®

SAS 9.4 Language

Reference: Concepts,
Sixth Edition

SAS® Documentation
November 4, 2019
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SAS® 9.4 Language Reference: Concepts, Sixth Edition
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9.4-P9:lrcon
Contents

What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

PART 1 SAS System Concepts 1

Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What Is SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Overview of Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Components of the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Ways to Run Your SAS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Customizing Your SAS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Conceptual Information about Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 2 / SAS Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Definition of SAS Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Types of Input to a SAS Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The PROC Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Words in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Names in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 4 / SAS Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Definition of SAS Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
SAS Variable Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Ways to Create Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Variable Type Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Aligning Variable Values in SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Reordering Variables in SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Automatic Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
SAS Variable Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The OF Operator with Functions and Variable Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Encrypting Variable Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Chapter 5 / Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Definition of Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Creating Special Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Order of Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
When Variable Values Are Automatically Set to Missing by SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
When Missing Values Are Generated by SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Working with Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
iv Contents

Chapter 6 / Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Definitions for SAS Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Examples of SAS Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
SAS Constants in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
SAS Variables in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
SAS Functions in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
SAS Operators in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
About Date and Time Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Types of Errors in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Error Processing in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Debugging Logic Errors in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Chapter 9 / SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Definitions for SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Routing and Customizing SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Sample SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
The SAS Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Chapter 10 / By-Group Processing in SAS Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Definition of BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
References for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Definition of WHERE-Expression Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Where to Use a WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Syntax of WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Combining Expressions By Using Logical Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Improving Performance of WHERE Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Processing a Segment of Data That Is Conditionally Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Deciding Whether to Use a WHERE Expression or a Subsetting IF Statement . . 214

Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Definitions for Optimizing System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Collecting and Interpreting Performance Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Techniques for Optimizing I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Techniques for Optimizing Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Techniques for Optimizing CPU Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Calculating Data Set Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
What Is Threading Technology in SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
How Is Threading Controlled in SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Threading in Base SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
SAS/ACCESS Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
SAS Scalable Performance Data Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
SAS Intelligence Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
SAS High-Performance Analytics Portfolio of Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
SAS Grid Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
SAS In-Database Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
SAS In-Memory Analytics Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
 Contents v

SAS High-Performance Analytics Product Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

SAS Viya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Introduction to the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Managing the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Configuring Your Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
System Options That Control Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Forms Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Creating EMF (Enhanced Metafile Format) Graphics Using Universal Printing . . 328
Creating GIF Images Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Creating PCL (Printer Command Language) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . 333
Creating PDF Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Creating PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . 338
Creating PostScript Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . 343
Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

PART 2 Windowing Environment 383

Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

What Is the SAS Windowing Environment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Getting Help in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
List of SAS Windows and Window Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Introduction to Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . 406
Managing Data with SAS Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Working with VIEWTABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Subsetting Data By Using the WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Exporting a Subset of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Importing Data into a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

PART 3 SAS Cloud Analytic Services 431

Chapter 18 / Introduction to SAS Cloud Analytic Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

What is SAS Cloud Analytic Services? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
What Does This Mean for the SAS 9 Programmer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
vi Contents

Chapter 19 / SAS Language Support for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

SAS Language Elements for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
CAS-specific Language Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

PART 4 DATA Step Concepts 439

Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Why Use a DATA Step? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Overview of DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
About DATA Step Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
About Creating a SAS Data Set with a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Writing a Report with a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
The DATA Step and ODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
DATA Step Processing Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Definition of Reading Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Ways to Read Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Sources of Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
How SAS Handles Invalid Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Reading Missing Values in Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Reading Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Reading Column-Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Definitions for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Syntax for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Understanding BY Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Invoking BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Determining Whether the Data Requires Preprocessing for BY-
Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Preprocessing Input Data for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Definitions for Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Overview of Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Reading SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data . . . . . 555

Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Introduction to DATA Step Component Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Using the Hash Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Using the Hash Iterator Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Using the Java Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
 Contents vii

Chapter 25 / Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Definitions for Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
A Conceptual View of Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Syntax for Defining and Referencing an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Processing Simple Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Variations on Basic Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
Multidimensional Arrays: Creating and Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Specifying Array Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Examples of Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

PART 5 SAS Files Concepts 621

Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Definition of a SAS Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Library Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Library Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Permanent and Temporary Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Definition of a Metadata-Bound Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
SAS System Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
Sequential Data Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Tools for Managing Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636

Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Definition of a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Descriptor Information for a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Data Set Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Special SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Sorted Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Tools for Managing Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
Viewing and Editing SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Definition of a SAS Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Differences between Data Files and SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Understanding an Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Understanding Generation Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Understanding Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Understanding SAS Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Extended Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Compressing Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Chapter 29 / SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Benefits of Using SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
When to Use SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
PROC SQL Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Comparing DATA Step and PROC SQL Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
SAS/ACCESS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
viii Contents

Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Definition of a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Uses for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Restrictions and Requirements for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . 732
How SAS Processes Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Differences between Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs and
DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Example of DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Chapter 31 / DICTIONARY Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Definition of a DICTIONARY Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
How to View DICTIONARY Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Definition of a SAS Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
SAS Catalog Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Tools for Managing SAS Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Profile Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Catalog Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Chapter 33 / About SAS/ACCESS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Definition of SAS/ACCESS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Dynamic LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
ACCESS Procedure and Interface View Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760
DBLOAD Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Interface DATA Step Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762

Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Definition of Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765
Advantages of CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
SAS File Processing with CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Alternatives to Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772
Creating Files in a Different Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Examples of Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Chapter 35 / Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

Introduction to Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Accessing a File That Was Created in a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Using SAS Files in a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
SAS Library Engines and the SAS File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Chapter 36 / File Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Definition of a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Assigning Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
Removing or Changing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
Using Password-Protected SAS Files in DATA and PROC Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
How SAS Handles Incorrect Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Assigning Complete Protection with the PW= Data Set Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Encoded Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791
Using Passwords with Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
SAS Data File Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Blotting Passwords and Encryption Key Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Metadata-Bound Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
 Contents ix

Chapter 37 / SAS Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Definition of a SAS Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
Specifying an Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
How Engines Work with SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804
Engine Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
About Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Special-Purpose Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811

Chapter 38 / SAS File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Improving Performance of SAS Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
Moving SAS Files between Operating Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
Repairing Damaged SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816

Chapter 39 / External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Definition of External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
Referencing External Files Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Referencing External Files Indirectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Referencing Many External Files Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
Referencing External Files with Other Access Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
Working with External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826

PART 6 Industry Protocols Used in SAS 829

Chapter 40 / The SMTP E-Mail Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

Sending E-Mail through SMTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
System Options That Control SMTP E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Statements That Control SMTP E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833

Chapter 41 / Universal Unique Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Universally Unique Identifiers and the Object Spawner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
Using SAS Language Elements to Assign UUIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

Chapter 42 / Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

Overview of IPv6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
IPv6 Address Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Examples of IPv6 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
x Contents
 xi

What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS

Language Reference: Concepts

Overview
SAS 9.4 has the following changes and enhancements:
n in SAS 9.4M6, Noto Sans TrueType fonts are added to support languages for
harmonious web display.
n in SAS 9.4M6 and later, be aware of a restriction for PROC SQL views.

n in SAS 9.4M5, a new AES2 encryption is supported.

n in SAS 9.4M5, you can access SAS Cloud Analytics Services from your SAS
session when you license and install SAS Viya 3.2 and later releases.
n in SAS 9.4M5, new AvenirNextforSAS and HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts replace
the Avenir Next LT W04, Avenir Next Cyr W04, and Helvetica LT Pro fonts.
n in SAS 9.4M4, new TrueType fonts are added.

n in SAS 9.4M3, new Avenir Next TrueType fonts are added.

n in SAS 9.4M2, it is no longer necessary to use the UUID Generator Daemon to

generate UUIDs for SAS sessions that execute on UNIX hosts. See “What Is the
Object Spawner?” on page 835 for more information.
n in SAS 9.4M2, the LOCKDOWN feature is enhanced.

n in SAS 9.4M2, font slanting and emboldening features are added. For more
information, see “Slanting and Emboldening Fonts”.
n in SAS 9.4M1, the LOCKDOWN statement and system option are added.
n in SAS 9.4, the following are new:
o universal printing enhancements to support additional graphic output types
and animation for GIF and SVG files
o buffer size specification support for SAS DATA step views
o new multilingual and Asian monolingual TrueType fonts are added
o support for extended attributes on SAS data sets and variables
o enhanced functionality to extend the observation count for 32-bit SAS data
files
o enhancements to SAS data file protection
o enhanced functionality for VIEWTABLE column headings.
xii What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts

SAS System Features

Universal Printing
The following features are new in SAS 9.4:
n You can animate multi-page GIF images and SVG files.
n SAS can now create TIFF images, and the EMFPlus and EMFDual metafile
formats.
n Transparency is supported for EMF Universal Printers and GIF images that are
printed using the PostScript Universal Printer.
n You can add a printer’s mark that is not visible in Universal Printing output by
using the COLOPHON= system option.
n SVG documents can be magnified by setting the SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON
system option. SAS embeds a magnify tool in the document when the SVG
document is created.
See “Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing” on page 372.

Fonts
n In SAS 9.4M6 and later, the following monotype TrueType fonts are added to
support languages for harmonious web display:
o NotoSans-Bold
o NotoSans-BoldItalic
o NotoSans-Italic
o NotoSansJP-Bold
o NotoSansJP-Light
o NotoSansJP-Regular
o NotoSansKR-Bold
o NotoSansKR-Light
o NotoSansKR-Regular
o NotoSans-Regular
o NotoSansSC-Bold
o NotoSansSC-Light
o NotoSansSC-Regular
o NotoSansTC-Bold
 SAS System Features xiii

o NotoSansTC-Light
o NotoSansTC-Regular
o NotoSansThai-Bold
o NotoSansThai-Regular
Note: The NotoSansThai-Regular and the NotoSansThai-Bold fonts do not
contain all of the Latin1 glyphs. When a glyph is missing, SAS substitutes the
ArialUnicodeMS font, enabling the output to display.
n In SAS 9.4, the following TrueType fonts were added, replacing the fonts shown
in the second column:

New Font Replaces This Font

Arial Unicode MS Monotype Sans WT

Times New Roman Uni Thorndale Duospace WJ

CSongGB18030C_Light Sim Sun

MYingHei_18030_C-Medium Sim Hei

CSongGB19030-LightHWL NSimSun

MYingHei_18030C-MediumHWL Sim Hei

n In SAS 9.4M2, font slanting and emboldening features are new. If you specify
italic or bold styles on a universal printer font that does not have italic or bold, the
font will display as slanted or bold. See “Slanting and Emboldening Fonts” on
page 321.
n In SAS 9.4M3, the following Avenir Next Fonts were added for the Latin and
Cyrillic character sets. These fonts were replaced with AvenirNextforSAS fonts in
SAS 9.4M5.

Avenir Next Fonts for the Latin Avenir Next Fonts for the Cyrillic
Character Set Character Set

Avenir Next LT W04 Regular Avenir Next Cyr W04 Regular

Avenir Next LT W04 Italic Avenir Next Cyr W04 Italic

Avenir Next LT W04 Demi Avenir Next Cyr W04 Demi

Avenir Next LT W04 Demi Italic Avenir Next Cyr W04 Demi Italic

Avenir Next LT W04 Light Avenir Next Cyr W04 Light

Avenir Next LT W04 Light Italic Avenir Next Cyr W04 Light Italic
xiv What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts

Avenir Next is a sans-serif TrueType font family characterized as a modern

typeface designed for on-screen display. Its ancestors are primarily the Futura
and Univers typefaces.
n In SAS 9.4M4, the following Helvetica Fonts were added. These fonts were
replaced with AvenirNextforSAS fonts in SAS 9.4M5.

New Helvetica Fonts

Helvetica LT Pro Regular

Helvetica LT Pro Italic

Helvetica LT Pro Bold

Helvetica LT Pro Bold Italic

Helvetica LT Pro Light

Helvetica LT Pro Light Italic

n In SAS 9.4M5, new AvenirNextforSAS and HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts replace

the Avenir Next Fonts and Helvetica LT Pro Fonts. For more information, see
Table 15.14 on page 315.

New Font Replaces This Font

AvenirNextforSAS Avenir Next LT W04 Regular

AvenirNextforSAS Italic Avenir Next LT W04 Italic

AvenirNextforSAS Bold Avenir Next LT W04 Demi

AvenirNextforSAS Bold Italic Avenir Next LT W04 Demi Italic

AvenirNextforSAS Light Avenir Next LT W04 Light

AvenirNextforSAS Light Italic Avenir Next LT W04 Light Italic

The following HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts are new:

New Font Replaces This Font

HelveticaNeueforSAS Helvetica LT Pro Regular

HelveticaNeueforSAS Italic Helvetica LT Pro Italic

HelveticaNeueforSAS Bold Helvetica LT Pro Bold

HelveticaNeueforSAS Bold Italic Helvetica LT Pro Bold Italic

HelveticaNeueforSAS Light Helvetica LT Pro Light

 SAS System Features xv

New Font Replaces This Font

HelveticaNeueforSAS Light Bold Helvetica LT Pro Light Italic

Support for SAS DATA Step View Buffers

You can now specify the size of the buffer that is used for DATA step views. Speed
up execution time by setting the view buffer so that it can hold more generated
observations and require less task switching. See “VBUFSIZE=” on page 225.

Extended Attributes
You can create customized attributes for variables and data sets by using extended
attributes. Extended attributes are customized metadata for your SAS files. They are
user-defined characteristics that you associate with a SAS data set or variable. See
“Extended Attributes” on page 716.

Extended Observation Count

SAS 9.4 enhances the functionality to extend the observation count by automatically
creating a 32-bit SAS data file with an extended observation count and by providing
the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= system option. In SAS 9.4, the
EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= data set option, LIBNAME statement option, and system
option are, by default, set to YES. See “Understanding the Observation Count in a
SAS Data File” on page 658.

Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

Under cross-environment data access (CEDA), extended attributes can be read but
cannot be updated.
In SAS 9.4M5, CEDA is supported by the SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine
(SPD Engine), with some additional restrictions.
See Chapter 34, “Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA),”
on page 765.

SMTP Email Authentication Protocol

The SMTP email server authentication protocol is enhanced to look for a user ID
that is specified by the EMAILHOST= system option.
xvi What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts

LOCKDOWN State Restrictions

The LOCKDOWN statement and LOCKDOWN system option are new in SAS
9.4M1. With LOCKDOWN, if you are running in a client/server environment, the
SAS server administrator can limit access to directories and files. In addition to there
being restrictions on directories and files, several language elements are not
available when SAS is in a locked-down state.
See “SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State” on page
18.

LOCKDOWN Statement Enhancements

In SAS 9.4M2, the LOCKDOWN statement is enhanced so that certain access
methods and their related procedures are disabled by default when a SAS session
is locked down.
The LOCKDOWN ENABLE_AMS= option is also new in SAS 9.4M2. This statement
allows administrators to re-enable access methods and procedures that are
disabled by default when LOCKDOWN is in effect. See “SAS Processing
Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State” on page 18.

Data File Protection

SAS 9.4 supports Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. AES encryption
produces a stronger encryption by using a key value. See “AES Encryption” on page
796.
SAS 9.4 supports the use of metadata-bound libraries for enhanced data security. A
metadata-bound library is a physical library that is tied to a corresponding metadata
secured table object. See “Metadata-Bound Libraries” on page 801.
Beginning in SAS 9.4M1, a metadata-bound library administrator can require that all
data files in the bound library be encrypted with one of the two algorithms. For more
information, see “Requiring Encryption for Metadata-Bound Data Sets” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide.
Beginning in SAS 9.4M5, in the V9 engine, AES2 provides more security than AES.
For more information, see Encryption in SAS.

Column Headings in VIEWTABLE

Beginning in SAS 9.4M1, you can save either column labels or column names for
the data set that you are viewing in VIEWTABLE.
 New and Enhanced SAS Language Elements for CAS xvii

Restriction for PROC SQL Views

In SAS 9.4M6 and later releases, if you use the V9 engine to create a PROC SQL
view that contains a USING clause, the view is not accessible in SAS 9.4M5 or prior
releases. For this and similar restrictions, see “Using SAS Files in a Previous
Release” on page 780.

New and Enhanced SAS Language Elements

for CAS
In SAS 9.4M5, if you have licensed SAS Viya, then you can access SAS Cloud
Analytic Services (CAS) from your SAS 9.4 environment. See “What is SAS Cloud
Analytic Services?” on page 433 for an introduction to CAS.
The following new features and enhancements have been added:
n DATA step processing in CAS. For more information, see DATA step processing
in CAS in SAS Cloud Analytic Services: DATA Step Programming.
o provides multithreaded processing of distributed and non-distributed data
o provides reading and writing of in-memory tables in CAS
n CAS LIBNAME statement
o provides DATA step access to CAS tables and to multithreaded processing in
CAS. For more information, see CAS LIBNAME Statement.
o provides access to the new VARCHAR data type, a varying length data type
for character strings. For more information, see “VARCHAR Data Type” in
SAS Cloud Analytic Services: User’s Guide.
n Other new SAS language elements, including SAS language elements for CAS
and CAS-specific language elements.
xviii What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts
 1

PART 1

SAS System Concepts

Chapter 1
Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2
SAS Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 3
Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 4
SAS Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 5
Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Chapter 6
Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Chapter 7
Dates, Times, and Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 8
Error Processing and Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Chapter 9
SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 10
By-Group Processing in SAS Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Chapter 11
WHERE-Expression Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Chapter 12
Optimizing System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Chapter 13
Support for Parallel Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Chapter 14
The SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
2

Chapter 15
Printing with SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
 3

1
Essential Concepts of Base SAS
Software

What Is SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Overview of Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Other SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Operating System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Components of the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SAS Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Database Management System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SAS Language Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SAS Macro Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Ways to Run Your SAS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Starting a SAS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Different Types of SAS Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Interactive Line Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Noninteractive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Object Server Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Customizing Your SAS Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Setting Default System Option Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Executing Statements Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Customizing the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Conceptual Information about Base SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAS Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
DATA Step Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
SAS Files Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

What Is SAS?
SAS is a set of solutions for enterprise-wide business users and provides a powerful
fourth-generation programming language for performing tasks such as these:
 4 Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software

n data entry, retrieval, and management

n report writing and graphics

n statistical and mathematical analysis

n business planning, forecasting, and decision support

n operations research and project management

n quality improvement

n applications development

With Base SAS software as the foundation, you can integrate with SAS many SAS
business solutions that enable you to perform large scale business functions.
Examples include data warehousing and data mining, human resources
management and decision support, and financial management and decision
support.

Overview of Base SAS Software

Components
The core of SAS is Base SAS software, which consists of the following:
DATA step
a programming language that you use to manipulate and manage your data.
SAS procedures
software tools for data analysis and reporting.
macro facility
a tool for extending and customizing SAS software programs and for reducing
text in your programs.
DATA step debugger
a programming tool that helps you find logic problems in DATA step programs.
Output Delivery System (ODS)
a system that delivers output in a variety of easy-to-access formats, such as
SAS data sets, procedure output files, or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
SAS windowing environment
an interactive, graphical user interface that enables you to easily run and test
your SAS programs.
The SAS windowing environment is described in the online Help.

Other SAS Software

This document covers only the concepts related to the core Base SAS language.
For a other Base SAS software, see these documents:
n SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide
 Components of the SAS Language 5

n SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide

n Base SAS Procedures Guide

n SAS XMLV2 and XML LIBNAME Engines: User’s Guide

n SAS Macro Language: Reference

n SAS Logging: Configuration and Programming Reference

Operating System Information

Operating system-specific information about Base SAS can be found in the following
documents:
n SAS Companion for UNIX Environments
n SAS Companion for Windows

n SAS Companion for z/OS

Components of the SAS Language

SAS Files
When you work with SAS, you use files that are created and maintained by SAS, as
well as files that are created and maintained by your operating environment, and
that are not related to SAS. Files with formats or structures known to SAS are
referred to as SAS files. All SAS files reside in a SAS library.
The most commonly used SAS file is a SAS data set. A SAS data set is structured
in a format that SAS can process. Another common type of SAS file is a SAS
catalog. Many different types of information that are used in a SAS job are stored in
SAS catalogs. Examples include instructions for reading and printing data values, or
function key settings that you use in the SAS windowing environment. A SAS stored
program is a type of SAS file that contains compiled code that you create and save
for repeated use.
In some operating environments, a SAS library is a physical relationship among
files; in others, it is a logical relationship. For more information about the
characteristics of SAS libraries, see the SAS documentation for your operating
environment:
Windows Specifics: “Introduction to SAS Files” in SAS Companion for Windows
UNIX Specifics: "Introduction to SAS Files, Libraries, and Engines"
z/OS Specifics: “Introduction to SAS Files” in SAS Companion for Windows
 6 Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software

SAS Data Files

There are two types of SAS data files:
n SAS data set

n SAS view

A SAS data set both describes and physically stores your data values. A SAS view,
on the other hand, does not actually store values. Instead, it is a query that creates
a logical SAS data set that you can use as if it were a single SAS data set. It
enables you to look at data stored in one or more SAS data sets or in other vendors'
software files. SAS views enable you to create logical SAS data sets without using
the storage space required by SAS data files.
A SAS data set consists of the following:
n descriptor information

n data values

The descriptor information describes the contents of the SAS data set to SAS. The
data values are data that has been collected or calculated. They are organized into
rows, called observations, and columns, called variables. An observation is a
collection of data values that usually relate to a single object. A variable is the set of
data values that describe a given characteristic. The following figure represents a
SAS data set.

Figure 1.1 Representation of a SAS Data Set

descriptor
portion descriptive information

variables

ID NAME TEAM STRTWGHT ENDWGHT

1 1023 Da v i d Sh a w r ed 189 165

2 1049 Ame l i a Se r r a n o yel l ow 145 124 observation

data
values 3 1219 Al a n Na n c e r ed 210 192

4 1246 Ra v i Si n h a yel l ow 194 177

5 1078 As h l e y Mc Kn i g h t r ed 127 118

Usually, an observation is the data that is associated with an entity such as an

inventory item, a regional sales office, a client, or a patient in a medical clinic.
Variables are characteristics of these entities, such as sale price, number in stock,
and originating vendor. When data values are incomplete, SAS uses a missing
value to represent a missing variable within an observation.
 Components of the SAS Language 7

External Files
Data files that you use to read and write data, but which are in a structure unknown
to SAS, are called external files. External files can be used for storing
n raw data that you want to read into a SAS data file

n SAS program statements

n procedure output

For more information about the characteristics of external files in your operating
environment, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment:
n “Using External Files and Devices” in SAS Companion for UNIX Environments,
n “Using External Files under Windows” in SAS Companion for Windows, and

n “Assigning External Files” in SAS Companion for z/OS.

Database Management System Files

SAS software is able to read and write data to and from other vendors' software,
such as many common database management system (DBMS) files. In addition to
Base SAS software, you must license the SAS/ACCESS software for your DBMS
and operating environment.

SAS Language Elements

The SAS language consists of statements, expressions, options, formats, and
functions similar to those of many other programming languages. In SAS, you use
these elements within one of two groups of SAS statements:
n DATA steps

n PROC steps

A DATA step consists of a group of statements in the SAS language that can
perform the following tasks:
n read data from external files

n write data to external files

n read SAS data sets and SAS views

n create SAS data sets and SAS views

Once your data is accessible as a SAS data set, you can analyze the data and write
reports by using a set of tools known as SAS procedures.
A group of procedure statements is called a PROC step. SAS procedures analyze
data in SAS data sets to produce statistics, tables, reports, charts, and plots, to
create SQL queries, and to perform other analyses and operations on your data.
They also provide ways to manage and print SAS files.
 8 Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software

You can also use global SAS statements and options outside of a DATA step or
PROC step.

SAS Macro Facility

Base SAS software includes the SAS Macro Facility, a powerful programming tool
for extending and customizing your SAS programs, and for reducing the amount of
code that you must enter to do common tasks. Macros are SAS files that contain
compiled macro program statements and stored text. You can use macros to
automatically generate SAS statements and commands, write messages to the SAS
log, accept input, or create and change the values of macro variables. For complete
documentation, see SAS Macro Language: Reference.

Ways to Run Your SAS Session

Starting a SAS Session

You start a SAS session with the SAS command, which follows the rules for other
commands in your operating environment. In some operating environments, you
include the SAS command in a file of system commands or control statements. In
other operating environments, you enter the SAS command at a system prompt or
select SAS from a menu.

Different Types of SAS Sessions

You can run SAS in any of several ways that might be available for your operating
environment:
n SAS windowing environment

n interactive line mode

n noninteractive mode

n batch (or background) mode

In addition, SAS/ASSIST software provides a menu-driven system for creating and

running your SAS programs.

SAS Windowing Environment

In the SAS windowing environment, you can edit and execute programming
statements, display the SAS log, procedure output, and online Help, and more. The
following figure shows the SAS windowing environment.
 Ways to Run Your SAS Session 9

Figure 1.2 SAS Windowing Environment

In the Explorer window, you can view and manage your SAS files, which are stored
in libraries, and create shortcuts to external files. The Results window helps you
navigate and manage output from SAS programs that you submit; you can view,
save, and manage individual output items. You use the Program Editor, Log, and
Output windows to enter, edit, and submit SAS programs, view messages about
your SAS session and programs that you submit, and browse output from programs
that you submit. For more detailed information about the SAS windowing
environment, see Chapter 16, “Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment,” on
page 385.

Interactive Line Mode

In interactive line mode, you enter program statements in sequence in response to
prompts from SAS. DATA and PROC steps execute when one or more of the
following happens:
n a RUN, QUIT, or a semicolon on a line by itself after lines of data are entered

n another DATA or PROC statement is entered

n the ENDSAS statement is encountered

By default, the SAS log and output are displayed immediately following the program
statements.

Noninteractive Mode
In noninteractive mode, SAS program statements are stored in an external file. The
statements in the file execute immediately after you issue a SAS command
referencing the file. Depending on your operating environment and the SAS system
 10 Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software

options that you use, the SAS log and output are either written to separate external
files or displayed.
For more information about how these files are named and where they are stored,
see the SAS documentation for your operating environment:
UNIX Specifics: “The Default Routings for the SAS Log and Procedure Output in
UNIX Environments” in SAS Companion for UNIX Environments
Windows Specifics: “Routing Procedure Output and the SAS Log to a File” in SAS
Companion for Windows
z/OS Specifics: “Destinations of SAS Output Files” in SAS Companion for z/OS

Batch Mode
You can run SAS jobs in batch mode in operating environments that support batch
or background execution. Place your SAS statements in a file and submit them for
execution along with the control statements and system commands required at your
site.
When you submit a SAS job in batch mode, one file is created to contain the SAS
log for the job, and another is created to hold output that is produced in a PROC
step or, when directed, output that is produced in a DATA step by a PUT statement.
For more information about executing SAS jobs in batch mode, see the SAS
documentation for your operating environment:
UNIX Specifics: UNIX operating environment: “Printing and Routing Output” in
SAS Companion for UNIX Environments
Windows Specifics: Windows operating environment: “Running SAS in Batch
Mode” in SAS Companion for Windows
z/OS Specifics: z/OS operating environment: “Directing SAS Log and SAS
Procedure Output” in SAS Companion for z/OS
Also, see the documentation specific to your site for local requirements for running
jobs in batch and for viewing output from batch jobs.

Object Server Mode

When SAS runs in object server mode, SAS runs as an IOM server. Some
examples of SAS IOM servers are the SAS Metadata Server, the SAS Workspace
Server, the SAS Stored Process Server, and the SAS OLAP Server. For information
about running SAS in object server mode, see SAS Intelligence Platform:
Application Server Administration Guide.
 Customizing Your SAS Session 11

Customizing Your SAS Session

Setting Default System Option Settings

You can use a configuration file to store system options with the settings that you
want. When you invoke SAS, these settings are in effect. SAS system options
determine how SAS initializes its interfaces with your computer hardware and the
operating environment, how it reads and writes data, how output appears, and other
global functions.
By placing SAS system options in a configuration file, you can avoid having to
specify the options every time you invoke SAS. For example, you can specify the
NODATE system option in your configuration file to prevent the date from appearing
at the top of each page of your output.
Operating Environment Information: See the SAS documentation for your
operating environment for more information about the configuration file. In some
operating environments, you can use both a system-wide and a user-specific
configuration file.

Executing Statements Automatically

To execute SAS statements automatically each time you invoke SAS, store them in
an autoexec file. SAS executes the statements automatically after the system is
initialized. You can activate this file by specifying the AUTOEXEC= system option.
Any SAS statement can be included in an autoexec file. For example, you can set
report titles, footnotes, or create macros or macro variables automatically with an
autoexec file.
Operating Environment Information: See the SAS documentation for your
operating environment for information about how autoexec files should be set up so
that they can be located by SAS.

Customizing the SAS Windowing Environment

You can customize many aspects of the SAS windowing environment and store your
settings for use in future sessions. With the SAS windowing environment, you can
perform the following tasks:
n Change the appearance and sorting order of items in the Explorer window.

n Customize the Explorer window by registering member, entry, and file types.

n Set up favorite folders.

n Customize the toolbar.

 12 Chapter 1 / Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software

n Set fonts, colors, and preferences.

See the SAS online Help for more information and for additional ways to customize
your SAS windowing environment.

Conceptual Information about Base SAS

Software

SAS Concepts
SAS concepts include the building blocks of SAS language: rules for words and
names, variables, missing values, expressions, dates, times, and intervals, and
each of the six SAS language elements — data set options, formats, functions,
informats, statements, and system options.
SAS system-wide concepts also include introductory information that helps you
begin to use SAS, including information about the SAS log, SAS output, error
processing, WHERE processing, and debugging. Information about SAS processing
prepares you to write SAS programs. Information about how to optimize system
performance as well as how to monitor performance.

DATA Step Concepts

Understanding essential DATA step concepts can help you construct DATA step
programs effectively. These concepts include how SAS processes the DATA step,
how to read raw data to create a SAS data set, and how to write a report with a
DATA step.
More advanced concepts include how to combine and modify information once you
have created a SAS data set, how to perform BY-group processing of your data,
how to use array processing for more efficient programming, and how to create
stored compiled DATA step programs.

SAS Files Concepts

SAS file concepts include advanced topics that are helpful for advanced
applications, though not strictly necessary for writing simple SAS programs. These
topics include the elements that comprise the physical file structure that SAS uses,
including data libraries, data files, SAS views, catalogs, file protection, engines, and
external files.
Advanced topics for data files include the audit trail, generation data sets, integrity
constraints, indexes, and file compression. In addition, these topics include
compatibility issues with earlier releases and how to process files across operating
environments.
 13

2
SAS Processing

Definition of SAS Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Types of Input to a SAS Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
What Does the DATA Step Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
DATA Step Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The PROC Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
What Does the PROC Step Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
PROC Step Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
z/OS-Specific Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Specifying Functions in the Lockdown Path List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Definition of SAS Processing

SAS processing is the way that the SAS language reads and transforms input data
and generates the type of output that you request. The DATA step and the
procedure (PROC) step are the two steps in the SAS language. Generally, the DATA
step manipulates data, and the PROC step analyzes data, produces output, or
manages SAS files. These two types of steps, used alone or combined, form the
basis of SAS programs.
The following figure shows a high–level view of SAS processing using a DATA step
and a PROC step. The figure focuses primarily on the DATA step.
 14 Chapter 2 / SAS Processing

Figure 2.1 SAS Processing

SAS Data Sets:

SAS Data Files
SAS Data Views:
PROC SQL Views (native) Report
DATA Step Views (native)
SAS/ACCESS Views (interface)

DATA SAS PROC SAS

Step Data Set Step Data Set

External Files: SAS

Raw Data: SAS Log Log
External Files Reports
Instream Data External Data Files
Remote access through:
Catalog
FTP
TCP/IP socket
URL

You can use different types of data as input to a DATA step. The DATA step includes
SAS statements that you write, which contain instructions for processing the data.
As each DATA step in a SAS program is compiling or executing, SAS generates a
log that contains processing messages and error messages. These messages can
help you debug a SAS program.

Types of Input to a SAS Program

You can use different sources of input data in your SAS program:
SAS data sets
can be one of two types:
SAS data files
store actual data values. A SAS data file consists of a descriptor portion that
describes the data in the file, and a data portion.
SAS views
contain references to data stored elsewhere. A SAS view uses descriptor
information and data from other files. It enables you to dynamically combine
data from various sources, without using storage space to create a new data
set. SAS views consist of DATA step views, PROC SQL views, and
SAS/ACCESS views. In most cases, you can use a SAS view as if it were a
SAS data file.
For more information, see Chapter 28, “SAS Data Files,” on page 655 and
Chapter 29, “SAS Views,” on page 721.
Raw data
specifies unprocessed data that have not been read into a SAS data set. You
can read raw data from two sources:
 Types of Input to a SAS Program 15

External files
External files can contain raw data, SAS pgm stmts, procedure output, or
output created by the PUT stmt. contain records comprised of formatted data
(data is arranged in columns) or free-formatted data (data that are not
arranged in columns).
Instream data
is data included in your program. You use the DATALINES statement at the
beginning of your data to identify the instream data.
For more information about raw data, see Chapter 21, “Reading Raw Data,” on
page 471.
Remote access
enables you to read input data from nontraditional sources such as a TCP/IP
socket or a URL. SAS treats this data as if it were coming from an external file.
SAS enables you to access your input data remotely in the following ways:
SAS catalog
specifies the access method that enables you to reference a SAS catalog as
an external file.
Clipboard
specifies the access method that enables you to read or write text data to the
clipboard on the host computer.
DATAURL
specifies the access method that enables you to access remote files by using
the DATAURL access method.
FTP
specifies the access method that enables you to use File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) to read from or write to a file from any host computer that is connected
to a network with an FTP server running.
Hadoop
specifies the access method that enables you to access files on a Hadoop
Distributed File System (HDFS) whose location is specified in a configuration
file.
SFTP
specifies the access method that enables you to use Secure File Transfer
Protocol (SFTP) to read from or write to a file from any host computer that is
connected to a network with an Open SSH SSHD server running.
TCP/IP socket
specifies the access method that enables you to read from or write to a
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) socket.
URL
specifies the access method that enables you to use the uniform resource
locator (URL) to read from and write to a file from any host computer that is
connected to a network with a URL server running.
WebDAV
specifies the access method that enables you to use the WebDAV protocol to
read from or write to a file from any host computer that is connected to a
network with a WebDAV server running.
ZIP
specifies the access method that enables you to access ZIP files by using
zlib services.
 16 Chapter 2 / SAS Processing

For more information about accessing data remotely, see the following topics:
n “FILENAME Statement: CLIPBOARD Access Method” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: CATALOG Access Method” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: DATAURL Access Method” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: FTP Access Method” in SAS Global Statements:
Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: Hadoop Access Method” in SAS Global Statements:
Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: SFTP Access Method” in SAS Global Statements:
Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: SOCKET Access Method” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: URL Access Method” in SAS Global Statements:
Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: WebDAV Access Method” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference
n “FILENAME Statement: ZIP Access Method” in SAS Global Statements:
Reference

The DATA Step

What Does the DATA Step Do?

The DATA step processes input data. In a DATA step, you can create a SAS data
set, which can be a SAS data file or a SAS view. The DATA step uses input from
raw data, remote access, assignment statements, or SAS data sets. The DATA step
can compute values, select specific input records for processing, and use
conditional logic. The output from the DATA step can be of several types, such as a
SAS data set or a report. You can also write data to the SAS log or to an external
data file. For more information, see Chapter 20, “DATA Step Processing,” on page
441.

DATA Step Output

The output from the DATA step can be a SAS data set or an external file such as the
program log, a report, or an external data file. You can also update an existing file in
place, without creating a separate data set. Data must be in the form of a SAS data
set to be processed by many SAS procedures. You can create the following types of
DATA step output:
 The PROC Step 17

SAS log
contains a list of processing messages and program errors. The SAS log is
produced by default.
SAS data file
is a SAS data set that contains two parts: a data portion and a data descriptor
portion.
SAS view
is a SAS data set that uses descriptor information and data from other files. SAS
views enable you to dynamically combine data from various sources without
using disk space to create a new data set. A SAS data file contains actual data
values. However, SAS views contain only references to data stored elsewhere.
SAS views are of member type VIEW. In most cases, you can use a SAS view
as if it were a SAS data file.
External data file
contains the results of DATA step processing. These files are data or text files.
The data can be records that are formatted or free-formatted.
Report
contains the results of DATA step processing. Although you usually generate a
report by using a PROC step, you can generate the following two types of
reports from the DATA step:
Procedure output file
contains printed results of DATA step processing, and usually contains headers
and page breaks.
HTML file
contains results that you can display on the World Wide Web. This type of output
is generated through the Output Delivery System (ODS).

The PROC Step

What Does the PROC Step Do?

The PROC step consists of a group of SAS statements that call and execute a
procedure, usually with a SAS data set as input. Use PROCs to analyze the data in
a SAS data set, produce formatted reports or other results, or provide ways to
manage SAS files. You can modify PROCs with minimal effort to generate the
output that you need. PROCs can also perform functions such as displaying
information about a SAS data set. For more information about SAS procedures, see
Base SAS Procedures Guide.

PROC Step Output

The output from a PROC step can provide univariate descriptive statistics,
frequency tables, crosstabulation tables, tabular reports consisting of descriptive
statistics, charts, plots, and so on. Output can also be in the form of an updated data
 18 Chapter 2 / SAS Processing

set. For more information about procedure output, see Base SAS Procedures Guide
and the SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a

Locked-Down State

General Information
If you are running SAS in a client/server environment (for example, you are using
SAS Enterprise Guide), the SAS server administrator can restrict access to files and
directories on the host system. Additionally, when a SAS session is in a locked-
down state, certain access methods, functions, CALL routines, and procedures are
restricted by default. For more information, see “Sign On to Locked-Down SAS
Sessions” in SAS/CONNECT User’s Guide.
When SAS is in a locked-down state, the following SAS language elements are not
available by default:

Functions and
CALL Routines Access Methods Procedures Other

ADDR function EMAIL GROOVY procedure DATA step Java

object
ADDRLONG FTP HADOOP procedure
function
HADOOP HTTP procedure
CALL MODULE
HTTP JAVAINFO procedure
CALL POKE routine
SOCKET SOAP procedure
CALL POKELONG
TCPIP
routine
URL
PEEK function
PEEKC function
PEEKCLONG
function
PEEKLONG
function

The ENABLE_AMS= option in the LOCKDOWN statement allows administrators to

re-enable access methods and procedures that are restricted by default when
LOCKDOWN is in effect. The following access methods and procedures can be re-
enabled using the ENABLE_AMS= option in the LOCKDOWN statement:
 SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State 19

ENABLE_AMS= Option Values

FTP
EMAIL
HADOOP (enables PROC HADOOP)
HTTP (enables PROC HTTP and PROC SOAP)
SOCKET
TCPIP
URL (enables PROC HTTP and PROC SOAP

If you attempt to use a resource that is locked down, SAS issues an error message
to the SAS log. If the SAS session is configured for the SAS logging facility, SAS
issues an error message to the Audit.Lockdown logger.
For more information, see the following resources:
n “LOCKDOWN system option” and “LOCKDOWN statement” in SAS Intelligence
Platform: Application Server Administration Guide on the SAS Intelligence
Platform Documentation page at support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/
intellplatform.
n “Locked-Down Servers” in SAS Intelligence Platform: Security Administration
Guide on the SAS Intelligence Platform Documentation page at
support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/intellplatform.
n To see the procedures that do not execute when the SAS server is in a locked-
down state, see “Restrictions” and “Interactions” syntax information for the
individual procedures in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.

z/OS-Specific Information

Restricted Features
Access to permanent z/OS data sets and UFS files and directories is not permitted
unless enabled in the lockdown list. This restriction applies to all SAS features, most
notably FILENAME and LIBNAME statements in SAS programs that are submitted
for execution on the server. This restriction also applies to the ability to list files on
the server through SAS clients such as SAS Enterprise Guide. When SAS is in the
locked-down state, SAS does not permit access to uncataloged z/OS data sets
except through externally allocated ddnames that are established by the server
administrator. However, there are no restrictions on creating temporary z/OS data
sets and UFS files, and processing them within the context of a single client
session. The z/OS data sets are considered temporary if they are allocated
DISP=(NEW,DELETE). External files are considered temporary if they are assigned
using the FILENAME device of TEMP. All members of the client WORK library are
considered temporary.
The SAS server administrator at your installation is responsible for the content of the
lockdown list. Therefore, if you need to access a z/OS data set or UFS file that is
unavailable in the locked-down state, contact your server administrator.
 20 Chapter 2 / SAS Processing

Disabled Features
The following SAS procedures, which are specific to z/OS, cannot be executed
when SAS is in the locked-down state:

PDS SOURCE
PDSCOPY TAPECOPY
RELEASE TAPELABEL
The following DATA step functions, which are specific to z/OS, cannot be executed
when SAS is in the locked-down state:

ZVOLLIST ZDSATTR
ZDSLIST ZDSRATT
ZDSNUM ZDSXATT
ZDSIDNM ZDSYATT
The following access method, which is specific to z/OS, cannot be executed when
SAS is in the locked-down state:

VTOC

Specifying Functions in the Lockdown Path List

If the SAS session in which you are specifying a function is in a locked-down state,
and the pathname specified in the function has not been added to the lockdown
path list, then the function will fail. A file access error related to the locked-down
data will not be generated in the SAS log unless you specify the SYSMSG function.
The SYSMSG function can be placed after the function call in a DATA step to
display lockdown-related file access errors.
This condition is true for the following functions, as well as for any other functions
that take physical pathname locations as input:
n DCREATE

n FILEEXIST

n FILENAME
n RENAME

n DSNCATLGD (z/OS-specific)
 21

3
Rules for Words and Names in the
SAS Language

Words in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Definition of Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Types of Words or Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Placement and Spacing of Words in SAS Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Names in the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Definition of a SAS Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Rules for User-Supplied SAS Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
SAS Name Literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Summary of Default Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets and SAS Variables . . . . . . . . 34
Summary of Extended Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets and SAS Variables . . . . . 35

Words in the SAS Language

Definition of Word
A word or token in the SAS programming language is a collection of characters that
communicates a meaning to SAS and which cannot be divided into smaller units
that can be used independently. A word can contain a maximum of 32,767 bytes.
A word or token ends when SAS encounters one of the following:
n the beginning of a new token
n a blank after a name or a number token

n the ending quotation mark of a literal token

Each word or token in the SAS language belongs to one of four categories:
n names

n literals

n numbers

n special characters
 22 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

Types of Words or Tokens

There are four basic types of words or tokens:
name
is a series of characters that begin with a letter or an underscore. Later
characters can include letters, underscores, and numeric digits. A name token
can contain up to 32,767 bytes. In most contexts, however, SAS names are
limited to a shorter maximum length, such as 32 or 8 bytes. See Table 3.1 on
page 25. Here are some examples of name tokens:
n data

n _new
n yearcutoff

n year_99

n descending

n _n_

literal
consists of 1 to 32,767 bytes enclosed in single or double quotation marks. Here
are some examples of literals:
n 'Chicago'

n "1990‑91"

n 'Amelia Earhart'

n 'Amelia Earhart''s plane'

n "Report for the Third Quarter"

Note: The surrounding quotation marks identify the token as a literal, but SAS
does not store these marks as part of the literal token.
number
in general, is composed entirely of numeric digits, with an optional decimal point
and a leading plus or minus sign. SAS also recognizes numeric values in the
following forms as number tokens: scientific (E−) notation, hexadecimal notation,
missing value symbols, and date and time literals. Here are some examples of
number tokens:
n 5683

n 2.35

n 0b0x

n ‑5

n 5.4E‑1

n '24aug90'd

special character
is usually any single keyboard character other than letters, numbers, the
underscore, and the blank. In general, each special character is a single token,
although some two-character operators, such as ** and <=, form single tokens.
 Words in the SAS Language 23

The blank can end a name or a number token, but it is not a token. Here are
some examples of special-character tokens:
n =

n ;

n '

n +

n @
n /

Placement and Spacing of Words in SAS Statements

Spacing Requirements
Here are the spacing requirements for words in SAS statements:
n You can begin SAS statements in any column of a line and write several
statements on the same line.
n You can begin a statement on one line and continue it on another line, but you
cannot split a word between two lines.
n A blank is not treated as a character in a SAS statement unless it is enclosed in
quotation marks as a literal or part of a literal. Therefore, you can put multiple
blanks any place in a SAS statement where you can put a single blank. It has no
effect on the syntax.
n The rules for recognizing the boundaries of words or tokens determine the use of
spacing between them in SAS programs. If SAS can determine the beginning of
each token due to cues such as operators, you do not need to include blanks. If
SAS cannot determine the beginning of each token, you must use blanks. See
Examples on page 23.
Although SAS does not have rigid spacing requirements, SAS programs are easier
to read and maintain if you consistently indent statements. The examples illustrate
useful spacing conventions.

Examples
n In this statement, blanks are not required because SAS can determine the
boundary of every token by examining the beginning of the next token:
total=x+y;

The first special-character token, the equal sign, marks the end of the name
token total. The plus sign, another special-character token, marks the end of
the name token x. The last special-character token, the semicolon, marks the
end of the y token. Though blanks are not needed to end any tokens in this
example, you can add them for readability, as shown here:
total = x + y;

n This statement requires blank spaces because SAS cannot recognize the
individual tokens without them:
 24 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

input group 15 room 20;

Without blanks, the entire statement up to the semicolon fits the rules for a name
token: it begins with a letter or underscore, contains letters, digits, or
underscores thereafter, and is less than 32,767 bytes long. Therefore, this
statement requires blanks to distinguish individual name and number tokens.

Names in the SAS Language

Definition of a SAS Name

A SAS name is a name token that represents one of the following SAS language
elements:

n variable n procedure n catalog entry

n data set n option n array

n format n statement label n macro or macro variable

n informat n libref or fileref n component object

There are two types of names in SAS:

n SAS language element names (system-supplied names)

n user-supplied names

The following sections will discuss user-supplied SAS names.

Rules for User-Supplied SAS Names

Rules for Most SAS Names

The following list contains the rules that you use when you create most SAS names:
Note: The rules are more flexible for SAS variable names, data set names, view
names, and item store names than for other language elements. See “Rules for
SAS Variable Names” on page 26 and “Rules for SAS Data Set Names, View
Names, and Item Store Names” on page 28.
n The length of a SAS name depends on which element it is assigned to. Many
SAS names can be 32 bytes long; others have a maximum length of 8 bytes. For
a list of SAS names and their maximum length, see Table 3.1 on page 25.
n The first character must be an English letter (A, B, C, . . ., Z) or underscore (_).
Subsequent characters can be letters, numeric digits (0, 1, . . ., 9), or
underscores.
Important: User-defined format names cannot end in a number.
 Names in the SAS Language 25

n You can use uppercase or lowercase letters.

n Blanks cannot appear in SAS names.

n Special characters, except for the underscore, are not allowed. In filerefs only,
you can use the dollar sign ($), the number sign (#), and the at sign (@).
n SAS reserves a few names for automatic variables and variable lists, SAS data
sets, and librefs.
o When creating variables, do not use the names of special SAS automatic
variables (for example, _N_ and _ERROR_) or special variable list names
(for example, _CHARACTER_, _NUMERIC_, and _ALL_).
o When associating a libref with a SAS library, do not use these libref names:
n Sashelp
n Sasmsg
n Sasuser
n Work
o When you create SAS data sets, do not use these names:
n _NULL_
n _DATA_
n _LAST_
n When assigning a fileref to an external file, do not use the filename SASCAT.

n When you create a macro variable, do not use names that begin with SYS.

Table 3.1 Maximum Length in Bytes of User-Supplied SAS Names

User-Supplied SAS Name Maximum Length in Bytes

Arrays 32

CALL routines 16

Catalog entries 32

Component objects 32

DATA step statement labels 32

DATA step variable labels 256

DATA step variables 32

DATA step windows 32

Engines 8

Filerefs 8

Formats, character 31

Formats, numeric 32
26 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

User-Supplied SAS Name Maximum Length in Bytes

Functions 16

Generation data sets 28

Informats, character 30

Informats, numeric 31

Librefs 8

Macro variables 32

Macro windows 32

Macros 32

Members of SAS libraries (SAS data sets, SAS views, 32

catalogs, indexes) except for generation data sets

Passwords 8

Procedure names (first eight characters must be unique 16

and cannot begin with “SAS”)

SCL variables 32

Rules for SAS Variable Names

The rules for SAS variable names have expanded to provide more functionality. The
setting of the VALIDVARNAME= system option determines what rules apply to the
variables that you create in your SAS session as well as to variables that you want
to read from existing data sets.
The VALIDVARNAME= option has three settings (V7, UPCASE, and ANY), each
with varying degrees of flexibility for variable names. If you do not specify the
VALIDVARNAME option in your SAS session, the default value, V7, is automatically
assigned to your SAS session. The following table summarizes the rules for variable
names when using the VALIDVARNAME system option:
V7
is the default setting.
Variable name follows these rules:
n The name can be up to 32 bytes in length.

n The name can contain letters of the Latin alphabet, numerals, or

underscores.
n The name cannot contain blanks or special characters except for the
underscore.
n The name must begin with a letter of the Latin alphabet (A–Z, a–z) or the
underscore.
n Trailing blanks are ignored. The name alignment is left-justified.
 Names in the SAS Language 27

n The name can contain mixed–case letters. SAS stores and writes the
variable name in the same case that is used in the first reference to the
variable. However, when SAS processes variable names, SAS internally
converts it to uppercase. You cannot, therefore, use the same variable name
with a different combination of upper and lowercase letters to represent
different variables. For example, cat, Cat, and CAT all represent the same
variable.
n Do not assign variables the names of special SAS automatic variables (such
as _N_ and _ERROR_) or variable list names (such as _NUMERIC_,
_CHARACTER_, and _ALL_) to variables.

Examples season=’summer’;

percent_of_profit=percent;

UPCASE
is the same as V7, except that variable names are uppercased, as in earlier
versions of SAS.
ANY
n The name can be up to 32 bytes in length.
n The name can contain any characters, including blanks, national characters,
special characters, and multi-byte characters. Names containing these types
of characters must be specified as name literals on page 31.
n The name can begin with any characters, including blanks, national
characters, special characters, and multi-byte characters.
n The name cannot contain any null bytes.

n Leading blanks are preserved but trailing blanks are ignored.

n The name must contain at least one character. A name with all blanks is not
permitted.
n can contain mixed-case letters. SAS stores and writes the variable name in
the same case that is used in the first reference to the variable. However,
when SAS processes a variable name, SAS internally converts it to
uppercases. You cannot, therefore, use the same variable name with a
different combination of uppercase and lowercase letters to represent
different variables. For example, cat, Cat, and CAT all represent the same
variable.

Requirement If you use any characters other than the ones that are valid when
the VALIDVARNAME= system option is set to V7 (letters of the
Latin alphabet, numerals, or underscores), then you must express
the variable name as a name literal and you must set
VALIDVARNAME=ANY. If the name includes either the percent
sign (%) or the ampersand (&), then you must use single quotation
marks in the name literal in order to avoid interaction with the SAS
Macro Facility. See “SAS Name Literals” on page 31 and
“Avoiding Errors When Using Name Literals” on page 34.

See “How Many Characters Can I Use When I Measure SAS Name
Lengths in Bytes?” on page 30

Examples Variable name containing blanks expressed as a name literal:

‘% of profit’n=percent;
28 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

Variable name containing a special character expressed as a name

literal:
‘items@warehouse’n=itemnum;

CAUTION Throughout SAS, using the name literal syntax with variable
names that exceed the 32-byte limit or have excessive
embedded quotation marks might cause unexpected results.
The intent of the VALIDVARNAME=ANY system option is to enable
compatibility with other DBMS variable (column) naming conventions,
such as allowing embedded blanks and national characters.

Rules for SAS Data Set Names, View Names, and Item
Store Names
Three types of SAS members, SAS data sets, data views, and item stores, are
expanded to have more functionality. The setting of the VALIDMEMNAME= system
option determines what rules apply to the names of these members in your SAS
session. The VALIDMEMNAME= option has two settings (COMPATIBLE and
EXTEND), each with varying degrees of flexibility for data set names, data view
names, and item store names:
COMPATIBLE
specifies that a SAS data set name, a view name, or an item store name must
follow these rules:
n The name can be up to 32 bytes in length.

n The name must begin with a letter of the Latin alphabet (A–Z, a–z) or the
underscore. Subsequent characters can be letters of the Latin alphabet,
numerals, or underscores.
n The name cannot contain blanks or special characters except for the
underscore.
n The name can contain mixed-case letters. SAS internally converts the
member name to uppercase. You cannot, therefore, use the same member
name with a different combination of uppercase and lowercase letters to
represent different variables. For example, customer, Customer, and
CUSTOMER all represent the same member name. How the name on the disk
appears is determined by the operating environment.

Alias COMPAT

EXTEND
specifies that a SAS data set name, a SAS view name, or an item store name
must follow these rules:
n The name can be up to 32 bytes in length.

n The name can include national characters, but it must be written as a SAS
name literal on page 31.
n The name can include special characters, except for the / \ * ? " < > |: -
characters, but it must be written as a SAS name literal.
Note: The SPD engine does not allow ‘.’ (the period) anywhere in the
member name.
 Names in the SAS Language 29

n The name must contain at least one character (letters, numbers, valid special
characters, and national characters).
n Null bytes are not allowed.

n The name cannot begin with a blank or a ‘.’ (the period).

Note: The SPD engine does not allow ‘$’ as the first character of the
member name.
n Leading and trailing blanks are deleted when the member is created.

n The name can contain mixed-case letters. SAS internally converts the
member name to uppercase. You cannot, therefore, use the same member
name with a different combination of uppercase and lowercase letters to
represent different variables. For example, customer, Customer, and
CUSTOMER all represent the same member name. How the name appears is
determined by the operating environment.

Restrictions Regardless of the value of VALIDMEMNAME, a member name

cannot end in the special character # followed by three digits.
This is because it would conflict with the naming conventions for
generation data sets. Using such a member name results in an
error.

The windowing environment supports the extended rules in the

Program, Log, and Output windows when
VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND is set. In most SAS windows, these
extended rules are not supported. For example, these rules are
not supported in SAS Explorer, the VIEWTABLE window, and
windows that you open using the Solutions menu.

Note Hash objects do not support the VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND

system option for data set names. Data set names can not
contain special characters or national characters.

Requirement When VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND, SAS data set names, SAS

data view names, and item store names must be written as a
SAS name literal if the name includes blank spaces, special
characters, or national characters. If you use either the percent
sign (%) or the ampersand (&), then you must use single
quotation marks in the name literal in order to avoid interaction
with the SAS Macro Facility. For more information, see “SAS
Name Literals” on page 31.

Operating For Windows and UNIX operating environments, all Base SAS
environments windows support the extended rules when
VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND is set.

For Windows and UNIX operating environments, when you

reference a SAS file directly by its physical name, the final
embedded period is an extension delimiter. If a physical file
reference includes a SAS member name that contains a period,
you must add the file extension. For example, if you reference the
data set name my.member as a physical file, you would add the
file extension sas7bdat to the reference, as shown in this SET
statement: set './saslib/my.member.sas7bdat'.

z/OS specifics The windowing environment for Base SAS supports the extended
rules in the Editor, Log, and Output windows when
30 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND is set. Other SAS windows, such as

the VIEWTABLE window, do not support the extended rules.

When you reference a SAS file directly by its physical name, the
final embedded period is considered to be an extension delimiter
only if what follows the period is a valid SAS extension.
Otherwise, the period is considered to be part of the member
name. For example, in the name my.member, member is
considered part of the member name and not a file extension. In
the name "my.member.sas7bdat", the member name is
"my.member" and the file extension is sas7bdat.

Tip The name is displayed in uppercase letters.

See “How Many Characters Can I Use When I Measure SAS Name
Lengths in Bytes?” on page 30

Examples data "August Purchases"n;

data ‘Años de empleo’n;

CAUTION Throughout SAS, using the name literal syntax with SAS
member names that exceed the 32-byte limit or have
excessive embedded quotation marks might cause
unexpected results. The intent of the
VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND system option is to enable
compatibility with other DBMS member naming conventions, such as
allowing embedded blanks and national characters.

Note: The VALIDMEMNAME= option is not valid for the following tape engines:
V9TAPE, V8TAPE, V7TAPE, and V6TAPE.

How Many Characters Can I Use When I Measure SAS

Name Lengths in Bytes?
When VALIDVARNAME=ANY or VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND, the length of these
SAS names must be measured in bytes:

SAS Name Measured in Maximum Length

System Option Setting Bytes in Bytes

VALIDVARNAME=ANY variable names 32

VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND SAS data set name 32

SAS view name
item store name

When these system option values are set, the maximum number of characters that
you can use for a SAS variable name, data set name, view name, or item store
name is determined by the number of bytes of storage that are used to store one
character. This value is set by the SAS encoding value for your SAS session.
VALIDVARNAME=ANY or VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND must be set to allow the use
of national language support (NLS) characters. Otherwise, only one-byte characters
are allowed.
 Names in the SAS Language 31

The SAS encodings for western languages use one byte of storage to store one
character. Therefore, in western languages, you can use 32 characters for these
SAS names. The SAS encoding for some Asian languages use one to two bytes of
storage to store one character. The Unicode encoding, UTF-8, supports one to four
bytes of storage for a single character. When the SAS encoding uses four bytes to
store one character, the maximum length of one of these SAS names is eight
characters.
All SAS encodings support the characters A–Z and a–z as one-byte characters.
Follow these instructions for finding the maximum number of characters that can be
used for a SAS name:

1 Find the SAS encoding in one of the following ways:

n Find the ENCODING= system option in the SAS System Options window:

1 Type options in the command bar.

2 Right-click Options and select Find Option.

3 Type encoding and click OK.

n In an editor window, specify the ENCODING= system option in the OPTIONS
procedure:
proc options option=encoding;
run;

2 In the table “SBCS, DBCS, and Unicode Encoding Values Used to Transcode
Data,” find the maximum number of bytes per character for the SAS encoding.
This table is in SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

3 Find the maximum number of bytes for a SAS name from Table 3.1 on page 25.
Divide this number by the bytes per character. The result is the maximum
number of characters that you can use for the SAS name.

SAS Name Literals

Definition of SAS Name Literals

A SAS name literal is a user-supplied name token that is expressed as a string
within quotation marks, followed by the upper or lowercase letter n. Most SAS
names allow only the characters _, A–Z, and a–z. Name literals enable you to use
characters (including blanks and national characters) that are not otherwise allowed.
You can use name literals in these types of SAS names:
n DBMS column names

n DBMS table

n item store

n SAS data set

n SAS view

n statement label
32 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

n variable

To use characters in a name literal other than _, A–Z, or a–z, you must set either the
VALIDVARNAME=ANY or VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND system options. The
following table specifies the options that you must set to use SAS name literals.

Table 3.2 SAS Name Literal System Option Requirements

SAS Name Type Name Literal Requirements

DBMS column Set VALIDVARNAME=ANY.

DBMS table name Set VALIDVARNAME=ANY.

item store Set VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND.

SAS data set name Set VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND.

SAS view Set VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND.

statement label Set VALIDVARNAME=ANY.

variable Set VALIDVARNAME=ANY.

Name literals are especially useful for expressing DBMS column and table names
that contain special characters and for including national characters in SAS names.
The following is an example of a VAR statement and a name literal:
var 'a b'n;

The following is an example of a VAR statement with variables A and B:

var a b;

SAS Name Literal Examples

Here are some examples of SAS name literals:
n libname foo SAS/ACCESS-engine-name
SAS/ACCESS-engine-connection-options;
data foo.'My Table'n;

n data ‘Años de empleo’n.;

n data “August Purchases”n;

n input 'Bob''s Asset Number'n;

n input “Bob's Asset Number”n;

n input 'Amount Budgeted'n 'Amount Spent'n

'Amount Difference'n;

n ‘Statement Label 1’n;

 Names in the SAS Language 33

Important Restrictions
n You can use a name literal only for variables, statement labels, DBMS column
and table names, SAS data sets, SAS view, and item stores.
n When the name literal of a SAS data set name, a SAS view name, or an item
store name contains any characters that are not allowed when
VALIDMEMNAME=COMPAT, then you must set the system option
VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND. See “VALIDMEMNAME= System Option” in SAS
System Options: Reference.
Note: Hash objects do not support the VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND system
option for data set names. Data set names can not contain special characters or
national characters.
n When the name literal of a variable, DBMS table, or DBMS column contains any
characters that are not allowed when VALIDVARNAME=V7, then you must set
the system option VALIDVARNAME=ANY. See “VALIDVARNAME= System
Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
n If you use either the percent sign (%) or the ampersand (&), then you must use
single quotation marks in the name literal in order to avoid interaction with the
SAS Macro Facility.
n When the name literal of a DBMS table or column contains any characters that
are not valid for SAS rules, you might need to specify a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME
statement option.
Note: For more details and examples about the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME
statement and about using DBMS table and column names that do not conform
to SAS naming conventions, see SAS/ACCESS for Relational Databases:
Reference.
n In a quoted string, SAS preserves and uses leading blanks, but SAS ignores and
trims trailing blanks.
n Blanks between the closing quotation mark and the n are not valid when you
specify a name literal.
n Note that even if you set VALIDVARNAME=ANY, the V6 engine does not support
names that have intervening blanks.

Using Name Literals in BY Groups

Using Name Literals in BY Groups

When you designate a name literal as the BY variable in BY-group processing and
you want to refer to the corresponding FIRST. or LAST. temporary variables, you
must include the FIRST. or LAST. portion of the two-level variable name within
quotation marks. Here is an example:
data sedanTypes;
set cars;
by 'Sedan Types'n;
if 'first.Sedan Types'n then type=1;
run;
 34 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language

For more information about BY-Group Processing and how SAS creates the
temporary variables, FIRST and LAST, see “How SAS Determines FIRST.variable
and LAST.variable” on page 499 and “How SAS Identifies the Beginning and End of
a BY Group” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Avoiding Errors When Using Name Literals

For information about how to avoid creating name literals in error, see “Avoiding a
Common Error with Constants” on page 112.

Summary of Default Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets and

SAS Variables
The table below shows a summary of the rules for naming SAS data sets and SAS
variables when the VALIDMEMNAME system option is set to COMPATIBLE and the
VALIDVARNAME system option is set to V7. These are the default settings in Base
SAS. In some SAS applications, such as SAS Visual Analytics, the
VALIDMEMNAME and VALIDVARNAME system options are set by default to allow
the most flexibility for naming SAS variables and data sets. These rules are
summarized in Table 3.4 on page 35.

Table 3.3 Summary of Default Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets and SAS Variables

SAS Data Set Names, View Names, and

Item Store Names Variable Names
(with VALIDMEMNAME=COMPAT) (with VALIDVARNAME=V7)

n can be up to 32 bytes in length. n can be up to 32 bytes in length.

n cannot contain special characters n cannot contain special characters

(except for the underscore), blanks, or (except for the underscore), blanks, or
national characters. national characters.
n must begin with a letter of the Latin n must begin with a letter of the Latin
alphabet (A–Z, a–z) or the underscore. alphabet (A–Z, a–z) or the underscore.
n can contain mixed-case letters. SAS n can contain mixed-case letters. SAS
internally converts the member name to stores and writes the variable name in
uppercase. You cannot, therefore, use the same case that is used in the first
the same member name with a different reference to the variable. However, when
combination of uppercase and SAS processes variable names, it
lowercase letters to represent different internally converts them to uppercase.
members. For example, cat, Cat, and You cannot, therefore, use the same
CAT all represent the same member variable name with a different
name. How the name on the disk combination of uppercase and lowercase
appears is determined by the operating letters to represent different variables.
environment. For example, cat, Cat, and CAT all
represent the same variable.
 Names in the SAS Language 35

Summary of Extended Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets

and SAS Variables
The following table, shows a summary of the rules for naming SAS data sets
(tables) and SAS variables (columns) when the highest level of flexibility is allowed
(that is, when the VALIDMEMNAME system option is set to EXTEND and the
VALIDVARNAME system option is set to ANY).

Table 3.4 Summary of Extended Rules for Naming SAS Data Sets and SAS Variables

SAS Data Set Names, View Names, and

Item Store Names Variable Names
(with VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND) (with VALIDVARNAME=ANY)

n can be up to 32 bytes in length. n can be up to 32 bytes in length.

n can contain special characters except for / n can contain special characters
\ * ? " < > | : -. A name that contains including / \ * ? " < > | : - . A name that
special characters must be specified as a contains special characters must be
name literal. specified as a name literal.
n cannot begin with a blank or a period. n can begin with any character, including
blanks, national characters, special
n ignores leading and trailing blanks. characters, and multi-byte characters.
n can contain mixed-case letters. SAS n preserves leading blanks, but trailing
internally converts the member name to blanks are ignored.
uppercase. You cannot, therefore, use the
same member name with a different n can contain mixed-case letters. SAS
combination of uppercase and lowercase stores and writes the variable name in
letters to represent different variables. For the same case that is used in the first
example, cat, Cat, and CAT all represent reference to the variable. However,
when SAS processes a variable name,
the same member name. 1
it internally converts the variable name
to uppercase. You cannot, therefore,
use the same variable name with a
different combination of uppercase and
lowercase letters to represent different
variables. For example, cat, Cat, and
CAT all represent the same variable.
n cannot contain all blanks.

1 In the UNIX operating environment, SAS only reads data set names that are written in all lowercase characters
.
36 Chapter 3 / Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language
 37

4
SAS Variables

Definition of SAS Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

SAS Variable Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Ways to Create Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Create a New Variable Using the LENGTH Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Create a New Variable Using the ATTRIB Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Create a New Variable Using an Assignment Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Reading Data with the INPUT Statement in a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Create a New Variable Using the FORMAT or INFORMAT Statements . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Using the IN= Data Set Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Variable Type Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Aligning Variable Values in SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Reordering Variables in SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Automatic Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
SAS Variable Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Numbered Range Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Name Range Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Name Prefix Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Special SAS Name Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The OF Operator with Functions and Variable Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Using Statements or Data Set Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Using the Input or Output Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Order of Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Example: Convert a Variable from Character to Numeric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Example: Drop Variables from the Output Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Example: Drop and Rename Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Encrypting Variable Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Customized Encryption and Decryption Algorithms for SAS Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Example 1: 1-Byte-to-1-Byte Swap Using the TRANSLATE Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Example 2: Using a 1-Byte-to-2-Byte Swap with the TRANWRD Function . . . . . . . . 69
Example 3: Using Different Functions to Encrypt Numeric Values
as Character Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
 38 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Truncation in Binary Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

How SAS Stores Numeric Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Floating-Point Representation Using the IEEE Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Floating-Point Representation on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Floating-Point Representation on IBM Mainframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Troubleshooting Errors in Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Transferring Data between Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Definition of SAS Variables

variables
are containers that you create within a program to store and use character and
numeric values. Variables have attributes, such as name and type, that enable
you to identify them and that define how they can be used.
character variables
are variables of type character that contain alphabetic characters, numeric digits
0 through 9, and other special characters.
numeric variables
are variables of type numeric that are stored as floating-point numbers, including
dates and times.
numerical precision
refers to the degree with which numeric variables are stored in your operating
environment.

SAS Variable Attributes

A SAS variable has the attributes that are listed in the following table:

Table 4.1 Variable Attributes

Variable Attribute Possible Values Default Value

Name Any valid SAS name None

Type * Numeric and Character Numeric

Length * Numeric: 2 to 8 bytes ** 8 bytes

Character: 1 to 32,767 bytes 8 bytes

 SAS Variable Attributes 39

Variable Attribute Possible Values Default Value

Format Numeric formats BESTw. format

Character formats $w. format

Date and Time formats

See Formats By Category for a complete list of SAS

formats.

Informat Numeric informats w.d Informat

Character informats $w. Informat

Date and Time informats

See Informats By Category for a complete list of SAS

informats.

Label Up to 256 characters. None

Position in observation 1-n None

Index type Simple None

Composite
None
Both

Extended attribute Numeric or character None

* If not explicitly defined, a variable’s type and length are automatically set by SAS based on the
variable’s first occurrence in a DATA step.
** The minimum length is 2 bytes in some operating environments, 3 bytes in others. See the
documentation for your operating system.

Note: The maximum number of variables can be greater than 32,767. This number
depends on your environment, the file's attributes and the total length of all the
variables, which cannot exceed the maximum page size, which is 32,767.
To get information about a variable’s attributes, use the CONTENTS statement in
the DATASETS procedure or the functions that are named in the following
definitions:
name
identifies a variable. A variable name must conform to SAS naming rules. See a
list of rules in Table 3.3 on page 34
The names _N_, _ERROR_, _FILE_, _INFILE_, _MSG_, _IORC_, and _CMD_
are reserved for automatic variables, which are generated automatically during
DATA step execution. Note that SAS products use variable names that start and
end with an underscore; it is recommended that you do not use names that start
and end with an underscore in your own applications.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VNAME function or the
VARNAME function.
40 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

type
identifies a variable as numeric or character. Within a DATA step, a variable is
assumed to be numeric unless character is indicated. Numeric values represent
numbers, can be read in a variety of ways, and are stored in floating-point
format. Character values can contain letters, numbers, and special characters
and can be from 1 to 32,767 characters long.
In an INPUT statement, you can assign a length other than the default length to
character variables. You can also assign a length to a variable in the ATTRIB
statement.
If you create a variable for the first time in an assignment statement and do not
explicitly define its type, then SAS determines its type based on the variable’s
first occurrence in the DATA step. The variable gets the same type and length as
the expression on the right side of the assignment statement.
n A variable that appears for the first time on the left side of an assignment
statement has the same length as the expression on the right side of the
assignment statement.
n A character variable that appears for the first time in a DATA step in an
INPUT statement and whose length has not been otherwise specified, has a
default length of 8.
n A character variable that appears for the first time in an FORMAT or
INFORMAT statement has a type and length based on the category of format
or informat that is applied when it is created. See “Formats by Category” in
SAS Formats and Informats: Reference and “Informats by Category” in SAS
Formats and Informats: Reference for a list of these categories.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARTYPE function or the
VTYPE function.
length
refers to the number of bytes used to store each of the variable's values in a
SAS data set. You can use a LENGTH statement to set the length of both
numeric and character variables. Variable lengths that are specified in a
LENGTH statement affect the length of numeric variables only in the output data
set. During processing, all numeric variables have a length of 8. Lengths of
character variables that are specified in a LENGTH statement affect both the
length during processing and the length in the output data set.
In an INPUT statement, you can assign a length other than the default length to
character variables. You can also assign a length to a variable in the ATTRIB
statement.
If you create a variable and do not explicitly define its length, then the length is
automatically set by SAS. SAS sets the length based on the variable’s first
occurrence in the DATA step.
n A variable that appears for the first time on the left side of an assignment
statement has the same length as the expression on the right side of the
assignment statement.
n A character variable that appears for the first time in a DATA step in an
INPUT statement and whose length has not been otherwise specified, has a
default length of 8.
n A character variable that appears for the first time in an FORMAT or
INFORMAT statement has a type and length based on the category of format
or informat that is applied when it is created. See “Formats by Category” in
 SAS Variable Attributes 41

SAS Formats and Informats: Reference and “Informats by Category” in SAS

Formats and Informats: Reference for a list of these categories.
See Table 4.3 on page 45 for more information about variable lengths.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARLEN function or the
VLENGTH function.
format
refers to the instructions that SAS uses when printing variable values. If no
format is specified, the default format is BEST12. for a numeric variable, and $w.
for a character variable. You can assign SAS formats to a variable in the
FORMAT or ATTRIB statement. You can use the FORMAT procedure to create
your own format for a variable.
See “Create a New Variable Using the FORMAT or INFORMAT Statements” on
page 48 for an example and information about how SAS sets the length of
variables declared in the FORMAT and INFORMAT statements.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARFMT function or the
VFORMAT function.
informat
refers to the instructions that SAS uses when reading data values. If no informat
is specified, the default informat is w.d for a numeric variable, and $w. for a
character variable. You can assign SAS informats to a variable in the INFORMAT
or ATTRIB statement. You can use the FORMAT procedure to create your own
informat for a variable.
See “Create a New Variable Using the FORMAT or INFORMAT Statements” on
page 48 for an example and information about how SAS sets the length of
variables declared in the FORMAT and INFORMAT statements.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARLEN function or the
VFORMAT function.
label
refers to a descriptive label up to 256 characters long. A variable label, which
can be printed by some SAS procedures, is useful in report writing. You can
assign a label to a variable with a LABEL or ATTRIB statement.
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARLABEL function or the
VLABEL function.
position in observation
is determined by the order in which the variables are defined in the DATA step.
You can find the position of a variable in the observations of a SAS data set by
using the CONTENTS procedure. This attribute is generally not important within
the DATA step except in variable lists, such as the following:
var rent-phone;

See “SAS Variable Lists” on page 55 for more information.

The positions of variables in a SAS data set affect the order in which they appear
in the output of SAS procedures. There is an exception if you control the order
within your program (for example, with a VAR statement).
To determine the value of this attribute, use the VARNUM function .
index type
indicates whether the variable is part of an index for the data set. See
“Understanding SAS Indexes” on page 692 for more information.
 42 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

To determine the value of this attribute, use the OUT= option in the CONTENTS
statement of the DATASETS procedure to create an output data set. The
IdxUsage variable in the output data set contains one of the following values for
each variable:

Table 4.2 Index Type Attribute Values

Value Definition

NONE The variable is not indexed.

SIMPLE The variable is part of a simple index.

COMPOSITE The variable is part of one or more composite indexes.

BOTH The variable is part of both simple and composite indexes.

extended attribute
is a user-defined attribute that is created using the XATTR ADD VAR statement
in the DATASETS procedure. For more information, see XATTR ADD statement.

Ways to Create Variables

Overview
The recommended way to create variables is to use one of the following methods.
When using any of these methods, be sure to reference the variable for the first time
in the statement that is used to create it.
n Create a New Variable Using the LENGTH Statement.

n Create a New Variable Using the ATTRIB Statement.

n Create a New Variable Using an Assignment Statement.

Here are some additional ways that you can create variables in a DATA step.
However, these methods are usually recommended for changing existing variables
or for reading in existing variables that are located in external files or raw data:
n Specify a new variable in a FORMAT or INFORMAT statement.

n Read data with the INPUT statement in a DATA step.

Note: This list is not exhaustive. For example, the SET, MERGE, MODIFY, and
UPDATE statements can also create variables.
 Ways to Create Variables 43

Create a New Variable Using the LENGTH Statement

You can use the LENGTH statement to create a new variable and explicitly set its
length.
Important: Place the LENGTH statement first in the DATA step before any other
statements that reference the variable. The maximum length of any character
variable in SAS is 32,767 bytes.
data Sales;
length Salesperson $25 Price 6; /* 1 */
Salesperson='Forrest, Peter';
Price=49.99;
/* Reset length of numeric variable */
Length Price 8; /* 2 */
run;

1 You cannot change the length of a character variable with a subsequent

LENGTH or ATTRIB statement within the same DATA step. You should use the
longest possible value in the first statement that references the character
variable.
2 You can change the length of a numeric variable by using a subsequent
LENGTH statement.

When SAS assigns a value to a character variable, it pads the value with blanks or
truncates the value on the right side to make it match the length of the target
variable. Consider the following DATA step, in which variables are assigned a length
of 200 bytes, then concatenated:
data sales;
length address1 address2 address3 $ 200;
address3 = address1||address2;
run;
Because the length of Address3 is 200 bytes, only the first 200 bytes of the
concatenation (the value of Address1) are assigned to Address3. You might be able
to avoid this problem by using the TRIM function to remove trailing blanks from
Address1 before performing the concatenation, as follows:
data sales;
length address1 address2 address3 $ 200;
address3 = trim(address1)||address2;
run;
To change the lengths of existing numeric variables, use the LENGTH statement or
the ATTRIB statement. See Example and “ATTRIB Statement” in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference for more information.

Create a New Variable Using the ATTRIB Statement

If the variable does not already exist, you can use the ATTRIB statement with one or
more of the following options to create a new variable:
n FORMAT=
44 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

n INFORMAT=

n LENGTH=

In this example, the ATTRIB statement is specified first in the DATA step. The
ATTRIB statement uses the FORMAT= option to create a character variable named
Flavor with the $w. Format and a length of 10 bytes. The ATTRIB statement also
specifies the LENGTH= option to create a variable named Sizes with a length of 20
bytes.
Example Code 4.1 Create a New Variable Using the ATTRIB Statement
data lollipops;
attrib Flavor format=$10.
Sizes length=$20;
Flavor="Cherry";
Size="Small Medium Large";
run;
proc contents data=lollipops; run;

Note:
n You cannot change the length of a character variable with a subsequent
LENGTH or ATTRIB statement within the same DATA step
n You can change the length of a numeric variable by using a subsequent
LENGTH statement.
If the assignment statement is specified first in the DATA step (before the ATTRIB
statement), then the DATA step would have created the character variable Flavor
with a length of 6 and the character variable Sizes with a length of 18.
Example Code 4.2 Change the Attributes of an Existing Variable Using the ATTRIB
Statement
data lollipops;
Flavor="Cherry";
attrib Flavor format=$10.;
run;

If the variable already exists, then you can use the ATTRIB statement to specify one
or more of the following variable attributes to change the existing variable:
n FORMAT=

n INFORMAT=

n LENGTH=
 Ways to Create Variables 45

n LABEL=

Note: You cannot create a new variable by using a LABEL statement or the ATTRIB
statement's LABEL= attribute by itself. Labels can be applied only to existing
variables.
For more information, see “ATTRIB Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference.

Create a New Variable Using an Assignment Statement

In SAS, you do not have to declare a variable before assigning a value to it. The
variable is automatically declared the first time you specify it in an assignment
statement.
n SAS assigns the variable’s type and length based on its first occurrence in the
DATA step.
n SAS assigns the variable the same type and length as the expression on the
right side of the assignment operator.
n If a variable appears for the first time on the right side of an assignment operator,
then SAS assumes that it is a numeric variable, that its value is missing, and
assigns it a length of 8 bytes. If no later statement gives it a value, SAS prints a
note in the log that the variable is not initialized.

