How to replicate MIXED=YES when reading Excel files on linux

[Quentin]

Hi All,

I'm reading Excel 2003 files using SAS 9.3 on 64 bit linux, and have PC Files Server.

I would like to replicate the functionality of the  mixed=YES option which is available when using the EXCEL engine (causes an Excel column which is a mix of character and numeric cells to be imported as a character variable, with all values maintained, rather than a numeric variable ,with character values set to null).

I've been reading the docs, but can't see a way to do this.  (Unless perhaps changing registry keys ImportMixedTypes=Text and TypeGuessRows=0 could help, if I could get access to that???).

Is there a way to read an Excel file from SAS running on linux, and avoid the problem of having disappearing character data when SAS or the ACE engine or whatever guesses incorrectly that a column is all numeric?  At this point, I'd be happy even if I could just force *every* column to be imported as character.  But it seems like the limitation is with the ACE engine, so things like DBSASTYPE can't help.

Thanks,

-Q.