This repository contains a Java library for reading and writing SAS Transport files.

The SAS Transport file format is the required format when submitting datasets to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as what's read by the popular data validation tool Pinnacle 21.

Quick Start

The following code shows how to use the library to read a SAS transport file a hard-coded dataset.

List<Variable> variables = Arrays.asList(
    new Variable(
        "CITY",                  // name
        1,                       // variable number
        VariableType.CHARACTER,  // type
        20,                      // length
        "Name of city",          // label
        new Format("$CHAR", 18), // output format
        Justification.LEFT,
        Format.UNSPECIFIED),     // input format

    new Variable(
        "STATE",
        2,
        VariableType.CHARACTER,
        2,
        "Postal abbreviation of state",
        new Format("$CHAR", 2),
        Justification.LEFT,
        Format.UNSPECIFIED),

    new Variable(
        "HIGH",
        3,
        VariableType.NUMERIC,
        8,
        "Average daily high in F",
        new Format("", 5),
        Justification.LEFT,
        Format.UNSPECIFIED),

    new Variable(
        "LOW",
        4,
        VariableType.NUMERIC,
        8,
        "Average daily low in F",
        new Format("", 5),
        Justification.LEFT,
        Format.UNSPECIFIED));

    SasDatasetDescription dataset = new SasDatasetDescription(
        "TEMP", // name
        "Average daily temperatures", // label
        "", // type
        "Java", // OS version
        "5.0", // SAS Version
        variables, // variables
        LocalDateTime.now(), // create
        LocalDateTime.now()); // modified
    try (SasTransportExporter exporter = dataset.newLibraryDescription().exportTransportDataset(path)) {
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Atlanta", "GA", 72, 53));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Austin", "TX", 80, 5));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Baltimore", "MD", 65, 45));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Birmingham", "AL", 74, 53));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Boston", "MA", 59, MissingValue.STANDARD));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Buffalo", "NY", 56, 40));
        // ...
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Virginia Beach", "VA", 68, 52));
        exporter.appendObservation(Arrays.asList("Washington", "DC", 68, 52));
    }
}

The following code sample demonstrates how to read a SAS transport file and print out its contents into a table.

Path path = ...;

try (SasTransportImporter importer = SasLibraryDescription.importTransportDataset(path)) {

     // Get the variables.
     List<Variable> datasetVariables = importer.sasLibraryDescription().datasetDescription().variables();

     // Figure out how to format each column (really, how much space to give it).
     List<String> columnFormats = new ArrayList<>(datasetVariables.size());
     for (Variable variable : datasetVariables) {
         int columnWidth = Math.max(variable.name().length(), variable.outputFormat().width()) + 1;
         columnFormats.add("%-" + columnWidth + "s ");
     }

     // Display a header using the variable names.
     StringBuilder header = new StringBuilder();
     for (int i = 0; i < datasetVariables.size(); i++) {
         final Variable variable = datasetVariables.get(i);
         header.append(String.format(columnFormats.get(i), variable.name()));
     }
     System.out.println(header);

     // Display each observation as a row in the table.
     List<Object> observation;
     while ((observation = importer.nextObservation()) != null) {
         StringBuilder row = new StringBuilder(header.length());

         // Render each value in the observation.
         for (int i = 0; i < observation.size(); i++) {
             // Format each value as a fixed-width string, as done for the header.
             row.append(String.format(columnFormats.get(i), observation.get(i)));
         }

         System.out.println(row);
     }
}

Limitations

• Only XPORT V5 is supported.
• The transport files must only have one dataset per file.
• Only ASCII strings are supported (as required by the FDA).
• Requires Java 8 or later.
• Compressed files (CPORT) are not supported.

Downloading

This library is published on Maven Central at https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/org.scharp/sas-transport

There, you will find instructions for downloading the library and referencing it your Maven application's pom.xml.