The first thing to do when getting messages such as "Error in the data file <filename>"

Would be to check if the latest backup copy you made gives the same answer (I assume everyone are taking regular backups).

If you have no backup copy of the file in question and you have exported the data to SAS, just make SAS save the file as a delimited file and get it back via the qes file, which you have hopefully a copy of.

An error often occurring is that users are saving other filetypes on top of data due to Windows NOT showing complete file name, but excluding extensions. Therefore one can by mistake think that there "save as .not file " (e.g. yourfile.not), but it was actually a .rec file (e.g. yourfile.rec). To exclude that possibility set up your windows to always show extensions for all types, also known files. Ask someone if you do not know how to- it is an option in explorer for folders.

regards

Jens Lauritsen EpiData initiator and coordinator.