When you export SAS^® binary or hex data with the $HEX32 format in SAS^® Enterprise Guide^® to Microsoft Excel, the data is invalid.

Here is an example:

This issue occurs when you complete steps similar to the following:

1. Enable SAS Enterprise Guide to display hex values by completing the steps described in Data grid in Enterprise guide displays 2A2A2A2A2A2A2A2A2A2A (SAS Communities).

a. Turn on the transcode=modify option on the server. (For example, submit options transcodeaction=modify;.)

b. Instruct SAS Enterprise Guide to get the formatted values from the server via the "FormatValuesAsNeeded" SEGuide.exe.config file option:

  <appSettings>
    <add key="FormatValuesAsNeeded" value="false" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

c. Open the SEGuide.exe.config file from the SAS Enterprise Guide installation directory into a text editor to edit accordingly. (For example, C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASEnterpriseGuide\8.6\.)

 

2. Use the following code to create the data:

data tmp;
format a $hex32.;
attrib a transcode=no;
a='06C300B2FEA7E29A6CC15511B771E82E'x;
run;

 

3. Click Share ► Export or Export as a step in the project to Export the data "tmp" to Microsoft Excel using File Type Excel.

 

4. When you open the data in Microsoft Excel, the data is incorrect:

 

Workaround

To work around this issue, do either of the following:

• Use Share ► Send to send to Excel in SAS Enterprise Guide.
• Export to "csv" instead of Microsoft Excel.

Resolution

SAS^® Enterprise Guide^® 8.6 Update 3 or later introduces an additional SEGuide.exe.config file option, "ExportFormattedValuesWhenHexPresent".

To resolve this issue, add the new option also to the SEGuide.exe.config file:

<appSettings>
    <add key="FormatValuesAsNeeded" value="false" />
    <add key="ExportFormattedValuesWhenHexPresent" value="true" />
  </appSettings>
</configuration>