Invalid name of variable

[Zaghini]

Hi, I imported an xls file (with a variable named ‘VAR ONE’) in a dataset work.test

I know that it is not a valid SAS name of variable.

In the dataset the name of the variable is still ‘VAR ONE’, and I can’t use it.

I tried:

Data work.test2 (rename=([VAR ONE]= VAR_ONE));

Set work.test;

Run;

But it doesn’t work.

Can you help me?

Thank you all.

zaghini

[PeterClemmensen]

Set 

options validvarname=v7;

before your PROC IMPORT.

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

If you have the option setting of Validvarname=Any then things like proc import will allow non-standard names. These variable names must be used as a name literal which means the text enclosed in quotes followed by the letter n such as 'Var one'n .

Additionally you can set the option Validvarname=V7; to prevent proc import from creating such names. The V7 option would create variable names with an underscore character, _ , in the place of any non-letter or non-digit character appearing in the data source as a variable name.

[Zaghini]

I did:

options validvarname=v7;

PROC IMPORT DATAFILE="/…/test.xls" OUT=work.vincolati DBMS=XLS REPLACE;

      SHEET="Quadratura collegati";

RUN;

but in xls file I've the variable 'Bilancio 2021' and in work.vincolati I still have the variable 'Bilancio 2021' instead 'Bilancio_2021' that I would expect with the options validvarname=v7.

where am I wrong?

[Kurt_Bremser]

Run PROC CONTENTS. What you see may not be the variable name, but the label.

[Zaghini]

I’ve done it!

The problem was that I submitted sas code in separated steps:

• Libname
• options validvarname=v7;
• proc import

and does not work.

But if I do it in 2 steps (or 1) it works:

• select and submit libname
• select and submit both options and import

thank you @Kurt_Bremser and @PeterClemmensen and @ballardw