Table 4.3 Resulting Variable Types and Lengths Produced When They Are Not Explicitly Set

Resulting Type of Resulting

Expression Example X Length of X Explanation

Numeric variable data test; Numeric 8 bytes Default numeric

length a 4; length (8 bytes
x=a; unless otherwise
run; specified)

Character data test; Character 4 bytes Length of source

variable length a $ 4; variable
x=a;
run;

Character literal data test; Character 3 bytes Length of first literal

x='ABC'; encountered
x='ABCDE';
run;

Concatenated data test; Character 12 bytes Sum of the lengths

variables length a $4 b $6 of all variables
c $2;
x=a||b||c;
run;

Concatenated data test; Character 7 bytes Sum of the lengths

variables and length a $ 4; of variables and
literal x=a||'CAT'; literals encountered
x=a||'CATNIP'; in first assignment
run; statement
 46 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

If a variable appears for the first time on the right side of an assignment statement,
SAS assumes that it is a numeric variable and that its value is missing. If no later
statement gives it a value, SAS prints a note in the log that the variable is not
initialized.
You can use the “VARINITCHK= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference to specify that no notes, warnings, or error messages are written to the
SAS log. If an error is set, the DATA step stops processing.
Note: A RETAIN statement initializes a variable and can assign it an initial value,
even if the RETAIN statement appears after the assignment statement.

Reading Data with the INPUT Statement in a DATA Step

When you read raw data in SAS by using an INPUT statement, you define variables
based on positions in the raw data. You can use any one of the following forms of
the INPUT statement to provide information to SAS about how the raw data is
organized:
n list input (INPUT statement: List, simple or modified)

n formatted input (INPUT statement: Formatted)

n column input (INPUT statement: Column)

n named input (INPUT statement: Named)

Reading Data with the INPUT Statement in a DATA Step

The following example uses simple list input to create three new variables in a SAS
output data set named Gems. The INPUT statement defines the variables Name,
Carats, and Color. The variables Name and Color have a dollar sign ($) following
their names in the INPUT statement. This declares the variables as character
variables. No length is specified for any of the variables, so SAS automatically
assigns all variables a default length of 8 bytes.
data gems;
input Name $ Carats Color $;
datalines;
emerald 1 green
aquamarine 2 blue
;
proc contents data=gems; run;
proc print data=gems; run;
data gems;
input Name $ Color $ Carats Owner $;
datalines;
emerald green 1 smith
sapphire blue 2 johnson
ruby red 1 clark
;
 Ways to Create Variables 47

See Also
n “Reading Unaligned Data with Simple List Input” in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference
n “When to Use List Input” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference

Reading Data Using Formatted Input (With Length

Specified)
Formatted input uses special instructions called informats in the INPUT statement to
determine how values should be read. Informats can include information about
variable length.
If the variable does not already exist and you create it for the first time in a formatted
INPUT statement, then SAS defines the variable and its attributes based on the
category of the informat specified in the INPUT statement. See Informats by
Category for a list of these categories.
n Associating a numeric informat with a variable when it is created for the first time
in a DATA step using formatted input causes the variable to be created as a
numeric type, with a default length of 8.
n Associating a character informat with a variable when it is created for the first
time in a DATA step using formatted input causes the variable to be created as a
character type. The length matches the width specified in the informat in the
INPUT statement. If you do not specify a length with the informat or anywhere
else in the DATA step, then SAS assigns the default length of 8 bytes.
The example below uses formatted input to create a SAS data set named Gems. The
INPUT statement defines the variables Name and Color as character variables by
specifying the character informat, $CHARw., in the INPUT statement. The program
defines the Carats variable by specifying the numeric informat, COMMAw.d, in the
INPUT statement.
data gems;
input Name $char10. Carats comma3.1 Color $char.;
datalines;
emerald 15 green
aquamarine 20 blue
;
proc print data=gems; run;
proc contents data=gems; run;
 48 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Figure 4.1 Results for Creating New Variables Using Simple List Input with Lengths
Specified

To change the lengths of existing numeric variables, use the LENGTH statement or
the ATTRIB statement. See ““Example: ”” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference
and “ATTRIB Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference for more
information.

See Also
n “INPUT Statement: List” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference
n “INPUT Statement: Formatted” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference

Create a New Variable Using the FORMAT or INFORMAT

Statements
You can use the FORMAT or INFORMAT statement to create a new variable and
simultaneously associate a format or informat with the new variable. To create a
new variable using either the FORMAT or INFORMAT statement, make sure that
you place the FORMAT or INFORMAT statement first in the DATA step.
If the variable does not already exist and you create it for the first time in a FORMAT
or INFORMAT statement, then SAS defines the variable and its attributes based on
the format’s or informat’s category. See Formats by Category and Informats by
Category for a list of these categories.
n Associating a numeric format or informat with a variable when it is created for the
first time in a DATA step using the FORMAT or INFORMAT statement causes the
variable to be created as a numeric type, with a default length of 8.
n Associating a character format or informat with a variable when it is created for
the first time in a DATA step using in the FORMAT or INFORMAT statement
causes the variable to be created as a character type. The length matches the
width of the format or informat that you specify as part of the format or informat.
If you do not specify a length, then SAS assigns the default length of 8 bytes.
In the following example, the FORMAT statement creates the character variable
Flavor and the numeric variable Amount. These two variables appear for the first
time in the FORMAT statement, so SAS determines their type based on the
 Ways to Create Variables 49

category of format that is assigned to them. Since the variable Amount is associated
with numeric type format (COMMAwd), SAS defines it as a numeric type variable,
with a default length of 8.
The Flavor variable is defined as a character type variable because the
$UPCASEw. format is a character type format. When character variables are
created using the FORMAT statement, SAS determines their length first based on
the length that you specify in the FORMAT statement. If you do not specify a length
with the format or anywhere else in the DATA step, then SAS gives the variable a
default length of 8. In this example, the format does not include a length
specification, so the length for the variable Flavor is 8 bytes.
Example Code 4.3 Specifying a New Variables Using the FORMAT Statement (Without
Specifying Lengths)
data lollipops;
format Flavor $upcase. Amount comma.;
Flavor='Cherry';
Amount=10;
run;
proc contents data=lollipops; run;
The next example is identical except that a length is specified for both variables in
the FORMAT statement along with the format:

Output 4.1 PROC CONTENTS Output for Creating New Variables Using the FORMAT
Statement (Without Specifying Lengths)

Example Code 4.4 Specifying New Variables Using the FORMAT Statement (With Length
Specified)
data lollipops;
format Flavor $upcase10. Amount comma10.;
Flavor='Cherry';
Amount=10;
run;
proc contents data=lollipops; run;

Output 4.2 PROC CONTENTS Output for Specifying New Variables Using the FORMAT
Statement (With Length Specified)

In the example below, the variables Flavor and Amount are created using an
assignment statement rather than using a FORMAT statement. When a variable
appears for the first time on the left side of an assignment statement, SAS
 50 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

automatically sets its type and length based on the expression on the right side of
the assignment statement.
Example Code 4.5 Changing the Format of an Existing Variable Using the FORMAT
Statement
data lollipops;
Flavor='Cherry';
Amount=10;
format Flavor $upcase10. Amount comma10.;
run;
proc contents data=lollipops; run;

Output 4.3 PROC CONTENTS Output for Changing the Format of an Existing Variable
Using the FORMAT Statement

Since the expression on the right is the 6-letter character string, Cherry, SAS
assigns a length of 6 bytes to the character variable Flavor. SAS assigns a length
of 8 bytes to the numeric variable, Amount.

See Also
n Table 4.1 on page 38
n SAS Formats and Informats: Reference

Using the IN= Data Set Option

The IN= data set option creates a special Boolean variable that indicates whether
the data set contributed data to the current observation. The variable has a value of
1 when true, and a value of 0 when false. You can use IN= on the SET, MERGE,
and UPDATE statements in a DATA step.
The following example shows a merge of the Old and New data sets. The IN=
option is used to create a variable named X that indicates whether the New data set
contributed data to the observation:
data master missing;
merge old new(in=x);
by id;
if x=0 then output missing;
else output master;
run;
 Variable Type Conversions 51

Variable Type Conversions

If you define a numeric variable and assign the result of a character expression to it,
SAS tries to convert the character result to a numeric value and execute the
statement. If the conversion is not possible, SAS prints a note to the log, assigns the
numeric variable a value of missing, and sets the automatic variable _ERROR_ to 1.
For a listing of the rules by which SAS automatically converts character variables to
numeric variables and vice versa, see “Automatic Numeric-Character Conversion”
on page 113.
If you define a character variable and assign the result of a numeric expression to it,
SAS tries to convert the numeric result of the expression to a character value. SAS
uses the BESTw. format, where w is the width of the character variable and has a
maximum value of 32. SAS then tries to execute the statement. If the character
variable that you use is not long enough to contain a character representation of the
number, SAS prints a note to the log and assigns the character variable asterisks. If
the value is too small, SAS provides no error message and assigns the character
variable the character zero (0).
Example Code 4.1 Automatic Variable Type Conversions (partial SAS log)

44 data _null_;
45 x= 3626885;
46 length y $ 4;
47 y=x;
48 put y;
49 run;
NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character
values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
47:6
36E5

50 data _null_;
51 x1= 3626885;
52 length y1 $ 1;
53 y1=x1;
54 xs=0.000005;
55 length ys $ 1;
56 ys=xs;
57 put y1= ys=;
58 run;
NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character
values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
53:7 56:7
NOTE: Invalid character data, x1=3626885.00 , at line 53 column 7.
y1=* ys=0
x1=3626885 y1=* xs=5E-6 ys=0 _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: At least one W.D format was too small for the number to be printed. The
decimal may be shifted by the "BEST" format.

59 proc printto; run;

In the first DATA step of the example, SAS is able to fit the value of Y into a 4-byte
field by representing its value in scientific notation. In the second DATA step, SAS
cannot fit the value of Y1 into a 1-byte field and displays an asterisk (*) instead.
 52 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Aligning Variable Values in SAS Output

In SAS output, numeric variables are right-aligned and character values are left-
aligned. You can further control their alignment by using a format.
However, in SAS LISTING output, when you use an assignment statement to assign
a character value to a variable, SAS stores the value as it appears in the statement
and does not perform an alignment. Output 4.4 on page 52 illustrates the character
value alignment produced by the following program:
ods listing;
options nodate;
data aircode;
input city $ 1-13 WAC 15-17;
length airport $ 30;

if city='San Francisco' then airport='SFO';

else if city='Paris' then airport='CDG';
else if city='New York' then airport='JFK';
else if city='Moscow' then airport='MOW';
else if city='Melbourne' then airport=' MEB';

datalines;
San Francisco 67
Paris 427
New York 67
Moscow 770
Melbourne 802
;
proc print data=aircode;
run;
ods listing close;
This example produces the following LISTING output:

Output 4.4 Character Variable Alignment in SAS Listing Output

In HTML output, when you assign a character value in an assignment statement,

SAS ignores the white space and left-aligns the characters as usual. The same
example above produces the following output in HTML:
 Reordering Variables in SAS Output 53

Output 4.5 Character Variable Alignment in SAS HTML Output

Reordering Variables in SAS Output

You can control the order in which variables are displayed in SAS output by using
the following declarative statements:
n ARRAY

n ATTRIB

n FORMAT

n INFORMAT

n LENGTH

n RETAIN

For any of these statements to work, they must be placed prior to any one of the
following declarative statements:
n SET

n MERGE
n UPDATE

Only the variables whose positions are relevant need to be listed. Variables not
listed in these statements retain their original position.
In the following example, the data set Sashelp.Class contains variables Name, Sex,
Age, Height, and Weight (in that order). The LENGTH statement is specified before
the SET statement. Specifying the LENGTH statement before the SET statement
causes the variable Height to be moved to the first position in the output data set.
Example Code 4.6 Using the LENGTH Statement to Reorder Variables

data Class1;
length Height 3; /* The LENGTH statement precedes the SET statement */
set Sashelp.Class; /* and causes the variable Height to be placed first */
 54 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

run; /* in the output */

proc print data=Class1;
run;

Output 4.6 Using the LENGTH Statement to Reorder Variables

The RETAIN statement is most often used to reorder variables simply because no
other variable attribute specifications are required. The RETAIN statement has no
effect on retaining values of existing variables being read from the data set. In the
following example, the RETAIN statement causes the variable Weight to be listed
first in the output data set:
Example Code 4.7 Using the RETAIN Statement to Reorder Variables

data Class2;
retain Weight; /* The RETAIN statement precedes the SET statement */
set Sashelp.Class; /* and causes the variable Weight to be placed first */
run; /* in the output */
proc print data=Class2;
run;

Output 4.7 Using the RETAIN Statement to Reorder Variables

Automatic Variables
Automatic variables are created automatically by the DATA step or by DATA step
statements. These variables are added to the program data vector but are not
written to the output data set. The values of automatic variables are retained from
one iteration of the DATA step to the next, rather than set to missing.
Automatic variables that are created by specific statements are documented with
those statements. For examples, see the “BY Statement” in SAS DATA Step
 SAS Variable Lists 55

Statements: Reference, the “MODIFY Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements:

Reference, and “WINDOW Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
Two automatic variables are created by every DATA step: _N_ and _ERROR_.
_N_
is initially set to 1. Each time the DATA step loops past the DATA statement, the
variable _N_ increments by 1. The value of _N_ represents the number of times
the DATA step has iterated.
_ERROR_
is 0 by default but is set to 1 whenever an error is encountered, such as an input
data error, a conversion error, or a math error, as in division by 0 or a floating
point overflow. You can use the value of this variable to help locate errors in data
records and to print an error message to the SAS log.
For example, either of the two following statements writes to the SAS log, during
each iteration of the DATA step, the contents of an input record in which an input
error is encountered:
if _error_=1 then put _infile_;
if _error_ then put _infile_;

SAS Variable Lists

Definition
A SAS variable list is an abbreviated method of referring to a list of variable names.
SAS enables you to use the following variable lists:
n numbered range lists

n name range lists

n name prefix lists

n special SAS name lists

With the exception of the numbered range list, you refer to the variables in a
variable list in the same order that SAS uses to keep track of the variables. SAS
keeps track of active variables in the order in which the compiler encounters them
within a DATA step. This happens whether the active variables are read from
existing data sets, an external file, or created in the step.
In a numbered range list, you can refer to variables that were created in any order,
provided that their names have the same prefix.
Note: Only the numbered range list is used in the RENAME= option.
 56 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Numbered Range Lists

Definition
Numbered range lists require you to have a series of variables with the same name,
except for the last character or characters, which are consecutive numbers. For
example, the following two lists refer to the same variables:
Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4 Var5 Var6

Var1-Var6

Example
For example, suppose you decide to give some of your variables sequential names,
as in Score1, Score2, Score3, and so on. You can write an INPUT statement as
follows:
data exam;
input Score1-Score10;
datalines;
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
;

In a numbered range list, you can begin with any number and end with any number
as long as you do not violate the rules for user-supplied names and the numbers are
consecutive.
data exam;
input Score11-Score20;
datalines;
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
;
proc print data=exam noobs; run;

Example
Using the same data set from the previous example, the following example shows
how you can use a numbered range list to reference a subset of the variables:
data exam2;
set exam;
drop Score13-Score18;
run;
proc print data=exam2 noobs; run;
 SAS Variable Lists 57

Example
You can also use a numbered range list in an ARRAY statement. In the following
example, notice how the variables are first defined in the INPUT statement before
they are used in the array declaration. The variables in the INPUT statement can
either be written out individually, as shown in the first DATA step below, or they can
be written as a numbered range list, as shown in the second DATA step:
data temperatures;
input day1 day2 day3 day4 day5 day6 day7;
datalines;
44.4 44.6 44.9 45.2 45.4 45.7 45.9
;
proc print data=temperatures;
title "Average Daily Low Temperature";
run;
data tempCelsius(drop=i);
set temperatures;
array celsius{7} day1-day7;
do i=1 to 7;
celsius{i}=(celsius{i} - 32) * 5/9;
end;
run;

proc print data=tempCelsius;

title "Average Daily Low Temperature in Celsius";
run;

Restriction for Numbered Range Lists

You cannot specify numbered range lists for data sets or variables that end in
numbers larger than 2147483647. For example, when the following DATA step
program executes, an error will occur because the last variable defined
(a2147483648=3) is greater than the limit for variable names in a numbered range
lists. The number range list specified in the KEEP statement extends beyond
2147483647:
data test;
a2147483646=1;
a2147483647=2;
a2147483648=3;
keep a2147483646=1-a2147483648=3; /* 1 */
 58 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

run;
One solution to this limitation is to rename the variables that make up the list by
appending a character to the ends of the variable names:

proc sql noprint; /* 2 */

select cats(name,'=',name,'A')
into :list
separated by ' '
from dictionary.columns
where libname = 'WORK' and memname = 'TEST';
quit;

proc datasets library = work nolist; /* 3 */

modify TEST;
rename &list;
run; quit;

data test;
set test;
keep a2147483646A--a2147483648A; /* 3 */
run;
proc print data=test; run;

1 Create a data set that contains variable names longer than the maximum
allowed for lists. Specify the variables as a numbered range list in the KEEP
statement. An error is returned.
2 Use PROC SQL and SAS dictionary tables to concatenate the letter A to the
ends of all the variable names. Read those values into a macro variable named
list.
3 Use PROC DATASETS MODIFY to rename the variables by specifying the
macro variable as the argument to the RENAME statement.
4 Use the variables in a name range list in the KEEP statement (instead of in a
numbered range list). See “Name Range Lists” on page 58 for more
information.
Note: Notice the difference in syntax between a numbered range list and the
name range list used in the solution above. In a name range list, the range is
indicated using double hyphens.

Name Range Lists

Name range lists rely on the order of variable definition, as shown in the following
table:

Table 4.4 Name Range Lists

Variable List Included Variables

x‑ ‑a all variables in order of variable definition, from variable x to

variable a inclusive
 SAS Variable Lists 59

Variable List Included Variables

x ‑NUMERIC‑ a all numeric variables from variable x to variable a inclusive

x ‑CHARACTER‑ a all character variables from variable x to variable a

inclusive

Note: Notice that name range lists use a double hyphen ( - - ) to designate the
range between variables, and numbered range lists use a single hyphen to
designate the range.
You can use a name range list in an ARRAY declaration as long as you have
already defined the variables prior to declaring the array. The variables can be
defined in the same DATA step or in a previous DATA step.
Below are some examples that show how name range lists can be used with various
SAS statements and options.
The following DATA step creates the data set that will be used in Examples 1
through 3.
data patients;
input Idnum Name $ Weight Pulse BMI Gender $;
datalines;
123 Jones 155 82 27 F
456 Smith 175 78 24 M
789 Kamda 172 69 22 F
;

Example 1
In the following example, the name range list specified in the KEEP statement keeps
all variables between and including Name and Pulse.
data patientsConsec;
set patients;
keep Name--Pulse;
run;
proc print data=patientsConsec; run;

Example 2
In the following example, the name range list specified in the KEEP statement keeps
all numeric variables between and including Idnum and BMI.
data patientsNumerics;
set patients;
keep Idnum-numeric-BMI;
run;
60 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

proc print data=patientsNumerics; run;

Example 3
In the following example, the name range list specified in the KEEP statement keeps
all character variables between and including Idnum and Pulse.
data patientsCharacters;
set patients;
keep Idnum-character-Pulse;
run;
proc print data=patientsCharacters; run;

Example 4
The following example uses the Sashelp.Fish data set.
This example shows how you can use a name range list to specify the variables in
an array. The ARRAY statement reads all variables between and including the
variables Length1 and Width into an array named fish. The DO loop iterates
through the items in the array and converts the values to centimeters.
/* Array is used to convert inches to centimeters */
data fishConvert(drop=i);
set sashelp.fish(where=(species="Whitefish"));
array fish{5} Length1--Width;
do i=1 to 5;
fish{i}=fish{i} * 2.54;
end;
run;
proc print data=fishConvert; run;

Example 5
The following example uses the Sashelp.Baseball data set, in which the following
variables are defined:

Output 4.8 Sashelp.Baseball Data Set Variables

 SAS Variable Lists 61

In the example, the name range list specified in the KEEP statement keeps all
numeric variables between and including nAtBat and nOuts.
The name range list specified in the ARRAY statement reads all character variables
between and including Name and logSalary into an array named stats.
The name range list specified in the VAR statement in the PRINT procedure
specifies that only the variables between and including Name and nBB are printed in
the PROC PRINT output.
/* Array is used to multiply stats by 10 */
data changeStats(where=(YrMajor>18));
set sashelp.baseball;
keep Name nAtBat-numeric-nOuts YrMajor;
array stats(4) nAtBat--nRuns;
do i=1 to 4;
stats{i} = stats{i} * 10;
end;
run;
proc print data=changeStats;
var Name--nBB;
run;

Example 6
The following example uses the Sashelp.Baseball data set. See Output 4.8 on page
60 for a list of variables defined in the data set.
In the example, the name range list specified in the ARRAY statement reads all
character variables between and including Name and logSalary into an array named
case. The KEEP statement specifies a named range list to keep all variables
between nAtBat and CrBB.
/* Array is used to uppercase character values */
data baseballUpcase;
set sashelp.baseball(where=(YrMajor>18));
array case{6} Name-character-Div;
do i=1 to 6;
case{i}=upcase(case{i});
end;
keep crRuns-numeric-nOuts Name-character-Div;
run;
proc print data=baseballUpcase; run;
 62 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Example 7
The following example uses the Sashelp.Baseball data set. See Output 4.8 on page
60 for a list of variables defined in the data set.
In the example, the name range list specified in the VAR statement prints all
variables between nAtBat and CrBB.
proc print data=sashelp.baseball(obs=5);
var Name nAtBat--nHome Salary;
run;

Note: You can use the VARNUM option in PROC CONTENTS or the VAR
statement in PROC PRINT to print the variables in the order of definition.
For more information about using arrays with variable lists, see “Using Variable Lists
to Define an Array Quickly” on page 611.

Name Prefix Lists

Some SAS functions and statements enable you to use a name prefix list to refer to
all variables that begin with a specified character string:
sum(of Sales:)

This character string tells SAS to calculate the sum of all the variables that begin
with “Sales,” such as Sales_Jan, Sales_Feb, and Sales_Mar.

Special SAS Name Lists

Special SAS name lists include:
_NUMERIC_
specifies all numeric variables that are already defined in the current DATA step.
_CHARACTER_
specifies all character variables that are already defined in the current DATA
step.
_ALL_
specifies all variables that are already defined in the current DATA step.
 The OF Operator with Functions and Variable Lists 63

The OF Operator with Functions and Variable

Lists

Definition
The OF operator enables you to specify SAS variable lists or SAS arrays as
arguments to functions. Here is the syntax for functions used with the OF operator:
FUNCTION (OF variable-list)
FUNCTION (<argument | OF variable-list | OF array-name[*]><…, <argument | OF
variable-list | OF array-name[*]>>)
The following table shows the types of SAS variable lists that are valid with the OF
operator:

Table 4.5 SAS Variable Lists Used with the OF Operator

Type Example Description

Name range lists Function(OF x-character-a) Performs the function on all

the character variables from
x to a inclusive.

Name prefix lists Function(OF x:) Performs the function on all

the variables that begin with
“x” such as “x1”, “x2” and so
on.

Numbered range lists Function(OF x1 – xn) Performs the function on

variable values between x1
and xn inclusive.1

Arrays Function(OF array-name(*)) Performs the function on the

named array.2

Special SAS name lists Function(OF _numeric_) Performs the function on the
_numeric_variable, which
specifies all numeric
variables that are already
defined in the current DATA
step.

In the following example, arguments are passed in as numbered range lists, both
with and without the use of the OF operator.

1. Requires you to have a series of variables with the same name except for the last character or characters, which are
consecutive numbers.
2. If array-name is a temporary array, there are limitations. See “Using the OF Operator with Temporary Arrays” in SAS
Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.
 64 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

data _null_;
x1=30; x2=20; x3=10;
T=sum(x1-x3); /* #1 */
T2=sum(OF x1-x3); /* #2 */
put T=; /* #3 */
put T2=; /* #4 */
run;

1 The first SUM function returns T=20.

2 The second SUM function returns T2=60.
3 Writes to the log the difference between x1 and x3.
4 Writes to the log the difference between x1 and x3 (inclusive).

Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming Variables

Using Statements or Data Set Options

The DROP, KEEP, and RENAME statements or the DROP=, KEEP=, and
RENAME= data set options control which variables are processed or output during
the DATA step. You can use one or a combination of these statements and data set
options to achieve the results that you want. The action taken by SAS depends
largely on whether you perform one of the following actions:
n Use a statement or data set option or both.

n Specify the data set options on an input or an output data set.

The following table summarizes the general differences between the DROP, KEEP,
and RENAME statements and the DROP=, KEEP=, and RENAME= data set
options.

Table 4.6 Statements versus Data Set Options for Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming
Variables

Statements Data Set Options

apply to output data sets only apply to output or input data sets

effect all output data sets effect individual data sets

can be used in DATA steps only can be used in DATA steps and PROC steps

can appear anywhere in DATA steps must immediately follow the name of each
data set to which they apply
 Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming Variables 65

Using the Input or Output Data Set

You must also consider whether you want to drop, keep, or rename the variable
before it is read into the program data vector or as it is written to the new SAS data
set. If you use the DROP, KEEP, or RENAME statement, the action always occurs
as the variables are written to the output data set. With SAS data set options, where
you use the option determines when the action occurs. If the option is used on an
input data set, the variable is dropped, kept, or renamed before it is read into the
program data vector. If used on an output data set, the data set option is applied as
the variable is written to the new SAS data set. (In the DATA step, an input data set
is one that is specified in a SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statement. An output data set
is one that is specified in the DATA statement.) Consider the following facts when
you make your decision:
n If variables are not written to the output data set and they do not require any
processing, using an input data set option to exclude them from the DATA step is
more efficient.
n If you want to rename a variable before processing it in a DATA step, you must
use the RENAME= data set option in the input data set.
n If the action applies to output data sets, you can use either a statement or a data
set option in the output data set.
The following table summarizes the action of data set options and statements when
they are specified for input and output data sets. The last column of the table tells
whether the variable is available for processing in the DATA step. If you want to
rename the variable, use the information in the last column.

Table 4.7 Status of Variables and Variable Names When Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming
Variables

Where Data Set Option or Status of Variable

Specified Statement Purpose or Variable Name

Input data set DROP= includes or excludes if excluded,

variables from processing variables are not
KEEP=
available for use in
DATA step

RENAME= changes name of variable use new name in

before processing program
statements and
output data set
options; use old
name in other
input data set
options
 66 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Where Data Set Option or Status of Variable

Specified Statement Purpose or Variable Name

Output data set DROP, KEEP specifies which variables all variables
are written to all output available for
data sets processing

RENAME changes name of variables use old name in

in all output data sets program
statements; use
new name in
output data set
options

DROP= specifies which variables all variables are

are written to individual available for
KEEP=
output data sets processing

RENAME= changes name of variables use old name in

in individual output data program
sets statements and
other output data
set options

Order of Application
If your program requires that you use more than one data set option or a
combination of data set options and statements, it is helpful to know that SAS drops,
keeps, and renames variables in the following order:
n First, options on input data sets are evaluated left to right within SET, MERGE,
and UPDATE statements. DROP= and KEEP= options are applied before the
RENAME= option.
n Next, DROP and KEEP statements are applied, followed by the RENAME
statement.
n Finally, options on output data sets are evaluated left to right within the DATA
statement. DROP= and KEEP= options are applied before the RENAME=
option.

Example: Convert a Variable from Character to Numeric

The following examples show specific ways to handle dropping, keeping, and
renaming variables:
This example uses the DROP= and RENAME= data set options and the INPUT
function to convert the variable poprank from a character to a numeric type. The
name poprank is changed to different name, tempvar, before processing. This
enables a new variable with the same name (poprank) to be created in the next
assignment statement, in which it is created as a numeric type. Note that the
variable tempvar is dropped from the output data set. The tempvar variable is
needed only temporarily in the DATA step.
 Encrypting Variable Values 67

data newstate(drop=tempvar);
set state(rename=(poprank=tempvar));
poprank=input(tempvar,8.);
run;

Example: Drop Variables from the Output Data Set

This example uses the DROP statement and the DROP= data set option to control
the output of variables to two new SAS data sets. The DROP statement applies to
both data sets, Corn and Bean. You must use the RENAME= data set option to
rename the output variables BeanWt and CornWt in each data set.
data corn(rename=(cornwt=yield) drop=beanwt)
bean(rename=(beanwt=yield) drop=cornwt);
set harvest;
if crop='corn' then output corn;
else if crop='bean' then output bean;
drop crop;
run;

Example: Drop and Rename Variables

This example shows how to use data set options in the DATA statement and the
RENAME statement together. Note that the new name QTRTOT is used in the
DROP= data set option.
data qtr1 qtr2 ytd(drop=qtrtot);
set ytdsales;
if qtr=1 then output qtr1;
else if qtr=2 then output qtr2;
else output ytd;
rename total=qtrtot;
run;

Encrypting Variable Values

Customized Encryption and Decryption Algorithms for SAS

Variables
SAS provides encryption for SAS data sets with the ENCRYPT= data set option, but
this option is typically used to encrypt data at the data set level. To encrypt data at
the SAS variable level, you can use a combination of DATA step functions and logic
to create your own encryption and decryption algorithms. However, if you create
your own algorithms, it is important that you create a program that not only is secure
 68 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

and hidden from public view, but that also contains methods to both encrypt and
decrypt the data.
This section provides sample programs that use the DATA step with different
functions and methods to encrypt and decrypt variables.

Example 1: 1-Byte-to-1-Byte Swap Using the TRANSLATE

Function
The first sample program shows how to use a simple 1-byte-to-1-byte swap with the
TRANSLATE function. Because this method is not complicated, you might assume
that it is not as secure. However, because you are designing the pattern of
characters, special characters, or values for the TRANSLATE arguments from and
to, you are creating your own unique encryption algorithm.
The values that are listed for both the TRANSLATE from and the TRANSLATE to
arguments do not have to be in any sequential, alphabetical, or numerical order.
In the following sample code, the DATA step reads a name that is 8 or fewer
characters in length and uses a DO loop to process the TRANSLATE function and
SUBSTR function 1 byte at a time.
The first DO loop creates the encrypted value and the second DO loop creates the
decrypted value by reversing the order and returning the original value.
Example Code 4.8 A Simple 1-Byte-to-1-Byte Swap Using the TRANSLATE Function
data sample1;
input @1 name $;
length encrypt decrypt $ 8;

/*ENCRYPT*/
do i = 1 to 8;
encrypt=strip(encrypt)||translate(substr(name,i,1),
'0123456789!@#$%^&*()-=,./?<','ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ');
end;

/*DECRYPT*/
do j = 1 to 8;
decrypt=strip(decrypt)||translate(substr(encrypt,j,1),
'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','0123456789!@#$%^&*()-=,./?<');
end;

drop i j;
datalines;
ROBERT
JOHN
GREG
;
proc print;
run;
The following output shows the results of the PROC PRINT for Example 1:
 Encrypting Variable Values 69

Example 2: Using a 1-Byte-to-2-Byte Swap with the

TRANWRD Function
This sample program shows how to encrypt values using a 1-byte-to-2-byte swap
with the TRANWRD function. Each 1-byte character is replaced with a 2-digit
number. To change values that go from 1-byte to many bytes, or many bytes to 1
byte, you need to use the TRANWRD function and you must assign the resulting
variable the same name as the variable that is being translated. The values that are
listed for the from values do not have to be in any special order.
In the following sample code, the DATA step reads an ID that is 6 or fewer
characters in length. However, the variable is assigned a length of 12 to double the
character length, because this is a 1-byte-to-2-byte exchange. A DO loop processes
the TRANWRD function 1 byte at a time.
The values that are being changed are the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F, but they are
listed in a random order as the from_1 value. The to_1 value is assigned a starting
value of 21. However, this can be any other 2-digit number, such as 11 or 38, as
long as the last value that is assigned does not go over 99, which then turns into a
3-digit number.
The first DO loop creates the encrypted value and the second DO loop creates the
decrypted value by reversing the order and returning the original value. New
variables are assigned to the ID variable before the TRANWRD function to avoid
overwriting the original ID variable.
Example Code 4.9 Using a 1-Byte-to-2-Byte Swap with the TRANWRD Function
data sample2;
input @1 id $12.;

/*ENCRYPT*/
encrypt=id;
i=21;
do from_1 = "C","F","E","A","D","B";
to_1=put(i,2.);
encrypt=tranwrd(encrypt,from_1,to_1);
i+1;
end;

/*DECRYPT*/
decrypt=encrypt;
j=21;
do to_2 = "C","F","E","A","D","B";
 70 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

from_2=put(j,2.);
decrypt=tranwrd(decrypt,from_2,to_2);
j+1;
end;
drop i j to_1 from_1 to_2 from_2;

datalines;
ABCDEF
FEDC
ACE
BDFA
CAFDEB
BADCF
ABC
;
proc print;
run;
The following output shows the results of the PROC PRINT for Example 2:

Example 3: Using Different Functions to Encrypt Numeric

Values as Character Strings
This sample program shows you how to encrypt a numeric value to create a
character value using a different character every third time. This method uses the
PUT, SUBSTR, INDEXC, TRANSLATE, CATS, and INPUT functions, as well as
array processing.
The program uses two DATA steps: one to encrypt the values and the other to
reverse the process and decrypt the values. You can merge the encrypt and decrypt
DATA steps into a single DATA step, if needed.
The first DATA step reads numeric values that are 5 digits or fewer. The numeric
variable is converted to a character variable and is split into five separate values.
 Encrypting Variable Values 71

Four ARRAY statements are used: the first array sets up the from values; the
second sets up the to values; the third holds the five separate numeric values; and
the fourth holds the five new, separate encrypted values.
The from and to arrays are each created with three elements. The from ARRAY is
assigned the same string of numbers for all three elements, and the to ARRAY is
assigned a different string of letters for each of the three elements to build the
every-third-time rotating pattern.
The PUT function converts the numeric value to a character value.
The first DO loop uses the SUBSTR function to split the value into five separate
values and assigns each to the old ARRAY. The second DO loop translates each
value by using the INDEXC function to find the original number in the from ARRAY
and, if found, translates the value using the from ARRAY, and rotates through the
list of elements every third time. The encrypted value is created by using the CATS
function to concatenate the five translated values.
If you compare the two DATA steps in the example below, you can see that the
values in the to and from arrays are reversed. This is because the second DATA
step reverses the encryption done in the first DATA step, converting the values back
to their original values.
The same process that is used to encrypt the values is also used to decrypt the
values. The only differences are that the encrypted variable is passed to the
SUBSTR function, and the final decrypted variable is passed to the INPUT function
following the CATS function. This is done to convert the final values to numeric
values.
Example Code 4.10 Using Different Functions to Encrypt Numeric Values into Character
Strings
data sample3;
input num;
array from(3) $ 10 from1-from3 ('0123456789','0123456789','0123456789');
array to(3) $ 10 to1-to3 ('ABCDEFGHIJ','KLMNOPQRST','UVWXYZABCD');
array old(5) $ old1-old5;
array new(5) $ new1-new5;
char_num=put(num,5.);
do i = 1 to 5;
old(i)=substr(char_num,i,1);
end;
j=1;
do k = 1 to 5;
if indexc(old(k),from(j)) > 0 then do;
new(k)=translate(old(k),to(j),from(j));
j+1;
if j=4 then j=1;
end;
end;
encrypt_num=cats(of new1-new5);
keep num encrypt_num;
datalines;
12345
70707
99
1111
;
run;
 72 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

data sample3;
set sample3;
array to(3) $ 10 to1-to3 ('0123456789','0123456789','0123456789');
array from(3) $ 10 from1-from3 ('ABCDEFGHIJ','KLMNOPQRST','UVWXYZABCD');
array old(5) $ old1-old5;
array new(5) $ new1-new5;
do i = 1 to 5;
old(i)=substr(encrypt_num,i,1);
end;
j=1;
do k = 1 to 5;
if indexc(old(k),from(j)) > 0 then do;
new(k)=translate(old(k),to(j),from(j));
j+1;
if j=4 then j=1;
end;
end;
decrypt_num=input(cats(of new1-new5),5.);
keep num encrypt_num decrypt_num;
run;

proc print;
run;
The following output shows the results of the PROC PRINT for Example 3:

Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software

Overview
In any number system, whether it is binary or decimal, there are limitations to how
precise numbers can be represented. As a result, approximations have to be made.
For example, in the decimal number system, the fraction 1/3 cannot be perfectly
represented as a finite decimal value because it contains infinitely repeating digits
(.333...). On computers, because of finite precision, this number must be
approximated. Numerical precision is the accuracy with which numbers are
approximated or represented.
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 73

In computing, software applications are particularly susceptible to numerical

precision errors due to finite precision and machine hardware limitations. Computers
are finite machines with finite storage capacity, so they cannot represent an infinite
set of numbers with perfect precision.
The problem is further compounded by the fact that computers use a different
number system than people do. Decimal infinite-precision arithmetic is the norm for
human calculations but computers use finite binary representations of values and
finite-precision arithmetic. This representation has been proven adequate for many
calculations. Yet, depending on the problem, you might need an extended precision
that is wider than what the hardware offers. In that case, representation and
arithmetic are done mostly in software and are relatively much slower than hardware
arithmetic.
Furthermore, although computers do allow the use of decimal numbers and decimal
arithmetic via human-centric software interfaces, all numbers and data are
eventually converted to binary format to be stored and processed by the computer
internally. It is in the conversion between these 2 number systems – decimal to
binary – that precision is affected and rounding errors are introduced.
Note: Calculated statistics can vary slightly depending on the order in which
observations are processed. Such variations are due to numerical errors that are
introduced by floating-point arithmetic, the results of which should be considered
approximate and inexact. The order of observation processing can be affected by
non-deterministic effects of multi-threaded or parallel processing. The order of
processing can also be affected by inconsistent or non-deterministic ordering of
observations that are produced by a data source, such as a DBMS that delivers
query results through an ACCESS engine.

Truncation in Binary Numbers

Just like there are decimal values with infinitely repeating representations, there are
also binary values that have infinitely repeating representations. However, the
numbers that are imprecise in decimal are not always the same ones that are
imprecise in binary.
For example, the decimal value 1/10 has a finite decimal representation (0.1), but in
binary it has an infinitely repeating representation. In binary, the value converts to
0.000110011001100110011 ...

where the pattern 0011 is repeated indefinitely. As a result, the value will be rounded
when stored on a computer.
Performing calculations and comparisons on imprecise numbers in SAS can lead to
unexpected results. Even the simplest calculations can lead to a wrong conclusion.
Hardware cannot always match what might seem obvious and expected in the
decimal system.
For example, in decimal arithmetic, the expression (3 x 0.1) is expected to be
equal to 0.3, so the difference between (3 x 0.1) and (0.3), must be 0. Because
the decimal values 0.1 and 0.3 do not have exact binary representations, this
equality does not hold true in binary arithmetic. If you compute the difference
between the two values in a SAS program, the result is not 0, as Example Code
4.11 on page 74 illustrates.
In the example, SAS sets the variables point_three and
three_times_point_three to 0.3 and (3 x 0.1), respectively. It then compares
 74 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

the two values by subtracting one from the other and writing the result to the SAS
log:
Example Code 4.11 Comparing Imprecise Values in SAS
data a;
point_three=0.3;
three_times_point_one= 3 * 0.1;
difference= point_three - three_times_point_one;
put 'The difference is ' difference;
run;

Output 4.9 Log Output for Comparing Imprecise Values in SAS

The log output shows that (3 x 0.1) — 0.3 does not equal 0, as it does in decimal
arithmetic. This is because the variable "difference" is the result of calculations that
are performed on rounded values, or, infinitely repeating binary values.
There are many decimal fractions whose binary equivalents are infinitely repeating
binary numbers, so be careful when interpreting results from general rational
numbers in decimal. There are some rational numbers that do not present problems
in either number system. For example, 1/2 can be finitely represented in both the
decimal and binary systems.
To understand better why a simple calculation such as this one can go wrong, or
how a number can be out of range, it is important to understand in more detail how
SAS stores binary numbers.

