Howard and Dave,

I was able to replicate Dave's situation as follows:

an excel spreadsheet with three rows and two variables: long label line one even longer yet label line two but with even more verbage to make it longer 1 a 2 b

Imported with the following Proc Import:

PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.one DATAFILE= "C:\test5.xls" DBMS=EXCEL REPLACE; GETNAMES=YES; MIXED=YES; SCANTEXT=YES; USEDATE=YES; SCANTIME=YES; RUN;

And seeing the following by running Proc Contents:

# Variable Type Len Format Informat Label 2 even_longer_yet_ Char 1 $1. $1. even longer yet label line two but label_line_two_b with even more verbage to mak

1 long_label_line_one Num 8 long label line one

Interestingly, the label is truncated at the 50th character.

David, while I'm sure the following is not the 'optimal' solution, it will work:

PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.one DATAFILE= "C:\test5.xls" DBMS=EXCEL REPLACE; range='a1:b1'; GETNAMES=NO; MIXED=YES; SCANTEXT=YES; USEDATE=YES; SCANTIME=YES; RUN; data _null_; set one; call symput ("f1label",F1); call symput ("f2label",F2); run; PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.one DATAFILE= "C:\test5.xls" DBMS=EXCEL REPLACE; GETNAMES=NO; range='a2:c3'; GETNAMES=NO; MIXED=YES; SCANTEXT=YES; USEDATE=YES; SCANTIME=YES; RUN; data one; set one; label f1="&f1label."; label f2="&f2label."; run; proc contents data=one; run;

which, according to Proc Contents, results in:

# Variable Type Len Format Informat Label

1 F1 Num 8 long label line one 2 F2 Char 1 $1. $1. even longer yet label line two but with even more verbage to make it longer and some extra junk for good measure

Art -------------- ""Howard Schreier <hs AT dc-sug DOT org>"" <nospam@HOWLES.COM> wrote in message news:200506210325.j5L3PpGH013005@listserv.cc.uga.edu... > Which of the available tools are you using to import? > > Is the truncation consistent in terms of the number of characters > preserved? If so, what is the number? > > Please show code and evidence. > > On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:48:57 -0700, David Fickbohm <davefickbohm@YAHOO.COM> > wrote: > > >People, > >When I import an excel spreadsheet with long labels. The lables > truncate. Is there a way to let the length of labels? or a way to stop > the trucating?