoft Office is so widely used, it is sometimes necessary for you to import data directly from Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. Excel files make for a poor database, however. First, Excel files are almost guaranteed to come from a system that is not compliant with CFR 21 - Part 11. Second, it is often the case that the Excel files were created in such a way that the data are not WYSIWYG ( what you see is what you get ). In other words, each cell in Excel could be entered with a different Excel format, which you would not see until you either reformat an entire column in Excel or try to have some other software like SAS read the contents of the Excel file. For these reasons, it is best not to accept Microsoft Excel data as a data source for clinical trials if at all possible. 

SAS provides several ways to read Microsoft Excel and Access files. We cover many of these import methods here using Microsoft formatted versions of the laboratory normal data used previously in this chapter. The examples here are based on the capabilities found in Base SAS and SAS/ACCESS for PC Files in SAS 9.1. In Microsoft Excel, the lab normal data file might look like the following ... 

The interactive SAS Import Wizard provides an easy way to import the contents of Microsoft Excel and Access files into SAS. Here again, the Import Wizard is essentially a graphical user interface that builds the PROC IMPORT code for you. Begin in the interactive SAS windowing environment by selecting File from the toolbar and then Import Data... from the drop-down menu. A window like the following will appear, where you can select Microsoft Excel as a standard data source. 

Next, simply select the normal ranges sheet and click Open to advance to the Import Data window. That window looks like the following for your Excel file ... 

We examine these tools for XML data import next. To begin, let s look at three records from the LABNORM file as they might appear in XML. Keep in mind that this data file could be represented in many different ways in XML, and this is just one representation. 

PROC CDISC is a SAS procedure available as a hot fix for SAS 8.2 that ships as part of SAS 9.1.3. PROC CDISC allows you to export (and import) XML files that are compliant with the CDISC ODM version 1.2 schema. Here are a sample PROC CONTENTS and a sample PROC PRINT of a SDTM data set called DM (for demographics) that we will export to ODM using PROC CDISC. 

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