import issue with SAS due to large columns headers - csv

Question

I have many csv files with many variable column headers , up to 2000 variable column headers for some files.
I'm trying to do an import but at one point , the headers are truncated in a 'random' manner and the rest of the data are ignored therefore not imported. I'm putting random between quotes because it may not be random although I don't know the reason if it is not random. But let me give you more insight .
The headers are truncated randomly , some after the 977th variables , some others after the 1401th variable.
The headers are like this BAL_RT,ET-CAP,EXT_EA16,IVOL-NSA,AT;BAL_RT,ET-CAP,EXT_EA16,IVOL-NSA,AT;BAL_RT,ET-CAP,EXT_EA16,IVOL-NSA,AT
This the part of the import log
642130 VAR1439
642131 VAR1440
642132 VAR1441
642133 VAR1442 $
642134 VAR1443 $
642135 VAR1444 $
As you can see , some headers are seen as numeric although all the headers are alphanumeric as they are blending a mixture of character and numeric.
Please find my code for the import below
%macro lec ;
options macrogen symbolgen;
%let nfic=37 ;
%do i=1 %to &nfic ;
PROC IMPORT OUT= fic&i
DATAFILE= "C:\cygwin\home\appEuro\pot\fic&i..csv"
DBMS=DLM REPLACE;
DELIMITER='3B'x;
guessingrows=500 ;
GETNAMES=no;
DATAROW=1;
RUN;
data dico&i ; set fic&i (drop=var1) ;
if _n_ eq 1 ;
index=0 ;
array v var2-var1000 ;
do over v ;
if v ne "" then index=index+1 ;
end ;
run ;
data dico&i ; set dico&i ;
call symput("nvar&i",trim(left(index))) ;
run ;
%put &&nvar&i ;
%end ;
%mend ;
%lec ;
The code is doing an import and also creating a dictionnary with the headers as some of them are long (e.g more than 34 characters)
I'm not sure if these elements are related however, I would welcome any insights you will be able to give me.
Best.

Answer 1

You need to not use PROC IMPORT, as I mentioned in a previous comment. You need to construct your dictionary from a data step read in, because if you have 2000 columns times 34 or more long variable names, you will have more than 32767 record length.
An approach like this is necessary.
data headers;
infile "whatever" dlm=';' lrecl=99999 truncover; *or perhaps longer even, if that is needed - look at log;
length name $50; *or longer if 50 is not your real absolute maximum;
do until length(_infile_)=0;
input name $ #;
output;
end;
stop; *only want to read the first line!;
run;
Now you have your variable names. Now, you can read the file in with GETNAMES=NO; in proc import (you'll have to discard the first line), and then you can use that dictionary to generate rename statements (you will have lots of VARxxxx, but in a predictable order).