"Error: Could not query the specified values from the registry" occurs when opening a table in the VIEWTABLE window


When you open a table in the VIEWTABLE window such as by double-clicking a table (data set) icon in SAS® Explorer, you experience a program halt with the following error messages in the SAS log:

Error: Could not query the specified values from the registry
ERROR: Unrecognized value found for registry type specifier.

These messages might be an indication of corruption in the SAS Registry or one of the PROFILE catalogs in your SASUSER library. Since the VIEWTABLE window makes use of the PROFILE catalogs in the SASUSER library as well as the SAS Registry, re-creating these files typically resolves this problem.

To circumvent this problem, complete the following steps so that SAS can re-create these files:

  1. In SAS, check the Properties of the SASUSER libref to note the directory in which those files are stored.
  2. Exit your SAS session.
  3. Navigate to your SASUSER directory.
  4. Rename the following two files:
    regstry.sas7bitm ► regstry_old.sas7bitm
    profile.sas7bcat ► profile_old.sas7bcat

    If you are running SAS in the Microsoft Windows environment, rename a third file,
    profile2.sas7bcat ► profile2_old.sas7bcat

  5. Start a new SAS session. When you do, the PROFILE catalog(s) and the SAS Registry file are automatically re-created.
  6. Open a table in the VIEWTABLE window.