SAS Companion for the OS/2 Environment

Referencing the DDE External File

When you define a fileref to use with DDE, the DDE-triplet argument refers to the DDE external file.

Determining the DDE Triplet

The DDE triplet is application-dependent and is different for every application that you run. For information about an application's DDE triplet, see the application's documentation.

The triplet uses the following syntax:

'application-name | topic!item'

where

application-name: is the executable filename of the server application.
topic: is the topic of conversation (between SAS and the DDE server application). This is typically the full path filename of the document or spreadsheet with which you want to share data.
item: is the range of conversation that is specified between the client and server applications. In spreadsheet applications, this is usually a range of cells. For document-based applications, the item is something that defines a location in the document, such as a bookmark.

Valid values for all of these arguments vary depending on the server application. A software package that supports DDE as a server should list acceptable values for the triplet information in documentation that is supplied with the application.

Note: You must invoke the server application before you try to communicate with it by using DDE. Also, the DDE triplet format might differ among different applications and among different versions of the same application. [cautionend]

If your server application will copy the DDE-triplet to the OS/2 clipboard, you can display the DDE-triplet in the SAS System. You do this by selecting

Solutions Accessories DDE triplet

Controlling Another Application Using DDE

DDE server applications support commands that you can issue by using a DDE link to control the application. To use these commands, use the special topic name SYSTEM in the DDE triplet, and leave the item name blank. You can then use the INPUT statement for input from an application and the PUT statement to issue commands to the server application.

For those DDE server applications that do not recognize the SYSTEM topic name, you can specify the COMMAND option in the FILENAME statement that you use to define the DDE link. When you specify the COMMAND option, you do not specify the item name in the DDE triplet.

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