Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:06:03 -0800
Reply-To:     Tom Abernathy <tom.abernathy@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Tom Abernathy <tom.abernathy@GMAIL.COM>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Re: SAS Transport file character field limitation and PROC CPORT.
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Jan 26, 6:32 pm, brian_c_wall...@YAHOO.COM (Brian Wallace) wrote:
> Sorry I haven't been able to post recently.  The security at work is pretty strict.  I have a simple, I guess stupid, question.
> I always thought the maximum length for a character field in a SAS transport file was 200 characters.  Is this a correct statement?
> Also, if this true, can you get around this restriction by using PROC CPORT?
> I believe the answers to these questions are 'Yes' and 'No' respectively, but I defer to the knowledge of this forum.
> Thank you very much for any help or pointing me to a resource that assists me.
> Brian Wallace

Brian -

  The version 5 transport format used by the XPORT libname engine does
have the a maximum character length of 200 as you say. It also does
not support long variable names.  But the CPORT/CIMPORT procedures use
a new format (or many new formats as it seems to change with each
version of SAS) and so it will support long variable names and long
character variables.

- Tom