How SAS Stores Numeric Values

Maximum Integer Size

SAS stores all numeric values in 8 bytes of storage unless you specify differently.
This does not mean that a value is limited to 8 digits, but rather that 8 bytes are
allocated for storing the value. In the previous section, you learned how storing non-
integer values (fractions) can lead to problems with precision. But you can also
encounter problems of magnitude, or range, when working with integers (whole
numbers).
On any computer, there are limits to how large the absolute value of an integer can
be. In SAS, this maximum integer value depends on two factors:
n the number of bytes that you explicitly specify for storing the variable (using the
LENGTH statement)
n the operating environment on which SAS is running
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 75

If you have not explicitly specified the number of storage bytes, then SAS uses the
default length of 8 bytes, and the maximum integer then depends solely on what
operating system you are using.
The following table lists the largest integer that can be reliably stored by a SAS
variable in the mainframe, UNIX, and Windows operating environments.

Table 4.8 Largest Integer That Can Be Safely Stored in a Given Length

When Variable
Largest Integer Largest Integer
Length
Equals ... z/OS Window and UNIX

2 256 not applicable

3 65,536 8,192

4 16,777,216 2,097,152

5 4,294,967,296 536,870,912

6 1,099,511,627,776 137,438,953,472

7 281,474,946,710,656 35,184,372,088,832

8 (default) 72,057,594,037,927,936 9,007,199,254,740,992

When viewing this table, consider the following points:

n The minimum length for a SAS variable on Windows and UNIX operating
systems is 3 bytes, and the maximum length is 8 bytes. On IBM mainframes, the
minimum length for a SAS variable is 2 bytes, and the maximum length is 8
bytes.
n As the length of the variable increases, so does the size of the integer that can
be reliably represented.
n For any given variable length, the maximum integer varies by host. This is
because mainframes have different specifications for storing floating-point
numbers than UNIX and PC machines do.
n Always store real numbers in the full 8 bytes of storage. If you want to save disk
space by using the LENGTH statement to reduce the length of your variables,
you can do so but only for variables whose values are integers. When adjusting
the length of variables, make sure that the values are less than or equal to the
largest integer allowed for that specified length.
For example, in the UNIX operating environment, if you know that the value of
your numeric variables will always be integers between ‑8192 and 8192, then
you can safely specify a length of 3 to store the number:
data myData;
length num 3;
num=8000;
run;

CAUTION! Use the full 8 bytes to store variables that contain real numbers.
76 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Floating-Point Representation
SAS stores numeric values in 8 bytes of data. The way that the numbers are stored
and the space available to store them also affects numerical accuracy. Although
there are various ways to store binary numbers internally, SAS uses floating-point
representation to store numeric values. Floating-point representation supports a
wide range of values (very large or very small numbers) with an adequate amount of
numerical accuracy.
You might already be familiar with floating-point representation because it is similar
to scientific notation. In both scientific notation and floating-point representation,
each number is represented as a mantissa, a base, and an exponent.

mantissa exponent
987 = .987 x 103
base

n the mantissa is the number that is being multiplied by the base. In the example,
the mantissa is .987.
n the base is the number that is being raised to a power. In the example, the base
is 10.
n the exponent is the power to which the base is raised. In the example, the
exponent is 3.
One major difference between scientific notation and floating-point representation is
that in scientific notation, the base is 10. In floating-point representation, on most
operating systems, the base is either 2 or 16 depending on the system.
The following figure shows the decimal value 987 written in the IEEE 754 binary
floating-point format. Because it is a small value, no rounding is needed.

sign exponent mantissa

987 = 0 100 0100 0111 0110
To store binary floating-point numbers, computers use standard formats called
interchange formats, or byte layouts. The byte layout is a standard way of grouping
and ordering bit strings, from left to right. In this way, the parts of the floating-point
number are represented in a standardized way. Each part of the floating-point value
(sign, exponent, mantissa) is allotted a specific number of bits in the string and a
specific position in the string. This allows for the exchange of floating-point data in
an efficient and compact form.
The byte layout for a double-precision binary floating-point number uses the first bit
to encode the sign of the number, the next 11 bits to encode the exponent, and the
final 52 bits to encode the mantissa. If the sign bit is 1, then the number is negative
and if the sign bit is 0, then the number is positive.
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 77

Figure 4.2 Byte Layout for a Double-Precision Binary Floating-Point Number

sign
exponent (11 bit) mantissa

byte 1 byte 2 byte 3 byte 4 byte 5 byte 6 byte 7 byte 8

Different host computers can have different formats and specifications for floating-
point representation. All platforms on which SAS runs use 8-byte floating-point
representation.

Precision v. Magnitude
The largest integer value that can be represented exactly (without rounding)
depends on the base and the number of bits that are allotted to the exponent. The
precision is determined by the number of bits that are allotted for the mantissa.
Whether an operating system truncates or rounds digits affects errors in
representation.
SAS stores truncated floating-point numbers using the LENGTH statement, which
reduces the number of mantissa bits. The following table shows some differences
between floating-point formats for the IBM mainframe and the IEEE standard. The
IEEE standard is used by the Windows and UNIX operating systems.

Table 4.9 IBM and IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Formats

IEEE Standard
IBM (Windows and
Specifications Mainframe UNIX) Affects

Base 16 2 magnitude

Exponent Bits 7 11 magnitude

Mantissa bits 56 52 precision

Round or Truncate Truncate Round precision

Bias for Exponent 64 1023

The following bullet points describe the table above in more detail:
n Base 16 – uses digits 0-9 and letters A-F (to represent the values 10-15).

For example, to convert the decimal value 3000 to hexadecimal, you use the
base 16 number system:

Base 16

16 7 ... 16 4 16 3 16 2 16 1 16 0

268,435,456 ... 65,536 4096 256 16 1

 78 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

So, the value 3000 is represented in hexadecimal as BB8

n Base 2 – uses digits 0 and 1.

For example, to convert the decimal value 184 to binary, you use the base 2
number system:

Base 2

27 ... 24 23 22 21 20

128 ... 16 8 4 2 1

So, the value 184 is represented in binary as 10111000.

n exponent bits – the number of bits reserved for storing the exponent, which
determines the magnitude of the number that you can store. The number of
exponent bits varies between operating systems. IEEE systems yield numbers of
greater magnitude because they use more bits for the exponent.
n mantissa bits – the number of bits reserved for storing the mantissa, which
determines the precision of the number. Because there are more bits reserved
for the mantissa on mainframes, you can expect greater precision on a
mainframe compared to a PC.
n round or truncate – the chosen conversion method used for handling two or
more digits. Because there is room for only two hexadecimal characters in the
mantissa, a convention must be adopted on how to handle more than two digits.
One convention is to truncate the value at the length that can be stored. This
convention is used by IBM Mainframe systems.
An alternative is to round the value based on the digits that cannot be stored,
which is done on IEEE systems. There is no right or wrong way to handle this
dilemma since neither convention results in an exact representation of the value.
In SAS, the LENGTH statement works by truncating the number of mantissa bits.
For more information about the effects of truncated lengths, see “Using the
TRUNC Function When Comparing Values” on page 91.
n bias – an offset used to enable both negative and positive exponents with the
bias representing 0. If a bias is not used, an additional sign bit for the exponent
must be allocated. For example, if a system uses a bias of 64, a characteristic
with the value 66 represents an exponent of +2, whereas a characteristic of 61
represents an exponent of –3.

Floating-Point Representation Using the IEEE Standard

The IEEE standard for floating-point arithmetic is a technical standard for floating-
point computation created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 79

(IEEE). The standard defines how computers store numbers in floating-point

representation. The IEEE standard for floating-point numbers is used by many
operating systems, including Windows and UNIX.
Although the IEEE platforms use the same set of specifications, you might
occasionally see varying results between the platforms due to compiler differences,
and math library differences. Also, because the IEEE standard allows for some
variations in how the standard is implemented, there might be differences in how
different platforms perform calculations even though they are following the same
standard. Hosts might yield different results because the underlying instructions that
each operating system uses to perform calculations are slightly different.
There is no standard method for performing computations. All operating systems
attempt to compute numbers as accurately as possible. It is not uncommon to get
slightly different results between operating systems whose floating-point
representation components differ. For example, there are differences between the
z/OS and Windows operating systems and between the z/OS and UNIX operating
systems.
The IEEE standard for double-precision, floating-point numbers specifies an 11-bit
exponent with a base of 2 and a bias of 1023, which means that it has much greater
magnitude than the IBM mainframe representation, but sometimes at the expense of
3 bits less in the mantissa. The value of 1 represented by the IEEE standard is as
follows:
3F F0 00 00 00 00 00 00

On Windows platforms, the processor performs computations in extended real

precision. This means that instead of the 64 bits that are used to store numeric
values in the basic format (52 bits for the mantissa and 11 bits for the exponent),
there are 16 additional bits: 12 additional bits for the mantissa and 4 additional bits
for the exponent. Numeric values are not stored in 80 bits (10 bytes) since the
maximum width for a numeric variable in SAS is 8 bytes. This simply means that the
processor uses 80 bits to represent a numeric value before it is passed back to its
64–bit memory slot. Intermediate calculations might be done in 80 bits, which affects
a part of the final answer.
On Windows this allows storage of numbers larger than the basic IEEE floating-
point format used by operating systems such as UNIX. This is one reason why you
might see slightly different values from operating systems that use the same IEEE
standard. Extended precision formats provide greater precision and more exponent
range than the basic floating-point formats.

Floating-Point Representation on Windows

Storage Format
The byte layout for a 64-bit, double-precision number on Windows is as follows:

SEEEEEEE EEEEMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM

Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4
 80 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM

Byte 5 Byte 6 Byte 7 Byte 8

This representation corresponds to bytes of data with each character being 1 bit, as
follows:
n The S in byte 1 is the sign bit of the number. A value of 0 in the sign bit is used to
represent positive numbers.
n The remaining M characters in bytes 2 through 8 represent the bits of the
mantissa. There is an implied radix point before the left-most bit of the mantissa.
Therefore, the mantissa is always less than 1. The term radix point is used
instead of decimal point because decimal point implies that you are working with
decimal (base 10) numbers, which might not be the case. The radix point can be
thought of as the generic form of decimal point.
The exponent has a base associated with it. Do not confuse this with the base in
which the exponent is represented; the exponent is always represented in binary
format, but the exponent is used to determine how many times the base should be
multiplied by the mantissa.

Conversion Example
This example shows the conversion process for the decimal value 255.75 to
floating-point representation.

1 Use the base 2 number system to write out the value 255.75 in binary.
Note: Each bit in the mantissa represents a fraction whose numerator is 1 and
whose denominator is a power of 2; that is, the mantissa is the sum of a series of
fractions such as 1 half , 1 fourth , 1 eighth , and so on. Therefore, for any
floating-point number to be represented exactly, you must express it as the
previously mentioned sum.

Base 2

27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 .2-1 2-2

128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 1/2 1/4

255.75 = 1 x 27 1 x 26 1 x 25 1 x 24 1 x 23 1 x 22 1 x 21 1 x 20 1 x 2-1 1 x 2-2

So, the value 255.75 is represented in binary format as 1111 1111.11

2 Move the decimal over until there is only one digit to the left of it. This process is
called normalizing the value. Normalizing a value in scientific notation is the
process by which the exponent is chosen in such a way that the absolute value
of the mantissa is at least one but less than ten. For this number, you move the
decimal point 7 places:
1.111 1111 11

Because the decimal point was moved 7 places, the exponent is now 7.
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 81

3 The bias is 1023, so add 7 to 1023 to get

1030

4 Convert the decimal value, 1030, to hexadecimal using the base 16 number
system:

Base 16

16 7 ... 16 4 16 3 16 2 16 1 16 0

268,435,456 ... 65,536 4096 256 16 1

The converted hexadecimal value for 1030 will be placed in the exponent portion
of the final result.

5 Convert 406 to binary format:

0100 0000 0110
4 0 6

If the value that you are converting is negative, change the first bit to 1:
1100 0000 0110

This translates in hexadecimal to

C 0 6

6 In Step 2 above, delete the first digit and decimal (the implied one-bit):
11111111

7 Break these up into nibbles (half bytes) to get this result:

1111 1111 1

8 To have a complete nibble at the end, add enough zeros to complete 4 bits:
1111 1111 1000

9 Convert
1111 1111 1000

to its hexadecimal equivalent to get the mantissa portion:

1111 1111 1000
F F 8

The final floating-point representation for 255.75 is

406F F800 0000 0000

The final floating-point representation for –255.75 is

C06F F800 0000 0000

In this example, the starting decimal value, 255.75, conveniently converts to a finite
binary value that can be represented without rounding in both binary and
82 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

hexadecimal. The following section shows the conversion process for a decimal
number that cannot be represented precisely in floating-point representation.

Accuracy on x64 Windows Processors

Consider this example:
data _null_;
x=.500000000000000000000000;
y=.500000000000000000000000000;
if x=y then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
run;
Log Output

not equal

Although these values appear to be alike, the internal representations differ slightly,
because the IEEE floating-point representation can represent only 15 digits. Here is
the floating-point representation of both variables using the HEX16. format.
x=3FE0000000000000
y=3FDFFFFFFFFFFFFF
When the number of significant digits is reduced to 15 or less, the floating-point
representation is the same and the values are equal.

data _null_;
x=.5000000000000000;
y=.500000000000000;
if x=y then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
put x=hex16./
y=hex16.;
run;
Log Output

equal
x=3FE0000000000000
y=3FE0000000000000

This issue pertains to floating-point representation on the x64 processors. The

routine used to compute the result is slightly different on Windows than on any other
host (Linux, UNIX, AIX, and so on). The routine is written in x64 assembly to
maximize performance, and any changes to the routine for Windows x64 could not
only lead to poorer performance, but they could also potentially introduce other
unintended side effects or errors in other computations.
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 83

Floating-Point Representation on IBM Mainframes

Storage Format
SAS for z/OS uses the traditional IBM mainframe floating-point representation as
follows:

SEEEEEEE MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM

Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 Byte 4

MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM

Byte 5 Byte 6 Byte 7 Byte 8

This representation corresponds to bytes of data with each character being 1 bit, as
follows:
n The S in byte 1 is the sign bit of the number. A value of 0 in the sign bit is used to
represent positive numbers.
n The seven E characters in byte 1 represent a binary integer known as the
characteristic. The characteristic represents a signed exponent and is obtained
by adding the bias to the actual exponent. The bias is an offset used to enable
both negative and positive exponents with the bias representing 0. If a bias is not
used, an additional sign bit for the exponent must be allocated. For example, if a
system uses a bias of 64, a characteristic with the value of 66 represents an
exponent of +2, whereas a characteristic of 61 represents an exponent of –3.
n The remaining M characters in bytes 2 through 8 represent the bits of the
mantissa. There is an implied radix point before the left-most bit of the mantissa.
Therefore, the mantissa is always less than 1. The term radix point is used
instead of decimal point because decimal point implies that you are working with
decimal (base 10) numbers, which might not be the case. The radix point can be
thought of as the generic form of decimal point.

Conversion Example
The following example shows the conversion process for the decimal value 512.1 to
hexadecimal floating-point representation. This example illustrates how values that
can be precisely represented in decimal cannot be precisely represented in
hexadecimal floating point.

1 Because the base is 16, you must first convert the value 512.1 to hexadecimal
notation.

2 First, convert the integer portion, 512, to hexadecimal using the base 16 number
system:
84 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Base 16

16 7 ... 16 4 16 3 16 2 16 1 16 0

268,435,456 ... 65,536 4096 256 16 1

200 = .200 × 163

The value 512 is represented in hexadecimal as 200.

3 Write the hexadecimal number, 200, in floating-point representation. To do this,

move the decimal point all the way to the left, counting the number of positions
that you moved it. The number that you moved it is the exponent:

200 = .200 × 163

4 Convert the fraction portion (.1) of the original number, 512.1 to hexadecimal:
1 1.6
.1 = 10
= 16

The numerator cannot be a fraction, so keep the 1 and convert the .6 portion
again.
6 9.6
.6 = 10
= 16

Again, there cannot be fractions in the numerator, so keep the 9 and reconvert
the .6 portion.
The .6 continues to repeat as 9.6 which means that you keep the 9 and
reconvert. The closest that .1 can be represented in hexadecimal is

.1 = .1999999 × 160

5 The exponent for the value is 3 (Step 2 above). To determine the actual
exponent that will be stored, take the exponent value and add the bias to it:
true exponent + bias = 3 + 40 = 43 (hexadecimal) = stored exponent

The final portion to be determined is the sign of the mantissa. By convention, the
sign bit for positive mantissas is 0, and the sign for negative mantissas is 1. This
information is stored in the first bit of the first byte. From the hexadecimal value
in Step 4, compute the decimal equivalent and write it in binary format. Add the
sign bit to the first position. The stored value now looks like this:

43 hexadecimal = (4 × 161) + ( 3 × 160) = 67 decimal = 0100 0003 binary

11000003 = 195 in decimal = C3 in hexadecimal

6 The final step is to put it all together:

4320019999999999 – floating point representation for 512.1

C320019999999999 – floating point representation for –512.1

Therefore, the decimal value 512.1 cannot be precisely represented in binary or

hexadecimal floating point notation. When the number 512.1 is converted, the
result is an infinitely repeating number. This is analogous to representing the
fraction 1/3 in decimal form.
The closest approximation is .33333333 with infinitely repeating ‘3s’.
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 85

This example shows how values that can be represented exactly in decimal notation
cannot always be represented precisely in floating-point notation. If a floating-point
value has a repeating pattern of numbers (like the above value has repeating ‘9s’),
there is a good chance that the value cannot be represented exactly.

Troubleshooting Errors in Precision

Computational Considerations
Regardless of how much precision is available, there are still some numbers that
cannot be represented exactly. Most rational numbers (for example, .1) cannot be
represented exactly in base 2 or base 16. This is why it is often difficult to store
fractions in floating-point representation.
Consider the IBM mainframe representation of
1: 40 19 99 99 99 99 99 99

Notice that here is an infinitely repeating 9 digit similar to the trailing 3 digit in the
attempted decimal representation of one-third (.3333 …). This lack of precision can
be compounded when arithmetic operations are performed on these values
repeatedly.
For example, when you add .33333 to .99999, the theoretical answer is 1.33333,
but in practice, this answer is not possible. The sums become more imprecise as
the values continue to be calculated.
For example, consider the following DATA step:
data _null_;
do i=-1 to 1 by .1;
put i=;
if i=0 then put 'AT ZERO';
end;
run;
The AT ZERO message in the DATA step is never printed because the accumulation
of the imprecise number introduces enough errors that the exact value of 0 is never
encountered. The calculated result is close to 0, but never exactly equal to 0.
Therefore, when numbers cannot be represented exactly in floating point,
performing mathematical operations with other non-exact values can compound the
imprecision.

Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Computational Errors

Errors that are caused by the accumulation of performing calculations on imprecise
values can be resolved by rounding. The following example shows how you can use
the ROUND function to round the results or make decisions for each iteration.
Example Code 4.12 Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Computational Errors
data _null_;
do i=-1 to 1 by .1;
i = round(i,.1);
put i=;
if i=0 then put 'AT ZERO';
end;
86 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

run;
Example Code 4.2 Log Output for Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Computational
Errors

i=-1
i=-0.9
i=-0.8
i=-0.7
i=-0.6
i=-0.5
i=-0.4
i=-0.3
i=-0.2
i=-0.1
i=0
AT ZERO
i=0.1
i=0.2
i=0.3
i=0.4
i=0.5
i=0.6
i=0.7
i=0.8
i=0.9
i=1

Here is another example of a numerical precision issue that occurs on z/OS but not
on the PC.
Example Code 4.13 Using the ROUND Function with the IF Statement
data a;
input gender $ height;
datalines;
m 60
m 58
m 59
m 70
m 60
m 58
;

proc freq;
tables gender/out=new;
run;

data final;
set new;
if percent=100 then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
run;
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 87

Output 4.10 Output for Using the ROUND Function with the IF Statement

In the example, PROC FREQ creates an output data set that contains the variable
Percent. Because all of the values for the variable Gender are the same, you might
expect Percent to have an exact value of 100. However, when the value of Percent
is tested, the log indicates that Percent is not exactly 100.
The algorithm used by PROC FREQ to produce the variable Percent involves
mathematical computations. The result is very close to 100 but not exactly. Using
the ROUND function (or the COMPFUZZ function) in the IF statement resolves this
issue.
A work-around for very simple calculations (for example, retaining only 2 digits to
the right of the decimal point) is to multiply the values by 100 and use the ROUND
function to round them to integers. Once you have performed the calculations on the
new whole numbers, divide by 100 to convert the values back to decimal form.
In the following example, the values for variable x are stored in the SAS data set as
real numbers. The number is multiplied by 1,000 and the ROUND function is used to
change the values to integers. The SUM statement is used to sum all the values of
New. On the last observation, which is detected using the END= option, the sum is
divided by 1,000 to convert the values back to fractions.
Example Code 4.14 Summing Rounded Values
data a;
set b end=last;
new=round(x*1000);
sum+new;
if last then sum=sum/1000;
run;
See “ROUND Function” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more
information about this function.

Numeric Comparison Considerations

When comparing non-integer values that do not have precise decimal or
hexadecimal floating-point representations you can sometimes encounter surprising
results. For example, in decimal arithmetic, the expression
15.7 – 11.9 = 3.8

is true. But, in SAS, if you compare the literal value of 3.8 to the calculated value of
15.7 – 11.9 and output the result to the SAS log, you will get a result of 'not equal.'
Example Code 4.15 Comparing Values That Have Imprecise Representations
data a;
x=15.7-11.9;
if x=3.8 then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
88 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

run;
Example Code 4.3 Log Output for Comparing Values That Have Imprecise
Representations

988 data a;
989 x=15.7-11.9;
990 if x=3.8 then put 'equal';;
991 else put 'not equal';
992 run;

not equal
NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 1 observations and 1 variables.

The log output indicates that the values 3.8 and (15.7 – 11.9) are not equivalent.
This is because the values involved in the computation cannot be precisely
represented in binary and hexadecimal.
If you add the PRINT procedure to display the results, you can see that the PROC
PRINT output is different from the stored value. The PROC PRINT statement
displays the value for x as 3.8 rather than the actual stored value because the
procedure automatically applies a format and rounds the results before displaying
them. This example shows how non-explicit rounding can cause confusion because,
in this case, PROC PRINT rounds only the final results after they are calculated.
proc print data=a;
run;

Output 4.11 Output for Comparing Values

Using Formats to Confirm Precision Errors

In the next example, two different formats are applied to the results given in
Example Code 4.15 on page 87 and displayed in the SAS log. The first format, 10.8
displays the value for x as 3.8; The second format, 18.16 displays x as 3.777 ...
(repeating).
Example Code 4.16 Using Formats to Confirm Precision Errors
data a;
x=15.7-11.9;
if x=3.8 then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
put x=10.8;
put x=18.16;
run;
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 89

Example Code 4.4 Log Output: Using Formats to Confirm Precision Errors

102 data a;
103 x=15.7-11.9;
104 if x=3.8 then put 'equal';
105 else put 'not equal';
106 put x=10.8;
107 put x=18.16;
run;

not equal
x=3.80000000
x=3.7999999999999900
NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 1 observations and 1 variables.

Another way to verify the stored value of x is to apply the HEX16. format to the
calculated result. The HEX16. format is a special format that can be used to show
floating-point representation.
Example Code 4.17 Using the HEX16 Format to Verify Calculated Results
data a;
x=15.7-11.9;
if x=3.8 then put 'equal';
else put 'not equal';
put x=hex16.;
run;
Example Code 4.5 Using the HEX16 Format to Verify Calculated Results

123 data a;
124 x=15.7-11.9;
125 if x=3.8 then put 'equal';
126 else put 'not equal';
127 put x=hex16.;
128 run;

not equal
x=400E666666666664
NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 1 observations and 1 variables.

See “HEXw. Format” in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference for more information
about this format. See “Dictionary of Formats” in SAS Formats and Informats:
Reference for more information about formats in general.

Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Comparison Errors

You can avoid comparison errors by explicitly rounding the values before performing
the comparison. The next example compares the calculated result of 1/3 to the
assigned value .33333. Because 1/3 is an imprecise number, the value is not
equal to .33333, and the PUT statement is not executed.
Example Code 4.18 Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Comparison Errors
data _null_;
x=1/3;
if x=.33333 then put 'MATCH';
run;
90 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

However, if you add the ROUND function, as in the following example, the PUT
‘MATCH’ statement is executed:
data _null_;
x=1/3;
if round(x,.00001)=.33333 then put 'MATCH';
run;
Example Code 4.6 Log Output: Using the ROUND Function to Avoid Comparison Errors

1 data _null_;
2 x=1/3;
3 if round(x,.00001)=.33333 then put 'MATCH';
4 run;

MATCH

In general, if you are doing comparisons with fractional values, it is good practice to
use the ROUND function before performing any computations or comparisons.
See “ROUND Function” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more
information about this function.

Using the LENGTH Statement When Comparing Values

You can use the LENGTH statement to control the number of bytes that are used to
store variable values. However, you must use it carefully to avoid errors and
significant data loss.
For example, the IBM mainframe representation uses 8 bytes for full precision, but
you can store as few as 2 bytes on disk. The value 1 is represented as
41 10 00 00 00 00 00 00

in 8 bytes. In 2 bytes, it is truncated to 41 10. In this case, you still have the full
range of magnitude because the exponent remains intact, but there are fewer digits
involved. A decrease in the number of digits means either fewer digits to the right of
the decimal place or fewer digits to the left of the decimal place before trailing zeros
must be used.
For example, consider the number 1234567890, which is .1234567890 to the 10th
power of 10 in base 10 floating-point notation. If you have only five digits of
precision, the number becomes 123460000 (rounding up). Note that this is the case
regardless of the power of 10 that is used (.12346, 12.346, .0000012346, and so
on).
In addition, you must be careful in your choice of lengths, as the previous discussion
shows. Consider a length of 2 bytes on an IBM mainframe system. This value
enables 1 byte to store the exponent and sign, and 1 byte for the mantissa. The
largest value that can be stored in 1 byte is 255. Therefore, if the exponent is 0
(meaning 16 to the 0th power, or 1 multiplied by the mantissa), then the largest
integer that can be stored with complete certainty is 255. However, some larger
integers can be stored because they are multiples of 16.
For example, consider the 8-byte representation of the numbers 256 to 272 in the
following table:
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 91

Table 4.10 Table Representation of the Numbers 256 to 272 in 8 Bytes

Sign
and
Value Exp Mantissa 1 Mantissa 2-7 Considerations

256 43 10 000000000000 trailing zeros; multiple of 16

257 43 10 100000000000 extra byte needed

258 43 10 200000000000

259 43 10 300000000000

... ... ... ... ...

271 43 10 F00000000000

272 43 11 000000000000 trailing zeros; multiple of 16

The numbers from 257 to 271 cannot be stored exactly in the first 2 bytes; a third
byte is needed to store the number precisely. As a result, the following code
produces misleading results:
data temp;
length x 2;
x=257;
y1=x+1;
run;

data _null_;
set temp;
if x=257 then put 'FOUND';
y2=x+1;
run;
The PUT statement is never executed because the value of X is actually 256 (the
value 257 truncated to 2 bytes). Recall that 256 is stored in 2 bytes as 4310, but
257 is also stored in 2 bytes as 4310, with the third byte of 10 truncated.
You receive no warning that the value of 257 is truncated in the first DATA step.
Note, however, that Y1 has the value 258 because the values of X are kept in full, 8-
byte floating-point representation in the program data vector. The value is truncated
only when stored in a SAS data set. Y2 has the value 257 because X is truncated
before the number is read into the program data vector.
CAUTION! Do not use the LENGTH statement if your variable values are not
integers. Fractional numbers lose precision if truncated. Also, use the LENGTH
statement to truncate values only when disk space is limited. Refer to the length table in
the SAS documentation for your operating environment for maximum values.
See “LENGTH Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference for more
information about this statement.

Using the TRUNC Function When Comparing Values

The TRUNC function truncates a number to a requested length and then expands
the number back to full length. The truncation and subsequent expansion duplicate
92 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

the effect of storing numbers in less than full length and then reading them. For
example, if the variable
x = 1/3

is stored with a length of 3, then the following comparison is not true:

if x = 1/3 then ...;

However, adding the TRUNC function makes the comparison true, as in the
following:
if x=trunc(1/3,3) then ...;

See“TRUNC Function” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more
information about this function.

Determining How Many Bytes Are Needed to Store a

Number Accurately
You can also use the TRUNC function to determine the minimum number of bytes
that are needed to store a value accurately. The following program finds the
minimum length of bytes (MinLen) that are needed for numbers stored in a native
SAS data set named Numbers in an IBM mainframe environment. The data set
Numbers contains the variable Value. Value contains a range of numbers from 269
to 272:
Example Code 4.19 Determining How Many Bytes Are Needed to Store a Number
Accurately
data numbers;
input value;
datalines;
269
270
271
272
;

data temp;
set numbers;
x=value;
do L=8 to 1 by -1;
if x NE trunc(x,L) then
do;
minlen=L+1;
output;
return;
end;
end;
run;

proc print noobs;

var value minlen;
run;
The following output shows the results from this example:
 Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software 93

Output 4.12 Determining How Many Bytes Are Needed to Store a Number Accurately

Note that the minimum length required for the value 271 is greater than the
minimum required for the value 272. This fact illustrates that it is possible for the
largest number in a range of numbers to require fewer bytes of storage than a
smaller number. If precision is needed for all numbers in a range, you should obtain
the minimum length for all the numbers, not just the largest one.
See “TRUNC Function” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more
information about this function.

Double-Precision versus Single-Precision Floating-Point

Numbers
You might have data created by an external program that you want to read into a
SAS data set. If the data is in floating-point representation, you can use the RBw.d
informat to read in the data. However, there are exceptions. The RBw.d informat
might truncate double-precision floating-point numbers if the w value is less than the
size of the double-precision floating-point number (8 on all the operating systems
discussed in this section). Therefore, theRB8. informat corresponds to a full 8-byte
floating point. The RB4. informat corresponds to an 8-byte floating point truncated to
4 bytes, exactly the same as a LENGTH 4 in the DATA step.
An 8-byte floating point that is truncated to 4 bytes might not be the same as a float
point in a C program. In the C language, an 8-byte floating-point number is called a
double. In Fortran, it is a REAL*8. In IBM PL/I, it is a FLOAT BINARY(53). A 4-byte
floating-point number is called a float in the C language, REAL*4 in Fortran, and
FLOAT BINARY(21) in IBM PL/I.
On the IBM mainframes, a single-precision floating-point number is exactly the
same as a double-precision number truncated to 4 bytes. On operating systems that
use the IEEE standard, this is not the case; a single-precision floating-point number
uses a different number of bits for its exponent and uses a different bias. This
means that reading in values using the RB4. informat does not produce the
expected results.
 94 Chapter 4 / SAS Variables

Transferring Data between Operating Systems

Problems of precision and magnitude can occur when you transfer data containing
very large or very small numeric values that are represented in floating-point
notation. Table 4.9 on page 77 shows the maximum number of digits of the base,
exponent, and mantissa. Because there are differences in the maximum values that
can be stored in different operating environments, there might be problems in
transferring your floating-point data from one computer to another.
Consider transporting data between an IBM mainframe and a PC, for example. The
IBM mainframe has a range limit of approximately .54E−78 to .72E76 (and their
negative equivalents and 0) for its floating-point numbers.
Other computers, such as the PC, have wider limits (the PC has an upper limit of
approximately 1E308). Therefore, if you are transferring numbers in the magnitude
of 1E100 from a PC to a mainframe, you lose that magnitude. During data transfer,
the number is set to the minimum or maximum allowable on that operating system,
so 1E100 on a PC is converted to a value that is approximately .72E76 on an IBM
mainframe.
CAUTION! Transfer of data between computers can affect numerical precision.
If you are transferring data from an IBM mainframe to a PC, notice that the number
of bits for the mantissa is 4 less than that for an IBM mainframe. This means that
you lose 4 bits when moving to a PC.
This precision and magnitude difference is a factor when moving from one operating
environment to any other where the floating-point representation is different.
An alternative solution, and probably the safest way to avoid numerical precision
problems when transferring data between operating systems, is to convert the
numbers in your data to integers.
For more information about moving data between operating systems, see Moving
and Accessing SAS Files.
 95

5
Missing Values

Definition of Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Creating Special Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Order of Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Numeric Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Character Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
When Variable Values Are Automatically Set to Missing by SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
When Reading Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
When Reading a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
When Missing Values Are Generated by SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Propagation of Missing Values in Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Invalid Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Invalid Character-to-Numeric Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Creating Special Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Preventing Propagation of Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Working with Missing Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
How to Represent Missing Values in Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
How to Set Variable Values to Missing in a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
How to Check for Missing Values in a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Definition of Missing Values

missing value
is a value that indicates that no data value is stored for the variable in the current
observation. There are three types of missing values:
n numeric

n character

n special numeric

By default, SAS prints a missing numeric value as a single period (.) and a
missing character value as a blank space. See “Creating Special Missing
Values” on page 96 for more information about special numeric missing values.
 96 Chapter 5 / Missing Values

Creating Special Missing Values

Definition
special missing value
is a type of numeric missing value that enables you to represent different
categories of missing data by using the letters A–Z or an underscore.

Tips
n SAS accepts either uppercase or lowercase letters. Values are displayed and
printed as uppercase.
n If you do not begin a special numeric missing value with a period, SAS identifies
it as a variable name. Therefore, to use a special numeric missing value in a
SAS expression or assignment statement, you must begin the value with a
period, followed by the letter or underscore. For example:
x=.d;

n When SAS prints a special missing value, it prints only the letter or underscore.

n When data values contain characters in numeric fields that you want SAS to
interpret as special missing values, use the MISSING statement to specify those
characters. For further information, see the “MISSING Statement” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference.

Example
The following example uses data from a marketing research company. Five testers
were hired to test five different products for ease of use and effectiveness. If a tester
was absent, there is no rating to report, and the value is recorded with an X for
“absent.” If the tester was unable to test the product adequately, there is no rating,
and the value is recorded with an I for “incomplete test.” The following program
reads the data and displays the resulting SAS data set. Note the special missing
values in the first and third data lines:
data period_a;
missing X I;
input Id $4. Foodpr1 Foodpr2 Foodpr3 Coffeem1 Coffeem2;
datalines;
1001 115 45 65 I 78
1002 86 27 55 72 86
1004 93 52 X 76 88
1015 73 35 43 112 108
 Order of Missing Values 97

1027 101 127 39 76 79

;

proc print data=period_a;

title 'Results of Test Period A';
footnote1 'X indicates TESTER ABSENT';
footnote2 'I indicates TEST WAS INCOMPLETE';
run;
The following output is produced:

Output 5.1 Output with Multiple Missing Values

Order of Missing Values

Numeric Variables
Within SAS, a missing value for a numeric variable is smaller than all numbers. If
you sort your data set by a numeric variable, observations with missing values for
that variable appear first in the sorted data set. For numeric variables, you can
compare special missing values with numbers and with each other. The following
table shows the sorting order of numeric values.
 98 Chapter 5 / Missing Values

Table 5.1 Numeric Value Sort Order

Sort Order Symbol Description

smallest ._ underscore

. period

.A-.Z special missing values A

(smallest) through Z (largest)

-n negative numbers

0 zero

largest +n positive numbers

For example, the numeric missing value (.) is sorted before the special numeric
missing value .A, and both are sorted before the special missing value .Z. SAS does
not distinguish between lowercase and uppercase letters when sorting special
numeric missing values.
Note: The numeric missing value sort order is the same regardless of whether your
system uses the ASCII or EBCDIC collating sequence.

Character Variables
Missing values of character variables are smaller than any printable character value.
Therefore, when you sort a data set by a character variable, observations with
missing (blank) values of the BY variable always appear before observations in
which values of the BY variable contain only printable characters. However, some
usually unprintable characters (for example, machine carriage-control characters
and real or binary numeric data that have been read in error as character data) have
values less than the blank. Therefore, when your data includes unprintable
characters, missing values might not appear first in a sorted data set.

When Variable Values Are Automatically Set to

Missing by SAS

When Reading Raw Data

At the beginning of each iteration of the DATA step, SAS sets the value of each
variable that you create in the DATA step to missing, with the following exceptions:
n variables named in a RETAIN statement
 When Variable Values Are Automatically Set to Missing by SAS 99

n variables created in a SUM statement

n data elements in a _TEMPORARY_ array

n variables created with options in the FILE or INFILE statements

n variables created by the FGET function

n data elements that are initialized in an ARRAY statement

n automatic variables

SAS replaces the missing values as it encounters values that you assign to the
variables. Thus, if you use program statements to create new variables, their values
in each observation are missing until you assign the values in an assignment
statement, as shown in the following DATA step:
data new;
input x;
if x=1 then y=2;
datalines;
4
1
3
1
;

This DATA step produces a SAS data set with the following variable values:

OBS X Y
1 4 .
2 1 2
3 3 .
4 1 2

When X equals 1, the value of Y is set to 2. Since no other statements set Y's value
when X is not equal to 1, Y remains missing (.) for those observations.

When Reading a SAS Data Set

When variables are read with a SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statement, SAS sets the
values to missing only before the first iteration of the DATA step. (If you use a BY
statement, the variable values are also set to missing when the BY group changes.)
The variables retain their values until new values become available (for example,
through an assignment statement or through the next execution of the SET,
MERGE, or UPDATE statement). Variables created with options in the SET,
MERGE, and UPDATE statements also retain their values from one iteration to the
next.
When all rows in a data set in a match-merge operation (with a BY statement) are
processed, the variables in the output data set retain their values as described
earlier. That is, as long as there is no change in the BY value in effect when all of
the rows in the data set have been processed, the variables in the output data set
retain their values from the final observation. FIRST.variable and LAST.variable, the
automatic variables that are generated by the BY statement, both retain their values.
Their initial value is 1.
When the BY value changes, the variables are set to missing and remain missing
because the data set contains no additional observations to provide replacement
 100 Chapter 5 / Missing Values

values. When all of the rows in a data set in a one-to-one merge operation (without
a BY statement) have been processed, the variables in the output data set are set
to missing and remain missing.

When Missing Values Are Generated by SAS

Propagation of Missing Values in Calculations

SAS assigns missing values to prevent problems from arising. If you use a missing
value in an arithmetic calculation, SAS sets the result of that calculation to missing.
Then, if you use that result in another calculation, the next result is also missing.
This action is called propagation of missing values. SAS prints notes in the log to
notify you which arithmetic expressions have missing values and when they were
created. However, processing continues.

Invalid Operations
SAS prints a note in the log and assigns a missing value to the result if you try to
perform an invalid operation, such as the following:
n dividing by zero

n taking the logarithm of zero

n using an expression to produce a number too large to be represented as a

floating-point number (known as overflow)

Invalid Character-to-Numeric Conversions

SAS automatically converts character values to numeric values if a character
variable is used in an arithmetic expression. If a character value contains
nonnumerical information and SAS tries to convert it to a numeric value, a note is
printed in the log, the result of the conversion is set to missing, and the _ERROR_
automatic variable is set to 1.

Creating Special Missing Values

The result of any numeric missing value in a SAS expression is a period. Thus, both
special missing values and ordinary numeric missing values propagate as a period.
data a;
x=.d;
y=x+1;
put y=;
 When Missing Values Are Generated by SAS 101

run;
This DATA step results in the following log:
Example Code 5.1 SAS Log Results for a Missing Value

130 data a;
131 x=.d;
132 y=x+1;
133 put y=;
134 run;
y=.
NOTE: Missing values were generated as a result of performing an operation on
missing values.
Each place is given by: (Number of times) at (Line):(Column).
1 at 132:10
NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 1 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

Preventing Propagation of Missing Values

If you do not want missing values to propagate in your arithmetic expressions, you
can omit missing values from computations by using the sample statistic functions.
For example, consider the following DATA step:
data test;
x=.;
y=5;
a=x+y;
b=sum(x,y);
c=5;
c+x;
put a= b= c=;
run;
Example Code 5.2 SAS Log Results for a Missing Value in a Statistic Function

143 data test;

144 x=.;
145 y=5;
146 a=x+y;
147 b=sum(x,y);
148 c=5;
149 c+x;
150 put a= b= c=;
151 run;
a=. b=5 c=5
NOTE: Missing values were generated as a result of performing an operation on
missing values.
Each place is given by: (Number of times) at (Line):(Column).
1 at 146:6
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 1 observations and 5 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.12 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds
 102 Chapter 5 / Missing Values

Adding X and Y together in an expression produces a missing result because the

value of X is missing. The value of A, therefore, is missing. However, since the SUM
function ignores missing values, adding X to Y produces the value 5, not a missing
value.
Note: The SUM statement also ignores missing values, so the value of C is also 5.
For more information about functions, see “SAS Functions and CALL Routines by
Category” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.

Working with Missing Values

How to Represent Missing Values in Raw Data

The following table shows how to represent each type of missing value in raw data
so that SAS reads and stores the value appropriately.

Table 5.2 Representing Missing Values

Missing Values Representation in Data

Numeric . (a single decimal point)

Character ' ' (a blank enclosed in quotation marks)

Special .letter (a decimal point followed by a letter, for

example, .B)

Special ._(a decimal point followed by an underscore)

How to Set Variable Values to Missing in a DATA Step

You can set values to missing within your DATA step by using program statements
such as this one:
if age<0 then
age=.;

This statement sets the stored value of Age to a numeric missing value if Age has a
value less than 0.
Note: You can display a missing numeric value with a character other than a period
by using the DATA step's MISSING statement or the MISSING= system option.
The following example sets the stored value of Name to a missing character value if
Name has a value of “none”:
if name="none" then name='';
 Working with Missing Values 103

Alternatively, if you want to set to a missing value for one or more variable values,
you can use the CALL MISSING routine. For example:
call missing(sales, name);

This sets both variable values to a missing value.

Note: You can mix character and numeric variables in the CALL MISSING routine
argument list.

How to Check for Missing Values in a DATA Step

You can use the N and NMISS functions to return the number of nonmissing and
missing values, respectively, from a list of numeric arguments.
When you check for ordinary missing numeric values, you can use code that is
similar to the following:
if numvar=. then do;

If your data contains special missing values, you can check for either an ordinary or
special missing value with a statement that is similar to the following:
if numvar<=.z then do;

To check for a missing character value, you can use a statement that is similar to
the following:
if charvar=' ' then do;

The MISSING function enables you to check for either a character or numeric
missing value, as in:
if missing(var) then do;

In each case, SAS checks whether the value of the variable in the current
observation satisfies the condition specified. If it does, SAS executes the DO group.
Note: Missing values have a value of false when you use them with logical
operators such as AND or OR.
104 Chapter 5 / Missing Values
 105

6
Expressions

Definitions for SAS Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Examples of SAS Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
SAS Constants in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Character Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Using Quotation Marks with Character Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Comparing Character Constants and Character Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Character Constants Expressed in Hexadecimal Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Numeric Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Numeric Constants Expressed in Standard Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Numeric Constants Expressed in Scientific Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Numeric Constants Expressed in Hexadecimal Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Date, Time, and Datetime Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Bit Testing Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Avoiding a Common Error with Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
SAS Variables in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Automatic Numeric-Character Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
SAS Functions in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
SAS Operators in Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Arithmetic Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Comparison Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
The IN Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Numeric Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The IN Operator in Numeric Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Character Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The IN Operator in Character Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Logical (Boolean) Operators and Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
The AND Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
The OR Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
The NOT Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Boolean Numeric Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
The MIN and MAX Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
The Concatenation Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
 106 Chapter 6 / Expressions

Definitions for SAS Expressions

expression
is generally a sequence of operands and operators that form a set of instructions
that are performed to produce a resulting value. You use expressions in SAS
program statements to create variables, assign values, calculate new values,
transform variables, and perform conditional processing. SAS expressions can
resolve to numeric values, character values, or Boolean values.
operands
are constants or variables that can be numeric or character.
operators
are symbols that represent a comparison, arithmetic calculation, or logical
operation; a SAS function; or grouping parentheses.
simple expression
is an expression with no more than one operator. A simple expression can
consist of one of the following single operators:
n constant

n variable

n function

compound expression
is an expression that includes several operators. When SAS encounters a
compound expression, it follows rules to determine the order in which to evaluate
each part of the expression.
WHERE expressions
is a type of SAS expression that is used within a WHERE statement or WHERE=
data set option to specify a condition for selecting observations for processing in
a DATA or PROC step. For syntax and further information about WHERE
expressions, see Chapter 11, “WHERE-Expression Processing,” on page 197.

Examples of SAS Expressions

The following are examples of SAS expressions:
n 3

n x

n x+1

n age<100

n trim(last)||', '||first
 SAS Constants in Expressions 107

SAS Constants in Expressions

Definition
A SAS constant is a number or a character string that indicates a fixed value.
Constants can be used as expressions in many SAS statements, including variable
assignment and IF-THEN statements. They can also be used as values for certain
options. Constants are also called literals.
The following are types of SAS constants:
n character

n numeric

n date, time, and datetime

n bit testing

Character Constants
A character constant consists of 1 to 32,767 characters and must be enclosed in
quotation marks. Character constants can also be represented in hexadecimal form.

Using Quotation Marks with Character Constants

In the following SAS statement, Tom is a character constant:
if name='Tom' then do;

If a character constant includes a single quotation mark, enclose it in double

quotation marks. For example, to specify the character value Tom's as a constant,
enter the following:
name="Tom's"

Another way to write the same string is to enclose the string in single quotation
marks and to express the apostrophe as two consecutive quotation marks. SAS
treats the two consecutive quotation marks as one quotation mark:
name='Tom''s'

The same principle holds true for double quotation marks:

name="Tom""s"

CAUTION! Matching quotation marks correctly is important. Missing or extraneous

quotation marks cause SAS to misread both the erroneous statement and the
 108 Chapter 6 / Expressions

statements that follow it. For example, in name='O'Brien';, O is the character value of
Name, Brien is extraneous, and '; begins another quoted string.

Comparing Character Constants and Character Variables

It is important to remember that character constants are enclosed in quotation
marks, but names of character variables are not. This distinction applies wherever
you can use a character constant, such as in titles, footnotes, labels, and other
descriptive strings; in option values; and in operating environment-specific strings,
such as file specifications and commands.
The following statements use character constants:
n x='abc';
n if name='Smith' then do;

The following statements use character variables:

n x=abc;

n if name=Smith then do;

In the second set of examples, SAS searches for variables named ABC and SMITH,
instead of constants.
Note: SAS distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase when comparing
character expressions. For example, the character values 'Smith' and 'SMITH' are
not equivalent.

Character Constants Expressed in Hexadecimal Notation

SAS character constants can be expressed in hexadecimal notation. A character
hexadecimal constant is a string of an even number of hexadecimal characters
enclosed in single or double quotation marks, followed immediately by an X, as in
this example:
'534153'x

A comma can be used to make the string more readable, but it is not part of and
does not alter the hexadecimal value. If the string contains a comma, the comma
must separate an even number of hexadecimal characters within the string, as in
this example:
if value='3132,3334'x then do;

Note: Any trailing blanks or leading blanks within the quotation marks cause an
error message to be written to the log.

Numeric Constants
A numeric constant is a number that appears in a SAS statement. Numeric
constants can be presented in many forms, including
 SAS Constants in Expressions 109

n standard notation

n scientific (E) notation

n hexadecimal notation

Numeric Constants Expressed in Standard Notation

Most numeric constants are written just as numeric data values are. The numeric
constant in the following expression is 100:
part/all*100

Numeric constants can be expressed in standard notation in the following ways:

Table 6.1 Standard Notation for Numeric Constants

Numeric Constant Description

1 is an unsigned integer

–5 contains a minus sign

+49 contains a plus sign

1.23 contains decimal places

01 contains a leading zero, which is not

significant

Numeric Constants Expressed in Scientific Notation

In scientific notation, the number before the E is multiplied by the power of ten that
is indicated by the number after the E. For example, 2E4 is the same as 2x10 4 or
20,000. For numeric constants larger than (10 32 )−1, you must use scientific
notation. Additional examples follow:
n 1.2e23

n 0.5e‑10

Numeric Constants Expressed in Hexadecimal Notation

A numeric constant that is expressed as a hexadecimal value starts with a numeric
digit (usually 0), can be followed by more hexadecimal characters, and ends with
the letter X. The constant can contain up to 16 valid hexadecimal characters (0 to 9,
A to F). The following are numeric hexadecimal constants:
n 0c1x
 110 Chapter 6 / Expressions

n 9x

You can use numeric hexadecimal constants in a DATA step, as follows:

data test;
input abend pib2.;
if abend=0c1x or abend=0b0ax then do;
more SAS statements
run;

Date, Time, and Datetime Constants

You can create a date constant, time constant, or datetime constant by specifying
the date or time in single or double quotation marks, followed by a D (date), T (time),
or DT (datetime) to indicate the type of value.
Any trailing blanks or leading blanks included within the quotation marks do not
affect the processing of the date constant, time constant, or datetime constant.
Use the following patterns to create date and time constants:
'ddmmm<yy>yy'D or “ddmmm<yy>yy”D represents a SAS date value:
n date='1jan2013'd;

n date='01jan09'd;

'hh:mm<:ss.s>'T or “hh:mm<:ss.s>”T represents a SAS time value:

n time='9:25't;

n time='9:25:19pm't;

'ddmmm<yy>yy:hh:mm<:ss.s>'DT or “ddmmm<yy>yy:hh:mm<:ss.s>”DT represents

a SAS datetime value:
n if begin='01may12:9:30:00'dt then end='31dec13:5:00:00'dt;

n dtime='18jan2003:9:27:05am'dt;

'yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ'DT or 'yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+|-hh:ss'DT represent a

SAS datetime constant for Universal Coordinate Time (UTC) based on the ISO 8601
standard.
n tstamp='2013‑05‑17T09:15:30–05:00'dt; and
tstamp='2013‑05‑17T09:15:30–05'dt; specifies the UTC for Eastern
Standard Time.
n tstamp='2013‑07‑20T12:00:00+00:00'dt; and
tstamp='2013‑07‑20T12:00:00Z'dt; specifies the UTC for the zero meridian
near Greenwich, England.
For more information about SAS dates, see Chapter 7, “Dates, Times, and
Intervals,” on page 127.

Bit Testing Constants

Bit masks are used in bit testing to compare internal bits in a value's representation.
You can perform bit testing on both character and numeric variables. The general
form of the operation is:
expression comparison-operator bit-mask
 SAS Constants in Expressions 111

The following are the components of the bit-testing operation:

expression
can be any valid SAS expression. Both character and numeric variables can be
bit tested. When SAS tests a character value, it aligns the left-most bit of the
mask with the left-most bit of the string; the test proceeds through the
corresponding bits, moving to the right. When SAS tests a numeric value, the
value is truncated from a floating-point number to a 32-bit integer. The right-most
bit of the mask is aligned with the right-most bit of the number, and the test
proceeds through the corresponding bits, moving to the left.
comparison-operator
compares an expression with the bit mask. See “Comparison Operators” on
page 115for a discussion of these operators.
bit-mask
is a string of 0s, 1s, and periods in quotation marks that is immediately followed
by a B. Zeros test whether the bit is off; ones test whether the bit is on; and
periods ignore the bit. Commas and blanks can be inserted in the bit mask for
readability without affecting its meaning.
CAUTION! Truncation can occur when SAS uses a bit mask. If the expression is
longer than the bit mask, SAS truncates the expression before it compares it with the bit
mask. A false comparison might result. An expression's length (in bits) must be less than
or equal to the length of the bit mask. If the bit mask is longer than a character
expression, SAS prints a warning in the log, stating that the bit mask is truncated on the
left, and continues processing.
The following example tests a character variable:
if a='..1.0000'b then do;

If the third bit of A (counting from the left) is on, and the fifth through eighth bits are
off, the comparison is true and the expression result is 1. Otherwise, the comparison
is false and the expression result is 0. The following is a more detailed example:
data test;
input @88 bits $char1.;
if bits='10000000'b
then category='a';
else if bits='01000000'b
then category='b';
else if bits='00100000'b
then category='c';

run;

Note: Bit masks cannot be used as bit literals in assignment statements. For
example, the following statement is not valid:
x='0101'b; /* incorrect*/

The $BINARYw. and BINARYw. formats and the $BINARYw., BINARYw.d, and
BITSw.d informats can be useful for bit testing. You can use them to convert
character and numeric values to their binary values, and vice versa, and to extract
specified bits from input data. See SAS Formats and Informats: Reference for
complete descriptions of these formats and informats.
 112 Chapter 6 / Expressions

Avoiding a Common Error with Constants

When you use a string in quotation marks followed by a variable name, always put a
blank space between the closing quotation mark and the variable name. Otherwise,
SAS might interpret a character constant followed by a variable name as a special
SAS constant as illustrated in this table.

Table 6.2 Characters That Cause Misinterpretation When Following a Character Constant

Characters That Follow a

Character Constant Possible Interpretations Examples

b bit testing constant '00100000'b

d date constant '01jan04'd

dt datetime constant '18jan2005:9:27:05am'dt

n name literal 'My Table'n

t time constant '9:25:19pm't

x hexadecimal notation '534153'x

In the following example, '821't is evaluated as a time constant. For more

information about SAS time constants, see “Date, Time, and Datetime Constants”
on page 110.
data work.europe;
set ia.europe;
if flight='821'then
flight='230';
run;

The program writes the following lines to the SAS log:

Example Code 6.1 Log Results from an Error Caused by a Time Literal Misinterpretation

ERROR: Invalid date/time/datetime constant '821't.

ERROR 77–185: Invalid number conversion on '821't.

ERROR 388–185: Expecting an arithmetic

operator.

Inserting a blank space between the ending quotation mark and the succeeding
character in the IF statement eliminates this misinterpretation. No error message is
generated and all observations with a FLIGHT value of 821 are replaced with a
value of 230.
if flight='821' then
flight='230';
 SAS Variables in Expressions 113

SAS Variables in Expressions

Definition
variable
is a set of data values that describe a given characteristic. A variable can be
used in an expression.

Automatic Numeric-Character Conversion

If you specify a variable in an expression, but the variable value does not match the
type called for, SAS attempts to convert the value to the expected type. SAS
automatically converts character variables to numeric variables and numeric
variables to character variables, according to the following rules:
n If you use a character variable with an operator that requires numeric operands,
such as the plus sign, SAS converts the character variable to numeric.
n If you use a comparison operator, such as the equal sign, to compare a
character variable and a numeric variable, the character variable is converted to
numeric.
n If you use a numeric variable with an operator that requires a character value,
such as the concatenation operator, the numeric value is converted to character
using the BEST12. format. Because SAS stores the results of the conversion
beginning with the right-most byte, you must store the converted values in a
variable of sufficient length to accommodate the BEST12. format. You can use
the LEFT function to left-justify a result.
n If you use a numeric variable on the left side of an assignment statement and a
character variable on the right, the character variable is converted to numeric. In
the opposite situation, where the character variable is on the left and the numeric
is on the right, SAS converts the numeric variable to character using the BESTn.
format, where n is the length of the variable on the left.
When SAS performs an automatic conversion, it prints a note in the SAS log
informing you that the conversion took place. If converting a character variable to
numeric produces invalid numeric values, SAS assigns a missing value to the result,
prints an error message in the log, and sets the value of the automatic variable
_ERROR_ to 1.
Note: You can also use the PUT and INPUT functions to convert data values.
These functions can be more efficient than automatic conversion. See “The
Concatenation Operator” on page 123 for an example of the PUT function. See SAS
Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more details about these functions.
For more information about SAS variables, see Chapter 4, “SAS Variables,” on page
37.
 114 Chapter 6 / Expressions

SAS Functions in Expressions

A SAS function is a keyword that you use to perform a specific computation or
system manipulation. Functions return a value, might require one or more
arguments, and can be used in expressions. For further information about SAS
functions, see SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.

SAS Operators in Expressions

Definitions
A SAS operator is a symbol that represents a comparison, arithmetic calculation, or
logical operation; a SAS function; or grouping parentheses. SAS uses two major
types of operators:
n prefix operators

n infix operators

A prefix operator is an operator that is applied to the variable, constant, function, or

parenthetic expression that immediately follows it. The plus sign (+) and minus sign
(−) can be used as prefix operators. The word NOT and its equivalent symbols are
also prefix operators. The following are examples of prefix operators used with
variables, constants, functions, and parenthetic expressions:
n +y

n ‑25

n ‑cos(angle1)

n +(x*y)

An infix operator applies to the operands on each side of it (for example, 6<8). Infix
operators include the following:
n arithmetic

n comparison

n logical, or Boolean

n minimum

n maximum

n concatenation.

When used to perform arithmetic operations, the plus and minus signs are infix
operators.
 SAS Operators in Expressions 115

SAS also provides several other operators that are used only with certain SAS
statements. The WHERE statement uses a special group of SAS operators, valid
only when used with WHERE expressions. For a discussion of these operators, see
Chapter 11, “WHERE-Expression Processing,” on page 197. The _NEW_ operator
is used to create an instance of a DATA step component object. For more
information, see Chapter 24, “Using DATA Step Component Objects,” on page 565.

Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic operators indicate that an arithmetic calculation is performed, as shown in
the following table:

Table 6.3 Arithmetic Operators

Symbol Definition Example Result

** exponentiation a**3 raise A to the third

power

* multiplication* 2*y multiply 2 by the

value of Y

/ division var/5 divide the value of

VAR by 5

+ addition num+3 add 3 to the value of

NUM

- subtraction sale-discount subtract the value of

DISCOUNT from the
value of SALE

* The asterisk (*) is always necessary to indicate multiplication; 2Y and 2(Y) are not valid expressions.

If a missing value is an operand for an arithmetic operator, the result is a missing

value. See Chapter 5, “Missing Values,” on page 95 for a discussion of how to
prevent the propagation of missing values.
See “Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions” on page 124 for the order in
which SAS evaluates these operators.

Comparison Operators
Comparison operators set up a comparison, operation, or calculation with two
variables, constants, or expressions. If the comparison is true, the result is 1. If the
comparison is false, the result is 0.
Comparison operators can be expressed as symbols or with their mnemonic
equivalents, which are shown in the following table:
 116 Chapter 6 / Expressions

Table 6.4 Comparison Operators

Mnemonic
Symbol Equivalent Definition Example

= EQ equal to a=3

^= NE not equal to* a

ne 3

¬= NE not equal to

~= NE not equal to

> GT greater than num>5

< LT less than num<8

>= GE greater than or sales>=300

equal to**

<= LE less than or equal sales<=100

to***

IN equal to one of a list num

in (3, 4, 5)

* The symbol that you use for NE depends on your personal computer.
** The symbol => is also accepted for compatibility with previous releases of SAS. It is not supported in
WHERE clauses or in PROC SQL.
*** The symbol =< is also accepted for compatibility with previous releases of SAS. It is not supported in
WHERE clauses or in PROC SQL.

See “Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions” on page 124 for the order in
which SAS evaluates these operators.
You can add a colon (:) modifier to any of the operators to compare only a specified
prefix of a character string. See “Character Comparisons” on page 118 for details.

The IN Operator
You can use the IN operator to compare a value that is produced by an expression
on the left of the operator to a list of values that are given on the right. Individual
values can be separated by commas or spaces. You can use a colon to specify a
range of sequential integers.
The three forms of the IN comparison are:
expression IN(value-1<...,value-n>)
expression IN(value-1<... value-n>)
expression IN(value-1<...:value-n>)

The components of the comparison are as follows:

expression
can be any valid SAS expression, but is usually a variable name when it is used
with the IN operator.
 SAS Operators in Expressions 117

value
must be a constant.
For more information and examples of using the IN operator, see “The IN Operator
in Numeric Comparisons” on page 117.

Numeric Comparisons
SAS makes numeric comparisons that are based on values. In the expression
A<=B, if A has the value 4 and B has the value 3, then A<=B has the value 0, or
false. If A is 5 and B is 9, then the expression has the value 1, or true. If A and B
each have the value 47, then the expression is true and has the value 1.
Comparison operators appear frequently in IF-THEN statements, as in this example:
if x<y then c=5;
else c=12;

You can also use comparisons in expressions in assignment statements. For

example, the preceding statements can be recoded as follows:
c=5*(x<y)+12*(x>=y);

Since SAS evaluates quantities inside parentheses before performing any

operations, the expressions (x<y) and (x>=y) are evaluated first, and the result (1
or 0) is substituted for the expressions in parentheses. Therefore, if X=6 and Y=8,
the expression evaluates as follows:
c=5*(1)+12*(0)

The result of this statement is C=5.

You might get an incorrect result when you compare numeric values of different
lengths because values less than 8 bytes have less precision than those longer than
8 bytes. Rounding also affects the outcome of numeric comparisons. See Chapter
4, “SAS Variables,” on page 37 for a complete discussion of numeric precision.
A missing numeric value is smaller than any other numeric value, and missing
numeric values have their own sort order. See Chapter 5, “Missing Values,” on page
95 for more information.

The IN Operator in Numeric Comparisons

You can use a shorthand notation to specify a range of sequential integers to
search. The range is specified by using the syntax M:N as a value in the list to
search, where M is the lower bound and N is the upper bound. M and N must be
integers, and M, N, and all the integers between M and N are included in the range.
For example, the following statements are equivalent.
n y = x in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);

n y = x in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10);

n y = x in (1:10);

You can use multiple ranges in the same IN list, and you can use ranges with other
constants in an IN list. The following example shows a range that is used with other
constants to test if X is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 9.
 118 Chapter 6 / Expressions

if x in (0,9,1:5);

You can also use the IN operator to search an array of numeric values. For
example, the following code creates an array a, defines a constant x, and then uses
the IN operator to search for x in array a. Note that the array initialization syntax of
array a{10} (2*1:5) creates an array that contains the initial values of 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
data _null_;
array a{10} (2*1:5);
x=99;
y = x in a;
put y=;
a{5} = 99;
y = x in a;
put y=;
run;
Example Code 6.2 Results from Using the IN Operator to Search an Array of Numeric
Values (Partial Output)

173 data _null_;

174 array a{10} (2*1:5);
175 x=99;
176 y = x in a;
177 put y=;
178 a{5} = 99;
179 y = x in a;
180 put y=;
181 run;
y=0
y=1

Note: PROC SQL does not support this syntax.

Character Comparisons
You can perform comparisons on character operands, but the comparison always
yields a numeric result (1 or 0). Character operands are compared character by
character from left to right. Character order depends on the collating sequence,
usually ASCII or EBCDIC, used by your computer.
For example, in the EBCDIC and ASCII collating sequences, G is greater than A.
Therefore, this expression is true:
'Gray'>'Adams'

Two-character values of unequal length are compared as if blanks were attached to

the end of the shorter value before the comparison is made. A blank, or missing
character value, is smaller than any other printable character value. For example,
because . is less than h, this expression is true:
'C. Jones'<'Charles Jones'

Since trailing blanks are ignored in a comparison, 'fox ' is equivalent to 'fox'.
However, because blanks at the beginning and in the middle of a character value
are significant to SAS, ' fox' is not equivalent to 'fox'.
 SAS Operators in Expressions 119

You can compare only a specified prefix of a character expression by using a colon
(:) after the comparison operator. SAS truncates the longer value to the length of the
shorter value during the comparison. In the following example, the colon modifier
after the equal sign tells SAS to look at only the first character of values of the
variable LastName and to select the observations with names beginning with the
letter S:
if lastname=:'S';

Because printable characters are greater than blanks, both of the following
statements select observations with values of LastName that are greater than or
equal to the letter S:
n if lastname>='S';

n if lastname>=:'S';

Note: If you compare a zero-length character value with any other character value
in either an IN: comparison or an EQ: comparison, the two-character values are not
considered equal. The result always evaluates to 0, or false.
The operations that are discussed in this section show you how to compare entire
character strings and the beginnings of character strings. Several SAS character
functions enable you to search for and extract values from within character strings.
See SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for complete descriptions of all
SAS functions.

The IN Operator in Character Comparisons

You can use the IN operator with character strings to determine whether a variable's
value is among a list of character values. The following statements produce the
same results:
n if state in ('NY','NJ','PA') then region+1;

n if state in ('NY' 'NJ' 'PA') then region+1;

n if state='NY' or state='NJ' or state='PA' then region+1;

You can also use the IN operator to search an array of character values. For
example, the following code creates an array a, defines a constant x, and then uses
the IN operator to search for x in array a.
data _null_;
array a{5} $ (5*'');
x='b1';
y = x in a;
put y=;
a{5} = 'b1';
y = x in a;
put y=;
run;
 120 Chapter 6 / Expressions

Example Code 6.3 Results from Using the IN Operator to Search an Array of Character
Values (Partial Output)

190 data _null_;

191 array a{5} $ (5*'');
192 x='b1';
193 y = x in a;
194 put y=;
195 a{5} = 'b1';
196 y = x in a;
197 put y=;
198 run;
y=0
y=1

Logical (Boolean) Operators and Expressions

Logical operators, also called Boolean operators, are usually used in expressions to
link sequences of comparisons. The logical operators are shown in the following
table:

Table 6.5 Logical Operators

Symbol Mnemonic Equivalent Example

& AND (a>b & c>d)

| OR* (a>b or c>d)

! OR

¦ OR

¬ NOT** not(a>b)

∘ NOT

~ NOT

* The symbol that you use for OR depends on your operating environment.
** The symbol that you use for NOT depends on your operating environment.

See “Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions” on page 124 for the order in
which SAS evaluates these operators.
In addition, a numeric expression without any logical operators can serve as a
Boolean expression. For an example of Boolean numeric expressions, see “Boolean
Numeric Expressions” on page 122.
 SAS Operators in Expressions 121

The AND Operator

If both of the quantities linked by AND are 1 (true), then the result of the AND
operation is 1. Otherwise, the result is 0. For example, in the following comparison,
a<b& c>0

the result is true (has a value of 1) only when both A<B and C>0 are 1 (true): that is,
when A is less than B and C is positive.
Two comparisons with a common variable linked by AND can be condensed with an
implied AND. For example, the following two subsetting IF statements produce the
same result:
n if 16<=age and age<=65;
n if 16<=age<=65;

The OR Operator
If either of the quantities linked by an OR is 1 (true), then the result of the OR
operation is 1 (true). Otherwise, the OR operation produces a 0. For example,
consider the following comparison:
a<b|c>0

The result is true (with a value of 1) when A<B is 1 (true) regardless of the value of
C. It is also true when the value of C>0 is 1 (true), regardless of the values of A and
B. Therefore, it is true when either or both of those relationships hold.
Be careful when using the OR operator with a series of comparisons (in an IF,
SELECT, or WHERE statement, for example). Remember that only one comparison
in a series of OR comparisons must be true to make a condition true, and any
nonzero, nonmissing constant is always evaluated as true. For more information
about how SAS computes Boolean expressions, see “Boolean Numeric
Expressions” on page 122. Therefore, the following subsetting IF statement is
always true:
if x=1 or 2;

SAS first evaluates X=1, and the result can be either true or false. However, since
the 2 is evaluated as nonzero and nonmissing (true), the entire expression is true. In
this statement, however, the condition is not necessarily true because either
comparison can evaluate as true or false:
if x=1 or x=2;

The NOT Operator

The prefix operator NOT is also a logical operator. The result of putting NOT in front
of a quantity whose value is 0 (false) is 1 (true). That is, the result of negating a
false statement is 1 (true). For example, if X=Y is 0 (false) then NOT(X=Y) is 1
 122 Chapter 6 / Expressions

(true). The result of NOT in front of a quantity whose value is missing is also 1
(true). The result of NOT in front of a quantity with a nonzero, nonmissing value is 0
(false). That is, the result of negating a true statement is 0 (false).
For example, the following two expressions are equivalent:
n not(name='SMITH')

n name ne 'SMITH'

Furthermore, NOT(A&B) is equivalent to NOT A|NOT B, and NOT(A|B) is the same

as NOT A & NOT B. For example, the following two expressions are equivalent:
n not(a=b & c>d)

n a ne b | c le d

Boolean Numeric Expressions

In computing terms, a value of true is a 1 and a value of false is a 0. In SAS, any
numeric value other than 0 or missing is true, and a value of 0 or missing is false.
Therefore, a numeric variable or expression can stand alone in a condition. If its
value is a number other than 0 or missing, the condition is true. If its value is 0 or
missing, the condition is false.
0 | . = False
1 = True

For example, suppose that you want to fill in variable Remarks depending on
whether the value of Cost is present for a given observation. You can write the IF-
THEN statement as follows:
if cost then remarks='Ready to budget';

This statement is equivalent to:

if cost ne . and cost ne 0
then remarks='Ready to budget';

A numeric expression can be simply a numeric constant, as follows:

if 5 then do;

The numeric value that is returned by a function is also a valid numeric expression:
if index(address,'Avenue') then do;

The MIN and MAX Operators

The MIN and MAX operators are used to find the minimum or maximum value of two
quantities. Surround the operators with the two quantities whose minimum or
maximum value you want to know. The MIN (><) operator returns the lower of the
two values. The MAX (<>) operator returns the higher of the two values. For
example, if A<B, then A><B returns the value of A.
If missing values are part of the comparison, SAS uses the sorting order for missing
values that is described in “Order of Missing Values” on page 97. For example, the
maximum value that is returned by .A<>.Z is the value .Z.
 SAS Operators in Expressions 123

Note: In a WHERE statement or clause, the <> operator is equivalent to NE.

The Concatenation Operator

The concatenation operator (||) concatenates character values. The results of a
concatenation operation are usually stored in a variable with an assignment
statement, as in level='grade '||'A'. The length of the resulting variable is the
sum of the lengths of each variable or constant in the concatenation operation,
unless you use a LENGTH or ATTRIB statement to specify a different length for the
new variable.
The concatenation operator does not trim leading or trailing blanks. If variables are
padded with trailing blanks, check the lengths of the variables and use the TRIM
function to trim trailing blanks from values before concatenating them. See SAS
Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for descriptions and examples of
additional character functions.
For example, in this DATA step, the value that results from the concatenation
contains blanks because the length of the Color variable is eight:
data namegame;
length color name $8 game $12;
color='black';
name='jack';
game=color||name;
put game=;
run;

The value of Game is 'black jack'. To correct this problem, use the TRIM function
in the concatenation operation as follows:
game=trim(color)||name;

This statement produces a value of 'blackjack' for the variable Game. The
following additional examples demonstrate uses of the concatenation operator:
n If A has the value 'fortune', B has the value 'five', and C has the value
'hundred', then the following statement produces the value
'fortunefivehundred' for the variable D:
d=a||b||c;

n This example concatenates the value of a variable with a character constant.

newname='Mr.or Ms. ' ||oldname;

If the value of OldName is 'Jones', then NewName has the value 'Mr. or Ms.
Jones'.
n Because the concatenation operation does not trim blanks, the following
expression produces the value 'JOHN SMITH':
name='JOHN '||'SMITH';

n This example uses the PUT function to convert a numeric value to a character
value. The TRIM function is used to trim blanks.
month='sep ';
year=99;
date=trim(month) || left(put(year,8.));
 124 Chapter 6 / Expressions

The value of DATE is the character value 'sep99'.

Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions

Table 6.6 on page 124 shows the order of evaluation in compound expressions. The
table contains the following columns:
Priority
lists the priority of evaluation. In compound expressions, SAS evaluates the part
of the expression containing operators in Group I first, then each group in order.
Order of Evaluation
lists the rules governing which part of the expression SAS evaluates first.
Parentheses are often used in compound expressions to group operands;
expressions within parentheses are evaluated before those outside of them. The
rules also list how a compound expression that contains more than one operator
from the same group is evaluated.
Symbols
lists the symbols that you use to request the comparisons, operations, and
calculations.
Mnemonic Equivalent
lists alternate forms of the symbol. In some cases, such as when your keyboard
does not support special symbols, you should use the alternate form.
Definition
defines the symbol.
Example
provides an example of how to use the symbol or mnemonic equivalent in a SAS
expression.

Table 6.6 Order of Evaluation in Compound Expressions

Order of
Evaluatio Mnemonic
Priority n Symbols Equivalent Definition Example

Group I right to left ** exponentiation* y=a**2;

+ positive prefix** y=+(a*b);

- negative prefix*** z=-(a+b);

∘¬~ NOT logical not† if not z

then put x;

>< MIN minimum†† x=(a><b);

<> MAX maximum x=(a<>b);

Group II left to right * multiplication c=a*b;

/ division f=g/h;

Group III left to right + addition c=a+b;

 SAS Operators in Expressions 125

Order of
Evaluatio Mnemonic
Priority n Symbols Equivalent Definition Example

- subtraction f=g-h;

Group IV left to right || ¦¦ !! concatenate character name= 'J'||'SMITH';

values†††

Group V‡ left to < LT less than if x<y

right‡‡ then c=5;

<= LE less than or equal to if x le y

then a=0;

= EQ equal to if y eq (x+a)
then output;

¬= NE not equal to if x ne z
then output;

>= GE greater than or equal to if y>=a

then output;

> GT greater than if z>a

then output;

IN equal to one of a list if state in

('NY','NJ','PA')
then region='NE';

y = x in (1:10);

Group VI left to right & AND logical and if a=b & c=d
then x=1;

Group VII left to right |¦! OR logical or‡‡‡ if y=2 or x=3

then a=d;

* Because Group I operators are evaluated from right to left, the expression x=2**3**4 is evaluated as x=(2**(3**4)).
** The plus (+) sign can be either a prefix or arithmetic operator. A plus sign is a prefix operation only when it appears at the
beginning of an expression or when it is immediately preceded by an open parenthesis or another operator.
*** The minus (−) sign can be either a prefix or arithmetic operator. A minus sign is a prefix operator only when it appears at
the beginning of an expression or when it is immediately preceded by an open parenthesis or another operator.
† Depending on the characters available on your keyboard, the symbol can be the not sign (¬), tilde (~), or caret (^). The
SAS system option CHARCODE allows various other substitutions for unavailable special characters.
†† For example, the SAS System evaluates -3><-3 as -(3><-3), which is equal to -(-3), which equals +3. This is because
Group I operators are evaluated from right to left.
††† Depending on the characters available on your keyboard, the symbol that you use as the concatenation operator can be a
double vertical bar (||), broken vertical bar (¦¦), or exclamation mark (!!).
‡ Group V operators are comparison operators. The result of a comparison operation is 1 if the comparison is true and 0 if it
is false. Missing values are the lowest in any comparison operation. The symbols =< (less than or equal to) are also
allowed for compatibility with previous versions of the SAS System.When making character comparisons, you can use a
colon (:) after any of the comparison operators to compare only the first character or characters of the value. SAS
truncates the longer value to the length of the shorter value during the comparison. For example, if name=:'P' compares
the value of the first character of NAME to the letter P.
‡‡ An exception to this rule occurs when two comparison operators surround a quantity. For example, the expression x<y<z is
evaluated as (x<y) and (y<z).
‡‡‡ Depending on the characters available on your keyboard, the symbol that you use for the logical or can be a single vertical
bar (|), broken vertical bar (¦), or exclamation mark (!). You can also use the mnemonic equivalent OR.
126 Chapter 6 / Expressions
 127

7
Dates, Times, and Intervals

About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Creating a SAS Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Julian Date Formats and Astronomical Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Two-Digit and Four-Digit Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Five-Digit Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
The Year 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Working with SAS Dates and Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
About Date and Time Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Intervals by Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Example: Calculating a Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Boundaries of Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Single-Unit Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Multi-Unit Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Shifted Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Custom Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Retail Calendar Intervals: ISO 8601 Compliant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values

Creating a SAS Date

You can use these methods to create a SAS date:
n Read a value into SAS with an informat.

n Apply a format to an existing value.

n Use a date function.

 128 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Definitions
SAS date value
is a value that represents the number of days between January 1, 1960, and a
specified date. SAS can perform calculations on dates ranging from A.D.
November 1582 to A.D. 19,900. Dates before January 1, 1960, are negative
numbers; dates after January 1, 1960, are positive numbers.
n SAS date values account for all leap year days, including the leap year day in
the year 2000.
n SAS date values can reliably tell you what day of the week a particular day
fell on as far back as September 1752. That was when the calendar was
adjusted by dropping several days. SAS day-of-the-week and length-of-time
calculations are accurate in the future to A.D. 19,900.
n Various SAS language elements handle SAS date values: functions, formats,
and informats.
SAS time value
is a value representing the number of seconds since midnight of the current day.
SAS time values are between 0 and 86400.
SAS datetime value
is a value representing the number of seconds between January 1, 1960, and an
hour/minute/second within a specified date.
The following figure shows some dates written in calendar form and as SAS date
values.

Figure 7.1 How SAS Converts Calendar Dates to SAS Date Values

Julian Date Formats and Astronomical Dates

SAS Date Values

SAS uses SAS date values, which are ordinal numbers, to calculate dates. SAS
date values represent the number of days between January 1, 1960, and a specified
date. All SAS formats, informats, and functions use SAS dates. You have to use an
informat to convert a Julian date to a SAS date before SAS can use it to perform
calculations.
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 129

The following SAS language elements do not convert SAS dates to Julian dates.
They apply a Julian date format to a SAS date.

Formats Informats Functions

JULDAY JULIAN DATEJUL

JULIAN PDJULG JULDATE

PDJULG PDJULI JULDATE7

PDJULI

SAS can perform calculations on raw SAS date values and on formatted SAS date
values. This includes performing calculations on Julian formatted date values.
SAS uses these definitions of Julian dates and Julian formats:
Julian date
is the number of continuous days since January 1, 4713 BC, which is also known
as an astronomical date.
Julian format
is the representation of an ordinal SAS date in the form of a calendar day,
YYDDD or YYDD.
SAS uses the Julian format (ordinal date) definition of dates. Julian-related
language elements in SAS do not convert SAS dates internally to Julian
astronomical dates. These Julian-related language elements make a SAS date look
like an ordinal date with the form YYDDD or YYYYDDD. For example, January, 23,
2018 is 18023 when you apply a Julian format in SAS.
You must define the values as SAS dates before using them in calculations. The
only way you can convert a SAS date to an astronomical date is to add 2,436,934.5
to the SAS date value. This conversion enables SAS to use the values to perform
calculations. Otherwise, SAS treats the values as regular integer numeric values,
and you might get unexpected results.

