The EXPORT procedure should trigger an error message when you define a location for the OUTFILE through a FILENAME statement and the path is invalid


A problem occurs in SAS® 9.4M8 (TS1M8) only when you execute the EXPORT procedure with a FILENAME statement to define a location for the OUTFILE parameter and the disk location does not exist. When this issue occurs, a false error message is triggered. Here is an example:

4          /* Trying proc export with DBMS = XLSX */
5          
6          filename invalid  '/not/there/a.xlsx';
7         
8          
9          /* Invalid filename case */
10         title "XLSX Invalid filename reference, should error";
11         proc export data=sashelp.class outfile=invalid dbms=xlsx;
12           sheet="sheet1";
13         run;

Error when trying to assign logical name to temporary file
NOTE: "INVALID" file was successfully created.

Note: This behavior does not occur with SAS® 9.4M7 (TS1M7)

Workaround

To circumvent this issue, define the path and the filename directly in the OUTFILE parameter within the EXPORT procedure.