proc import dbms=xls issue in sas 9.2

[AkshayKaru]

Hello everyone,

Please note that we are not able to run below command on sas 9.2 running on unix server:

proc import DBMS=XLS
datafile='/server_path/test.xls'
out=work.abc replace;
RXCL;
getnames=YES ;
namerow=1;
startrow=2;
mixed=yes;
sheet=abc;
run;

We are getting the following error message:

Memory request error

Memory request error
ERROR: Not enough memory available to allocate storage.

Can anyone please advise.

Note: Upgrade to sas 9.4 is not the pipeline for the moment

Thanking you in advance

[Shmuel]

Using unix tools check the sas work directory. You probably have old sas work folders that can be deleted.

[AkshayKaru]

The sas work directory is empty but we are still getting same error message

[AkshayKaru]

Additional Information is that below code also don't work:

proc import dbms=excelcs
datafile='/server_path/test.xls'
out=work.abc replace;
sheet='abc';
server="[server_name]";
port=[port_num];
run;

We are getting message cannot connect to server.

Note: The test.xls is on a Unix Machine

[andreas_lds]

9.2 is so long ago ... The options "server" and "port" specify a Windows server running a PCFiles-Service.

You should contact tech-support and provide a complete log.

[AkshayKaru]

Thanks andreas for your reply, any idea for below point:

With the following code

proc import DBMS=XLS
datafile='/server_path/test.xls'
out=work.abc replace;
RXCL;
getnames=YES ;
namerow=1;
startrow=2;
mixed=yes;
sheet=abc;
run;

We are getting the following error message:

Memory request error

Memory request error
ERROR: Not enough memory available to allocate storage.

[andreas_lds]

Sorry, i never saw that error when we used 9.2. Some things to check:

• how large is the xls file?
• how much memory is available for each session on the server?
• are the latest (all) hotfixes for 9.2 installed?

I am not sure whether answering those questions helps to solve the problem. As i already said: contacting tech-support is the best way to find a solution.

[ballardw]

A long shot is to verify the data is actually an XLS file. I have seen a fair amount of code where people save files in different formats with the XLS or XLSX so the spreadsheet program will open them by default.

See if you can open the file in a plain text editor such as Notepad and actually read results as text. If you see lots of commas  the file may be CSV, if you see HTML tags then it may actually be HTML.