SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is a system developed to perform statistical analysis by altering, managing and retrieving data from a variety of sources.

Castor EDC supports export of collected data in the SAS format of choice (SAS XPT or SAS 7BDAT). The options are available in the data (participants) export dialogue. 

This feature is currently available upon customer request without any additional fee. To enable it please contact Castor support at support@castoredc.com and provide the study id where you would like to have this functionality enabled.

Export Data

Once this feature is enabled for you, to export the data in SAS format, click the ‘Actions’ button in the Participants overview and choose ‘Export all’ to export all participants or ‘Export selected’ or “Export filtered’ to export a selection of participants. In the ‘Data Export’ dialog window, choose the option to export into the SAS format of your choice. 

As the study data can have a significant size, the user requesting export will be notified upon export completion by email and provided with a direct link to a download area.

The export file will contain the following files:

• Log (csv)
• Mapping table which contains a list of  the original naming of the variables and their sanitized and truncated match in the SAS file (csv)
• Enrichment report (csv)
• Comments (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Custom verifications (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Field options (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Formats (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Source data verification for steps (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Study data (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Separate files for each repeating data and survey (XPT or 7BDAT)
• Study, repeating data and survey variable lists (XPT or 7BDAT)

It is possible to create a SAS export where the column names do not contain any spaces. this feature is currently available upon request. Please submit your request to support@castoredc.com and indicate the study ID for which this feature should be enabled. Once the feature is enabled for you study, upon exporting, please select the  “Enhanced  compatibility mode” checkbox in the SAS export window.

Converting Castor EDC files for the SAS export must take into account the following limitations in order for the SAS Export to be successful:

• Please be aware that Study structure element’s names may be adjusted to be suitable with the SAS table format: Names larger than 30 characters will be truncated and will receive a prefix to ensure uniqueness.
• Make sure that the labels (for example, field labels) do not contain any special characters, as the SAS export will not work when the special characters are present. Here is a list of the non-ASCII characters for your reference. 
• The SAS 7bdat files are generated in 64-bit Linux environment, therefore they can only be opened on 64-bit Linux environment. If you are using a different environment, we recommend utilizing the XPT files which can be used in any environment.

User Missing values

Data marked as user missing is exported as -95, -96, -97, -98, -99.

For time fields, user missing data is exported as:

• 00:00:35 for -95: Measurement failed
• 00:00:36 for -96: Not applicable
• 00:00:37 for -97: Not asked
• 00:00:38 for -98: Asked, but unknown
• 00:00:39 for -99: Not done
   

For date fields, user missing data is exported as:

• 01-01-2995 for -95: Measurement failed
• 01-01-2996 for -96: Not applicable
• 01-01-2997 for -97: Not asked
• 01-01-2998 for -98: Asked, but unknown
• 01-01-2999 for -99: Not done
   

For date and time fields, user missing data is exported as:
 

• 01-01-2999 00:00:35 for -95: Measurement failed
• 01-01-2999 00:00:36 for -96: Not applicable
• 01-01-2999 00:00:37 for -97: Not asked
• 01-01-2999 00:00:38 for -98: Asked, but unknown
• 01-01-2999 00:00:39 for -99: Not done
   

For other fields, when applicable, user missing data is exported as:
 

• -95: Measurement failed
• -96: Not applicable
• -97: Not asked
• -98: Asked, but unknown
• -99: Not done