When you use Unicode SAS with UTF-8 encoding to process an external file that contains 8-bit characters, the following error message might appear:

   ERROR: Truncation occurred.
   FATAL: Unrecoverable I/O error detected in the execution of the data
   step program.  Aborted during the EXECUTION phase

Unicode SAS with UTF-8 encoding uses 1 to 4 bytes to handle Unicode data. It is possible for the 8-bit characters to be expanded by 2 to 3 bytes when transcoding occurs, which causes the truncation error.

You might not see these error messages with English SAS because the limitation is unique to Unicode SAS.

There is no workaround for this issue.

To avoid getting this error, do not use an external file that contains 8-bit characters.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) for this issue is available at:

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) with Asian Language Support (DBCS) for this issue is available at: