Use PROC IMPORT to Read External Data Files and Excel Workbooks into SAS - Exchanging Data Between SAS and Microsoft Excel - page 34

Utility DBMS Model Excel Version Comments

EXCEL4 or
EXCEL5

DBLOAD procedure 4, 5, 95 This is supported only on the Microsoft

Windows operating systems and is for SAS 6
compatibility.

XLS XLS format 97, 2000, 2002,

2003

Some versions of SAS may not support the
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean DBCS
character sets.

XLSX XLSX format 2007, 2010, and

later formats

Some versions of SAS may not support the
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean DBCS
character sets or *.xlsb Excel files.

3.5 Overview of the Examples
The examples in this chapter will cover several but not all of the DBMS options used with PROC IMPORT. I
like to group the input processing for PROC IMPORT into general categories within the DBMS options.
Furthermore, I feel I must place a caveat onto these groupings because both SAS and Microsoft Excel are
mature products that have changed over time. While these categories are generally accurate, your SAS version,
Excel version, and computer hardware may not support every DBMS option, and each DBMS option might
operate slightly differently depending upon what software you have installed. So make sure you verify what is
available to you by looking in the SAS manual that relates to your environment.

● An example retained for backward compatibility with files in the Excel 4 and Excel 5 formats.
● Text file output options like CSV, TAB and DLM do not require SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files
because the methods read text files.
● Options that read directly from a formatted Excel file.
• LIBNAME options that both use and do not use the SAS PC Files Server.

The options that generate text files will show one example and explain the differences that make the other
options work.

3.6 List of Examples
Table 3.6.1 is a general description of the functions included in the examples shown in this chapter. Some of the
examples here have minor overlaps in the features to show how they interact when additional features are
included.

Table 3.6.1: List of Examples for PROC IMPORT.

Example Number General Description

3.1 PROC IMPORT Using the DBMS=EXCEL4 or EXCEL5 Option.

This example is included for backward compatibility with Excel
formats Excel 4 and Excel 5, although I would consider it rare to find a
computer using this Microsoft Excel software today. The example
shows how to read to these old Excel formats.

3.2 PROC IMPORT Using the DBMS=DLM Option. This example

shows how to use a delimiter to separate input values and read the
header row of the input file as data. This example is equivalent to
DBMS=CSV and DBMS=TAB but allows you to provide your own
delimiter.

3.3 PROC IMPORT Using the DBMS=EXCEL Option. The three parts

of this example all read Excel workbooks that do not need the PC Files