Date:         Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:22:49 -0400
Reply-To:     Yu Zhang <zhangyu05@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Yu Zhang <zhangyu05@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Reading Mixed data type on same column from EXCEL

Dear All,

I have some EXCEL datafiles to import in SAS. I use the Proc Import.

PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.gene
  DATAFILE= "c:\ENTRY FORM_HERS_092303.XLS"
  DBMS=EXCEL2000 REPLACE; RANGE="HLA-A$A14:F290"; GETNAMES=YES;Mixed=yes;
RUN;

My probelm is with the CASEID variable. it has two data types when people
enter it into EXCEL. For example: '13456' and '02345'. later one will be
treated as char type by SAS. Sometimes this coulmn is all character type,
sometimes they are mixed. Does anyone know how to read this mixed column
in character type regardless of its original type.

Thanks!