Working Smarter, Not

Harder with DDE:

Did I Really Spend All That Time Just Formatting My

Report?

Bobby Kidd
Vice President
Senior Statistical Portfolio Analyst
First Horizon National Corp

Hey, Whats With the

Acronyms!
DDE stands for Dynamic Data
Exchange
DDE in SAS gives you the ability to
read from, write to, and issue program
commands to many Microsoft
Applications such as Excel and Word
Since most reporting is done with Excel
we will limit ourselves to that program

But I Can Already Read From

and Write To Excel
Proc Import and Proc Export both
require the data to start at the top right
corner, Cell A1 of the first sheet.
DDE, however, can read from and write
to any cell or group of cells in any sheet
in the file.
It can also create new rows, columns,
and worksheets.

But, thats not all!

In addition to the freedom of defining
where you want the data
You

can change the format and the font

Copy and Paste from other cells,
worksheets and even other files.
Create new new formulas
Add Worksheets, Columns and Rows
In short, just about everything you can do in
Excel, you can program into DDE

OK, But why would I

want to?
The less man(ual) handling of the data, the better
Dont have to worry about copying over data
Dont have to remember to format those 1 or 2
cells down in the corner of the sheet.
How many times have you had to go back and fix
typos and formatting errors
Data provided from someone else's formatted reports
Do you really enjoy copying, pasting and formatting
the same report every day, week, month when you
can make SAS do it all for you in seconds.

The Basics
Very similar to working with flat files
Starts with filename statement
DDE

triplet: program|
filepath[filename]sheet!location
Filename sample DDE excel|c:\foo\
[bar.xls]yourdatahere!R4c5;

Read data with input statement

Write data with put statement

Mild
filename readme dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS Pres\
[samples.xls]Read Me!R5C3:R14C6';
data DDERead;
infile readme;
informat Name $8. Sex $1. Purchase_Amount
dollar8.2 State$2.;
input Name$ Sex$ Purchase_Amount State$;
run;

Read Data

Be mindful of informats

Mild

Mild
filename writeme1 dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS Pres\
[samples.xls]Write Me!R5C2:R8C3';
filename writeme2 dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS Pres\
[samples.xls]Write Me!R12C2:R13C3';
data _null_;
set state;
file writeme1;
put State Total;
run;
data _null_;
set sex;
file writeme2;
put Sex Total;
run;

Write Data

Just like writing to flat file

Medium
filename readme dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS
Pres\[samples.xls]Read Me!
R5C3:R14C6' notab;
data readdde;
infile readme dlm = '09'x;
informat Name $8. Sex $1.
Purchase_Amount dollar8.2 State$2.;
input Name Sex Purchase_Amount
State;
run;
Increase Control

Use notab to gain control over delimiters

When reading use dlm=09x for the tab key
Flat file default is space delimited so Abel C would be two fields

Medium
Without dlm=09x and notab

With dlm=09x and notab

Medium
filename MinP dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS Pres\
[samples.xls]Write Me!R16C2:R16C3'
notab;
filename MaxP dde 'excel|C:\...\SAS Pres\
[samples.xls]Write Me!R19C2:R19C3'
notab;
data _null_;
set min;
file MinP;
Put Name '09'x Purchase_Amount;
run;
data _null_;
set max;
file MaxP;
Put Name '09'x Purchase_Amount;
run;

Control Write delimiters

Use notab to prevent SAS from changing spaces into tabs

Use 09x to place tab delimiters where you want them.

Medium
Without notab, with 09x: spaces become tabs

With notab, without 09x: everything is one field

Hot
Beyond Data: Formatting, formulas, files
Its

not a virus: Macrofun.exe

Available

from Microsoft
Macro4 helpfile
Contains most if not all Excel macro4 functions
Filename
Allows

cmds dde 'excel|system';

SAS to issue system commands

Open, save, and close files, etc.

Macro Functions

Hot

Example Format.font

Function Name and syntax given in detail.

Parameter descriptions and values are documented
Only need to specify parameters as far as you need
Use with Put statement: put '[format.font("script",,1)]';

Hot
Excel must be opened first
Manual
Easy

but tedious

command

Issues

DOS commands
Noxwait, noxsync allow SAS to run
concurrently with Excel
Doesnt like spaces
Use cd to reach folders with spaces in names

Hot
Start Excel
Options noxwait noxsync;
x 'cd c:\Program files\microsoft office';
x 'Office10\excel.exe';

Open file
Use sleep function to ensure excel has loaded
before issuing commands.
Commands still issued with put statements

filename cmds dde 'excel|system';

data _null_;
file cmds;
put '[file-open("C:\...\SAS Pres\sample.xls")]';
run;

Hot

Implementation
filename cmds dde 'excel|system';
data _null_;
file cmds;
put '[select("r5c2:r8c2")]';
put '[format.font(times new roman",,1)]';
run;

data _null_;
file cmds;
put [select(r5c3:r8c3)];
put [format.number($#,###.00)];
run;

Hot
Save, close and Quit
Save.as()

to save file
File-close() to close the wookbook
Quit() to end excel
Commands still issued with put statements
data

_null_;
file cmds;
put '[save.as("C:\...\Sas Pres\sample.xls")]';
put '[file-close()]';
put '[quit()]';
run;

As Hot As You Can Take

Write formulas:

put [formula("=sum(R[-19]C:R[-14]C)/R38C20")];
put [formula("=sum(R12C20:R17C20)/R38C20")];

Combine with ODS html output into .xls

Use activate(filename) and workbook.activate(sheet) to

choose between file sheet
Use select(cellrange), copy(), paste()

Combine with Macro Variables

Automatically change rows, columns with month

Define columns as function of month
Macros only resolve inside double quotes

put "[formula(""=sum(R[-19]C:R[-14]C)/R38C&col."")]";

Complete Automation
Read, Write and Manipulate Excel all
from within SAS
With use of SAS wakeup function can
schedule reports to be ready when you
show up to work
Hit F8 and walk away

Questions