topic Re: how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols in SAS Programming

how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols

HN2001 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:44:42 GMT

I have multiple excel files where the variable length is different. Once in SAS I need to combine these files so I need to use libname excel code and read in the variable names using DBSASTYPE. Two of my variable names in excel contain symbols (+ and .) Without going into each excel file and changing the column name to exclude the symbol, is there code that will ignore those symbols?

The column in excel is ADD+, how do I code that in the DBSASTYPE lines???

LIBNAME WrkBk EXCEL "filepath/file" MIXED=YES;

DATA test1;
SET WrkBk."Subject$"n
(DBSASTYPE=(

"PACKAGE NO"='char(8)'

"SEQ"='char(8)'
"ID"='char(13)'
"NAME"='char(27)'

"ADD+"='char(27)'

));
RUN;
LIBNAME WrkBk CLEAR;

Re: how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols

SASKiwi — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:35:23 GMT

LIBNAME WrkBk EXCEL "filepath/file" MIXED=YES;
DATA test1;
SET WrkBk."Subject$"n
(DBSASTYPE=(
"PACKAGE NO"n='char(8)'
SEQ='char(8)'
ID='char(13)'
NAME='char(27)'
"ADD+"n='char(27)'
));
RUN;
LIBNAME WrkBk CLEAR;

This is how you reference non-SAS compatible column names. The rest of the code is untested.

Re: how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols

HN2001 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:50:19 GMT

Thanks SASKiwi. Adding the n seems to get me past the ADD+ but I forgot to include in my orig post the var name that has the .

Adding n to this variable still produces an error saying invalid column name. Any ideas on how to resolve this?

I currently have

"AB. ADD"n='char(13)'

Re: how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols

LinusH — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 11:49:22 GMT

At this point it seem easier to rename the columns in Excel instead.
That said, check that you have
OPTIONS VALIDVARNAME=ANY;

Re: how to write DBSASTYPE code for excel column names with symbols

HN2001 — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 21:02:40 GMT

Using a # helped with the . in the name
"AB# ADD"n='char(13)'