I have more experience with the FTP access method than with the URL access
method (which, by the way, probably should be called the HTTP access
method), but there are some parallels.

The goal here is to download and import in one step, rather than making a
local copy of the remote file and importing from the copy.

That generally works when the file structure is sequential. Native Excel
files are not sequential.

Web browsers render HTML progressively as it is received, record by record.
Sometimes when the HTTP hangs for a moment on a long file, you can see that
you have a partial page in the window. But when a web browser handles an
Excel file (using a plug-in or OLE or whatever), it first downloads the
file into its disk cache and then renders from that copy. I think that will
have to be the strategy here as well.

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 01:25:03 -0500, oht3075@HOTMAIL.COM wrote:

>Do anyone has experience importing Excel file from a web site ?
>I use the following code but do not work.
>
>Filename fi url 'http:\\.....\file1.xls';
>
>Proc import in=fi out=work.one dbms=excel;
>run;
>
>I got error saying cannot read file. Anyone has a better idea ?
>
>Thanks
>
>David