Example: Performing Calculations on Dates That Have

Different Formats
The following example performs these tasks:
n Creates a data set that contains SAS dates.

n Converts the dates into the MMDDYY10 format and the Julian format.

n Performs calculations on the two sets of dates, even though they have different
formats.
data dates; /* 1 */
input sas_date;
datalines;
21519
21522
21528
21535
21545
21555
130 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

21565
;
proc print data = dates;
run;

data dates2; /* 2 */
set dates;
formatted_sas_date = sas_date;
julian_formatted_SAS_date = sas_date;
format formatted_sas_date mmddyy10. julian_formatted_SAS_date julian.; /* 3 */
run;
proc print data=dates2;
run;

data dates3; /* 4 */
set dates2;
datediff=sas_date - lag(julian_formatted_SAS_date); /* 5 */
run;
proc print data =dates3;
run;

1 Create the data set of SAS dates.

2 Convert the dates into the MMDDYY10 format and the Julian format.
3 The FORMAT statement creates the two formats for the dates.
4 Perform calculations on the formatted dates.
5 The LAG function compares the SAS date values in the previous row with the
value in the current row and returns the difference.
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 131

Output 7.1 Converting SAS Dates and Using the Results in Calculations

Two-Digit and Four-Digit Years

SAS software can read two-digit or four-digit year values. If SAS encounters a two-
digit year, the YEARCUTOFF= option can be used to specify which century within a
100- year span the two-digit year should be attributed to. For example,
YEARCUTOFF=1950 means that two-digit years 50 through 99 correspond to 1950
 132 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

through 1999. Two-digit years 00 through 49 correspond to 2000 through 2049.

Note that while the default value of the YEARCUTOFF= option in SAS is 1926, you
can adjust the YEARCUTOFF= value in a DATA step to accommodate the range of
date values that you are working with at the moment. To correctly handle two-digit
years representing dates between 2000 and 2099, you should specify an
appropriate YEARCUTOFF= value between 1901 and 2000. For more information,
see the “YEARCUTOFF= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.

Five-Digit Years
Although some formats that specify a width large enough to accommodate
formatting a five-digit year, such as DATETIME20., the SAS documentation does not
display five-digit years.

The Year 2000

Using the YEARCUTOFF= System Option

SAS software treats the year 2000 like any other leap year. If you use two-digit year
numbers for dates, you probably need to adjust the default setting for the
YEARCUTOFF= option to work with date ranges for your data or switch to four-digit
years. The following program changes the YEARCUTOFF= value to 1950. This
change means that all two-digit dates are now assumed to fall in the 100-year span
from 1950 to 2049.
options yearcutoff=1950;
data _null_;
a='26oct02'd;
put 'SAS date='a;
put 'formatted date='a date9.;
run;

The PUT statement writes the following lines to the SAS log:
SAS date=15639
formated date=26OCT2002

Note: Whenever possible, specify a year using all four digits. Most SAS date and
time language elements support four-digit year values.

Example: How YEARCUTOFF= Affects Two- and Four-Digit

Years
The following example shows what happens with data that contains both two and
four-digit years. By default, the YEARCUTOFF= option is set to 1926.
options nodate;

data schedule;
input @1 jobid $ @6 projdate mmddyy10.;
datalines;
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 133

A100 01/15/25
A110 03/15/2025
A200 01/30/96
B100 02/05/12
B200 06/15/2012
;

proc print data=schedule;

format projdate mmddyy10.;
run;
The resulting output from the PROC PRINT statement looks like this:

Output 7.2 Output Showing Four-Digit Years That Result from Setting YEARCUTOFF= to
1926

Here are some facts to note in this example:

n In the data lines in the DATA step, the first record contains a two-digit year of 25,
and the second record contains a four-digit year of 2025. The century for the first
record defaults to the 2000s because 2025 is in the range of 1926–2025. The
four-digit year in the second record is unaffected by the YEARCUTOFF= option.
n In the third record, the century defaults to the 1900s because the year 1996 is in
the range of 1926–2025.
n The output from the fourth and fifth records show results that are similar to the
first and second records. The fourth record specifies a two-digit year of 12, and
the fifth one specifies a four-digit year of 2012. The century in the fourth record
defaults to the 2000s because 2012 is in the range of 1926–2025. The four-digit
year in the fifth record is unaffected by the YEARCUTOFF= option.
As you can see, specifying a two-digit year might or might not result in the intended
century prefix. The optimal value of the YEARCUTOFF= option depends on the
range of the dates that you are processing.
In releases SAS 6.06 through SAS 6.12, the default value for the YEARCUTOFF=
system option is 1900. Starting with SAS 7, the default value is 1920; starting with
SAS 9.4, the default value is 1926.
For more information about how SAS handles dates, see the section on dates,
times, and datetime values.
 134 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Practices That Help Ensure Date Integrity

The following practices help ensure that your date values are correct during all the
conversions that occur during processing:
n Store dates as SAS date values, not as simple numeric or character values.

n Use the YEARCUTOFF= system option when converting two-digit dates to SAS
date values.
n Examine sets of raw data coming into your SAS process to make sure that any
dates containing two-digit years are correctly interpreted by the YEARCUTOFF=
system option. Look out for the following situations:
o two-digit years that are distributed over more than a 100-year period. For
dates covering more than a 100-year span, you must either use four-digit
years in the data, or use conditional logic in a DATA step to interpret them
correctly.
o two-digit years that need an adjustment to the default YEARCUTOFF= range.
For example, if the default value for YEARCUTOFF= in your operating
environment is 1926 and you have a two-digit date in your data that
represents 1925, you have to adjust your YEARCUTOFF= value downward
by a year in the SAS program that processes this value.
n Make sure that output SAS data sets represent dates as SAS date values.

n Check your SAS programs to make sure that formats and informats that use two-
digit years, such as DATE7., MMDDYY6., or MMDDYY8., are reading and
writing data correctly.
Note: The YEARCUTOFF= option has no effect on dates that are already stored as
SAS date values.

Working with SAS Dates and Times

Informats and Formats

SAS converts date, time, and datetime values back and forth between calendar
dates and clock times with SAS language elements called formats and informats.
n Formats present a value, recognized by SAS, such as a time or date value, as a
calendar date or clock time in a variety of lengths and notations.
n Informats read notations or a value, such as a clock time or a calendar date,
which might be in a variety of lengths, and then convert the data to a SAS date,
time, or datetime value.
SAS can read date and time values that are delimited by the following characters:
!#$%&()*+-./:;<=>?[\]^_{|}~
The blank character can also be used.
Only one delimiter can be used for a date. Otherwise, an error message is written to
the SAS log. For example, 01/Jan/2007 uses a single delimiter, and can be read by
SAS. In the case of 01-Jan/2007, two different delimiters separate the parts of the
date, which results in an error message.
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 135

Date and Time Tools by Task

The following table correlates tasks with various SAS language elements that are
available for working with time and date data.
 136 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Table 7.1 Tasks with Dates and Times, Part 1

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Write SAS date values in Date formats DATE. 19434 17MAR13

recognizable forms
DATE9. 19434 17MAR2013

DAY. 19434 17

DDMMYY. 19434 17/03/13

DDMMYY10. 19434 17/03/2013

DDMMYYB. 19434 17 03 13

DDMMYYB10. 19434 17 03 2013

DDMMYYC. 19434 17:03:13

DDMMYYC10. 19434 17:03:2013

DDMMYYD. 19434 17-03-13

DDMMYYD10. 19434 17-03-2013

DDMMYYN. 19434 17032013

DDMMYYN6. 19434 170313

DDMMYYP. 19434 17.03.13

DDMMYYP10. 19434 17.03.2013

DDMMYYS. 19434 17/03/13

DDMMYYS10. 19434 17/03/2013

DOWNAME. 19434 Sunday

JULDAY. * 19434 76

JULIAN. * 19434 13076

MMDDYY. 19434 03/17/13

MMDDYY10. 19434 03/17/2013

MMDDYYB. 19434 03 17 13

MMDDYYB10. 19434 03 17 2013

MMDDYYC. 19434 03:17:13

MMDDYYC10. 19434 03:17:2013

MMDDYYD. 19434 03-17-13

 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 137

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Write SAS date values in Date formats MMDDYYD10. 19434 03-17-2013

recognizable forms
MMDDYYN. 19434 03172013

MMDDYYN8. 19434 03172013

MMDDYYP. 19434 03.17.13

MMDDYYP10. 19434 03.17.2013

MMDDYYS. 19434 03/17/13

MMDDYYS10. 19434 03/17/2013

MMYY. 19434 03M2013

MMYYC. 19434 03:2013

MMYYD. 19434 03-2013

MMYYN. 19434 032013

MMYYP. 19434 03.2013

MMYYS. 19434 03/2013

MONNAME. 19434 March

MONTH. 19434 3

MONYY. 19434 MAR13

PDJULG. * 19434 2013076F

PDJULI. * 19434 0100076F

WEEKDATE. 19434 Sunday, March 17,

2013

WEEKDAY. 19434 1

WORDDATE. 19434 March 17, 2013

WORDDATX. 19434 17 March 2013

Quarter formats QTR. 19434 1

QTRR. 19434 I

Time formats TIME. 19434 5:23:54

TIMEAMPM. 19434 5:23:54 AM

TOD. 19434 05:23:54

 138 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Write SAS date values in Year formats YEAR. 19434 2013

recognizable forms
YYMM. 19434 2013M03

YYMMC. 19434 2013:03

YYMMD. 19434 2013-03

YYMMP. 19434 2013.03

YYMMS. 19434 2013/03

YYMMN. 19434 201303

YYMMDD. 19434 13-03-17

YYMON. 19434 2013MAR

Year/Quarter YYQ. 19434 2013Q1

formats
YYQC. 19434 2013:1

YYQD. 19434 2013-1

YYQP. 19434 2013.1

YYQS. 19434 2013/1

YYQN. 19434 20131

YYQR. 19434 2013QI

YYQRC. 19434 2013:I

YYQRD. 19434 2013-I

YYQRP. 19434 2013.I

YYQRS. 19434 2013/I

YYQRN. 19434 2013I

* In SAS, a Julian date is a date in the form YYNNN or YYYYNNN, where YY is a two-digit year, YYYY is a four-digit year,
and NNN is the ordinal offset from January 1 of the year YY or YYYY. SAS processes Julian dates only for valid SAS
dates.

Table 7.2 Tasks with Dates and Times, Part 2

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Date Tasks
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 139

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Read calendar dates as Date informats DATE. 17MAR13 19434

SAS date
Note:
YEARCUTOFF=1926

DATE9. 17MAR2013 19434

DDMMYY. 170313 19434

DDMMYY8. 17032013 19434

JULIAN. * 13076 19434

JULIAN7. * 2013077 19434

MMDDYY. 031713 19434

MMDDYY8. 03172013 19434

MONYY. MAR13 19418

YYMMDD. 130317 19434

YYMMDD8. 20130317 19434

YYQ. 13q1 19359

DATETIME 17MAR2013 1679097600

00:00:00

TIME 14:45:32 53132

Return today's date as a Date functions DATE() or () The SAS date

SAS date value TODAY() value for today.
(equivalent)

Extract calendar dates Date functions DAY 19434 17

from SAS

HOUR 19434 5

JULDATE * 19434 13076

JULDATE7 * 19434 2013076

MINUTE 19434 23

MONTH 19434 3

QTR 19434 1

SECOND 19434 54

WEEKDAY 19434 1

YEAR 19434 2013

 140 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Write a date as a constant SAS date 'ddmmmyy'd '17mar13'd 19434

in an expression constant
or
'17mar2013'd
'ddmmmyyyy'd

Write today's date as a SYSDATE SYSDATE &SYSDATE The date at the

string automatic macro time of SAS
variable initialization in
the form
DDMMMYY.

SYSDATE9 SYSDATE9 &SYSDATE9 The date at time

of SAS
initialization, in
the form
DDMMMYYYY.

Time Tasks

Write SAS time values as time formats HHMM. 19434 5:24

time values

HOUR. 19434 5

MMSS. 19434 323

TIME. 19434 5:23:54

TIMEAMPM. 19434 5:23:54 AM

TOD. 19434 05:23:54

Read time values as SAS Time informats TIME. 05:23:54 19434

time values

Write the current time as a SYSTIME SYSTIME &SYSTIME The time at the
string automatic macro moment of
variable execution, in the
form HH:MM

Return the current time of Time functions TIME( ) () The SAS time
day as a SAS time value value at
moment of
execution, in the
form
NNNNN.NNN.

Return the time part of a Time functions TIMEPART 17mar2013 5:11:43

SAS datetime value 05:11:43

Datetime Tasks

Write SAS datetime values Datetime DATEAMPM 1679097600 17MAR13:12:00

as datetime values formats :00 AM

DATETIME 1679097600 17MAR13:00:00

:00

Read datetime values as Datetime DATETIME 17MAR13:00:00:00 1679097600

SAS datetime values informats
 About SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values 141

Type of
Language Language
Task Element Element Input Result

Return the current date Datetime DATETIME() () The SAS

and time of day as a SAS functions datetime value
datetime value at the moment
of execution, in
the form
NNNNNNNNNN
.N.

Interval Tasks

Return the number of Interval INTCK week2 1368

specified time intervals functions
01aug60
that lie between the two
date or datetime values 01jan13

Advances a date, time, or Interval INTNX day 19434

datetime value by a given functions
17mar12
interval, and returns a
date, time, or datetime 365
value

* In SAS, a Julian date is a date in the form YYNNN or YYYYNNN, where YY is a two-digit year, YYYY is a four-digit year,
and NNN is the ordinal offset from January 1 of the year YY or YYYY. SAS processes Julian dates only for valid SAS
dates.

SAS also supports these formats and informats:

n ISO 8601 basic and extended forms for dates, times, datetimes, durations,
intervals, and time zones. For more information, see “Working with Dates and
Times by Using the ISO 8601 Basic and Extended Notations” in SAS Formats
and Informats: Reference and “Reading Dates and Times by Using the ISO 8601
Basic and Extended Notations” in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.
n International formats and informats that are equivalent to some of the most
commonly used English-language date formats and informats. For more
information, see “Dictionary of Formats for NLS” in SAS National Language
Support (NLS): Reference Guide and “Dictionary of Formats for NLS” in SAS
National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

Examples

Example 1: Displaying Date, Time, and Datetime Values as

Recognizable Dates and Times
The following example demonstrates how a value might be displayed as a date, a
time, or a datetime. Remember to select the SAS language element that converts a
SAS date, time, or datetime value to the intended date, time, or datetime format.
See the previous tables for examples.
Note:
n Time formats count the number of seconds within a day, so the values are
between 0 and 86400.
142 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

n DATETIME formats count the number of seconds since January 1, 1960. For
datetimes that are greater than 02JAN1960:00:00:01 (integer of 86401), the
datetime value is always greater than the time value.
n When in doubt, look at the contents of your data set for clues as to which type of
value you are dealing with.
This program uses the DATETIME, DATE, and TIMEAMPM formats to display the
value 86399 to a date and time, a calendar date, and a time.
options nodate;
data test;
Time1=86399;
format Time1 datetime.;
Date1=86399;
format Date1 date9.;
Time2=86399;
format Time2 timeampm.;
run;
proc print data=test;
title 'Same Number, Different SAS Values';
footnote1 'Time1 is a SAS DATETIME value';
footnote2 'Date1 is a SAS DATE value';
footnote3 'Time2 is a SAS TIME value';
run;
footnote;

Output 7.3 Datetime, Date, and Time Values for 86399

Example 2: Reading, Writing, and Calculating Date Values

This program reads four regional meeting dates and calculates the dates on which
announcements should be mailed.
data meeting;

input region $ mtg : mmddyy8.;

sendmail=mtg-45;
datalines;
N 11-24-12
S 12-28-12
E 12-03-12
W 10-04-12
;
 About Date and Time Intervals 143

proc print data=meeting;

format mtg sendmail date9.;
title 'When To Send Announcements';
run;

Output 7.4 Calculated Date Values: When to Send Mail

About Date and Time Intervals

Definitions
duration
is an integer representing the difference between any two dates or times or
datetimes. Date durations are integer values representing the difference, in the
number of days, between two SAS dates. Time durations are decimal values
representing the number of seconds between two times or datetimes.

TIP Date and datetimes durations can be easily calculated by subtracting the
smaller date or datetime from the larger. When dealing with SAS times, special
care must be taken if the beginning and the end of a duration are on different
calendar days. Whenever possible, the simplest solution is to use datetimes
rather than times.

interval
is a unit of measurement that SAS can count within an elapsed period of time,
such as DAYS, MONTHS, or HOURS. SAS determines date and time intervals
based on fixed points on the calendar, the clock, or both. The starting point of an
interval calculation defaults to the beginning of the period in which the beginning
value falls, which might not be the actual beginning value specified. For
example, if you are using the INTCK function to count the months between two
dates, regardless of the actual day of the month specified by the date in the
beginning value, SAS treats it as the first of that month.
 144 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Syntax
SAS provides date, time, and datetime intervals for counting different periods of
elapsed time. You can create multiples of the intervals and shift their starting point.
Use them with the INTCK and INTNX functions and with procedures that support
numbered lists (such as the PLOT procedure). This is the form of an interval:
name<multiple><.starting-point>
The terms in an interval have the following definitions:
name
is the name of the interval. See the following table for a list of intervals and their
definitions.
multiple
creates a multiple of the interval. multiple can be any positive number. The
default is 1. For example, YEAR2 indicates a two-year interval.
.starting-point
is the starting point of the interval. By default, the starting point is 1. A value
greater than 1 shifts the start to a later point within the interval. The unit for
shifting depends on the interval, as shown in the following table. For example,
YEAR.3 specifies a yearly period from the first of March through the end of
February of the following year.

Intervals by Category
Table 7.3 Intervals Used with Date and Time Functions

Default
Categor Starting
y Interval Definition Point Shift Period Example Description

Date DAY Daily intervals Each day Days DAY3 Three-day

intervals
starting on
Sunday

WEEK Weekly Each Days WEEK.7 Weekly with

intervals of Sunday (1=Sunday … Saturday as
seven days 7=Saturday) the first day
of the week

WEEKDAY Daily intervals Each day Days WEEKDAY1W Six-day

with Friday- week with
<daysW>
Saturday- Sunday as a
Sunday weekend
day
 About Date and Time Intervals 145

Default
Categor Starting
y Interval Definition Point Shift Period Example Description

counted as WEEKDAY35W Five-day

the same day week with
(five-day work Tuesday and
week with a Thursday as
Saturday- weekend
Sunday days (W
weekend). indicates
days identifies that day 3
the weekend and day 5
days by are weekend
number days)
(1=Sunday ...
7=Saturday).
By default,
days=17.

TENDAY Ten-day First, Ten-day TENDAY4.2 Four ten-day

intervals (a eleventh, periods periods
U.S. and twenty- starting at
automobile first of each the second
industry month TENDAY
convention) period

SEMIMONTH Half-month First and Semi-monthly SEMIMONTH2.2 Intervals

intervals sixteenth of periods from the
each sixteenth of
month one month
through the
fifteenth of
the next
month

MONTH Monthly First of Months MONTH2.2 February-

intervals each March, April-
month May, June-
July, August-
September,
October-
November,
and
December-
January of
the following
year

QTR Quarterly January 1 Months QTR3.2 Three-month

(three-month) intervals
intervals April 1 starting on
April 1, July
July 1 1, October 1,
and January
1
October 1

SEMIYEAR Semiannual January 1 Months SEMIYEAR.3 Six-month

(six-month) intervals,
intervals July 1 March-
August, and
September-
February
 146 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Default
Categor Starting
y Interval Definition Point Shift Period Example Description

YEAR Yearly January 1 Months

intervals

Datetime Add DT to Interval Midnight of DTMONTH

any of the corresponding January 1,
date intervals to the 1960 DTWEEKDAY
associated
date interval

Time SECOND Second Start of the Seconds

intervals day
(midnight)

MINUTE Minute Start of the Minutes

intervals day
(midnight)

HOUR Hourly Start of the Hours

intervals day
(midnight)

Example: Calculating a Duration

This program reads the project start and end dates. Then, the program calculates
the duration between them.
options nodate pageno=1 linesize=80 pagesize=60;
data projects;
input Projid @5 startdate date9. @15 enddate date9.;
Duration=enddate-startdate;
datalines;
398 17oct1997 02nov1997
942 22jan1998 11mar1998
167 15dec1999 15feb2000
250 04jan2001 11jan2001
;

proc print data=projects;

format startdate enddate date9.;
title 'Days Between Project Start and Project End';
run;
 About Date and Time Intervals 147

Output 7.5 Calculating the Duration between Start and End Dates

Boundaries of Intervals
SAS associates date and time intervals with fixed points on the calendar. For
example, the MONTH interval represents the time from the beginning of one
calendar month to the next, not a period of 30 or 31 days. When you use date and
time intervals (for example, with the INTCK or INTNX functions), SAS bases its
calculations on the calendar divisions that are present. Consider the following
examples:

Table 7.4 Using INTCK and INTNX

Example Results Explanation

mnthnum1=intck( mnthnum1=1 The number of MONTH

'month', '25aug2000'd, intervals the INTCK function
'05sep2000'd); counts depends on whether
the first day of a month falls
within the period.
mnthnum2=intck( mnthnum2=0
'month', '01aug2000'd,
'31aug2000'd);

next=intnx('month', next represents The INTNX function

'25aug2000'd,1); 01sep2000 produces the SAS date
value that corresponds to
the beginning of the next
interval.

Note: The only intervals that do not begin on the same date in each year are WEEK
and WEEKDAY. A Sunday can occur on any date because the year is not divided
evenly into weeks.

Single-Unit Intervals
Single-unit intervals begin at the following points on the calendar:
 148 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Table 7.5 Single-Unit Intervals

Single-Unit Interval Beginning Point on the Calendar

DAY each day

WEEKDAY for a standard weekday

n Start day–End day

n Monday–Monday

n Tuesday–Tuesday

n Wednesday–Wednesday

n Thursday–Thursday

n Friday–Sunday

WEEK each Sunday

TENDAY the first, eleventh, and twenty-first of each month

SEMIMONTH the first and sixteenth of each month

MONTH the first of each month

QTR the first of January, April, July, and October

SEMIYEAR the first of January and July

YEAR the first of January

Single-unit time intervals begin as follows:

Table 7.6 Single-Unit Time Intervals

Single-Unit Time Intervals Beginning Point

SECOND each second

MINUTE each minute

HOUR each hour

Multi-Unit Intervals

Multi-Unit Intervals Other Than Multi-Week Intervals

Multi-unit intervals, such as MONTH2 or DAY50, also depend on calendar
measures, but they introduce a new problem: SAS can find the beginning of a unit
(for example, the first of a month), but where does that unit fall in the interval? For
 About Date and Time Intervals 149

example, does the first of October mark the first or the second month in a two-month
interval?
For all multi-unit intervals except multi-week intervals, SAS creates an interval
beginning on January 1, 1960, and counts forward from that date to determine
where individual intervals begin on the calendar. As a practical matter, when a year
can be divided evenly by an interval, think of the intervals as beginning with the
current year. Thus, MONTH2 intervals begin with January, March, May, July,
September, and November. Consider this example:

Table 7.7 Month2 Intervals

SAS statements Results

howmany1=intck('month2','15feb2000'd, howmany1=1
'15mar2000'd);

count=intck('day50','01oct1998'd, count=1
'01jan1999'd);

In the above example, SAS counts 50 days beginning with January 1, 1960; then
another 50 days; and so on. As part of this count, SAS counts one DAY50 interval
between October 1, 1998, and January 1, 1999. For example, to determine the date
on which the next DAY50 interval begins, use the INTNX function, as follows:

Table 7.8 Using the INTNX Function

SAS statements Results

start=intnx('day50','01oct98'd,1); SAS date value 14200, or Nov 17, 1998

The next interval begins on November 17, 1998.

Time intervals (those that represent divisions of a day) are aligned with the start of
the day, that is, midnight. For example, HOUR8 intervals divide the day into the
periods 00:00 to 08:00, 8:00 to 16:00, and 16:00 to 24:00 (the next midnight).

Multi-Week Intervals
Multi-week intervals, such as WEEK2, present a special case. In general, weekly
intervals begin on Sunday, and SAS counts a week whenever it passes a Sunday.
However, SAS cannot calculate multi-week intervals based on January 1, 1960,
because that date fell on a Friday, as shown:

Figure 7.2 Calculating Multi-Week Intervals

Dec Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Jan

1959 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 1960

Therefore, SAS begins the first interval on Sunday of the week containing January
1, 1960—that is, on Sunday, December 27, 1959. SAS counts multi-week intervals
from that point. The following example counts the number of two-week intervals in
the month of August 1998:
 150 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

Table 7.9 Counting Two-Week Intervals

SAS Statements Results

count=intck('week2','01aug98'D, '31aug98'D); count=3

To see the beginning date of the next interval, use the INTNX function, as shown
here:

Table 7.10 Using INTNX to See the Beginning Date of an Interval

SAS Statements Results

begin=intnx('week2','01aug1998'd,1); “Begin” represents SAS date 14093 or August

02, 1998

The next interval begins on August 16.

Shifted Intervals

Using Shifted Intervals

Shifting the beginning point of an interval is useful when you want to make the
interval represent a period in your data. For example, if your company's fiscal year
begins on July 1, you can create a year beginning in July by specifying the YEAR.7
interval. Similarly, you can create a period matching U.S. presidential elections by
specifying the YEAR4.11 interval. This section discusses how to use shifted
intervals and how SAS creates them.

How to Use Shifted Intervals

When you shift a time interval by a subperiod, the shift value must be less than or
equal to the number of subperiods in the interval. For example, YEAR.12 is valid
(yearly periods beginning in December), but YEAR.13 is not. Similarly, YEAR2.25 is
not valid because there is no twenty-fifth month in the two-year period.
In addition, you cannot shift an interval by itself. For example, you cannot shift the
interval MONTH because the shifting subperiod for MONTH is one month and
MONTH contains only one monthly subperiod. However, you can shift multi-unit
intervals by the subperiod. For example, MONTH2.2 specifies bimonthly periods
starting on the first day of the second month.

How SAS Creates Shifted Intervals

For all intervals except those based on weeks, SAS creates shifted intervals by
creating the interval based on January 1, 1960, by moving forward the required
number of subperiods, and by counting shifted intervals from that point. For
example, suppose you create a shifted interval called DAY50.5. SAS creates a 50-
day interval in which January 1, 1960, is day 1. SAS then moves forward to day 5.
(Note that the difference, or amount of movement, is four days.) SAS begins
 About Date and Time Intervals 151

counting shifted intervals from that point. The INTNX function demonstrates that the
next interval begins on January 5, 1960:

Table 7.11 Using INTNX to Determine When an Interval Begins

SAS Statements Results

start=intnx('day50.5','01jan1960'd,1); SAS date value 4, or Jan 5, 1960

For shifted intervals based on weeks, SAS first creates an interval based on Sunday
of the week containing January 1, 1960 (that is, December 27, 1959). Then, it
moves forward the required number of days. For example, suppose you want to
create the interval WEEK2.8 (biweekly periods beginning on the second Sunday of
the period). SAS measures a two-week interval based on Sunday of the week
containing January 1, 1960, and begins counting shifted intervals on the eighth day
of that. The INTNX function shows the beginning of the next interval:

Table 7.12 Using the INTNX Function to Show the Beginning of the Next Interval

SAS Statements Results

start=intnx('week2.8','01jan1960'd,1); SAS date value 2, or Jan 3, 1960

You can also shift time intervals. For example, HOUR8.7 intervals divide the day
into the periods 06:00 to 14:00, 14:00 to 22:00, and 22:00 to 06:00.

Custom Intervals
You can define custom intervals and associate interval data sets with new interval
names when you use the INTERVALDS= system option. An interval name cannot
be a reserved SAS name. The dates for these intervals are located in a SAS data
set that you create. The data set must contain the variable Begin. For each
observation, the Begin variable represents the start of an interval. You can specify a
second variable, End, to represent the end of the interval, but it is not required. If the
End variable is not present in the data set, the end of an interval is inferred by the
next Begin variable value. After the custom intervals have been defined, you can
use them with the INTCK and INTNX functions just as you would use standard
intervals.
The INTERVALDS= system option enables you to increase the number of allowable
intervals. In addition to the standard list of intervals (DAY, WEEKDAY, and so on),
the names that are listed in INTERVALDS= are valid as well.
Note: Nested custom intervals are not supported.

Retail Calendar Intervals: ISO 8601 Compliant

The retail industry often accounts for its data by dividing the yearly calendar into four
13-week periods, based on one of the following formats: 4-4-5, 4-5-4, and 5-4-4.
152 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals

The first, second, and third numbers specify the number of weeks in the first,
second, and third month of each period, respectively. Retail calendar intervals
facilitate comparisons across years, because week definitions remain consistent
from year to year.
The intervals that are created from the formats can be used in any of the following
functions: INTCINDEX, INTCK, INTCYCLE, INTFIT, INTFMT, INTGET, INTINDEX,
INTNX, INTSEAS, INTSHIFT, and INTTEST.
The following table lists calendar intervals that are used in the retail industry and
that are ISO 8601 compliant.

Table 7.13 Calendar Intervals Used in the Retail Industry

Interval Description

YEARV specifies ISO 8601 yearly intervals. The ISO 8601 year begins
on the Monday on or immediately preceding January 4. Note
that it is possible for the ISO 8601 year to begin in December
of the preceding year. Also, some ISO 8601 years contain a
leap week. The beginning subperiod s is written in ISO 8601
weeks (WEEKV).

R445YR is the same as YEARV except that in the retail industry the
beginning subperiod s is 4-4-5 months (R445MON).

R454YR is the same as YEARV except that in the retail industry the
beginning subperiod s is 4-5-4 months (R454MON).

R544YR is the same as YEARV except that in the retail industry the
beginning subperiod s is 5-4-4 months (R544MON).

R445QTR specifies retail 4-4-5 quarterly intervals (every 13 ISO 8601

weeks). Some fourth quarters contain a leap week. The
beginning subperiod s is 4-4-5 months (R445MON).

R454QTR specifies retail 4-5-4 quarterly intervals (every 13 ISO 8601

weeks). Some fourth quarters contain a leap week. The
beginning subperiod s is 4-5-4 months (R454MON).

R544QTR specifies retail 5-4-4 quarterly intervals (every 13 ISO 8601

weeks). Some fourth quarters contain a leap week. The
beginning subperiod s is 5-4-4 months (R544MON).

R445MON specifies retail 4-4-5 monthly intervals. The 3rd, 6th, 9th, and
12th months are five ISO 8601 weeks long with the exception
that some 12th months contain leap weeks. All other months
are four ISO 8601 weeks long. R445MON intervals begin with
the 1st, 5th, 9th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, 27th, 31st, 35th, 40th, 44th,
and 48th weeks of the ISO year. The beginning subperiod s is
4-4-5 months (R445MON).

R454MON specifies retail 4-5-4 monthly intervals. The 2nd, 5th, 8th, and
11th months are five ISO 8601 weeks long with the exception
that some 12th months contain leap weeks. R454MON
intervals begin with the 1st, 5th, 10th, 14th, 18th, 23rd, 27th,
31st, 36th, 40th, 44th, and 49th weeks of the ISO year. The
beginning subperiod s is 4-5-4 months (R454MON).
 About Date and Time Intervals 153

Interval Description

R544MON specifies retail 5-4-4 monthly intervals. The 1st, 4th, 7th, and
10th months are five ISO 8601 weeks long. All other months
are four ISO 8601 weeks long with the exception that some
12th months contain leap weeks. R544MON intervals begin
with the 1st, 6th, 10th, 14th, 19th, 23rd, 27th, 32nd, 36th, 40th,
45th, and 49th weeks of the ISO year. The beginning
subperiod s is 5-4-4 months (R544MON).

WEEKV specifies ISO 8601 weekly intervals of seven days. Each week
begins on Monday. The beginning subperiod s is calculated in
days (DAY). Note that WEEKV differs from WEEK in that
WEEKV.1 begins on Monday, WEEKV.2 begins on Tuesday,
and so on.
154 Chapter 7 / Dates, Times, and Intervals
 155

8
Error Processing and Debugging

Types of Errors in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Summary of Types of Errors That SAS Recognizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Syntax Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Semantic Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Execution-Time Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Data Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Macro-related Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Error Processing in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Syntax Check Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Processing Multiple Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Checkpoint Mode and Restart Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Using System Options to Control Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Using Return Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Other Error-Checking Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Debugging Logic Errors in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
In the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
In SAS Studio 5.2 and Later Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Types of Errors in SAS

Summary of Types of Errors That SAS Recognizes

SAS performs error processing during both the compilation and the execution
phases of SAS processing. You can debug SAS programs by understanding
processing messages in the SAS log and then fixing your code. You can use the
DATA Step Debugger to detect logic errors in a DATA step during execution.
SAS recognizes five types of errors.
 156 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

Table 8.1 Types of Errors

When the Error Is

Type of Error When This Error Occurs Detected

syntax when programming statements compile time

do not conform to the rules of
the SAS language

semantic when the language element is compile or execution

correct, but the element might time
not be valid for a particular
usage

execution-time when SAS attempts to execute execution time

a program and execution fails

data when data values are invalid execution time

macro-related when you use the macro facility macro compile time or
incorrectly execution time, DATA, or
PROC step compile time
or execution time

Syntax Errors
Syntax errors occur when program statements do not conform to the rules of the
SAS language. Here are some examples of syntax errors:
n misspelled SAS keyword

n unmatched quotation marks

n missing a semicolon

n invalid statement option

n invalid data set option

When SAS encounters a syntax error, it first attempts to correct the error by
attempting to interpret what you mean. Then SAS continues processing your
program based on its assumptions. If SAS cannot correct the error, it prints an error
message to the log. If you do not want SAS to correct syntax errors, you can set the
NOAUTOCORRECT system option. For more information, see the
AUTOCORRECT system option in the SAS System Options: Reference.
In the following example, the DATA statement is misspelled, and SAS prints a
warning message to the log. Because SAS could interpret the misspelled word, the
program runs and produces output.
date temp;
x=1;
run;

proc print data=temp;

run;
 Types of Errors in SAS 157

Example Code 8.1 SAS Log: Syntax Error (Misspelled Key Word)

39 date temp;
----
14
WARNING 14-169: Assuming the symbol DATA was misspelled as date.

40 x=1;
41 run;
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEMP has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

42
43 proc print data=temp;
44 run;
NOTE: There were 1 observations read from the data set WORK.TEMP.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

45 proc printto; run;

Some errors are explained fully by the message that SAS prints in the log. Other
error messages are not as easy to interpret because SAS is not always able to
detect exactly where the error occurred. For example, when you fail to end a SAS
statement with a semicolon, SAS does not always detect the error at the point
where it occurs. This is because SAS statements are free-format (they can begin
and end anywhere). In the following example, the semicolon at the end of the DATA
statement is missing. SAS prints the word ERROR in the log, identifies the possible
location of the error, prints an explanation of the error, and stops processing the
DATA step.
data temp
x=1;
run;

proc print data=temp;

run;
 158 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

Example Code 8.2 SAS Log: Syntax Error (Missing Semicolon)

67 data temp
68 x=1;
-
22
76
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name,
a quoted string, (, /, ;, _DATA_, _LAST_, _NULL_.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

69 run;
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

70
71 proc print data=temp;
72 run;
NOTE: There were 1 observations read from the data set WORK.TEMP.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

73 proc printto; run;

Whether subsequent steps are executed depends on which method of running SAS
you use, as well as on your operating environment.
Note: You can add these lines to your code to fix unmatched comment tags,
unmatched quotation marks, and missing semicolons:
/* '; * "; */;
quit;
run;

Semantic Errors
Semantic errors occur when the form of the elements in a SAS statement is correct,
but the elements are not valid for that usage. Semantic errors are detected at
compile time and can cause SAS to enter syntax check mode. (For a description of
syntax check mode, see “Syntax Check Mode” on page 165.)
Examples of semantic errors include the following:
n specifying the wrong number of arguments for a function

n using a numeric variable name where only a character variable is valid

n using invalid references to an array

n a variable is not initialized

In the following example, SAS detects an invalid reference to the array All at
compile time.
data _null_;
array all{*} x1-x5;
all=3;
datalines;
 Types of Errors in SAS 159

1 1.5
. 3
2 4.5
3 2 7
3 . .
;

run;
Example Code 8.3 SAS Log: Semantic Error (invalid Reference to an Array)

81 data _null_;
82 array all{*} x1-x5;
ERROR: invalid reference to the array all.
83 all=3;
84 datalines;
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.15 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

90 ;
91
92 run;
93 proc printto; run;

Here is another example of a semantic error that occurs at compile time. In this
DATA step, the libref SomeLib has not been previously assigned in a LIBNAME
statement.
data test;
set somelib.old;
run;
Example Code 8.4 SAS Log: Semantic Error (Libref Not Previously Assigned)

101 data test;

ERROR: Libname SomeLib is not assigned.
102 set somelib.old;
103 run;
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.TEST may be incomplete. When this step was
stopped there were 0 observations and 0 variables.

An example of a semantic error that occurs at execution time is when a "NOTE:

SAS went to a new line when input statement reached past the end of a line." is
output. This note is written to the SAS log when FLOWOVER is used and all the
variables in the INPUT statement cannot be fully read.
Another semantic error is the detection of a variable that is not initialized. By default,
SAS does not report an error, but writes a note to the SAS log. If a variable is not
initialized and the system option VARINITCHK=ERROR, SAS stops processing a
DATA step and writes an error message to the SAS log.
 160 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

Execution-Time Errors

Definition
Execution-time errors are errors that occur when SAS executes a program that
processes data values. Most execution-time errors produce warning messages or
notes in the SAS log but allow the program to continue executing.1 The location of
an execution-time error is usually given as line and column numbers in a note or
error message.
Common execution-time errors include the following:
n invalid arguments to functions

n invalid mathematical operations (for example, division by 0)

n observations in the wrong order for BY-group processing

n reference to a nonexistent member of an array (occurs when the array's

subscript is out of range)
n open and close errors on SAS data sets and other files in INFILE and FILE
statements
n INPUT statements that do not match the data lines (for example, an INPUT
statement in which you list the wrong columns for a variable or fail to indicate
that the variable is a character variable)

Out-of-Resources Condition
An execution-time error can also occur when you encounter an out-of-resources
condition, such as a full disk, or insufficient memory for a SAS procedure to
complete. When these conditions occur, SAS attempts to find resources for current
use. For example, SAS might ask the user for permission to perform these actions
in out-of-resource conditions:
n Delete temporary data sets that might no longer be needed.

n Free the memory in which macro variables are stored.

When an out-of-resources condition occurs in a windowing environment, you can

use the SAS CLEANUP system option to display a requestor panel. The requestor
panel enables you to choose how to resolve the error. When you run SAS in batch,
noninteractive, or interactive line mode, the operation of CLEANUP depends on
your operating environment. For more information, see the CLEANUP system option
in SAS System Options: Reference, and in the SAS documentation for your
operating environment.

