Reading "<" ">" from excel file on linux

[SP_SAS]

Hi Guys,

I have an excel file that has many lines with  date < x, or date > x or variable1 > 59 etc. This is all in excel concatenate function.

=CONCATENATE("(a<=6)","hello")

When I read this excel file using xlsx libname engine, I get       "       (a&lt;=6)hello     "

Is there a way around this.

Thanks,

[data_null__]

How about this?

%let LT=<;

[ballardw]

Do you want the text of the formula or the resolved value?

If the later it may be easier to export the sheet as CSV and read that file.

[SP_SAS]

Resolved Value.

[ErikLund_Jensen · Accepted solution]

Hi SP_SAS

The htmldecode function works here. It gived an ugly warning, but it does the decoding:

data _null_;
	a =  "       (a<=6)hello     ";
	b = htmldecode(a);
	put b;
run;

114
115 data _null_;
116 a = " (a&lt;=6)hello ";
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference LT not resolved.
117 b = htmldecode(a); put b;
118 put b;
119 run;

(a<=6)hello

[data_null__]

The warning is not from the function. The warning refers to line 116.

[SP_SAS]

Thanks.. That is a good work around..

[ChrisNZ]

The warning comes from the way you created your string.

a = ' (a&lt;=6)hello ';

yields no warning.