VALIDVARNAME= SAS System Option

Controls the type of SAS variable names that can be used or created during a SAS session.

Valid in:	configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SAS System Options window
Category:	Files: SAS Files
Default:	V7
See:	Introduction to SAS/ACCESS Naming, VALIDMEMNAME= system option

Table of Contents

Syntax

VALIDVARNAME=V6 | V7 | UPCASE | ANY

Required Arguments

VALIDVARNAME=V6

indicates that a DBMS column name is changed to a valid SAS name, following these rules:

Up to eight alphanumeric characters are allowed. Names that are longer than eight characters are truncated. If required, numbers are appended to the ends of the truncated names to make them unique.
Mixed-case characters are converted to uppercase.
Special characters are not allowed.

Note: The primary reason for using this value is for existing SAS code that references variables that use older naming rules.

VALIDVARNAME=V7

indicates that a DBMS column name is changed to a valid SAS name, following these rules. This is the default value for SAS 7 and later.

Up to 32 mixed-case alphanumeric characters are allowed.
Names must begin with an alphabetic character or an underscore.
Invalid characters are changed to underscores.
Any column name that is not unique when it is normalized is made unique by appending a counter (0, 1, 2, and so on) to the name.

VALIDVARNAME=UPCASE

indicates that a DBMS column name is changed to a valid SAS name as described in VALIDVARNAME=V7 except that variable names are in uppercase.

VALIDVARNAME=ANY

allows any characters in DBMS column names to appear as valid characters in SAS variable names. Symbols, such as the equal sign (=) and the asterisk (*), must be contained in a 'variable-name'n construct. You must use ANY whenever you want to read DBMS column names that do not follow the SAS naming conventions.

Up to 32 characters are allowed in a column name.

Any column name that is not unique when it is normalized is made unique by appending a count (0, 1, 2, and so on).

Details

The VALIDVARNAME= system option is supported for all DBMSs that support the SQL pass-through facility. You can set this option on start-up or in an OPTIONS statement, and the option value is used in the call to the SQL procedure. Alternatively, you can specify the VALIDVARNAME= option in the CONNECT statement.

The VALIDVARNAME= system option is often used with the VALIDMEMNAME= system option. For more information, see VALIDMEMNAME= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference.

Examples

Example 1: Rename Columns during View Creation

This example shows how the SQL pass-through facility works with VALIDVARNAME=V6.

options validvarname=v6;
proc sql;
   connect to hadoop (user=myusr1 pass=mypwd1);
   create view myview as
     select amount_b, amount_s
       from connection to hadoop
         (select "Amount Budgeted$", "Amount Spent$"
            from mytable);
quit;
proc contents data=myview;
run;

Output from this example would show that "Amount Budgeted$" becomes AMOUNT_B and "Amount Spent$" becomes AMOUNT_S.

Example 2: Pass VALIDVARNAME= as a Connection Option

This example shows how you can pass VALIDVARNAME= as a connection option in the CONNECT statement in the SQL procedure.

proc sql;
    drop view work.TLV1;
    connect to hadoop ( validvarname=v7 server="myserver" port=5433
user=myuserid password=mypwd database=test);
      exec("drop table vartb") by hadoop;
      exec("create table vartb ( c1234567890 int,
c123456789012345678 float ) ") by hadoop;
      exec("insert into vartb values (123, 3.14159)") by hadoop;

      create view tlv1 as
        select * from connection to hadoop (select * from vartb);
quit;

Last updated: February 3, 2026