Examples
In the following example, an execution-time error occurs when SAS uses data
values from the second observation to perform the division operation in the

1. When you run SAS in noninteractive mode, more serious errors can cause SAS to enter syntax check mode and stop
processing the program.
 Types of Errors in SAS 161

assignment statement. Division by 0 is an invalid mathematical operation and

causes an execution-time error.

data inventory;
input Item $ 1-14 TotalCost 15-20
UnitsOnHand 21-23;
UnitCost=TotalCost/UnitsOnHand;
datalines;
Hammers 440 55
Nylon cord 35 0
Ceiling fans 1155 30
;

proc print data=inventory;

format TotalCost dollar8.2 UnitCost dollar8.2;
run;
Example Code 8.5 SAS Log: Execution-Time Error (division by 0)

115 data inventory;

116 input Item $ 1-14 TotalCost 15-20
117 UnitsOnHand 21-23;
118 UnitCost=TotalCost/UnitsOnHand;
119 datalines;
NOTE: Division by zero detected at line 118 column 22.
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5---
121 Nylon cord 35 0
Item=Nylon cord TotalCost=35 UnitsOnHand=0 UnitCost=. _ERROR_=1
_N_=2
NOTE: Mathematical operations could not be performed at the
following places. The results of the operations have been
set to missing values.
Each place is given by:
(Number of times) at (Line):(Column).
1 at 118:22
NOTE: The data set WORK.INVENTORY has 3 observations and 4
variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

123 ;
124
125 proc print data=inventory;
126 format TotalCost dollar8.2 UnitCost dollar8.2;
127 run;

NOTE: Writing HTML Body file: sashtml1.htm

NOTE: There were 3 observations read from the data set
WORK.INVENTORY.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.56 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds
162 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

Output 8.1 SAS Output: Execution-Time Error (division by 0)

SAS executes the entire step, assigns a missing value for the variable UnitCost in
the output, and writes the following to the SAS log:
n a note that describes the error

n the values that are stored in the input buffer

n the contents of the program data vector at the time the error occurred

n a note explaining the error

Note that the values that are listed in the program data vector include the _N_ and
_ERROR_ automatic variables. These automatic variables are assigned temporarily
to each observation and are not stored with the data set.
In the following example of an execution-time error, the program processes an array
and SAS encounters a value of the array's subscript that is out of range. SAS prints
an error message to the log and stops processing.
data test;
array all{*} x1-x3;
input I measure;
if measure > 0 then
all{I} = measure;
datalines;
1 1.5
. 3
2 4.5
;

proc print data=test;

run;
 Types of Errors in SAS 163

Example Code 8.6 SAS Log: Execution-Time Error (Subscript Out of Range)

163 data test;

164 array all{*} x1-x3;
165 input I measure;
166 if measure > 0 then
167 all{I} = measure;
168 datalines;
ERROR: Array subscript out of range at line 167 column 7.
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5---
170 . 3
x1=. x2=. x3=. I=. measure=3 _ERROR_=1 _N_=2
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of
errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.TEST may be incomplete. When this
step was stopped there were 1 observations and 5
variables.
WARNING: Data set WORK.TEST was not replaced because this step
was stopped.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

172 ;
173
174 proc print data=test;
175 run;
NOTE: No variables in data set WORK.TEST.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

176 proc printto; run;

Data Errors

Definition
Data errors occur when some data values are not appropriate for the SAS
statements that you have specified in the program. For example, if you define a
variable as numeric, but the data value is actually character, SAS generates a data
error. SAS detects data errors during program execution and continues to execute
the program, and does the following:
n writes an invalid data note to the SAS log.

n prints the input line and column numbers that contain the invalid value in the
SAS log. Unprintable characters appear in hexadecimal. To help determine
column numbers, SAS prints a rule line above the input line.
n prints the observation under the rule line.

n sets the automatic variable _ERROR_ to 1 for the current observation.

In this example, a character value in the Number variable results in a data error
during program execution:
data age;
164 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

input Name $ Number;

datalines;
Sue 35
Joe xx
Steve 22
;

proc print data=age;

run;
The SAS log shows that there is an error in line 8, position 5–6 of the program.
Example Code 8.7 SAS Log: Data Error

234 data age;

235 input Name $ Number;
236 datalines;
NOTE: Invalid data for Number in line 238 5-6.
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5---
238 Joe xx
Name=Joe Number=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=2
NOTE: The data set WORK.AGE has 3 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

240 ;
241
242 proc print data=age;
243 run;

NOTE: Writing HTML Body file: sashtml2.htm

NOTE: There were 3 observations read from the data set WORK.AGE.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.07 seconds
cpu time 0.04 seconds

Output 8.2 SAS Output: Data Error

You can also use the INVALIDDATA= system option to assign a value to a variable
when your program encounters invalid data. For more information, see the
INVALIDDATA= system option in SAS System Options: Reference.

Format Modifiers for Error Reporting

The INPUT statement uses the ? and the ? format modifiers for error reporting. The
format modifiers control the amount of information that is written to the SAS log.
Both the ? and the ?? modifiers suppress the invalid data message. However,
 Error Processing in SAS 165

the ?? modifier also sets the automatic variable _ERROR_ to 0. For example, these
two sets of statements are equivalent:
n input x ?? 10-12;

n input x ? 10-12;
_error_=0;

In either case, SAS sets the invalid values of X to missing values.

Macro-related Errors
Several types of macro-related errors exist:
n macro compile time and macro execution-time errors, generated when you use
the macro facility itself
n errors in the SAS code produced by the macro facility

For more information about macros, see SAS Macro Language: Reference.

Error Processing in SAS

Syntax Check Mode

Overview of Syntax Check Mode

If you want processing to stop when a statement in a DATA step has a syntax error,
you can enable SAS to enter syntax check mode. You do this by setting the
SYNTAXCHECK system option in batch or non-interactive mode, or by setting the
DMSSYNCHK system option in the windowing environment.
SAS can enter syntax check mode only if your program creates a data set. If you
use the DATA _NULL_ statement, then SAS cannot enter syntax check mode
because no data set is created. In this case, using the SYNTAXCHECK or
DMSSYNCHK system option has no effect.
In syntax check mode, SAS internally sets the OBS= option to 0 and the REPLACE/
NOREPLACE option to NOREPLACE. When these options are in effect, SAS acts
as follows:
n reads the remaining statements in the DATA step or PROC step

n checks that statements are valid SAS statements

n executes global statements

n writes errors to the SAS log

n creates the descriptor portion of any output data sets that are specified in
program statements
n does not write any observations to new data sets that SAS creates
 166 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

n does not execute most of the subsequent DATA steps or procedures in the
program (exceptions include PROC DATASETS and PROC CONTENTS)
Note: Any data sets that are created after SAS has entered syntax check mode do
not replace existing data sets with the same name.
When syntax checking is enabled, SAS underlines the point where it detects a
syntax or semantic error in a DATA step and identifies the error by number. SAS
then enters syntax check mode and remains in this mode until the program finishes
executing. When SAS enters syntax check mode, all DATA step statements and
PROC step statements are validated.

Enabling Syntax Check Mode

You use the SYNTAXCHECK system option to enable syntax check mode when you
run SAS in non-interactive or batch mode. You use the DMSSYNCHK system option
to enable syntax check mode when you run SAS in the windowing environment. You
can use these system options only if your program creates a data set. If you use the
DATA _NULL_ statement, then these options are ignored.
To disable syntax check mode, use the NOSYNTAXCHECK and NODMSSYNCHK
system options.
In an OPTIONS statement, place the OPTIONS statement that enables
SYNTAXCHECK or DMSSYNCHK before the step for which you want it to apply. If
you place the OPTIONS statement inside a step, then SYNTAXCHECK or
DMSSYNCHK does not take effect until the beginning of the next step.
For more information about these system options, see “DMSSYNCHK System
Option” in SAS System Options: Reference and “SYNTAXCHECK System Option”
in SAS System Options: Reference.

Processing Multiple Errors

Depending on the type and severity of the error, the method that you use to run
SAS, and your operating environment, SAS either stops program processing or
flags errors and continues processing. SAS continues to check individual
statements in procedures after it finds certain types of errors. In some cases SAS
can detect multiple errors in a single statement and might issue more error
messages for a given situation. This is likely to occur if the statement containing the
error creates an output SAS data set.
The following example illustrates a statement with two errors:
data temporary;
Item1=4;
run;

proc print data=temporary;

var Item1 Item2 Item3;
run;
 Error Processing in SAS 167

Example Code 8.8 SAS Log: Multiple Program Errors

273 data temporary;

274 Item1=4;
275 run;
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEMPORARY has 1 observations and 1
variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

276
277 proc print data=temporary;
ERROR: Variable ITEM2 not found.
ERROR: Variable ITEM3 not found.
278 var Item1 Item2 Item3;
279 run;
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of
errors.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.52 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

280 proc printto; run;

SAS displays two error messages, one for the variable Item2 and one for the
variable Item3.
When you are running debugged production programs that are unlikely to encounter
errors, you might want to force SAS to abend after a single error occurs. You can
use the ERRORABEND system option to do this.

Checkpoint Mode and Restart Mode

Overview of Checkpoint Mode and Restart Mode

When used together, checkpoint mode and restart mode create an environment
where batch programs that terminate before completing can be resubmitted without
rerunning steps or labeled code sections that have already completed. Execution
resumes with either the DATA or PROC step or the labeled code section that was
executing when the failure occurred.
A labeled code section is the SAS code that begins with label: outside of a DATA or
PROC step and ends with the RUN statement that precedes the next label: that is
outside of a DATA or PROC step,. Labels must be unique. Consider using labeled
code sections when you want to group DATA or PROC steps that might need to be
grouped together because the data for one is dependent on the other.
The following example program has two labeled code sections. The first labeled
code section begins with the label readSortData: and ends with the run; statement
for proc sort data=mylib.mydata;. The second labeled code section starts with
the label report: and ends with the run; statements for proc report
data=mylib.mydata;.
readSortData:
data mylib.mydata;
...more sas code...
run;
168 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

proc sort data=mylib.mydata;

...more sas code...
run;

report:
proc report data=mylib.mydata;
...more sas code...;
run;
endReadSortReport:

Note: The use of label: in checkpoint mode and restart mode is valid only outside of
a DATA or PROC statement. Checkpoint mode and restart mode for labeled code
sections are not valid for labels within a DATA step or macros.
Checkpoint mode and restart mode can be enabled for either DATA and PROC
steps or for labeled code sections, but not both simultaneously. To use checkpoint
mode and restart mode on a step-by-step basis, use the step checkpoint mode and
the step restart mode. To use checkpoint mode and restart mode based on groups
of code sections, use the label checkpoint mode and the label restart mode. Each
group of code is identified by a unique label. If you use labels, all steps in a SAS
program must belong to a labeled code section.
When checkpoint mode is enabled, SAS records information about DATA and
PROC steps or labeled code sections in a checkpoint library. When a batch program
terminates prematurely, you can resubmit the program in restart mode to complete
execution. In restart mode, global statements are re-executed, macro definitions are
recompiled, and macros are re-executed.. SAS reads the data in the checkpoint
library to determine which steps or labeled code sections completed. Program
execution resumes with the step or the label that was executing when the failure
occurred.
The checkpoint-restart data contains information only about the DATA and PROC
steps or the labeled code sections that completed and the step or labeled code
sections that did not complete. The checkpoint-restart data does not contain the
following information:
n information about macro variables and macro definitions

n information about SAS data sets

n information that might have been processed in the step or labeled code section
that did not complete
Note: Checkpoint mode is not valid for batch programs that contain the DM
statement to submit commands to SAS. If checkpoint mode is enabled and SAS
encounters a DM statement, checkpoint mode is disabled and the checkpoint
catalog entry is deleted.
As a best practice, if you use labeled code sections, add a label at the end of your
program. When the program completes successfully, the label is recorded in the
checkpoint-restart data. If the program is submitted again in restart mode, SAS
knows that the program has already completed successfully.
If a DATA or PROC step must be re-executed, you can add the global statement
CHECKPOINT EXECUTE_ALWAYS immediately before the step. This statement
tells SAS to always execute the following step without considering the checkpoint-
restart data. It is applicable only to the step that follows the statement. For more
information, see “CHECKPOINT EXECUTE_ALWAYS Statement” in SAS Global
Statements: Reference.
 Error Processing in SAS 169

You enable checkpoint mode and restart mode for DATA and PROC steps by using
system options when you start the batch program in SAS.
n STEPCHKPT system option enables checkpoint mode, which indicates to SAS
to record checkpoint-restart data
n STEPCHKPTLIB system option identifies a user-specified checkpoint-restart
library
n STEPRESTART system option enables restart mode, ensuring that execution
resumes with the DATA or PROC step indicated by the checkpoint-restart library.
You enable checkpoint mode and the restart mode for labeled code sections by
using these system options when you start the batch program in SAS:
n LABELCHKPT system option enables checkpoint mode for labeled code
sections, which indicates to SAS to record checkpoint-restart data.
n LABELCHKPTLIB system option identifies a user-specified checkpoint-restart
library
n LABELRESTART system option enables restart mode, ensuring that execution
resumes with the labeled code section indicated by the checkpoint-restart library.
If you use the Work library as your checkpoint-restart library, you can use the
CHKPTCLEAN system option to have the files in the Work library erased after a
successful execution of your batch program.
For information, see the following system options in SAS System Options:
Reference:
n “STEPCHKPT System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “STEPCHKPTLIB= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “STEPRESTART System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “LABELCHKPT System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “LABELCHKPTLIB= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “LABELRESTART System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “CHKPTCLEAN System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

Requirements for Using Checkpoint Mode and Restart

Mode
In order for checkpoint mode and restart mode to work successfully, the number and
order of the DATA and PROC steps or labeled code sections in the batch program
must not change between SAS invocations. By specifying the ERRORABEND and
ERRORCHECK system options when SAS starts, SAS terminates for most error
conditions in order to maintain valid checkpoint-restart data.
The checkpoint-restart library can be a user-specified library or, if no library is
specified, the checkpoint-restart data is saved to the Work library. Always start SAS
with the NOWORKTERM and NOWORKINIT system options regardless of whether
the checkpoint-restart data is saved to a user-specified library or to the Work library.
SAS writes the name of the Work library to the SAS log.
Operating Environment Information: Under UNIX and z/OS operating
environments, consider always assigning a checkpoint-restart library when you use
the STEPCHKPT option or the LABELCHKPT option. If your site sets the
CLEANWORK utility to run at regular intervals, data in the Work library might be
170 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

lost. Under z/OS, it might not be practical for your site to reuse the Work library in a
batch session.
The labels for labeled code sections must be unique. If SAS enters restart mode for
a label that is a duplicate label, SAS starts at the first label. The code between the
duplicate labels might rerun needlessly.

Setting Up and Executing Checkpoint Mode and Restart

Mode
To set up checkpoint mode and restart mode, make the following modifications to
your batch program:
n Add the CHECKPOINT EXECUTE_ALWAYS statement before any DATA and
PROC steps that you want to execute each time the batch program is submitted.
n If your checkpoint-restart library is a user-defined library, you must add the
LIBNAME statement that defines the checkpoint-restart libref as the first
statement in the batch program. If you use the Work library as your checkpoint
library, no LIBNAME statement is necessary.
Once the batch program has been modified, you start the program using the
appropriate system options:
n For checkpoint-restart data that is saved in the Work library, start a batch SAS
session that specifies these system options:
o SYSIN, if required in your operating environment, names the batch program.
o STEPCHKPT or LABELCHKPT enables checkpoint mode.
o NOWORKTERM saves the Work library when SAS ends.
o NOWORKINIT does not initialize the Work library when SAS starts.
o ERRORCHECK STRICT puts SAS in syntax-check mode when an error
occurs in the LIBNAME, FILENAME, %INCLUDE, and LOCK statements.
o ERRORABEND specifies whether SAS terminates for most errors.
o CHKPTCLEAN specifies whether to erase files in the Work library and delete
the Work library if the batch program runs successfully.
In the Windows operating environment, the following SAS command starts a
batch program in checkpoint mode using the Work library as the checkpoint-
restart library:
sas -sysin 'c:\mysas\myprogram.sas'-stepchkpt -noworkterm -noworkinit
-errorcheck strict -errorabend -chkptclean

n For checkpoint-restart data that is saved in a user-specified library, start a batch

SAS session that includes these system options:
o SYSIN, if required in your operating environment, names the batch program.
o STEPCHKPT or LABELCHKPT enables checkpoint mode.
o STEPCHKPTLIB or LABELCHKPTLIB specifies the libref of the library where
SAS saves the checkpoint-restart data.
o NOWORKTERM saves the Work library when SAS ends.
o NOWORKINIT does not initialize the Work library when SAS starts.
o ERRORCHECK STRICT puts SAS in syntax-check mode when an error
occurs in the LIBNAME, FILENAME, %INCLUDE, and LOCK statements.
 Error Processing in SAS 171

o ERRORABEND specifies whether SAS terminates for most errors.

In the Windows operating environment, the following SAS command starts a
batch program in checkpoint mode using a user-specified checkpoint-restart
library:
sas -sysin 'c:\mysas\myprogram.sas' -labelchkpt -labelchkptlib mylibref
-noworkterm -noworkinit -errorcheck strict -errorabbend

In this case, the first statement in MyProgram.sas is the LIBNAME statement

that defines the MyLibref libref.

Restarting Batch Programs

To resubmit a batch SAS session using the checkpoint-restart data that is saved in
the Work library, include these system options when SAS starts:
n SYSIN, if required in your operating environment, names the batch program.

n STEPCHKPT or LABELCHKPT continues checkpoint mode.

n STEPRESTART or LABELRESTART enables restart mode, indicating to SAS to

use the checkpoint-restart data.
n NOWORKINIT starts SAS using the Work library from the previous SAS session.

n NOWORKTERM saves the Work library when SAS ends.

n ERRORCHECK STRICT puts SAS in syntax-check mode when an error occurs

in the LIBNAME, FILENAME, %INCLUDE, and LOCK statements.
n ERRORABEND specifies whether SAS terminates for most errors.

n CHKPTCLEAN specifies whether to erase files in the Work library if the batch
program runs successfully.
In the Windows operating environment, the following SAS command resubmits a
batch program whose checkpoint-restart data was saved to the Work library:
sas -sysin 'c:\mysas\mysasprogram.sas' -stepchkpt -steprestart -noworkinit
-noworkterm -errorcheck strict -errorabend -chkptclean

By specifying the NOWORKTERM system options and either the STEPCHKPT or

LABELCHKPT system option, checkpoint mode continues to be enabled once the
batch program restarts.
To resubmit a batch SAS session using the checkpoint-restart data that is saved in a
user-specified library, include these system options when SAS starts:
n SYSIN, if required in you operating environment, names the batch program.

n STEPCHKPT or LABELCHKPT continues checkpoint mode.

n STEPRESTART or LABELRESTART enables restart mode, indicating to SAS to

use the checkpoint-restart data.
n STEPCHKPTLIB or LABELCHKPTLIB specifies the libref of the checkpoint-
restart library.
n NOWORKTERM saves the Work library when SAS ends.

n NOWORKINIT does not initialize the Work library when SAS starts.

n ERRORCHECK STRICT puts SAS in syntax-check mode when an error occurs

in the LIBNAME, FILENAME, %INCLUDE, and LOCK statements.
n ERRORABEND specifies whether SAS terminates for most errors.
 172 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

In the Windows operating environment, the following SAS command resubmits a

batch program whose checkpoint-restart data was saved to a user-specified library:
sas -sysin 'c:\mysas\mysasprogram.sas' -labelchkpt -labelrestart -labelchklib
-noworkterm -noworkinit mylibref -errorcheck strict -errorabend

Using System Options to Control Error Handling

You can use the following system options to control error handling (resolve errors) in
your program:
BYERR
specifies whether SAS produces errors when the SORT procedure attempts to
process a _NULL_ data set.
CHKPTCLEAN
in checkpoint mode or reset mode, specifies whether to erase files in the Work
directory if a batch program executes successfully.
DKRICOND=
specifies the level of error detection to report when a variable is missing from an
input data set during the processing of a DROP=, KEEP=, and RENAME= data
set option.
DKROCOND=
specifies the level of error detection to report when a variable is missing from an
output data set during the processing of a DROP=, KEEP=, and RENAME= data
set option.
DSNFERR
when a SAS data set cannot be found, specifies whether SAS issues an error
message.
ERRORABEND
specifies whether SAS responds to errors by terminating.
ERRORCHECK=
specifies whether SAS enters syntax-check mode when errors are found in the
LIBNAME, FILENAME, %INCLUDE, and LOCK statements.
ERRORS=
specifies the maximum number of observations for which SAS issues complete
error messages.
FMTERR
when a variable format cannot be found, specifies whether SAS generates an
error or continues processing.
INVALIDDATA=
specifies the value that SAS assigns to a variable when invalid numeric data is
encountered.
LABELCHKPT
specifies whether SAS checkpoint-restart data is to be recorded for a batch
program that contains labeled code sections.
LABELCHKPTLIB
specifies the libref of the library where checkpoint-restart data is saved for
labeled code sections.
 Error Processing in SAS 173

LABELRESTART
specifies whether to execute a batch program by using checkpoint-restart data
for labeled code sections.
MERROR
specifies whether SAS issues a warning message when a macro-like name does
not match a macro keyword.
QUOTELENMAX
if a quoted string exceeds the maximum length allowed, specifies whether SAS
writes a warning message to the SAS log.
SERROR
specifies whether SAS issues a warning message when a macro variable
reference does not match a macro variable.
STEPCHKPT
specifies whether checkpoint-restart data is to be recorded for a batch program.
STEPCHKPTLIB=
specifies the libref of the library where checkpoint-restart data is saved.
STEPRESTART
specifies whether to execute a batch program by using checkpoint-restart data.
VARINITCHK=
specifies whether to stop or continue processing a DATA step when a variable is
not initialized. You can also specify the type of message that is written to the
SAS log.
VNFERR
specifies whether SAS issues an error or warning when a BY variable exists in
one data set but not another data set. SAS only issues these errors or warnings
when processing the SET, MERGE, UPDATE, or MODIFY statements.
For more information about SAS system options, see SAS System Options:
Reference.

Using Return Codes

In some operating environments, SAS passes a return code to the system, but the
way in which return codes are accessed is specific to your operating environment.
Operating Environment Information: For more information about return codes,
see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.

Other Error-Checking Options

To help determine your programming errors, you can use the following methods:
n the _IORC_ automatic variable that SAS creates (and the associated IORCMSG
function) when you use the MODIFY statement or the KEY= data set option in
the SET statement
n the ERRORS= system option to limit the number of identical errors that SAS
writes to the log
 174 Chapter 8 / Error Processing and Debugging

n the SYSRC and SYSMSG functions to return information when a data set or
external-files access function encounters an error condition
n the SYSRC automatic macro variable to receive return codes

n the SYSERR automatic macro variable to detect major system errors, such as
out of memory or failure of the component system
n log control options:

MSGLEVEL=
controls the level of detail in messages that are written to the SAS log.
PRINTMSGLIST
controls the printing of extended lists of messages to the SAS log.
SOURCE
controls whether SAS writes source statements to the SAS log.
SOURCE2
controls whether SAS writes source statements included by %INCLUDE to
the SAS log.

Debugging Logic Errors in the DATA Step

In the SAS Windowing Environment

The DATA step debugger is included with the SAS windowing environment (or SAS
display manager) and it is invoked by specifying the DEBUG option in the SAS
DATA statement.
data test / debug;
x=1;
run;
For information about how to debug SAS programs when using SAS in the SAS
Windowing Environment, see Using the DATA Step Debugger.

In SAS Studio 5.2 and Later Releases

If you are using the DATA step debugger that is included with SAS Studio 5.2 or
later releases, see Getting Started with SAS Code Debugger. The DEBUG option in
the DATA statement is not supported in SAS Studio.
 175

9
SAS Output

Definitions for SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Routing and Customizing SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Default Output Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Changing the Output Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Customizing Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Sample SAS Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Default HTML Output in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Traditional SAS LISTING Output in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 183
The SAS Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Structure of the Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The SAS Log in Interactive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
The SAS Log in Batch, Line, or Objectserver Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Writing to the Log in All Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Customizing the Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Definitions for SAS Output

SAS output is the result of executing SAS programs. Most SAS procedures and
some DATA step applications produce output. A SAS program can produce some or
all of the following types of output:
program results
contain the programmatic results from SAS procedures and SAS DATA step
applications. These results can be sent to a file or printed as a report. There are
a variety of options, formats, statements, and commands available in SAS to
customize your output. The Output Delivery System enables you to specify
output destinations to control how your output is stored, table definitions to
control how your output is structured, and style templates to control the stylistic
elements of your output. For more information, see SAS Output Delivery System:
User’s Guide.
Here are a few examples of the types of output that you can get from running
SAS programs:
n a SAS data set

n an HTML file for web viewing

n a simple listing report

n RTF output suitable for viewing in Microsoft Word

176 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

n SVG output suitable for viewing by mobile devices

n an ODS Document for specifying multiple destinations at one time

n output that is formatted for a high-resolution printer such as PostScript and

PDF
n output formatted in various markup languages (in addition to HTML)

SAS log output

SAS log
contains a description of the SAS session and lists the lines of source code that
were executed. Depending on the setting of SAS system options, the method of
running SAS, and the program statements that you specify, the log can include
the following types of information:
n program statements

n names of data sets created by the program

n notes, warnings, or error messages encountered during program execution

n the number of variables and observations each data set contains

n processing time required for each step

You can write specific information to the SAS log (such as variable values or text
strings) by using the SAS statements that are described in “Writing to the Log in
All Modes” on page 190.
The log is also used by some of the SAS procedures that perform utility
functions, for example the DATASETS and OPTIONS procedures. See the Base
SAS Procedures Guide.
Because the SAS log provides a journal of program processing, it is an essential
debugging tool. However, certain system options must be in effect to make the
log effective for debugging your SAS programs. “Customizing the Log” on page
191 describes several SAS system options that you can use.
SAS console log
created when the regular SAS log is not active, for recording information,
warnings and error messages. When the SAS log is active, the SAS console log
is used only for fatal system initialization errors or late termination messages.
Note: For more information, see the SAS documentation for your operating
environment for specific information about the destination of the SAS console
log.
SAS logging facility output
contain log messages that you create using the SAS logging facility. Logging
facility messages can be created within SAS programs or they can be created by
SAS for logging SAS server messages. Logging facility log messages are based
on message categories such as authentication, administration, performance, or
customized message categories in SAS programs. In SAS programs, you use
logging facility functions, autocall macros, or DATA step component objects to
create the logging facility environment.
The logging facility environment consists of loggers, appenders, and log events.
A logger defines a message category, references one or more appenders, and
specifies the logger's message level threshold. The message level threshold can
be one of the following, from lowest to highest: trace, debug, info, warn, error, or
fatal. An appender defines the physical location to write log messages and the
format of the message. A log event consists of a log message, a message
 Routing and Customizing SAS Output 177

threshold, and a logger. Log events are initiated by SAS servers and SAS
programs.
When SAS processes a logging facility log event, it compares the message level
of the log event to the message threshold of the logger that is named in the log
event. If the log event message threshold is the same or higher than the logger's
message threshold, the message is written to the locations that are specified by
the appenders that are referenced in the logger definition. If the log event is not
accepted by the logger, the message is discarded.
Appenders are defined for the duration of a macro program or a DATA step.
Loggers are defined for the duration of the SAS session.
For more information, see SAS Logging: Configuration and Programming
Reference.

Routing and Customizing SAS Output

Default Output Destination

Definition
The destination in SAS is a designation that the Output Delivery System (ODS) uses
to generate a specific type of output. Or, simply put, it is how and where ODS routes
your output. For example, ODS can route your output to a browser as HTML, to a
file, or to your terminal or display as a simple list report. The destination of your
output depends on the following:
n your operating environment

n your mode of running SAS

n your version of SAS

Default Destinations
In SAS 9.3 and later versions, when running SAS in windowing mode in the
Microsoft Windows and UNIX operating environments, output is sent by default to
the HTML destination (HTML is the default destination). Also, ODS Graphics is
turned on by default in the windowing environment under UNIX and Windows for
SAS 9.3 and later versions.
For running SAS in batch mode, however, LISTING is the default destination for
SAS 9.4 and earlier versions, and ODS Graphics is turned off by default. See Table
9.1 on page 178 for a comparison of output destinations based on SAS version and
operating mode. Your defaults might be different due to your registry or
configuration file settings.
The following table shows the default destinations for each method of operation
based on SAS version:
 178 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

Table 9.1 Comparison of Default Destinations for Output

Mode of Running
SAS Version SAS Viewer ODS Destination

SAS 9.3 and later windowing mode SAS Results Viewer or HTML
browser window

interactive line terminal display LISTING

mode

noninteractive depends on operating environment

mode

batch mode depends on operating environment:

SAS 9.2 windowing mode SAS Output Window LISTING

interactive line terminal display LISTING

mode

noninteractive depends on operating environment

mode

batch mode depends on operating environment

Operating Environment Information: The default destination for SAS output is

specific to your operating environment. Your configuration file and registry settings
also affect the where your output is sent. For specific information about the default
output destination, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment:
n UNIX: “The Default Routings for the SAS Log and Procedure Output in UNIX
Environments” in SAS Companion for UNIX Environments
n z/OS: “Destinations of SAS Output Files” in SAS Companion for z/OS

n Windows: “Managing SAS Output under Windows” in SAS Companion for

Windows
For more information about the new defaults and ODS destinations, see the SAS
Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

Changing the Output Destination

Overview
With SAS, there are many ways to control where your log, procedure, and DATA
step output is sent. The method that you use depends on your operating system
and the mode in which you are running SAS. See Table 9.2 on page 179 for a list of
commonly used methods for changing the output destination. You can route your
output directly to a PC or terminal display, to a printer, or to an external file.Output
destinations can be specified using SAS procedures, system options, commands,
statements, or global ODS statements.
 Routing and Customizing SAS Output 179

Using ODS to Change the Output Destination

Before ODS was introduced in SAS 7, most procedures generated output that was
designed for a traditional line-printer and the output went straight to the listing
window as a simple list report. If you wanted to change the destination of your
output, you used methods such as PROC PRINTTO and the FILENAME statement.
Even though these methods are useful, there are many more options available with
ODS for controlling output. ODS destination statements enable you to specify a
variety of formats and destinations.
The following list describes some of the commonly used ODS statements and other
SAS language elements that are used for routing output.

Table 9.2 Changing the Output Destination

Method to Use Output Result

PRINTTO procedure routes DATA step, log, or procedure output from the system
default destinations to the destination that you choose. The
PRINTTO procedure defines non-ODS destinations.

FILENAME statement associates a fileref with an external file or output device and
enables you to specify file and device attributes

FILE command: Windows stores the contents of the LOG or OUTPUT windows in files
that you specify, when the command is issued from within the
windowing environment.

ODS LISTING Statement opens, manages, or closes the LISTING destination.

ODS OUTPUT Statement produces a SAS data set from an output object and manages
the selection and exclusion lists for the OUTPUT destination.

ODS DOCUMENT produces and ODS document that enables you to restructure,
statement navigate, and replay your data in different ways. It also
enables you to specify multiple destinations without needing to
rerun your analysis or repeat your database query.

ODS HTML Statement opens, manages, or closes the HTML destination, which
produces HTML 4.0 output that contains embedded style
sheets.

ODS MARKUP opens, manages, or closes the MARKUP destination, which

Statement produces SAS output that is formatted using one of many
different markup languages.

ODS PRINTER opens, manages, or closes the PDF destination, which

Statement produces PDF output, a form of output that is read by Adobe
Acrobat and other applications.

ODS RTF Statement opens, manages, or closes the RTF destination, which
produces output written in Rich Text Format for use with
Microsoft Word 2002.
 180 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

Method to Use Output Result

SAS System Options redefine the destination of log and output for an entire SAS
program. These system options are specified when you invoke
SAS. Here are the system options used to route output:
“ALTLOG System Option: Windows” in SAS Companion for
Windows
n ALTLOG= (Windows, UNIX, z/OS)

n ALTPRINT= (Windows, UNIX, z/OS) )

n LOG= (Windows, UNIX, z/OS)

n PRINT= (Windows, UNIX, z/OS)

For conceptual information about global ODS statements, see the following
resources:
n “Destination Category Table” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

n “Types of ODS Statements” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

Operating Environment Information:

For information about changing the default output location for the z/OS and UNIX
operating environments, see the following resources:
n z/OS: “Changing the Default Destination” in SAS Companion for z/OS

n UNIX: “Changing the Default Routings in UNIX Environments” in SAS

Companion for UNIX Environments

Customizing Output

Making Output Descriptive

There are many statements and system options available in SAS that enable you to
customize your output. You can add informative titles, footnotes, and labels to
customize your output and control how the information is laid out on the page.
The following list describes some of the statements and SAS system options that
you can use:

Table 9.3 Methods for Making Output Descriptive

SAS Language Element Function

CENTER | NOCENTER system option controls whether output is centered. By default,

SAS centers titles and procedure output on the
page and on the personal computer display.

DATE | NODATE system option controls printing of date and time values. When
this option is enabled, SAS prints on the top of
each page of output the date and time the SAS
job started. When you run SAS in interactive
mode, the date and time the job started is the
date and time that you started your SAS session.
 Routing and Customizing SAS Output 181

SAS Language Element Function

FOOTNOTE statement prints footnotes at the bottom of each output

page. You can also use the FOOTNOTES
window for this purpose.

FORMCHAR= specifies the default output formatting characters

for some procedures such as CALENDAR,
FREQ, REPORT, and TABULATE.

FORMDLIM= specifies the default output formatting characters

for some procedures such as CALENDAR,
FREQ, REPORT, and TABULATE.

LABEL statement associates descriptive labels with variables. With

most procedure output, SAS writes the label
rather than the variable name.
The LABEL statement also provides descriptive
labels when it is used with certain SAS
procedures. See Base SAS Procedures Guide
for information about using the LABEL statement
with a specific procedure.

LINESIZE= and PAGESIZE= system change the default number of lines per page
options (page size) and characters per line (line size) for
printed output. The default depends on the
method of running SAS and the settings of
certain SAS system options. Specify new page
and line sizes in the OPTIONS statement or
OPTIONS window. You can also specify line and
page size for DATA step output in the FILE
statement.
The values that you use for the LINESIZE= and
PAGESIZE= system options can significantly
affect the appearance of the output that is
produced by some SAS procedures.

NUMBER | NONUMBER and control page numbering. The NUMBER system

PAGENO= system options option controls whether the page number is
printed on the first title line of each page of
printed output. You can also specify a beginning
page number for the next page of output
produced by SAS by using the PAGENO=
system option.

global ODS statements enable you to apply styles to your output or to

use a style or table definition.

TITLE statement prints titles at the top of each output page. By

default, SAS prints the following title: The SAS
System
You can use the TITLE statement or TITLES
window to replace the default title or specify
other descriptive titles for SAS programs. You
can use the null title statement (title;) to
suppress a TITLE statement.
 182 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

Using ODS to Customize the Style and Structure of Output

ODS does more than just enable you to control output destinations. It also enables
you to customize the structure and style of your output. Since ODS uses table and
style templates (definitions) to display procedure and DATA step results, you can
control these results by creating customized table and style templates. You can also
modify existing style and table definitions if you do not want to create the definitions
from scratch.
For information about the Output Delivery System, see SAS Output Delivery
System: User’s Guide.

Reformatting Values in Output

Certain SAS statements, procedures, and options enable you to print values using
specified formats. In a windowing environment, you can use the Properties window
to control how values are displayed. You can apply or change formats with the
FORMAT and ATTRIB statements, or with the Properties window in a windowing
environment.
The FORMAT procedure enables you to design your own formats and informats,
giving you added flexibility in displaying values. See “FORMAT Procedure” in Base
SAS Procedures Guide for more information about the FORMAT procedure, and
SAS System Options: Reference for information about all other SAS system options.

Printing Missing Values

SAS represents ordinary missing numeric values in a SAS listing as a single period
and missing character values as a blank space. If you specify special missing
values for numeric variables, SAS writes the letter or the underscore. For character
variables, SAS writes a series of blanks equal to the length of the variable.
The MISSING= system option enables you to specify a character to print in place of
the period for ordinary missing numeric values. For more information, see the
“MISSING= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.

Sample SAS Output

Default HTML Output in the SAS Windowing Environment

Starting with SAS 9.3, the default destination is HTML when running SAS in the
windowing environment for the Windows and UNIX operating environments. The
default output is displayed in the SAS Results Viewer Window.

title 'Student Weight';

proc print data=sashelp.class;
where weight>100;
run;
 Sample SAS Output 183

quit;

Output 9.1 Default HTML Output in the Windowing Environment

Note: At SAS start-up, unless you have previously closed the HTML destination,
output is sent to the WORK directory by default. If you close the HTML destination
and re-open it in the same SAS session, all output goes to the current directory
rather than the WORK directory. You do not have to specify ODS HTML CLOSE; to
view your output.

Traditional SAS LISTING Output in the SAS Windowing

Environment
If you are running SAS in windowing mode and want to send your output to the
LISTING destination, you can use ODS statements in your SAS programs to change
the destination. If you want a more permanent solution, you can change your
settings so that every time you run SAS, your output is sent to the LISTING
destination by default. For information about how to change these settings, see
“Default HTML Output” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.
In this example, the output destination is changed from HTML to LISTING by
specifying the ODS LISTING and ODS HTML CLOSE statements. By changing the
output destination to LISTING, the output is automatically displayed as a list report
in the SAS Output Window.

ods html close;

 184 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

ods listing;
options nodate;

title 'Students';
proc print data=sashelp.class;
where weight>100;
run;
quit;
ods html;
ods listing close;

Output 9.2 Listing Output in the Windowing Environment

See the procedure descriptions in the Base SAS Procedures Guide for examples of
output from SAS procedures. For a discussion and examples of DATA step output,
see the “FILE Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference and the “PUT
Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

The SAS Log

Structure of the Log

The SAS log is a record of everything that you do in your SAS session or with your
SAS program. Original program statements are identified by line numbers. SAS
messages are interspersed with SAS statements. These messages might begin with
the words NOTE, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, or an error number, and they might
refer to a SAS statement by its line number in the log.
For example, in the following output, the number 1 is printed to the left of the
OPTIONS statement. This means that it is the first line in the program. In interactive
mode, SAS continues with the sequence of line numbering until you end your
session. If you submit the program again (or submit other programs in your current
SAS session), the first program line number is the next consecutive number.
 The SAS Log 185

Operating Environment Information: The SAS log appears differently depending

on your operating environment. See the SAS documentation for your operating
environment.
186 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

Example Code 9.1 Sample SAS Log

NOTE: Copyright (c) 2002-2012 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. 1
NOTE: SAS (r) Proprietary Software 9.4 (TS1B0) 2
Licensed to SAS Institute Inc., Site 1. 3
NOTE: This session is executing on the W32_7PRO platform. 4

NOTE: SAS initialization used:

real time 4.19 seconds
cpu time 0.85 seconds

1 options pagesize=24
2 linesize=64 pageno=1 nodate; 5
3 data logsample; 6
5 infile
5 ! '\\myserver\my-directory-path\sampledata.dat'; 7
6 input LastName $ ID $ Gender $ Birth : date7. score1
6 ! score2 score3 score4 score5 score6 score7 score8;
7 format Birth mmddyy8.;
8 run;

NOTE: The infile

'\\myserver\my-directory-path\sampledata.dat' is: 8

Filename=\\myserver\my-directory-path\sampledata.dat,
RECFM=V,LRECL=256,File Size (bytes)=296,
Last Modified=08Jun2009:15:42:26,
Create Time=08Jun2009:15:42:26

NOTE: 5 records were read from the infile 9

'\\myserver\my-directory-path\sampledata.dat'.
The minimum record length was 58.
The maximum record length was 59.
NOTE: The data set WORK.LOGSAMPLE has 5 observations and 12
variables. 10
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.21 seconds 11
cpu time 0.03 seconds

9
10 proc sort data=logsample; 12
11 by LastName;
12 run;

NOTE: There were 5 observations read from the data set

WORK.LOGSAMPLE.
NOTE: The data set WORK.LOGSAMPLE has 5 observations and 12
variables. 13
NOTE: PROCEDURE SORT used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

13
14 proc print data=logsample; 14
15 by LastName;
16 run;

NOTE: There were 5 observations read from the data set

WORK.LOGSAMPLE.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.03 seconds
 The SAS Log 187

The following list corresponds to the circled numbers in the SAS log shown above:
1 copyright information
2 SAS system release used to run this program
3 name and site number of the computer installation where the program ran
4 platform used to run the program
5 OPTIONS statement to set a page size of 24, a line size of 64, and to suppress
the date in the output
6 SAS statements that make up the program (if the SAS system option SOURCE
is enabled)
7 long statement continued to the next line. Note that the continuation line is
preceded by an exclamation point (!), and that the line number does not change.
8 input file information-notes or warning messages about the raw data and where
they were obtained (if the SAS system option NOTES is enabled)
9 the number and record length of records read from the input file (if the SAS
system option NOTES is enabled)
10 SAS data set that your program created; notes that contain the number of
observations and variables for each data set created (if the SAS system option
NOTES is enabled)
11 reported performance statistics when the STIMER option or the FULLSTIMER
option is set
12 procedure that sorts your data set
13 note about the sorted SAS data set
14 procedure that prints your data set

The SAS Log in Interactive Mode

In interactive mode, the SAS log is opened when SAS starts. The SAS log is not
named until you save it in the active window. The name that you specify must follow
the file naming conventions for your operating environment. The SAS log cannot be
saved automatically in interactive mode. However, SAS can create a second copy of
the SAS log if the ALTLOG= system option is set either at SAS invocation or in a
configuration file.

