The following error message might be received when attempting to update a SAS data set:

Data sets in SAS^® 9 have an encoding attribute. To prevent the loss or corruption of data, you cannot update a data set that has an encoding that is different from the encoding of your current SAS session.

To determine your current SAS session encoding (which is the value assigned to the ENCODING= system option), use the OPTIONS procedure. The following PROC OPTIONS statement displays the session encoding value:

To determine the encoding that was used to create the SAS data set, use the CONTENTS procedure. The following PROC CONTENTS statement displays the session encoding value for the SAS data set:

To update any SAS data set, your session must be running in the same encoding as the data set being updated.

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