ERROR: The format _MERGE was not found or could not be loaded.

[CDD]

Hi - I am unable to do anything in SAS because of I continue to receive this message despite not even doing a merge

ERROR: The format _MERGE was not found or could not be loaded.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

Even if I do a simple code such as 

data libname.a (replace=yes);

set libname.a;

run;

I cannot figure out the source or even find a help topic that is not specifically about formats.  If anyone could suggest a solution, I would be grateful.

Thanks

[Reeza]

Restart SAS and see if the error persists. Or the magic string:

https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2013/08/19/errors-that-cause-sas-to-freeze.html

If you've already tried this and it didn't work, let us know what you've tried. 

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

Most likely, if you run a PROC CONTENTS on your data set you will see that a variable has the _MERGE format assigned to it.  That is not a SAS-supplied format, it is a user-defined format.  If that's the case, you have two choices.

One possibility:  re-create that format.  You might either use PROC FORMAT to accomplish that, or you might find that those who supplied the data also supplied the format somewhere.  You would need to track down where the format is located, and use the appropriate location in the FMTSEARCH option.

An easier possibility:  tell SAS to ignore formats that can't be found, by adding this statement earlier in your program:

options nofmterr;

[CDD]

Restarting did not work, but using

options nofmterr;

allowed for me to continue.

Thank you