Problem Note 61853: "WARNING: The length of column 1 exceeds the maximum of 254 allowed by dBASE..." might occur when you use the EXPORT procedure
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When you use PROC EXPORT with the DBMS=DBF option to create a .dbf file from a SAS® data set, messages similar to the following occur in the SAS log:
WARNING: The length of column 1 exceeds the maximum of 254 allowed by dBASE. The column will be truncated.
WARNING: Some character data was lost during transcoding data: aaa
WARNING: Some character data was lost during transcoding data: aaa
In this scenario, variable length is truncated to 254 characters.
You encounter this issue if you submit code similar to the following:
data work.to_export;
length a $255.;
a = 'aaa';
run;
length a $255.;
a = 'aaa';
run;
proc export
data=to_export
dbms=dbf
outfile='/tmp/a.dbf'
replace;
dbencoding=pcoem866;
run;
data=to_export
dbms=dbf
outfile='/tmp/a.dbf'
replace;
dbencoding=pcoem866;
run;
Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | Base SAS | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 |
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| z/OS 64-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| z/OS | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| HP-UX IPF | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4_M5 | 9.4 TS1M4 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
A fix for this issue for SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files 9.4_M5 is available at:
https://tshf.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/B7U.html#61853A fix for this issue for SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files 9.4_M4 is available at:
https://tshf.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/A7I.html#61853
When you use the EXPORT procedure with the DBMS=DBF option, variable length might be truncated to 254 characters. In this scenario, the following warning occurs: "WARNING: The length of column 1 exceeds the maximum of 254 allowed by dBASE..."
| Type: | Problem Note |
| Priority: | high |
| Date Modified: | 2018-02-28 09:08:05 |
| Date Created: | 2018-02-15 12:38:59 |