SAS/ACCESS Software for Relational Databases: Reference

Naming Limits in the ACCESS Procedure

In Version 7 and later, the ACCESS procedure still limits descriptor and SAS variable names to a maximum of eight characters in length. If you need to use 32-character names in SAS, it is recommended that you use the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement or the SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility to access your DBMS data instead of PROC ACCESS.

If you attempt to use long names in PROC ACCESS, you will get an error message advising you that long names are not supported. Long member names, such as access descriptor and view descriptor names, are truncated to eight characters. Long DBMS column names are truncated to eight-character SAS variable names within the SAS access descriptor. As in previous versions, you can use the PROC ACCESS RENAME= statement to specify eight-character SAS variable names, or accept the default truncated SAS variable names that are assigned by PROC ACCESS.

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