Even if you don't use Microsoft Office 2007, you might have noticed more ".xlsx" files floating around lately. Perhaps you've been sent one or two that you can't open. XLSX is one of the new Microsoft Excel 2007 file formats. (Others include XLSB and XLSM.)

Like many software applications, SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 cannot read these new file formats directly. The technology that we use to read Microsoft Excel files (and Microsoft Access files, which now sport an ".accdb" extension) was not updated to handle the fancy new formats produced by Microsoft Office.

One workaround is to ask your friends/colleagues/data suppliers to "please save these data files in a good old-fashioned XLS file that I can actually use." But if you cannot bear the shame of being "so, like, 2003-ish", there is another way to open these new files.

Continue reading "Lengths and formats: the long and short of it"