Missing variable name after .dat import

[ChuksManuel]

Hi programmers,

I imported a .dat file in SAS and the variable name (column name) is missing and replaced by VAR1, VAR2, VAR3 etc. Is there any reason for this?

I have attached my import code

PROC IMPORT DATAFILE = "C:/Users/data_NEW.dat"
OUT = form_Q3
DBMS = DLM REPLACE;
DELIMITER="|";
RUN;

[PaigeMiller]

Show us a portion of the input data file.

[Tom]

---

@ChuksManuel wrote:

Hi programmers,

I imported a .dat file in SAS and the variable name (column name) is missing and replaced by VAR1, VAR2, VAR3 etc. Is there any reason for this?

I have attached my import code

PROC IMPORT DATAFILE = "C:/Users/data_NEW.dat"
OUT = form_Q3
DBMS = DLM REPLACE;
DELIMITER="|";
RUN;

---

Yes. PROC IMPORT is too stupid to read header lines that are longer than 32K bytes.

You could try:

• Add the names back yourself by reading the first row as data and using it to generate a RENAME statement.
• Write your own data step to read that delimited text file.  Then you have complete control over the names and the types and whether any formats or labels need to be attached to the variables.
• Use a tool to guess how to read the file that can read the whole header line.  Like : https://github.com/sasutils/macros/blob/master/csv2ds.sas