PROC IMPORT returns errors like the following in the third maintenance release of SAS^® 9.4 (TS1M3) when the NLNUMw. informat is assigned to a variable:

ERROR:  An exception has been encountered.
Please contact technical support and provide them with the following traceback information:

The SAS task name is [DATASTEP]
ERROR:  Stack overflow detected DATASTEP

The NLNUMw. informat is assigned to a variable when the data is scanned and variable attributes (informats, formats, type, and length) are assigned to variables.

To circumvent the problem, do one of the following:

• Recall the generated DATA step code from the SAS log if you are in a SAS windowing environment. Modify the INFORMAT and FORMAT statements for the variable to which the NLNUMw. informat had been assigned by changing the informat and format to $CHARw. in both statements. Also add a $ sign after the variable name in the INPUT statement. You can recall the generated DATA step code after running PROC IMPORT by selecting Run ► Recall Last Submit from the SAS menu bar.
• Use a DATA step with INFILE and INPUT statements to read the external file instead of using the IMPORT procedure.

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 9.4_M4 is available at:

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.4_M3 is available at: