* creating a SAS version 8 (permanent) file from a version 6 permanent file 

  cut and paste the 5-line program below (the one starting with the word libname)
  into the sas editor, select the 5 lines and click on the 'run' icon

  5-line example below assumes existing version 6 file is in 
  a sub-directory called v6 at the top level of drive C and that to-be-created
  ver. 8 file will be placed in a sub-directory called v8 at top level of drive C
  in example, name of existing file is draft (has a .sd2 extension)
  and name of to be created ver 8 file is also draft (will have a sas7bdat extension].
  one doesn't have to give them the same name.. 
  
  names alias6 and alias 8 are shortcuts for the longer paths
  [choice of names to use as shortcuts is up to the user]
  
  1st line: sets up shortcut to subdirectory containing ver 6 file(s).
            the word v6 after the word alias6 is a sas word and refers, in
			SAS lingo, to the 'engine' that created/will create the file
			 
  2nd line: sets up shortcut to the subdirectory to contain ver 8 file(s)
            the v8 after the word alias8 is a sas word and refers, in
			SAS lingo, to the 'engine' that created/will create the file
			
  3rd line: readies a permanent file in the latter subdirectory.
            notice the 2-part name .. the 1st is the path and the second
			the name of the file [if you omit the first part, then the
			file is created as a working file and it will be scratched after
			you quit sas.
			
  4th line: reads data from ver 6 file into the ver 8 file 
            [the sas word 'set' stands for 'read in records until no more'] 
  
  sas programming note: statements between asterisk and semicolon 
  are treated as comments and thus are not executed
  
  enclosing statements by a /* (slash-asterisk) at the start and a 
  */ (asterisk-slash) at the end achieves the same result   
     
; 
   

libname alias6 v6 "c:\v6" ; run;   
libname alias8 v8 "c:\v8" ; run;
data alias8.draft;
set alias6.draft;
run;