FTP File Access Method - Leave That File In Place
Jack Shoemaker, Thotwave Technologies
Abstract
In today’s networked environment, it is common to
find that the data need for application A on server B
is often stored on server C. Transferring, or copying,
the data from server C to server B is one method to
solve this problem. If your application is a SAS
program reading data through a FILENAME
statement, the FTP access method provides a
means to run your application while leaving the
original data in place.
Filename Syntax
The basic filename statement takes the form
FILENAME myfile ‘/path1/path2/data.txt’;
This allows you to read or write to “data.txt” in a data
step using INPUT and PUT statements referencing
MYFILE. More generally, the FILENAME statement
allows you to attach your SAS program to a data
stream with alias MYFILE. In this case that data
stream is just a file.
The FTP access method allows you to use the
FILENAME statement to alias a direct connection to
an FTP channel. You instruct SAS to create an FTP
connection by specifying the FTP file access method
directly after your file-name token and before the file
specification. You also need to include a few FTP-
specific FILENAME options as well. Consider the
following example.
filename x ftp ''
ls
user = 'anonymous'
pass = 'shoe@std.com'
host = 'ftp.sas.com'
;
data _null_;
infile x;
input;
put _infile_;
run;
The data step (_NULL_) reads from X as defined in
the filename statement. The special data-step
variable INFILE contains the contents of the last line
read by INPUT. So, the PUT command simply
writes the contents of X to the SAS log.
But X is not just a file in this case. In fact, the file
specification is empty in this example. That’s
because we have instead included the LS option
that instructs SAS to retrieve a directory listing from
the remote server, ftp.sas.com, in this example.
FTP Filename Options
The HOST= filename option specifies the name of
the remote server. You can use either dotted-quad
IP format, or a host name as shown here. SAS will
transverse your TCP network to found the specified
host, so use whatever works on your local machine.
This is particularly useful inside firewalls where a
simple hostname alone without domain will often
work.
The USER= filename option specifies the name of
account to use on the remote server. Many sites
maintain anonymous FTP access. This means you
are free to log on as the user called anonymous. If
the remote server requires some other account, you
supply that name instead.
By convention, you use your email address as your
password when doing anonymous log on. The
PASS= filename option is used to specify the
password for the account specified in USER=.
The LS option is one of the special filename options
that cause FTP to do something other than just read
a file. Another important filename option is CD=
which changes the current directory on the remote
server. Consider the following example.
filename x ftp 'BackB-KW-1997-14.dat'
cd = 'pub'
user = 'anonymous'
pass = 'shoe@std.com'
host = 'ftp.sas.com'
;
data _null_;
infile x;
input;
put _infile_;
if _n_ = 5 then stop;
run;
In this case we wish to read a data file in the pub
directory located on the SAS public FTP site. The
example writes the first 5 lines to the SAS log. The
results are shown on the next page.
 NOTE: 220 ewe3.sas.com FTP server (Version fashion using SAS in conjunction with the FTP
wu-2.5.0(1) Wed Aug 18 14:14:59 EDT 1999) access method. These short examples should run
NOTE: User anonymous has connected to FTP.
NOTE: The infile X is: as-is from your own local machines to get you
Filename=BackB-KW-1997-14.dat, started.
Pathname= "/pub" is current directory,
Local Host Name=hp-vectra, Contact Information
Local Host IP addr=216.215.128.64,
Service Hostname Name=ewe3.sas.com,
Service IP addr=149.173.1.16,Service For more information contact:
Name=FTP,
Service Portno=21,Lrecl=256,Recfm=Variable
Jack Shoemaker
Thotwave Technologies
--------------- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- Suite 202
Agent: fddiprobe Domain: ALL.2 History 117 Edinburgh South
Apr 2 08:45:29 4.29 922M 3M 10K 28K
Apr 2 09:15:29 5.51 1G 7M 8K 27K Cary, NC 27511
NOTE: 5 records were read from the infile Email: shoe@std.com
X.

Note that the file contains three header lines – a

blank line, a line with dashes, and a line with column
names. We need to perform some standard data-
step programming to properly parse this file. Once
you have referenced the file through the FTP access
method, you can process it just as if it were a local
disk file. For example:

filename x ftp 'BackB-KW-1997-14.dat'

cd = 'pub'
user = 'anonymous'
pass = 'shoe@std.com'
host = 'ftp.sas.com'
;

data info;
infile x firstobs = 4;
format
tm time8.
;
input
@1 mmm $3. @;
if mmm ^= 'Per' then do;
input
@5 dd 2.
@8 tm time8.
@17 dur 6.
;
output;
end;
run;

proc print data = info( obs = 10 );

run;

Conclusion

The FTP access method is a neat and concise

extension to the familiar FILENAME statement. It
allows you to write any number of network-based
applications by providing programmatic access to
the FTP channel. Any task you can accomplish at
the bare FTP> prompt may be done in similar