topic Re: ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data using Proc Print or Proc Report in ODS and Base Reporting

ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data using Proc Print or Proc Report

LisaSAS — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:01:10 GMT

I am having a problem getting my data to display in EG or a Stored Process using Proc Print. I’m able to query my data, and Send To Excel – which tells me it’s the proc print.

The error I’m getting is ‘ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data.’ In some of my fields within the names would be the company’s trademarks. When I pull this information into EG, it will display in the field as a triangle with a question mark in the middle

(Field�Name – should have an ` above one of the letters).

However, when I go to do a report display with a proc print or proc report I get the error.

I’m running version 7.15 (7.100.5.5850) (64-bit) – this was not an issue before we did our upgrade. Is there something different I need to do now with this version?

I’ve tried adding this code to my field when I select my data from the tables, but it still does not work;

Compress(fieldname,,’kw’)

Re: ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data using Proc Print or Proc Report

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:02:29 GMT

Hi:
I wonder if your encoding option needs to be changed to UTF8? This may be something your SAS or EG Administrator needs to follow-up with Tech Support. If there is a configuration setting that needs to change then you may not have the permissions to do that.

I've seen a similar issue sometimes when trying to read data with u-umlaut or the es-tset characters. The fix for that is typically changing the encoding= option at startup.

cynthia

Re: ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data using Proc Print or Proc Report

LisaSAS — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:33:26 GMT

When I look in the log, it has 'ENCODING=UTF8'

Re: ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data using Proc Print or Proc Report

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 18:42:39 GMT

Hi, well, that means something other than encoding is causing the issue. I think your best resource might be opening a track with Tech Support.

Cynthia