When you use the EXPORT procedure to export a SAS data set with user-defined formats to Stata, the following error might occur:

PROC EXPORT
 DATA= WORK.test_format
 OUTFILE="C:\temp\fmt_test.dta"
 DBMS=DTA REPLACE;
RUN;

ERROR: The format FMT_NU was not found or could not be loaded.

User-defined format names appear to be truncated when exporting to Stata (.dta), leading to a format load error. The correct format name in the example above is FMT_NUM.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) for this issue is available at:

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) with Asian Language Support (DBCS) for this issue is available at: