SAS-EG Column Format

[RandyW]

We have a column titled "Unique_Identifier" that is typically 3 characters long and contains numbers and letters. The column is a TEXT column in order to accommodate the number/letter combinations. The problem we are facing is when we export "as a step in the project", the Excel file is having trouble with the values that contain the letter E (ex: '0E4'). It thinks that value is an exponential number. Further more, when uploading to Power BI, our example of '0E4' is shown as _x0030_E4. We get the odd formatting if we use the file directly from the SAS export, but the weird part is if we save the excel file, then upload to Power BI, '0E4' correctly shows as '0E4'.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Excel is causing the issue here, not SAS - but changing your method of Export should help. If using ODS EXCEL you can use tagattr to force the column to be displayed as text. 

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@RandyW wrote:

We have a column titled "Unique_Identifier" that is typically 3 characters long and contains numbers and letters. The column is a TEXT column in order to accommodate the number/letter combinations. The problem we are facing is when we export "as a step in the project", the Excel file is having trouble with the values that contain the letter E (ex: '0E4'). It thinks that value is an exponential number. Further more, when uploading to Power BI, our example of '0E4' is shown as _x0030_E4. We get the odd formatting if we use the file directly from the SAS export, but the weird part is if we save the excel file, then upload to Power BI, '0E4' correctly shows as '0E4'.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[SuryaKiran]

How are you exporting the data into Excel from SAS. 

[RandyW]

Exporting as a step in the project

[Reeza]

I think that actually creates an HTML file that SAS can open, but I may be mistaken. Try explicitly exporting it as PROC EXPORT or using ODS EXCEL instead.

[RandyW]

Thanks for all the quick responses. For some reason changing the output file type to .CSV (instead of .XLSX) works for us.

We will try the ODS EXCEL suggestion also.