Starting with SAS version 9.2, you can use ODS to create zip files in SAS without having to use platform-specific commands (such as Unix commands if your files are on a Unix server). I used ODS to zip a file on my C drive in four steps:

1. First, I told SAS that I wanted to create a new package. You don’t need to name your package unless you are going to create multiple packages:
   ods package open nopf;
2. Next, I added my file to the package. You can add multiple files, but I recommend that you only zip a single file at a time. Also note that unless you add the file extension to the full path, your SAS program will run with no errors, but the resulting zip file will be empty:
   ods package add file=’C:\Users\C31497\Desktop\projects\h138.sas7bdat’;
3. Then I published the zip file and gave it a name. The zip file appears by default in the same path as the original file, but you can specify a different path using the archive_path argument when you assign the properties. If there is an existing zip file with the same name, it will be overwritten:
   ods package publish archive properties(archive_name=’h138.zip’);
4. Finally, don’t forget to close the ods destination after you’re finished. You may also wish to drop your original (unzipped) file, since this is not done automatically after the zip file is created:
   ods package close;

Here’s what it looks like when you put it together:

ods package open nopf;
ods package add file=’C:\Users\C31497\Desktop\projects\h138.sas7bdat’;
ods package publish archive properties(archive_name=’h138.zip’);
ods package close;

There is still no way to unzip your files outside of using platform-specific syntax, so hopefully SAS is working on that for a future version.