Importing data ASCII text

Importing Relational Databases and Clinical Data Management Systems 42 SAS/ACCESS SQL Pass-Through Facility 42 SAS/ACCESS LI BN AM E Statement 43 Importing ASCII Text 44... 

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. 

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... 

SAS provides many ways of importing ASCII text files. These methods include using PROC IMPORT and the Import Wizard, the SAS DATA step, and SAS Enterprise Guide. 

A commercial spreadsheet is well suited to editing CD data files. Most CD data analysis software permits a data file to be exported as text. The text file can then be imported into the spreadsheet, easily formatted for CDsstr input and saved as undeliniited ASCII text. Delete, rather than cut, data cells to remove unwanted text/data. 

A data type is necessary to allow the RDBMS to accurately convert the data from an external representation, most often text in a file, to an internal representation of the data. For example, the external representation of a numeric value is a text string containing at least one numeral, and possibly a plus or minus sign or a decimal point. A text value may contain any valid text character, usually only printable characters from the ASCII set. The internal representation of the data is dependent upon the particular RDBMS and hardware being used. It is not necessary to know the exact internal representation of the data. The important thing to consider is which data type accurately represents the data for your purposes. 

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