This was an FDA/SAS bargain a long while ago. SAS made the XPT format publicly available
and unchanging in return for it becoming a standard for submission. Many packages can
reliably read or write these files. (The same is not true for other SAS file formats, nor
is xport the SAS default.) I do not know how good the R routines are, having never used them.
The following snippit is taken from
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForIndustry/DataStandards/StudyDataStandards/UCM312964.pdf
2 Dataset Specifications
2.1 File Format
SAS XPORT transport file format, also called Version 5 SAS transport format, is an open
format published by the SAS Institute. The description of this SAS transport file format
is in the public domain. Data can be translated to and from this SAS transport format to
other commonly usedformats without the use of programs from SAS Institute or any specific
vendor.
Sponsors can find the record layout for SAS XPORT transport files through SAS technical
support technical document TS-140. This document and additional information about the SAS
Transport file layout can be found on the SAS World Wide Web page at
http://www.sas.com/fda-esub.
---
Said document TS-140 talks about IBM 360 and Dec VAX machines but no others, which should
give you an idea of its age.
Terry Therneau
On 09/27/2015 05:00 AM, r-help-requ...@r-project.org wrote:
Peter
Thanks for the explanation. One further comment ? you wrote:
>I don't think the FDA "requests" XPT files
In fact, they do make such a request. Here is the actual language received
this week (and repeatedly in the past):
>Program/script files should be submitted using text files (*.TXT) and the data
should be submitted using SAS transport files (*.XPT).
Dennis
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