DBGEN_NAME=

DBGEN_NAME=

Specifies whether to rename columns automatically when they contain characters that SAS does not allow.

Default value: DBMS

Syntax
Details

Syntax

DBGEN_NAME=DBMS| SAS

DBMS: renames DBMS columns that contain characters that SAS does not allow into valid SAS variable names.
SAS: renames DBMS columns that contain characters that SAS does not allow to the format _COLn, where n is the column number (starting with zero).

Details

SAS retains column names when reading data from DBMS tables, unless a column name contains characters that SAS does not allow, such as $ or @. SAS allows alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_).

If you specify DBGEN_NAME=SAS, a DBMS column named dept$amt is renamed to _COLn where n is the column number. If you specify DBGEN_NAME=DBMS, disallowed characters are converted to underscores, so the same column would be renamed dept_amt. If a name is converted to a name that already exists, a sequence number is appended to the end of the new name.

This option is intended primarily for National Language Support, notably the conversion of Kanji to English characters because the English characters converted from Kanji are often those that are not allowed in SAS.

Note: These rules apply to the SAS system option VALIDVARNAME=V6 and VALIDVARNAME=V7; the argument V7 can be specified for Version 7 and later. [cautionend]

Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
Top of Page