Reading Excel 95 or Later Files

The following rules apply to reading Excel 95 or later files:

Data type and width. Each column is a variable. The data type and width for each variable are determined by the data type and width in the Excel file. If the column contains more than one data type (for example, date and numeric), the data type is set to string, and all values are read as valid string values.

Blank cells. For numeric variables, blank cells are converted to the system-missing value, indicated by a period. For string variables, a blank is a valid string value, and blank cells are treated as valid string values.

Variable names. If you read the first row of the Excel file (or the first row of the specified range) as variable names, values that don't conform to variable naming rules are converted to valid variable names, and the original names are used as variable labels. For information on variable naming rules, see Variable Names. If you do not read variable names from the Excel file, default variable names are assigned.