Question

I am learning SAS. I tried to run a sample program:

libname x "c:\Joe\SAS\class.xls";

data x.sheet2;
set x.'sheet1$'n;
bmi = 703 * weight / height**2;  
run;
libname x clear;

I am getting this error:

ERROR: The EXCEL engine cannot be found.
ERROR: Error in the LIBNAME statement.

I found a site on the internet that said to do something like:

libname x excel "c:\Joe\SAS\class.xls";

But I get the same error. Any ideas on how to solve this problem?

Answer 1

You probably do not have SAS/ACCESS to PC FILES licensed. Run:

proc setinit; run;

When I run that I have one line amongst others:

---SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files
        31DEC2012

If you don’t have that line, you can’t run PROC IMPORT with an EXCEL option.

There are workarounds. For an ‘xls’ file, ‘xls’ is a legal engine, that does not require that:

proc import file="c:\Joe\SAS\class.xls" out=class dbms=xls replace; run;

I don’t know if LIBNAME works as well here or not – but PROC IMPORT is fairly identical in how it works [only you have to pick which sheet up front, and do one IMPORT for each sheet]. PROC EXPORT is the output equivalent of PROC IMPORT.