To read an encoded external file using PROC IMPORT, the external file will need to be allocated using the FILENAME statement. On the FILENAME statement the ENCODING="xxx" where "xxx" is the type of encoded file and LRECL= option will used. The ENCODING= option will tell SAS what type of encoded external file is being read. The LRECL= option will need to be set to 32767. Otherwise, you will receive a default LRECL of 256.

Here is a sample of the FILENAME statement with the 2 options along with the PROC IMPORT code reading a unicode encoded external file:

   filename temp 'c:\temp\qualityinfo.csv' encoding="unicode" lrecl=32767;

   proc import datafile=temp out=quality dbms=csv replace;
   run;

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