SAS Enterprise Guide 5.1 exports SAS® data sets to XLSX format using "Export" or "Export as a step in project" tasks. If the name of the exported data set is greater than 31 characters, the following error will occur when you attempt to open the XLSX file:
Excel found unreadable content in 'SAS-data-set-name-here.xlsx'. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes.
This error occurs because XLSX has a 31-character limit on worksheet (not workbook) names.
After the error occurs, you can click Yes to open the XLSX file successfully, but Microsoft Excel will always prompt to "recover the contents" of the workbook.
To avoid this prompt, the name of the exported SAS data set must be no greater than 31 characters.