When you use the EXCEL engine to import workbooks that were created by the XLS engine in the UNIX environment, you can receive the following errors:

Error: Connect: Unable to IDBInitialize
Error: Error in the LIBNAME statement
Error: Read Access Violation in Task [IMPORT]
Exception occurred at (7C911DC8)

When this happens, your SAS^® session might not respond.

If the Excel workbook is created by the XLS engine on a Windows 32-bit system, you will receive the following error:

ERROR: Connect: External table is not in the expected format.
ERROR: Error in the LIBNAME statement.

The problem occurs because in SAS^® 9.2 you can create multiple worksheets in an Excel workbook using the XLS engine, as shown:

When the XLS engine creates these multiple worksheets in a workbook, it groups them. (The tabs are highlighted white, indicating that they are grouped). This grouping prevents the EXCEL engine from importing the Excel file properly. To circumvent the problem, take one of the following actions:

• The workbook method:
  1. Open the Excel workbook.
  2. Click the second tab to ungroup it. As an alternative, you can just use CTRL+left-click, which ungroups the first tab.
  3. Then save the Excel file and import it with the EXCEL engine.
• The XLS method: Simply import the file using the XLS engine (DBMS=XLS) rather than the EXCEL engine (DBMS=EXCEL).

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for SAS 9.2 (TS1M0) for this issue is available at: