UNIX has a "tail" command, terribly handy at a time like this, to pull the
last X lines of a sequential file.  I imagine Windows "tail" functionality
is available via CYGWIN ( http://www.cygwin.com/ ), but for those not
wanting to go to those lengths, it appears as though "tail" functionality is
available for Windows XP / 2003 as well.
http://malektips.com/xp_dos_0001.html

That being the case, the last line may be read by using the FILENAME blah
PIPE stuff ( untested ):

filename last_line pipe "tail -1 'c:\your_dir\your_file'";

data new;
  infile last_line ;
  input clus days freq days1 days2 days3;
run;



-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Patridge [mailto:charles_s_patridge@PRODIGY.NET]
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 3:36 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Infile question: read the last observation


Paul,

Using a test file - here is what I got for results:

options fullstimer;
%let myfile = c:\download\sastest.txt;

data last_record ;
   length ml $3. order $6. dataname $8. datalabel $50.;
   array x(*) x1-x61;
   infile "&myfile" delimiter="!" dsd end = eof missover lrecl=1024
firstobs=4;
   input ml order dataname datalabel x1-x61;
   if eof ;
run ;

 The infile "c:\download\sastest.txt" is:
 File Name=c:\download\sastest.txt,
 RECFM=V,LRECL=1024

 109716 records were read from the infile "c:\download\sastest.txt".
 The minimum record length was 1024.
 The maximum record length was 1024.
 One or more lines were truncated.
 The data set WORK.LAST_RECORD has 1 observations and 65 variables.
 DATA statement used:
 real time           10.35 seconds
 user cpu time       9.70 seconds
 system cpu time     0.06 seconds
 Memory                            131k



***you use this: ;

data last_record ;
   length ml $3. order $6. dataname $8. datalabel $50.;
   array x(*) x1-x61;
   infile "&myfile" delimiter="!" dsd end = eof missover lrecl=1024
firstobs=4;
   input @;
   if eof;
   input ml order dataname datalabel x1-x61;
run ;

 The infile "c:\download\sastest.txt" is:
 File Name=c:\download\sastest.txt,
 RECFM=V,LRECL=1024

 109716 records were read from the infile "c:\download\sastest.txt".
 The minimum record length was 1024.
 The maximum record length was 1024.
 One or more lines were truncated.
 The data set WORK.LAST_RECORD has 1 observations and 65 variables.
 DATA statement used:
 real time           7.93 seconds
 user cpu time       6.79 seconds
 system cpu time     0.14 seconds
 Memory                            131k



HTH,
Charles Patridge
http://www.sconsig.com

Would be nice if there was a faster way to get last record of an external
file without knowing the # of records in an external file.

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