SAS/ACCESS Software for PC File Formats

SAS/ACCESS Software for PC File Formats has the following changes:

The ACCESS procedure has been enhanced by the addition of the UPDATE statement, which enables you to edit and update access descriptors and view descriptors. The DROP statement can now be used to update view descriptors.
Documentation for the base SAS IMPORT and EXPORT procedures and the Import/Export facility is provided for the first time in Version 8. Both the procedures and the facility enable you to transfer data between SAS and external data sources. In some cases, a license for SAS/ACCESS Software for PC File Formats is required in order to access a PC file format. These procedures and the facility also enable you to read from and export data to Microsoft Access files and Excel 97 files, formats that are not available through the ACCESS or DBLOAD procedures.
Variable names can be up to 32 characters long rather than 8 characters. However, for Version 6 compatibility, the maximum length of access and view descriptor names remains at 8 characters. When you specify SAS data sets in the DBLOAD procedure, SAS variable names are also limited to 8 characters. See SAS Language Reference: Concepts for more information about SAS naming conventions.
If you run this SAS/ACCESS interface in the Windows, OS/2, or UNIX operating environment, you can now use the DBF or DIF procedures to access local data in these file types. If you run under OS/390 or CMS, you can now use the DBF procedure.
The interactive windowing interface is not supported. You can no longer create and edit access descriptors and view descriptors by using the Access Descriptor and View Descriptor windows.
The SAS Explorer window replaces the ACCESS window and its functionality.

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