SAS7BDAT TO XPORT

[bharath86]

Hi 

  PROC COPY IN=Data_old OUT=Data_new ;
    SELECT mh;
  RUN;

Can anyone please help me understand this error.

ERROR: The format length of the variable MHTERM is too long for the Version 6 file SASXPT.MH.DATA.
ERROR: File SASXPT.MH.DATA has not been saved because copy could not be completed.

I am trying to convert a sas7bdat file to XPT file, in the process I encountered this error. 

I tried cleaning the column MHTERM and reprocessed it just incase if there are any hidden characters or like that, but it still doesnt help. 

Please advise. 

[bharath86]

length of the variable is 200 cahracters.

[SASJedi]

You haven't shared enough on your intent to determine if another approach is feasible, nor enough of your code to determine precisely what the problem is, but on the surface, it looks like you are trying to export a SAS7BDAT file to an older version transport file format (SAS 6 XPT file). The newer SAS file format SAS7BDAT supports attributes not available in SAS 6, and that may be causing the problem. 

1. It would help to know why you need the XPORT file. How will the resulting XPORT file be used (in SAS, some other software package, etc.)? Knowing this might allow us to recommend a different, better approach.

2. Have you tried using the macros provided by SAS to accomplish this task? If you are running SAS 9.4M2 or newer, check out Usage Note 46944: New SAS® transport format and tools available.

May the SAS be with you!
Mark

[FreelanceReinh]

Hi @bharath86,

---

@bharath86 wrote:

ERROR: The format length of the variable MHTERM is too long for the Version 6 file SASXPT.MH.DATA.

---

The error message says that there is a format associated with variable MHTERM whose length exceeds the limit (of 200) for the XPT file. So, you should either remove the format or change it to a format of length <=200, which should be no problem, given the length 200 of the variable. Either create a copy of the dataset (if you want to keep the original) or modify the existing dataset in place, as shown below:

proc datasets lib=Data_old nolist;
modify mh;
format mhterm;
quit;

The above step removes the format, but you can also append a format specification to the FORMAT statement:

format mhterm $yourfmt200.;

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

You will have less problems using PROC CPORT/ CIMPORT to port SAS V7 plus datasets and catalogs to other SAS platforms as SAS names are not limited to 8 characters. It would help if you explained your use case for XPT in more detail so we can give further guidance.

[bharath86]

Actually proc cport works much better than copy. Thanks It worked. 

I needed XPORT file for FDA submission.