Excel engine/dbms=excel - # and dot in variable label > bug?

[xxformat_com]

Hi,

I was wondering why

- hash are converted to  a dot and

- dot are causing an issue

when used in a variable label exported in an Excel file

using the excel engine or dmbs=excel.

It works fine with dmbs=xlsx.

Is it just a reported bug?

libname demo excel "&demo./reporting/test.xlsx";

data demo.test (dblabel=yes);
label  x01 = '1 #test'
x2 = '2. test';
retain x01 1 x02 2 ;
run;

libname demo;

[Ksharp]

libname demo XLSX "&demo./reporting/test.xlsx";

[Ksharp]

EXCEL and XLS is very old engine ,it is designed for excel2003 ( test.xls ).

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

It seems to be a problem related to the Excel library engine (which uses MS software and is only available on Windows).

This code transferred the characters correctly:

ods excel file="/folders/myfolders/test.xlsx";

data test;
label
  x01 = '1 #test'
  x02 = '2. test'
;
retain x01 1 x02 2 ;
run;

proc print data=test label;
run;

ods excel close;

[xxformat_com]

So you agree like me that it is a bug in excel dbms. Thanks.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Maybe it was a shortcoming in the old (pre-XLSX) format that needed to be addressed.