topic Replacing period in column name using PROC SQL in SAS Data Management

Replacing period in column name using PROC SQL

ssbxvm — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 18:57:03 GMT

Hello everyone,

I'm importing data from a database view using a proc SQL statement. Unfortunately I have no power over column names, and quite a number of the column names include a period in the name (e.g. VARIABLE.NAME). I know that SAS will automatically rename the variable name if it contains non-standard characters. Is there some option that I can use where SAS will replace the "." in a column name with an underscore as well when creating the dataset?

Right now I'm looking at having to use string literal for all SAS variable names that include a period. I'd rather not do that since I already have pre-created formats for correctly named SAS variables. Thank you!

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE RANDOM_NAME
AS SELECT * FROM Database.View;
QUIT;

Re: Replacing period in column name using PROC SQL

Reeza — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:34:21 GMT

options validvarname=v7;

If you have this option set, SAS should convert it to the appropriate names.

@ssbxvm wrote:

Hello everyone,

I'm importing data from a database view using a proc SQL statement. Unfortunately I have no power over column names, and quite a number of the column names include a period in the name (e.g. VARIABLE.NAME). I know that SAS will automatically rename the variable name if it contains non-standard characters. Is there some option that I can use where SAS will replace the "." in a column name with an underscore as well when creating the dataset?

Right now I'm looking at having to use string literal for all SAS variable names that include a period. I'd rather not do that since I already have pre-created formats for correctly named SAS variables. Thank you!
PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE RANDOM_NAME
AS SELECT * FROM Database.View;
QUIT;

Re: Replacing period in column name using PROC SQL

ssbxvm — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 21:34:01 GMT

I knew it had to be something simple. Thank you!