Hi all -

I recently ran into the same problem as Scott. That is, after my macro created 64 libnames it stopped creating the libnames and started giving me the following error messages: ERROR: Connect: Unspecified error ERROR: Error in the LIBNAME statement.

In the original thread of emails, Mary Howard had suggested the following (untested) work-around, in which you simply clear the libname at the end of each macro loop. I just wanted to add that I tried Mary's work-around and it works!

Thanks to Mary and all others who posted in this thread.

Kristin Graves

************************************************** Maybe instead of using the call execute, load up a dataset with your library names but also include a obsnum variable, then go get the obsnum variable, assign the library, then ***clear** the library on each loop. Not tested....

%macro fileout ; proc sql noprint; select count(obsnum) into :max from libnames; quit; %do i=1 %to &max; proc sql noprint; select libname into &libname where obsnum=&i; quit; %put Processing libname=&libname; libname .....&libname; data libname.setname; ... run; libname &libname clear; %end; %mend fileout ;

data libnames; infile 'libnamelist.txt' truncover ; input libname $50. ; obsnum + 1; run ;

%fileout ;

-Mary ***************************************************

>On 9/30/08, Bucher Scott <SBucher@schools.nyc.gov> wrote: >> H, >> >> This is related to the problem I originally posted in "Use of Call >> Execute in Proc SQL". I am trying to create 1,000 multisheet Excel >> workbooks. All the data that must be exported to these workbooks is >> contained in a single SAS data set. I attempted to create the 1,000 >> libraries (using the Excel engine), so I can subsequently use the hash >> method of splitting a file into multiple data sets. I thought this >would >> be preferable to how I usually do things, which would be by splitting >> the data set into 1,000 different data sets and then exporting them in >> 1,000 different data steps. >> >> However, when I try to create 1,000 libraries through the following >> method, only 64 are created. The remaining observations have a return >> code of 7280001, i.e. "ERROR: Connect: Unspecified error". >> >> data b; >> set a; >> rc = libname(cats('_', id) >> , cats("&folder_output\", id, ".xls")); >> msg = sysmsg(); >> run; >> >> I have not been able to turn up any information on the specific return >> code or limits to the number of libraries that can simultaneously be >> opened. Evidently there is limit of 64 libraries using the Excel >engine >> within a windows environments? Are there any options to get around >this >> limit? Is there any more elegant method to create the workbooks aside >> from creating 64 libraries at a time, exporting the data, clearing the >> libraries, then creating new libraries? I attempted to create and >delete >> the libraries one at a time within the same data step containing the >> hash table, but it seems the libraries are not created until the data >> step is finished executing. >> >> Thanks, >> Scott >>