Problem Note 61409: XLSX files fail to open successfully in Microsoft Excel and return the "...(Strings) Illegal xml character..." message
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An XLSX file generated with the SAS XLSX LIBNAME engine might not open successfully in Excel. This issue can happen when the SAS® session encoding is single byte (such as Latin1, Hebrew, Cyrillic, and so on), and the data contains 8-bit characters.
Here is an example:
data x.dk;
str='Blåbærgrød'; *æøå are 8 bit characters;
run;
libname x;
Attempting to open the output file C:\temp\dk.xlsx in Excel produces the following error:
(Excel was able to open the file by repairing or removing the unreadable content.
Removed Part: /xl/sharedStrings.xml part with XML error. (Strings) Illegal xml character.
Line 1, column 181.
Removed Records: Cell information from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part)
This problem does not occur when you run SAS with UTF-8 session encoding.
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 | SAS Release | |
| Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files | Solaris for x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 |
| Linux for x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| HP-UX IPF | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.4 TS1M3 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||