Before finding the solution (in my case) , I had written to SAS Technical Support and here their answer: Hello Anahit, When I attempt to replicate this with on the file provided it works as expected: 4 libname xl xlsx "C:\testing\7612261489\data.xlsx"; NOTE: Libref XL was successfully assigned as follows: Engine: XLSX Physical Name: C:\testing\7612261489\data.xlsx 5 data newx; 6 set xl.TS; 7 run; NOTE: The import data set has 26 observations and 10 variables. NOTE: There were 26 observations read from the data set XL.TS. NOTE: The data set WORK.NEWX has 26 observations and 10 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.02 seconds cpu time 0.01 seconds I suspect two possible issues. First, Excel can sometimes have issues with import/export when sheet names use only two or three characters. This is usually not an issue for the XLSX engine you are using. However the core issue is rooted in how ranges, sheet names, and cell references are stored and accessed. It is possible for a range to become mismatched from its sheet or cell(s) and thus cause an error such as this. Second possible issue would be some minor corruption in the original Excel file. When the file is modified or recreated the corruption is corrected and thus the error is resolved. Unfortunately neither case is something we can diagnosis from withing SAS. Now I do have one known issue where this error is reported but it has not been reported in your specific situation. This error is noted in SAS Note 60543 http://support.sas.com/kb/60543 and is fixed in the hot fix referenced in that note. It would not be a bad idea to apply that hot fix to your installation.
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