Can sas import aes encrypted excel files?

[naveenraj]

Hi,

Is it possible to import AES encrpted excel files.  Suppose file is of type .aes. Is it possible to directly import the file. I have heard that sas supports AES encryption.

Regards,

Naveen

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

So the file itself is encrypted using some software, yes?  If so then you would un-encrypt that file as part of your import process - either through and IT procedure, or yourself with the appropriate tools.  Its not a SAS task to un-encrypt datafiles.  You could include it as part of a SAS program.  Get a command line un-encypter software, and then call that from SAS, much like winzip:

x "<path to winzip>\wunzip.exe <path to zip file>\file.zip <path to unzip>";

Obviously the OS command will be different for the command line tool you use to process this particular encoding, and might also b different depending on the OS you are running.

From my point of view though I prefer to separate the proces of actually recieving a file, and processing.  So step 1 is to get the datafile and any accompanying documents.  Store these to a set folder, unpack the files (this step would include the un-encrypting), then commit to version control.  You now have a nice accessible fixed point.  You can then proceed to run SAS programs over this data to do whatever you need without having to worry about encryption, unpacking or any other third party process.