Using XML Mapper and XMLMAP to Read Data Documented by Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Files

Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) files are XML “codebooks” for social science data. A DDI file can describe itself, the conditions under which the data were collected, the data file format, and the variables in the file. SAS XMLMAP provides the capability for a SAS ® program to read these metadata from the XML file into a collection of SAS datasets. A SAS program uses this capability to write another SAS program that can read the data documented by the DDI file. This paper also describes how the XML Mapper tool was useful in developing the XMLMAP for this project.