Background:
Problems:
If a table has one column with a name length exceeding 32 characters, it can open ok in EG. For example:
However, if a table has multiple columns whose first 32 characters are identical, the table won't open in EG. For example
If I were to open this table in EG, I get an error:
I've played with so many options (VALIDVARNAME, etc) when defining the libraries, and when registering the tables in metadata, when opening EG, that I'm now starting to go in circles.
So, any assistance appreciated..
There are just two workarounds for dealing with this currently
I understand that SAS is looking at enhancements to deal with the 32 character limitations but as yet there is no confirmation of when or if that might happen. There was confirmation of this in another post from a SAS employee:
There is a SASware Ballot suggestion for this: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SASware-Ballot-Ideas/Metadata-amp-colon-More-space-please/idi-p/22031...
Search the community for many other posts on the 32 character limitation.
Create views in SQL Server where table(view) name and column names adhere to the 32-character limit. SAS simply does not have more than 32 characters reserved for such names, so longer names will never work until that is expanded in a major release.
There are just two workarounds for dealing with this currently
I understand that SAS is looking at enhancements to deal with the 32 character limitations but as yet there is no confirmation of when or if that might happen. There was confirmation of this in another post from a SAS employee:
There is a SASware Ballot suggestion for this: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SASware-Ballot-Ideas/Metadata-amp-colon-More-space-please/idi-p/22031...
Search the community for many other posts on the 32 character limitation.
Unfortunately there are no SAS options that will allow the "Name Constant"n to go beyond 32 characters. If it were allowed SAS would still have to trim the column names when storing them as SAS tables.
I can understand why it is taking such a long time to decide what to do with this issue. If it is done globally across the whole SAS system it would be a major rewrite of massive proportions. I'm old enough to remember when SAS went from an 8 character limit to 32 - we all thought that was revolutionary!
If enhancements were made to just deal with the external database 32 character limitation you would still have the problem of having to trim them back to 32 when stored as SAS tables. I don't think there are any easy answers here.
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