You might receive the following error if you try to reference a table in a library that uses the DBSASTYPE= option:

ERROR: Incorrect length in SAS Metadata Repository for column Age.

This error occurs when you define a library in a SAS® metadata repository that references a third-party database management system and you subsequently assign that library in a SAS session using the META engine.

For example, the following code generates the error:

In addition, the following error occurs when you run this query and you do not select the column that was changed:

ERROR: Column does not exist: age

To circumvent the problem, you must first manually add the DBSASTYPE table option to library's properties in metadata by following these steps:

1. In SAS Management Console, open the Properties dialog box for the registered database table.
2. In the dialog box, click the Physical Storage tab. Then click the Table Options button in the lower right corner to display the Table Options dialog box.
3. In the Table Options dialog box, click the General tab. Then enter the DBSASTYPE= option shown below in the Additional Options section:
   dbsastype=(id='char(20)'));

After you add the table option, you must also then manually change the column Type and Length attributes on the Columns tab of the table's Properties window in SAS Management Console.

Note:After you save the manual changes, you must not use the Update Metadata tool or the METALIB procedure to update the table metadata. Doing so removes the changes and reverts the table properties to their original settings.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.21_M3 is available at: