Reading older Excel files and other spreadsheets

The following rules apply to reading Excel files prior to Excel 95 and other spreadsheet data:

Data type and width. The data type and width for each variable are determined by the column width and data type of the first data cell in the column. Values of other types are converted to the system-missing value. If the first data cell in the column is blank, the global default data type for the spreadsheet (usually numeric) is used.

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 do not read variable names from the spreadsheet, the column letters (A, B, C, ...) are used for variable names for Excel and Lotus files. For SYLK files and Excel files saved in R1C1 display format, the software uses the column number preceded by the letter C for variable names (C1, C2, C3, ...).