In reply to Bill Raynor.

On my version of PC SAS, when I right-click on an HTML table, I get an option to "Export to Microsoft Excel." Select that option brings up the table in a spreadsheet. You can then select a column. Not perfect, but maybe easier than going to emacs?

Of course, the easiest way is to get the var names is to use the SHORT option:
proc contents data=sashelp.class SHORT;
run;