var name starting with number, underscore added vs substituted

[art297]

I would contact SAS Technical Support. Here is a message contained in a SAS note (http://support.sas.com/kb/43/933.html) regarding a closely related problem:

This problem (getting the error you got when trying to import using the Excel engine) can also occur when the Microsoft components that the drivers require are not installed. If this is true, contact SAS Technical Support.

HTH,

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[geneshackman]

Thanks everyone for trying to figure this out. I am going a different way, as I can't quite figure it out. Instead, I will use validvarname=any to take the variables exactly as they are named, and then just use rename to get them to a 'valid' sas name. Thanks all.

[Shmuel]

If the excel files are not identical on both computers, I guess

that the longest text under "_2007..." is at least 20 characters while under "_007..." is at most 18 characters.

Check the excel data - am I right ?!

As about beeing unable to read dbms=excel  - I have no idea - as both computers are with SAS 9.4

[geneshackman]

Shmuel, we are both accessing the same excel file, on a shared drive.

[ballardw]

Assuming you are using Proc Import then the Version of EXCEL may something to consider. The Excel data engine decides what SAS sees and then SAS uses that information to create the variable names.