Importing data from Excel

[deleted_user]

Hi,

I am a novice in SAS. Pardon me if I sound silly.

I have a large data in excel. I tried to import the data from excel to SAS using import wizard. In my import wizard under 'select a data source from the list below' I see only three options-CSV, txt and delimited. Why I am not seeing an option for excel data?

How can I convert the data into CSV? When I googled, I got some option to download a software tool for this conversion. Is it recommended?

I even tried to save the data in CSV by chaging the file extn from .xls to CSV. But SAS says 'import cancelled ....No data values in the first five lines'.

What should I do to successfully get the data into SAS?

Thank you very much in advance.

Cathy

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
If you only see those 3 options in the IMPORT Wizard, it means that you do NOT have SAS/Access for PC File Formats (PCFF) licensed.

The choice in the IMPORT Wizard needs to correspond to the type of data file you want to import. First, you should check with your company SAS representative to find out whether they have a license for SAS/Access PCFF and they just need to install it.

If they do NOT have PCFF, then you will need to
1) close the IMPORT wizard
2) switch over to Excel and SAVE the Excel file as a CSV, by choosing CSV in the Save AS Type in the Excel File--> Save As window.
3) Once you have saved the file as a CSV file (using Excel), then go back to the IMPORT wizard and select CSV from the drop-down choices. You should not need to download any software to convert the XLS file to CSV -- Excel has that capability built in.
4) point your wizard to the CSV version of the data (NOT the XLS version of the data)
5) The import should work for you -- the key is using Excel to save the data in the spreadsheet as a CSV file -- and then importing the CSV file into SAS.

If you need more help with this, your best bet is to contact Tech Support.

cynthia

[deleted_user]

Thank you very much for your response. Saving the excel file in CSV format worked well for me.