topic Re: Missing variable name after .dat import in SAS Programming

Missing variable name after .dat import

ChuksManuel — Wed, 04 May 2022 16:43:39 GMT

Hi programmers,

I imported a .dat file in SAS and the variable name (column name) is missing and replaced by VAR1, VAR2, VAR3 etc. Is there any reason for this?

I have attached my import code

PROC IMPORT DATAFILE = "C:/Users/data_NEW.dat"
OUT = form_Q3
DBMS = DLM REPLACE;
DELIMITER="|";
RUN;

Re: Missing variable name after .dat import

PaigeMiller — Wed, 04 May 2022 16:49:46 GMT

Show us a portion of the input data file.

Re: Missing variable name after .dat import

Tom — Wed, 04 May 2022 16:52:23 GMT

@ChuksManuel wrote:

Hi programmers,

I imported a .dat file in SAS and the variable name (column name) is missing and replaced by VAR1, VAR2, VAR3 etc. Is there any reason for this?

I have attached my import code
PROC IMPORT DATAFILE = "C:/Users/data_NEW.dat"
OUT = form_Q3
DBMS = DLM REPLACE;
DELIMITER="|";
RUN;

Yes. PROC IMPORT is too stupid to read header lines that are longer than 32K bytes.

You could try:

Add the names back yourself by reading the first row as data and using it to generate a RENAME statement.
Write your own data step to read that delimited text file. Then you have complete control over the names and the types and whether any formats or labels need to be attached to the variables.
Use a tool to guess how to read the file that can read the whole header line. Like : https://github.com/sasutils/macros/blob/master/csv2ds.sas