Convert char to Varchar on SAS

[dipand]

I have a daatset .sas7bdat and I need to convert the column format chart into varchar.

If I create a structure table with SAS Studio receive this error:

One or more variables were converted because the data type is not supported by the V9 engine.

I understand that is necessary to create the table structure on Cas, but I don't know a way for insert the data on the table.

this is my code for insert dataset on CAS:

proc cas;
upload / path="&path/inspection_question_answer.sas7bdat" casout={caslib="hseq" name="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION1" replication=0};
quit;

proc casutil incaslib="hseq" outcaslib="hseq";
droptable casdata="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION" quiet;
promote casdata="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION1" casout="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION";
save casdata="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION" casout="HSEQ4A_INSPECT_ANSWER_QUESTION" replace;
quit;

But this table is actually very large and my client asked to convert char columns to varchar, but at the moment I can’t get it done

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[BrunoMueller · Accepted solution]

Use this option in your UPLOAD statement it will change CHAR to VARCHAR whenever the length is greater or equal to 17. A VARCHAR column has a 16byte overhead so it only makes sense to convert longer CHAR vars.

importoptions={filetype="BASESAS" varcharConversion=17}