Reading in unusual var names from csv

[SPhill]

Hello, I've got a problem with an input file which I've been asked to strip out some policy numbers. The problem arises with the first variable being called '!' i.e.

!,polref
*,1
*,2
*,3
*,4
*,5

PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.exclam
DATAFILE= "C:\Scott\PeskyExclamation.csv"
DBMS=CSV REPLACE;
GETNAMES=YES;
DATAROW=2;
RUN;

proc print;
run;

Obs _ polref

1 * 1
2 * 2
3 * 3
4 * 4
5 * 5

SAS substitutes the original '!' and replaces it with an underscore '_'. Does anyone know how to get round this, I really need to carry the exclamation variable through into a proc export back into a csv file after I've stripped my policy numbers out, must be in the same order as well. Hope I'm making sense here?

Thanks

SPhill

 

[ChrisW75]

Read in the first record as if it is data, change getnames=YES to getnames=NO, change DATAROW to 1.

That should do it.

Alternatively, don't use proc import, write a datastep with an import statement. It's a bullet proof way of doing it, but it does mean you have to manually code in the columns names etc (unless you're able to write some reasonably complex macro code).

Chris
Business Analyst, Code Monkey, Data Wrangler.
SAS Guru.

 

[SPhill]

Thanks for the reply, I've managed to fix this by using:

options validvarname=any ;
proc datasets library=work;
modify &&fname&i;
rename _ = '!'n ;
run;

I've got quite a few csv files with different headers so didn't fancy lots of proc imports.

Thanks

SP