The names in your table work.edu don't comply with SAS naming conventions. SAS(R) 9.3 Language Reference: Concepts, Second Edition With"validvarname=any" you still can define such variable names in your tables but you need to quote them as literals everywhere in your code in the form: '0-2'n I have also made the experience that some of the SAS Enterprise Guide wizards don't quote such variable names so with such names you can end up that wizard generated code doesn't work. It is best to always use variable names which comply with the SAS naming standards. If you're using the EG import wizard then select the option (tick-box) which automatically converts non-complying variable names to complying ones during imports. If you have already a data set from somewhere else then I would suggest you rename the variables. For your example you could use syntax as below. proc datasets lib=work nolist;   modify edu;     rename       '0-2'n    =_0_2       '13-15'n  =_13_15     ;     label       _0_2    = '0-2'       _13_15  = '13-15'     ;   run;   contents data=edu;   run; quit; ... View more