Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 2009 22:26:13 +0000
Reply-To:     Deborah Testa <dtesta@SEVENOFNINESYSTEMS.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Deborah Testa <dtesta@SEVENOFNINESYSTEMS.COM>
Subject:      Re: PROC IMPORT Bug in 9.2 TS2M0
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

Art,

I vote for overtime!  It turns out that the 8.2 version of PROC IMPORT
is missing an option (GUESSINGROWS) that is important to the accuracy of
the resulting data set.  So I still don't have a good answer except to
uninstall 9.2 and reinstall 9.1.

I could write hard-coded data steps, but those will break as soon as the
vendor decides to change the structure of the file one week -- and I
have every reason to believe they will do that and not tell me.  That's
why I live with the uncertainty of PROC IMPORT, despite data _null_'s
reminder that it isn't trustworthy.

I'm ruing the upgrade to 9.2 right now.


"Arthur Tabachneck" <art297@NETSCAPE.NET> wrote in message
news:200910012146.n91KEIJN017810@malibu.cc.uga.edu:

> Deborah,
>
> If you are indicating that the new proc import will treat any or even some
> 4-digit numbers as being datetime variables, I would hope that SAS kept
> staff overtime to correct the situation.
>
> Can any birdies confirm?
>
> Art
> --------
> On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 17:26:51 +0000, Deborah Testa
> <dtesta@SEVENOFNINESYSTEMS.COM> wrote:
>
> >FYI:
> >
> >
> >
> >My years-old PROC IMPORT code broke in 9.2 TS2M0.  Here's an explanation
> >and a suggested work-around from SAS tech support:
> >
> >
> >
> >The algorithm to determine if a value is a date, datetime or time was
> >changed in SAS 9.2.  Unfortunately it looks like there is a problem with
> >typing some of the values to determine if the value is a date, time or
> >datetime.  I will report this problem to the developer.  In the
> >meantime, you will need to recall the generated DATA step code assuming
> >you are using PROC IMPORT in interactive mode.  To recall the generated
> >DATA step code, you will need to make certain you have the EDITOR window
> >active and then do a RUN-RECALL LAST SUBMIT after the PROC IMPORT has
> >run.  The generated DATA step will appear in the Editor Window and you
> >can change the INFORMAT, FORMAT and INPUT statement for the 2 variables,
> >VSBT and GNDRCODE, so they are read in as character.  Then you will
> >resubmit the generated DATA step code to receive expected results.
> >
> >
> >
> >Since I still have SAS 8.2 installed, I'm going to run my PROC IMPORT
> >steps in 8.2 rather than introduce the manual step into the middle of an
> >automated series of steps.
> >
> >
> >
> >My data contains codes for gender (2201 for Male and 2202 for Female).
> >When I read those values from a .csv file into SAS using PROC IMPORT,
> >SAS creates a numeric variable (fine) but uses a datetime. format and
> >the anydtdtm40. informat. , creating raw values of 1956614400 and
> >1959292800.