What factor can lead to substantial differences between the original Excel spreadsheet and the resulting SAS dataset when importing?

The factor that can lead to substantial differences between the original Excel spreadsheet and the resulting SAS dataset is the presence of multiple value types within a single column. When importing data from Excel to SAS, each column is expected to have a consistent data type (e.g., all numeric, all character). If a column contains mixed data types—such as a combination of numbers and text—SAS may not correctly interpret the values. This can result in data being misclassified, leading to data integrity issues and discrepancies in analysis.

Inconsistent value types can lead to unpredictable behavior during the import process, such as SAS assigning a character format to a column that should be numeric, or truncating values that it cannot process correctly. Thus, ensuring that each column in the Excel spreadsheet uses a consistent data type can significantly reduce discrepancies during the import into SAS.

Other factors, while they can cause issues, typically do not result in substantial differences. Formatting errors might affect appearance but not the underlying values, while incompatible versions of SAS could lead to functionality issues but not direct disparities in the data itself. Missing headers can affect column identification but are less likely to alter the actual data content compared to mixed data types within a column.