Hashtag (#) in foreign table´s columnname

[Maze]

Hi!

I´m having a problem regarding naming conventions in SAS.

I working with a table that I have no control over and one columns identifier contains a hashtag (ID_XXX#).

To insert rows via 'proc sql', I have to omit the insert column listing because SAS can´t handle the # in the one column´s name.

Since omitting this list is bad practice and may crash my program if there are changes made to the table,

I´d like to find a way to handle the problem.

How to handle column names containing hashtags

[data_null__ · Accepted solution]

You may need to learn about SASNAMES.  Using system option VALIDVARNAME=ANY you should be able to use the name.  When you reference it you will need to use name literal syntax 'name'N.  For example.

data _null_;
   '(ID_XXX#)'n = 'Any name';
   put _all_;
   run;