title: Using read.ssd to convert SAS data set into an R data.frame
body: <p>I wish to read data into R from SAS data sets in Windows. The read.ssd function allows me to do so, however, it seems to have an issue when I try to import a SAS data set that has any non-alphabetic symbols in its name. For example, I can import <code>table.sas7bdat</code> using the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>directory &lt;- "C:/sas data sets"
  sashome &lt;- "/Program Files/SAS/SAS 9.1"
  table.df &lt;- read.ssd(directory, "table", sascmd = file.path(sashome, "sas.exe"))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but I can't do the same for a table SAS data set named <code>table1.sas7bdat</code>. It returns an error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error in file.symlink(oldPath, linkPath) : 
  symbolic links are not supported on this version of Windows 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Given that I do not have the option to rename these data sets, is there a way to read a SAS data set that has non-alphabetic symbols in its name in to R?</p>