MAX_CHAR_LEN= LIBNAME Statement Option

Specifies the maximum number of characters to allocate for Google BigQuery string columns.

Valid in: SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement
Category: Data Set Control
Default: 2000
Restriction: See the Details section for information about when this option is honored.
Data source: Google BigQuery
Note: Support for this option was added in the August 2019 release of SAS/ACCESS.

Table of Contents

Syntax

MAX_CHAR_LEN=value

Syntax Description

value

specifies the maximum number of characters to allocate for string columns.

Details

Use this option when you work with string types in Google BigQuery. By default, in Google BigQuery strings do not have a fixed length. However, SAS requires a specified length for these values. Specify a length that is long enough to contain all of the string data that you are working with to avoid truncation of string values.

This option pertains to Read operations but not to Write operations for new tables. Write operations on existing tables are honored by this option.

Last updated: February 3, 2026