topic how to deal with the non-breaking space when using PROC IMPORT for excel in SAS Procedures

how to deal with the non-breaking space when using PROC IMPORT for excel

sasmilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:33:54 GMT

I need to convert a excel file with the extension 'xls' to sas dataset, but there has non-breaking space in the file. when I use 'PROC IMPORT' for the converting, COMPRESS can not make it disappeared. How to deal with this?

Re: how to deal with the non-breaking space when using PROC IMPORT for excel

PaigeMiller — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 16:40:29 GMT

A non-breaking space is code 255, or ASCII 'FF'x, have you tried to remove this from your text string?

y=compress(x,'FF'x);

Re: how to deal with the non-breaking space when using PROC IMPORT for excel

FreelanceReinh — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 17:45:26 GMT

Most of the non-breaking spaces I've come across had an ASCII code of 160. So, my suggestion would have been something like

y=compress(x, 'A0'x)

or, to remove both 'A0'x and 'FF'x,

y=compress(x, 'A0FF'x),

if you had not said that "COMPRESS can not make it disappeared."

Maybe you're better off using relevant Excel functions to "clean" your Excel file before importing it. Here's the link to the pertinent page of the Excel online help.