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importsasxlsx

Whether xlsx engine in SAS scan all the rows to get variables'length?

Whether PROC IMPORT using xlsx engine in SAS scans all rows to get variables' length? I have a whitepaper documented that xlsx engine will scan all the row to get datatype but no paper so far confirm that SAS will also scan all rows to get variables' length.

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Solution

  • I would say that is the definitive answer on the subject, as Vince DelGobbo is the resident expert at SAS Institute on working with Excel. I don't know if he personally wrote the XLSX engine or not, but he certainly knows those things inside and out. So we can trust him here - and if it's scanning datatype, it's also scanning length (as that's part of data type).

    However, this is trivially verifiable, and I did so - excel file with '1 in every row in column A except the last row (2**20) with a 240-character long string in it.

    PROC IMPORT returned a 240 long column, no truncation issues.