Reading Microsoft Access with ODBC

[Petersi]

Does anyone use ODBC? I am reading an Access database with PROC SQL on an ODBC connection. My problem is that SAS is treating all character columns as $255. Is there a way to re-format these columns within the SQL?

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
This Tech Support note is fixing a slightly different length issue with ODBC, but the technique may work for your MS-Access table.
http://support.sas.com/techsup/unotes/SN/017/017463.html

Otherwise, your best bet may be to contact Tech Support for more specific help on this issue.

cynthia

[DouglasMartin]

I think you just want the DBMAX_TEXT=n option on your libname statment or dataset option. Check out the documentation on it. The value you set becomes the maximum width that will be read. The maximum is 32767. HOWEVER, one thing I did notice is that my programs did get slower the higher I set it, so be careful about going overboard with it. (I don't have any examples because I switched jobs recently and no longer have a need for it). Message was edited by: Douglas Martin