What version of Excel?

Alan

Alan Churchill Savian Work: 719-687-5954 Cell: 719-310-4870

-----Original Message----- From: Scott Bass [mailto:sas_l_739@YAHOO.COM.AU] Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 5:26 PM Subject: Retrieving Excel worksheet names on Unix without PC Files Server

Hi,

Summary: is it possible to retrieve a list of worksheet names from an Excel file residing on Unix, without the use of a PC Files Server?

Details: Our Unix machine has SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files, but does not have SAS/ACCESS Interface to ODBC. We are not running a PC Files Server.

I can import an Excel worksheet directly if I supply the sheet name:

PROC IMPORT DBMS=XLS PATH="whatever" ... ; SHEET="Sheet1$"; RUN;

However, I'm trying to write a generic macro, where in theory the individual worksheet names are "unknown" to the end user. If I could programatically get the worksheet names, I could generate the necessary code.

On Windows, I can get the worksheet names by 1) libname ... excel, then the dictionary tables, 2) libname ... odbc, 3) use a vbscript, and filename ... pipe. There may be other ways.

I believe Perl has modules that can retrieve worksheet names, but this code may need to run under EG without the -allowxcmd option. Plus it would require installing Perl modules on our Unix machine; the chances of that are about zero :-/

Given the above scenario, any bright ideas on how I can get the list of worksheet names in an Excel workbook that has been uploaded to Unix?

Thanks, Scott