Problem Note 69799: Using the XLS engine with PROC IMPORT transcodes 8-bit characters to UTF-8 regardless of the SAS® Session encoding in SAS® 9.4M7
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Using the IMPORT procedure with the XLS engine in SAS 9.4M7 (TS1M7) transcodes 8-bit National Language Support (NLS) characters to UTF-8 regardless of the current SAS Session encoding value. The resulting data in a SAS Latin1-, Latin2-, or Latin9-encoded session appears with garbage characters.
For example, "Blåbærgrød" appears as "BlÃ¥bÊrgrÞd"
The SAS log file does not contain any ERROR or WARNING messages when this issue occurs.
Current workarounds for this issue include the following:
- Save the original .xls file as .xlsx.
- Use the DATASETS procedure with the CORRECTENCODING option to change the data set encoding to UTF-8.
In the following example, the library name is WORK and the data set name is TEST:
proc datasets lib=WORK nolist;
modify TEST / correctencoding=UTF8;
quit;
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 | Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 |
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 11 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2016 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2019 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2022 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| HP-UX IPF | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.4 TS1M7 | 9.4 TS1M8 | ||
A fix for this issue for SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files 9.4_M7 is available at:
https://tshf.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/J9M.html#69799
Using PROC IMPORT with the XLS engine in SAS 9.4 TS1M7 results in NLS (8-bit characters) being transcoded to UTF-8 regardless of the current SAS session encoding value. The resulting data in a SAS Latin1, Latin2, or Latin9 encoded session appears with garbage characters.
| Type: | Problem Note |
| Priority: | high |
| Date Modified: | 2023-03-10 15:17:38 |
| Date Created: | 2023-01-11 14:20:41 |