SAS changed the structure of SAS data sets in Release 7, as compared with prior releases of the system. SAS data sets created in prior releases will be readable in Release 7 and higher, but those created in 7 and higher will not be usable in previous Releases. In other words, SAS data sets are upwardly, but not downwardly, compatible with respect to Release 7 and beyond.
If you have SAS data sets created prior to release 7, SAS can read most of them in later versions without special attention, but it may be to your advantage to convert your SAS data sets for use in Version 7 or later. It is possible in many cases to make conversions without using any SAS engines, since the default engine for new SAS data sets is the one appropriate for the most recent version, and SAS automatically uses the appropriate engine for any SAS data sets it needs to read. In SAS documentation, however, the engines are specified, so these examples will follow that style.
Some of the following steps are recommended, some required, in converting SAS data sets, and each step is so labeled.
sasdata, and you might
create a new directory called v8data to store
the new data sets.
UNIX example:
libname old v612 '~/sasdata';
libname new v8 '~/v8data';
proc copy in=old out=new;
libname old v612 'c:\sasdata';
libname new v8 'c:\v8data';
proc copy in=old out=new;
~/sasdata
(or c:\sasdata).