The SAS Log in Batch, Line, or Objectserver Modes

Overview of the SAS Log in Batch, Line, or Objectserver

Modes
If the LOGCONFIGLOC= system option is not specified when SAS starts, you can
configure the SAS log by using the LOG= system option or the LOGPARM= system
option. These options can be specified in batch mode, line mode, or objectserver
mode. If the LOGCONFIGLOC= system option is specified, logging is performed by
188 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

the SAS logging facility and the LOGPARM= option is ignored. The LOG= option is
honored only when the %S{App.Log} conversion character is specified in the
logging configuration file.
The following sections discuss the log options that you can configure using the
LOGPARM= system option and how you would name the SAS log for those options
when the logging facility has not been initiated.
The LOG= system option names the SAS log. The LOGPARM= system option
enables you to perform the following tasks:
n append or replace an existing SAS log
n determine when to write to the SAS log

n start a new SAS log under certain conditions

For information about these log system options, see “LOGPARM= System Option”
in SAS System Options: Reference in the documentation for your operating
environment: For information about the SAS logging facility, see SAS Logging:
Configuration and Programming Reference.

Appending to or Replacing the SAS Log

If you specify a destination for the SAS log in the LOG= system option, SAS verifies
if a SAS log already exists. If the log does exist, you can specify how content is
written to the SAS log by using the OPEN= option of the LOGPARM= system option:
OPEN=APPEND
appends the SAS log content to the existing SAS log
OPEN=REPLACE
replaces the existing SAS log
OPEN=REPLACEOLD
replace the existing SAS log if it is older than 24 hours
In the following SAS command, both the LOG= and LOGPARM= system options are
specified in order to replace an existing SAS log that is more than one day old:
sas -sysin "my-batch-program" -log "c:\sas\SASlogs\mylog"
-logparm open=replaceold

The OPEN= option is ignored when the ROLLOVER= option of the LOGPARM=
system option is set to a specific size, n.

Specifying When to Write to the SAS Log

Content can be written to the SAS log either as the log content is produced or it can
be buffered and written when the buffer is full. By default, SAS writes to the log
when the log buffer is full. By buffering the log content, SAS performs more
efficiently by writing to the log file periodically instead of writing one line at a time.
Windows Specifics: Under Windows, the buffered log contents are written
periodically, using an interval specified by SAS.
You use the WRITE= option of the LOGPARM= system option to configure when the
SAS log contents are written. Set LOGPARM=“WRITE=IMMEDIATE” for the log
content to be written as it is produced and set LOGPARM=“WRITE=BUFFERED” for
the log content to be written when the buffer is full.
 The SAS Log 189

Rolling Over the SAS Log

Overview of Rolling Over the SAS Log: The SAS log can get very large for long
running servers and for batch jobs. By using the LOGPARM= and LOG= system
options together, you can specify to roll over the SAS log to a new SAS log. When
SAS rolls over the log, it closes the log and opens a new log.
The LOGPARM= system option controls when log files are opened and closed and
the LOG= system option names the SAS log file. Logs can be rolled over
automatically, when a SAS session starts, when the log has reached a specific size,
or not at all. By using formatting directives in the SAS log name, each SAS log can
be named with unique identifiers.
Using Directives to Name the SAS Log: For the SAS log, a directive is a processing
instruction that is used to uniquely name the SAS log. By using directives, you can
add information to the SAS log name such as the day, the hour, the system node
name, or a unique identifier. You can include one or more directives in the name of
the SAS log when you specify the log name in the LOG= system option. For
example, if you want the SAS log name to include the year, the month, and the day,
the LOG= system option might look like this:
-log='c:\saslog\#Y#b#dsas.log'

When the SAS log is created on February 2, 2009, the name of the log is
2009Feb02sas.log.
Directives resolve only when the value of the ROLLOVER= option of the
LOGPARM= system option is set to AUTO or SESSION. If directives are specified in
the log name and the value of the ROLLOVER option is NONE or a specific size, n,
the directive characters, such as #b or #Y, become part of the log name. Using the
example above for the LOG= system option, if the LOGPARM= system option
specifies ROLLOVER=NONE, the name of the SAS log is #Y%b#dsas.log.
For a complete list of directives, see “LOGPARM= System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference.
Automatically Rolling Over the SAS Log When Directives Change: When the SAS
log name contains one or more directives and the ROLLOVER= option of the
LOGPARM= system option is set to AUTO, SAS closes the log and opens a new log
when the directive values change. The new SAS log name contains the new
directive values.
The follow table shows some of the log names that are created when SAS is started
on the second of the month at 6:15 AM, using this SAS command:
sas -objectserver -log "london#n#d#%H.log"
-logparm
"rollover=auto"

The directive #n inserts the system node name into the log name. #d adds the day
of the month to the log name. #H adds the hour to the log name. The node name for
this example is Thames. The log for this SAS session rolls over when the hour
changes and when the day changes.

Table 9.4 Log Names for Rolled Over Logs

Rollover Time Log Name

SAS initialization londonThames0206.log

 190 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

Rollover Time Log Name

First rollover londonThames0207.log

Last log of the day londonThames0223.log

First log past midnight londonThames0300.log

Rolling Over the SAS Log by SAS Session: To roll over the log at the start of a SAS
session, specify the LOGPARM=“ROLLOVER=SESSION” option when SAS starts.
SAS resolves the system-specific directives by using the system information
obtained when SAS starts. No roll over occurs during the SAS session and the log
file is closed at the end of the SAS session.
Rolling Over the SAS Log by the Log Size: To roll over the log when the log reaches
a specific size, specify the LOGPARM=“ROLLOVER=n” option when SAS starts. n
is the maximum size of the log, in bytes, and it cannot be smaller than 10K (10,240)
bytes. When the log reaches the specified size, SAS closes the log and appends
the text “old” to the filename (for example, londonold.log). SAS opens a new log
using the value of the LOG= option for the log name and ignores the OPEN= option
statement in the LOGPARM system option. This is done so that SAS never writes
over an existing log file. Directives in log names are ignored for logs that roll over
based on log size.
To ensure unique log filenames between servers, SAS creates a lock file that is
based on the log filename. The lock filename is logname.lck, where logname is the
value of the LOG= option. If a lock file exists for a server log and another server
specifies the same log name, the log and lock filenames for the second server have
a number appended to the names. The numbers begin with 2 and increment by 1
for subsequent requests for the same log filename. For example, if a lock exists for
the log file london.log, the second server log would be london2.log and the lock file
would be london2.lck.
No SAS Log Roll Over: To not roll over the log at all, specify the LOGPARM=
“ROLLOVER=NONE” option when SAS starts. Directives are not resolved and no
rollover occurs. For example, if LOG=“March#b.log”, the directive #b does not
resolve and the log name is March#b.log.

Writing to the Log in All Modes

In all modes, you can instruct SAS to write additional information to the log by using
the following statements:
PUT statement
writes selected lines (including text strings and DATA step variable values) to the
SAS log in the current iteration of a DATA step. If a FILE statement with the LOG
destination executes before a PUT statement, the PUT statement output is
directed to a destination that is specified by the FILE statement.
%PUT statement
enables you to write a text string or macro variable values to the SAS log. %PUT
is a SAS macro program statement that is independent of the DATA step and
can be used anywhere.
 The SAS Log 191

PUTLOG statement
writes a user-specified message to the SAS log. Use the PUTLOG statement in
a DATA step.
LIST statement
writes to the SAS log the input data records for the data line that is being
processed. The LIST statement operates only on data that are read with an
INPUT statement. It has no effect on data that are read with a SET, MERGE,
MODIFY, or UPDATE statement. Use the LIST statement in a DATA step.
DATA statement with /NESTING option
writes to the SAS log a note for the beginning and end for each nesting level of
DO-END and SELECT-END statements. This enables you to debug mismatched
DO-END and SELECT-END statements.
ERROR statement
sets the automatic _ERROR_ variable to 1 and (OPTIONAL) writes to the log a
message that you specify. Use the ERROR statement in a DATA step.
Use the PUT, PUTLOG, LIST, DATA, and ERROR statements in combination with
conditional processing to debug DATA steps by writing selected information to the
log.

Customizing the Log

Altering the Contents of the Log

When you have large SAS production programs or an application that you run on a
regular basis without changes, you might want to suppress part of the log. SAS
system options enable you to suppress SAS statements and system messages, as
well as to limit the number of error messages. Note that all SAS system options
remain in effect for the duration of your session or until you change the options. You
should not suppress log messages until you have successfully executed the
program without errors.
The following list describes some of the SAS system options that you can use to
alter the contents of the log:
CPUID | NOCPUID
specifies whether hardware information is written to the SAS log.
ECHO
specifies a message to be written to the SAS log while SAS initializes. The
ECHO system option is valid only under the Windows and UNIX operating
environments.
ECHOAUTO | NOECHOAUTO
specifies whether autoexec code in an input file is written to the log.
ERRORS=n
specifies the maximum number of observations for which data error messages
are printed.
FULLSTATS
writes expanded statistics to the SAS log. The FULLSTATS system option is
valid only under z/OS.
192 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

FULLSTIMER
writes a subset of system performance statistics to the SAS log.
ISPNOTES
specifies whether ISPF error messages are written to the SAS log. The
ISPNOTES system option is valid only under the z/OS operating environment.
HOSTINFOLONG
writes additional operating environment information to the SAS log when SAS
starts.
LOGPARM “OPEN=APPEND | REPLACE | REPLACEOLD”
when a log file already exists and SAS is opening the log, the LOGPARM option
specifies whether to append to the existing log or to replace the existing log. The
REPLACEOLD option specifies to replace logs that are more than one day old.
MEMRPT
specifies whether memory usage statistics are written to the SAS log for each
step. The MEMRPT system option is valid only under the z/OS operating
environment.
MLOGIC
writes macro execution trace information to the SAS log.
MLOGICNEST
writes macro nesting execution trace information to the SAS log.
MPRINT | NOMPRINT
specifies whether SAS statements that are generated by macro execution are
written to the SAS log.
MSGLEVEL=N | I
specifies the level of detail in messages that are written to the SAS log. If the
MSGLEVEL system option is set to N, the log displays notes, warnings, and
error messages only. If MSGLEVEL is set to I, then the log displays additional
notes pertaining to index usage, merge processing, HADOOP MapReduce jobs,
and sort utilities.
NEWS=external-file
specifies whether news information that is maintained at your site is written to
the SAS log.
NOTES | NONOTES
specifies whether notes (messages beginning with NOTE) are written to the SAS
log. NONOTES does not suppress error or warning messages.
OPLIST
specifies whether to write to the SAS log the values of all system options that are
specified when SAS is invoked.
OVP | NOOVP
specifies whether error messages that are printed by SAS are overprinted.
PAGEBREAKINITIAL
specifies whether the SAS log and the listing file begin on a new page.
PRINTMSGLIST | NOPRINTMSGLIST
specifies whether extended lists of messages are written to the SAS log.
RTRACE
produces a list of resources that are read during SAS execution and writes them
to the SAS log if a location is not specified for the RTRACELOC= system option.
The RTRACE system option is valid only for the Windows and UNIX operating
environments.
 The SAS Log 193

SOURCE | NOSOURCE
specifies whether SAS writes source statements to the SAS log.
SOURCE2 | NOSOURCE2
specifies whether SAS writes secondary source statements from files included
by %INCLUDE statements to the SAS log.
SYMBOLGEN | NOSYMBOLGEN
specifies whether the results of resolving macro variable references are written
to the SAS log.
VERBOSE
specifies whether SAS writes to the batch log or to the computer monitor the
values of the system options that are specified in the configuration file.
See SAS System Options: Reference for more information about how to use these
and other SAS system options.
Operating Environment Information: See the documentation for your operating
environment for other options that affect log output.

Customizing the Appearance of the Log

The following SAS statements and SAS system options enable you to customize the
log. Customizing the log is helpful when you use the log for report writing or for
creating a permanent record.
DATE system option
controls whether the date and time that the SAS job began are printed at the top
of each page of the SAS log and any output created by SAS.
DETAILS | NODETAILS
specifies whether to include additional information when files are listed in a SAS
library.
DMSLOGSIZE= system option
specifies the maximum number of rows to display in the SAS log window.
DTRESET | NODTRESET
specifies whether to update the date and time in the SAS log and in the listing
file.
FILE statement
enables you to write the results of PUT statements to an external file. You can
use the following two options in the FILE statement to customize the log for that
report.
LINESIZE=value
specifies the maximum number of columns per line for reports and the maximum
record length for data files.
PAGESIZE=value
specifies the maximum number of lines to be printed on each page of output.
Note: FILE statement options apply only to the output specified in the FILE
statement, whereas the LINESIZE= and PAGESIZE= SAS system options apply
to all subsequent listings.
LINESIZE= system option
specifies the line size (printer line width) for the SAS log and SAS output that are
used by the DATA step and procedures.
194 Chapter 9 / SAS Output

MSGCASE
specifies whether to display notes, warning, and error messages in uppercase
letters or lowercase letters.
MISSING= system option
specifies the character to be printed for missing numeric variable values.
NUMBER system option
controls whether the page number is printed on the first title line of each page of
printed output.
PAGE statement
skips to a new page in the SAS log and continues printing from there.
PAGESIZE= system option
specifies the number of lines that you can print per page of SAS output.
SKIP statement
skips a specified number of lines in the SAS log.
STIMEFMT= system option
specifies the format to use for displaying the read and CPU processing times
when the STIMER system option is set. The STIMEFMT= system option is valid
under Windows, VMS, and UNIX operating environments.
Operating Environment Information: The range of values for the FILE statement
and for SAS system options depends on your operating environment. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more information.
For more information about how to use these and other SAS system options and
statements, see SAS System Options: Reference.

Other System Options That Affect the SAS Log

The following system options pertain to the SAS log other than by the content and
appearance of the SAS log:
ALTLOG= system option
specifies the destination for a copy of the SAS log.
LOG= system option
specifies the destination for the SAS log when SAS is run in batch mode.
LOGAPPLNAME
specifies a SAS session name that can be used for SAS logging.
 195

10
By-Group Processing in SAS
Programs

Definition of BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

References for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Definition of BY-Group Processing

BY-group processing is a method of processing observations from one or more data
sets so that the observations are grouped by common variable values. You can use
BY-group processing in both DATA and PROC steps.
The most common use of DATA step BY-group processing is to combine multiple
SAS data sets and use the BY statement with one of the following language
elements:
n SET statement

n MERGE statement

n MODIFY statement

n UPDATE statement

When you create reports or summaries with SAS procedures, BY-group processing
enables you to group information in the output according to values of one or more
variables.

References for BY-Group Processing

n For more information about BY-Group processing, see Chapter 22, “BY-Group
Processing in the DATA Step,” on page 491.
n For information about how to use BY-group processing with SAS procedures,
see “BY-Group Processing” in Base SAS Procedures Guide and individual
procedures in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
n For information about using BY-group processing to combine information from
multiple SAS data sets, see Chapter 23, “Reading, Combining, and Modifying
196 Chapter 10 / By-Group Processing in SAS Programs

SAS Data Sets,” on page 509. For even more extensive examples of BY-group
processing, see Combining and Modifying SAS Data Sets: Examples.
n For information about the BY statement, see Statements in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.
n For information about how to use BY-group processing with other software
products, see the SAS documentation for those products.
 197

11
WHERE-Expression Processing

Definition of WHERE-Expression Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Where to Use a WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Syntax of WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
WHERE Expression Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Specifying an Operand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Specifying an Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Combining Expressions By Using Logical Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Processing Compound Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Using Parentheses to Control Order of Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Improving Performance of WHERE Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Processing a Segment of Data That Is Conditionally Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Applying FIRSTOBS= and OBS= Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Applying FIRSTOBS= and OBS= to a Subset of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Processing a SAS View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Deciding Whether to Use a WHERE Expression or a Subsetting IF Statement . . 214

Definition of WHERE-Expression Processing

WHERE-expression processing
enables you to conditionally select a subset of observations, so that SAS
processes only the observations that meet a set of specified conditions. For
example, if you have a SAS data set that contains sales records, you might want
to print just the subset of observations for which the sales are greater than
$300,000 but less than $600,000. In addition, WHERE-expression processing
can improve efficiency of a request. For example, if a WHERE expression can
be optimized with an index, it is not necessary for SAS to read all observations in
the data set in order to perform the request.
WHERE expression
defines a condition that selected observations must satisfy in order to be
processed. You can have a single WHERE expression, referred to as a simple
expression, such as the following:
where sales gt 600000;

Or you can have multiple WHERE expressions, referred to as a compound

expression, such as the following:
 198 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

where sales gt 600000 and salary lt 100000;

Where to Use a WHERE Expression

In SAS, you can use a WHERE expression in the following situations:
n WHERE statement in both DATA and PROC steps. For example, the following
PRINT procedure includes a WHERE statement so that only the observations
where the year is greater than 2001 are printed:
proc print data=employees;
where startdate > '01jan2001'd;
run;

n WHERE= data set option. The following PRINT procedure includes the
WHERE= data set option:
proc print data=employees (where=(startdate > '01jan2001'd));
run;

n WHERE clause in the SQL procedure, SCL, and SAS/IML software. For
example, the following SQL procedure includes a WHERE clause to select only
the states where the murder count is greater than seven:
proc sql;
select state from crime
where murder > 7;

n WHERE command in windowing environments like SAS/FSP software:

where age > 15

n SAS view (DATA step view, SAS/ACCESS view, PROC SQL view), stored with
the definition. For example, the following SQL procedure creates an SQL view
named STAT from the data file Crime and defines a WHERE expression for the
SQL view definition:
proc sql;
create view stat as
select * from crime
where murder > 7;

In some cases, you can combine the methods that you use to specify a WHERE
expression. That is, you can use a WHERE statement as follows:
n in conjunction with a WHERE= data set option

n along with the WHERE= data set option in windowing procedures, and in
conjunction with the WHERE command
n on a SAS view that has a stored WHERE expression

For example, it might be useful to combine methods when you merge data sets.
That is, you might want different criteria to apply to each data set when you create a
subset of data. However, when you combine methods to create a subset of data,
there are some restrictions. For example, in the DATA step, if a WHERE statement
and a WHERE= data set option apply to the same data set, the data set option
takes precedence. For details, see the documentation for the method that you are
using to specify a WHERE expression.
 Syntax of WHERE Expression 199

Note: By default, a WHERE expression does not evaluate added and modified
observations. To specify whether a WHERE expression should evaluate updates,
you can specify the WHEREUP= data set option. See the “WHEREUP= Data Set
Option” in SAS Data Set Options: Reference.

Syntax of WHERE Expression

WHERE Expression Contents

A WHERE expression is a type of SAS expression that defines a condition for
selecting observations. A WHERE expression can be as simple as a single variable
name or a constant (which is a fixed value). A WHERE expression can be a SAS
function, or it can be a sequence of operands and operators that define a condition
for selecting observations. In general, the syntax of a WHERE expression is as
follows:
WHERE operand <operator> <operand>
operand
something to be operated on. An operand can be a variable, a SAS function, or
a constant. See “Specifying an Operand” on page 199.
operator
a symbol that requests a comparison, logical operation, or arithmetic calculation.
All SAS expression operators are valid for a WHERE expression, which include
arithmetic, comparison, logical, minimum and maximum, concatenation,
parentheses to control order of evaluation, and prefix operators. In addition, you
can use special WHERE expression operators. These expression operators
include BETWEEN-AND, CONTAINS, IS NULL or IS MISSING, LIKE, sounds-
like, and SAME-AND. See “Specifying an Operator” on page 202.

Specifying an Operand

Variable
A variable is a column in a SAS data set. Each SAS variable has attributes like
name and type (character or numeric). The variable type determines how you
specify the value for which you are searching. For example:
where score > 50;
where date >= '01jan2001'd and time >= '9:00't;
where state = 'Texas';

In a WHERE expression, you cannot use automatic variables created by the DATA
step (for example, FIRST.variable, LAST.variable, _N_, or variables created in
assignment statements).
200 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

As in other SAS expressions, the names of numeric variables can stand alone. SAS
treats numeric values of 0 or missing as false; other values as true. In the following
example, the WHERE expression returns all rows where EMPNUM is not missing
and not zero and ID is not missing and not zero:
where empnum and id;

The names of character variables can also stand alone. SAS selects observations
where the value of the character variable is not blank. For example, the following
WHERE expression returns all values not equal to blank:
where lastname;

SAS Function
A SAS function returns a value from a computation or system manipulation. Most
functions use arguments that you supply, but a few obtain their arguments from the
operating environment. To use a SAS function in a WHERE expression, enter its
name and arguments enclosed in parentheses. Some functions that you might want
to specify include:
n SUBSTR extracts a substring.

n TODAY returns the current date.

n PUT returns a given value using a given format.

The following DATA step produces a SAS data set that contains only observations
from data set Customer in which the value of Name begins with Mac and the value of
variable City is Charleston or Atlanta:
data testmacs;
set customer;
where substr (name,1,3) = 'Mac' and
(city='Charleston' or city='Atlanta');
run;

The OF syntax is permitted in some SAS functions, but it cannot be used when
using those functions that are specified in a WHERE clause. In the following DATA
step example, OF can be used with RANGE.
data abc;
x1=2;
x2=3;
x3=4;
r=range(of x1-x3);
run;

When you use the WHERE clause with RANGE and OF, an error is written to the
SAS log.
 Syntax of WHERE Expression 201

Example Code 11.1 Output When WHERE Clause Is Used with OF

proc print data=abc;

where range(of x1-x3)=6;
--
22
76
ERROR: Syntax error while parsing WHERE clause.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, (, *,
**,
+, ',', -, /, <, <=, <>, =, >, >=, ?,
AND, BETWEEN, CONTAINS, EQ, GE, GT, LE, LIKE, LT, NE, OR, ^=, |,
||, ~=.
ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.
run;

Below is a table of SAS functions that can use the OF syntax:

Table 11.1 SAS Functions That Use the OF Syntax

CAT HARMEANZ RMS

CATS KURTOSIS SKEWNESS
CATT MAX STD
CATX MEAN STDERR
CSS MIN SUM
CV N USS
GEOMEAN NMISS VAR
GEOMEANZ ORDINAL
HARMEAN RANGE

Note: The SAS functions that are used in a WHERE expression and can be
optimized by an index are the SUBSTR function and the TRIM function.
For more information about SAS functions, see SAS Functions and CALL Routines:
Reference.

Constant
A constant is a fixed value such as a number or quoted character string, that is, the
value for which you are searching. A constant is a value of a variable obtained from
the SAS data set, or values created within the WHERE expression itself. Constants
are also called literals. For example, a constant could be a flight number or the
name of a city. A constant can also be a time, date, or datetime value.
The value is either numeric or character. Note the following rules regarding whether
to use quotation marks:
n If the value is numeric, do not use quotation marks.
where price > 200;

n If the value is character, use quotation marks.

where lastname eq 'Martin';

n You can use either single or double quotation marks, but do not mix them.
Quoted values must be exact matches, including case.
 202 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

n It might be necessary to use single quotation marks when double quotation

marks appear in the value, or use double quotation marks when single quotation
marks appear in the value.
where item = '6" decorative pot';
where name ? "D'Amico";

n A SAS date constant must be enclosed in quotation marks. When you specify
date values, case is not important. You can use single or double quotation
marks. The following expressions are equivalent:
where birthday = '24sep1975'd;
where birthday = '24sep1975"d;

Specifying an Operator

Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic operators enable you to perform a mathematical operation. The
arithmetic operators include the following:

Table 11.2 Arithmetic Operators

Symbol Definition Example

* multiplication where bonus = salary * .10;

/ division where f = g/h;

+ addition where c = a+b;

- subtraction where f = g-h;

** exponentiation where y = a**2;

Comparison Operators
Comparison operators (also called binary operators) compare a variable with a
value or with another variable. Comparison operators propose a relationship and
ask SAS to determine whether that relationship holds. For example, the following
WHERE expression accesses only those observations that have the value 78753 for
the numeric variable ZipCode:
where zipcode eq 78753;

The following table lists the comparison operators:

 Syntax of WHERE Expression 203

Table 11.3 Comparison Operators

Mnemonic
Symbol Equivalent Definition Example

= EQ equal to where empnum eq

3374;

^= or ~= or ¬= NE not equal to where status ne full-

or <> time;

> GT greater than where hiredate gt

'01jun1982'd;

< LT less than where empnum < 2000;

>= GE greater than or equal to where empnum >=

3374;

<= LE less than or equal to where empnum <=

3374;

IN equal to one from a list of where state in

values ('NC','TX');

When you do character comparisons, you can use the colon (:) modifier to compare
only a specified prefix of a character string. For example, in the following WHERE
expression, the colon modifier, used after the equal sign, tells SAS to look at only
the first character in the values for variable LastName and to select the observations
with names beginning with the letter S:
where lastname=: 'S';

Note that in the SQL procedure, the colon modifier that is used in conjunction with
an operator is not supported; you can use the LIKE operator instead.

IN Operator
The IN operator, which is a comparison operator, searches for character and
numeric values that are equal to one from a list of values. The list of values must be
in parentheses, with each character value in quotation marks and separated by
either a comma or blank.
For example, suppose you want all sites that are in North Carolina or Texas. You
could specify:
where state = 'NC' or state = 'TX';

However, it is easier to use the IN operator, which selects any state in the list:
where state in ('NC','TX');

In addition, you can use the NOT logical operator to exclude a list.
where state not in ('CA', 'TN', 'MA');

You can use a shorthand notation to specify a range of sequential integers to

search. The range is specified by using the syntax M:N as a value in the list to
search, where M is the lower bound and N is the upper bound. M and N must be
204 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

integers, and M, N, and all the integers between M and N are included in the range.
For example, the following statements are equivalent.
n y = x in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);

n y = x in (1:10);

Fully Bounded Range Condition

A fully bounded range condition consists of a variable between two comparison
operators, specifying both an upper and lower limit. For example, the following
expression returns the employee numbers that fall within the range of 500 to 1000
(inclusive):
where 500 <= empnum <= 1000;

Note that the previous range condition expression is equivalent to the following:
where empnum >= 500 and empnum <= 1000;

You can combine the NOT logical operator with a fully bounded range condition to
select observations that fall outside the range. Note that parentheses are required:
where not (500 <= empnum <= 1000);

BETWEEN-AND Operator
The BETWEEN-AND operator is also considered a fully bounded range condition
that selects observations in which the value of a variable falls within an inclusive
range of values.
You can specify the limits of the range as constants or expressions. Any range that
you specify is an inclusive range, so that a value equal to one of the limits of the
range is within the range. The general syntax for using BETWEEN-AND is as
follows:
WHERE variable BETWEEN value AND value;
For example:
where empnum between 500 and 1000;
where taxes between salary*0.30 and salary*0.50;

You can combine the NOT logical operator with the BETWEEN-AND operator to
select observations that fall outside the range:
where empnum not between 500 and 1000;

Note: The BETWEEN-AND operator and a fully bounded range condition produce
the same results. That is, the following WHERE expressions are equivalent:
where 500 <= empnum <= 1000;
where empnum between 500 and 1000;

CONTAINS Operator
The most common usage of the CONTAINS (?) operator is to select observations by
searching for a specified set of characters within the values of a character variable.
The position of the string within the variable's values does not matter. However, the
operator is case sensitive when making comparisons.
 Syntax of WHERE Expression 205

The following examples select observations having the values Mobay and Brisbayne
for the variable Company, but they do not select observations containing Bayview:
where company contains 'bay';
where company ? 'bay';

You can combine the NOT logical operator with the CONTAINS operator to select
observations that are not included in a specified string:
where company not contains 'bay';

You can also use the CONTAINS operator with two variables, that is, to determine
whether one variable is contained in another. When you specify two variables, keep
in mind the possibility of trailing spaces, which can be resolved using the TRIM
function.
proc sql;
select *
from table1 as a, table2 as b
where a.fullname contains trim(b.lastname) and
a.fullname contains trim(b.firstname);

In addition, the TRIM function is helpful when you search on a macro variable.
proc print;
where fullname contains trim("&lname");
run;

IS NULL or IS MISSING Operator

The IS NULL or IS MISSING operator selects observations in which the value of a
variable is missing. The operator selects observations with both regular or special
missing value characters and can be used for both character and numeric variables.
where idnum is missing;
where name is null;

The following are equivalent for character data:

where name is null;
where name = ' ';

And the following is equivalent for numeric data. This statement differentiates
missing values with special missing value characters:
where idnum <= .Z;

You can combine the NOT logical operator with IS NULL or IS MISSING to select
nonmissing values, as follows:
where salary is not missing;

LIKE Operator
The LIKE operator selects observations by comparing the values of a character
variable to a specified pattern, which is referred to as pattern matching. The LIKE
operator is case sensitive. There are two special characters available for specifying
a pattern:
206 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

percent sign (%)

specifies that any number of characters can occupy that position. The following
WHERE expression selects all employees with a name that starts with the letter
N. The names can be of any length.
where lastname like 'N%';

underscore (_)
matches just one character in the value for each underscore character. You can
specify more than one consecutive underscore character in a pattern, and you
can specify a percent sign and an underscore in the same pattern. For example,
you can use different forms of the LIKE operator to select character values from
this list of first names:
n Diana

n Diane

n Dianna

n Dianthus

n Dyan

The following table shows which of these names is selected by using various forms
of the LIKE operator:

Pattern Name Selected

like 'D_an' Dyan

like 'D_an_' Diana, Diane

like 'D_an__' Dianna

like 'D_an%' all names from list

You can use a SAS character expression to specify a pattern, but you cannot use a
SAS character expression that uses a SAS function.
You can combine the NOT logical operator with LIKE to select values that do not
have the specified pattern, such as the following:
where frstname not like 'D_an%';

Because the % and _ characters have special meaning for the LIKE operator, you
must use an escape character when searching for the % and _ characters in values.
An escape character is a single character that, in a sequence of characters, signifies
that what follows takes an alternative meaning. For the LIKE operator, an escape
character signifies to search for literal instances of the % and _ characters in the
variable's values instead of performing the special-character function.
For example, if the variable X contains the values abc, a_b, and axb, the following
LIKE operator with an escape character selects only the value a_b. The escape
character (/) specifies that the pattern searches for a literal ' _' that is surrounded by
the characters a and b. The escape character (/) is not part of the search.
where x like 'a/_b' escape '/';

Without an escape character, the following LIKE operator would select the values
a_b and axb. The special character underscore in the search pattern matches any
single b character, including the value with the underscore:
 Syntax of WHERE Expression 207

where x like 'a_b';

To specify an escape character, include the character in the pattern-matching

expression, and then the keyword ESCAPE followed by the escape-character
expression. When you include an escape character, the pattern-matching
expression must be enclosed in quotation marks, and it cannot contain a column
name. The escape-character expression evaluates to a single character. The
operands must be character or string literals. If it is a single character, enclose it in
quotation marks.
LIKE 'pattern-matching-expression' ESCAPE 'escape-character-expression'

Sounds-like Operator
The sounds-like ( =*) operator selects observations that contain a spelling variation
of a specified word or words. The operator uses the Soundex algorithm to compare
the variable value and the operand. For more information, see the SOUNDEX
function in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.
Note: Note that the SOUNDEX algorithm is English-biased, and is less useful for
languages other than English.
Although the sounds-like operator is useful, it does not always select all possible
values. For example, consider that you want to select observations from the
following list of names that sound like Smith:
n Schmitt

n Smith

n Smithson

n Smitt

n Smythe

The following WHERE expression selects all the names from this list except
Smithson:
where lastname=* 'Smith';

You can combine the NOT logical operator with the sounds-like operator to select
values that do not contain a spelling variation of a specified word or words, such as:
where lastname not =* 'Smith';

Note: The sounds-like operator cannot be optimized with an index.

SAME-AND Operator
Use the SAME-AND operator to add more conditions to an existing WHERE
expression later in the program without retyping the original conditions. This
capability is useful with the following:
n interactive SAS procedures

n full-screen SAS procedures that enable you to enter a WHERE expression on

the command line
n any type of RUN-group processing
208 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

Use the SAME-AND operator when you already have a WHERE expression defined
and you want to insert additional conditions. The SAME-AND operator has the
following form:
n where-expression-1;

n ... SAS statements...

n WHERE SAME AND where-expression-2;

n ... SAS statements...

n WHERE SAME AND where-expression-n;

SAS selects observations that satisfy the conditions after the SAME-AND operator
in addition to any previously defined conditions. SAS treats all of the existing
conditions as if they were conditions separated by AND operators in a single
WHERE expression.
The following example shows how to use the SAME-AND operator within RUN
groups in the GPLOT procedure. The SAS data set YEARS has three variables and
contains quarterly data for the 2009–2011 period:
proc gplot data=years;
plot unit*quar=year;
run;

where year > '01jan2009'd;

run;

where same and year < '01jan2012'd;

run;

The following WHERE expression is equivalent to the preceding code:

where year > ''01jan2009'd and year < '01jan2012'd;

MIN and MAX Operators

Use the MIN or MAX operators to find the minimum or maximum value of two
quantities. Surround the operators with the two quantities whose minimum or
maximum value you want to know.
n The MIN operator returns the lower of the two values.

n The MAX operator returns the higher of two values.

For example, if A is less than B, then the following would return the value of A:
where x = (a min b);

Note: The symbol representation >< is not supported, and <> is interpreted as “not
equal to.”

Concatenation Operator
The concatenation operator concatenates character values. You indicate the
concatenation operator as follows:
n || (two OR symbols)

n !! (two exclamation marks)

 Combining Expressions By Using Logical Operators 209

n ¦¦ (two broken vertical bars).

For example:
where name = 'John'||'Smith';

Prefix Operators
The plus sign (+) and minus sign (–) can be either prefix operators or arithmetic
operators. They are prefix operators when they appear at the beginning of an
expression or immediately preceding an open parenthesis. A prefix operator is
applied to the variable, constant, SAS function, or parenthetic expression.
where z = −(x + y);

Note: The NOT operator is also considered a prefix operator.

Combining Expressions By Using Logical

Operators

Syntax
You can combine or modify WHERE expressions by using the logical operators
(also called Boolean operators) AND, OR, and NOT. The basic syntax of a
compound WHERE expression is as follows:
WHERE where-expression-1 AND | OR | NOT where-expression-n
AND combines two conditions by finding observations that satisfy both conditions.
For example:
where skill eq 'java' and years eq 4;

OR combines two conditions by finding observations that satisfy either condition or

both. For example:
where skill eq 'java' or years eq 4;

NOT modifies a condition by finding the complement of the specified criteria. You
can use the NOT logical operator in combination with any SAS and WHERE
expression operator. And you can combine the NOT operator with AND and OR. For
example:
where skill not eq 'java' or years not eq 4;

The logical operators and their equivalent symbols are shown in the following table:

Table 11.4 Logical (Boolean) Operators

Symbol Mnemonic Equivalent

& AND
 210 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

Symbol Mnemonic Equivalent

! or | or ¦ OR

^ or ~ or ¬ NOT

Processing Compound Expressions

When SAS encounters a compound WHERE expression (multiple conditions), the
software follows rules to determine the order in which to evaluate each expression.
When WHERE expressions are combined, SAS processes the conditions in a
specific order:

1 The NOT expression is processed first.

2 Then the expressions joined by AND are processed.

3 Finally, the expressions joined by OR are processed.

Using Parentheses to Control Order of Evaluation

Even though SAS evaluates logical operators in a specific order, you can control the
order of evaluation by nesting expressions in parentheses. That is, an expression
enclosed in parentheses is processed before one not enclosed. The expression
within the innermost set of parentheses is processed first, followed by the next
deepest, moving outward until all parentheses have been processed.
For example, suppose you want a list of all the Canadian sites that have both
SAS/GRAPH and SAS/STAT software, so you issue the following expression:
where product='GRAPH' or product='STAT' and country='Canada';

The result, however, includes all sites that license SAS/GRAPH software along with
the Canadian sites that license SAS/STAT software. To obtain the correct results,
you can use parentheses, which causes SAS to evaluate the comparisons within the
parentheses first, providing a list of sites with either product licenses, then the result
is used for the remaining condition:
where (product='GRAPH' or product='STAT') and country='Canada';

Improving Performance of WHERE Processing

Indexing a SAS data set can significantly improve the performance of WHERE
processing. An index is an optional file that you can create for SAS data files in
order to provide direct access to specific observations.
 Processing a Segment of Data That Is Conditionally Selected 211

Processing a WHERE expression without an index requires SAS to sequentially

read observations in order to find the ones that match the selection criteria. Without
an index, SAS first checks for the sort indicator, which is stored with the data file
from a previous SORT procedure or SORTEDBY= data set option. If the sort
indicator is validated, SAS takes advantage of it and stops reading the file once it is
clear there are no more values that satisfy the WHERE expression. For example,
consider a data set that is sorted by Age, without an index. To process the
expression where age le 25, SAS stops reading observations after it finds an
observation that is greater than 25. Note that while SAS can determine when to stop
reading observations, without an index, there is no indication where to begin, so
SAS always begins with the first observation, which can require reading a lot of
observations.
Having an index enables SAS to determine which observations satisfy the criteria,
which is referred to as optimizing the WHERE expression. However, by default, SAS
decides whether to use the index or read the entire data set sequentially. For details
about how SAS uses an index to process a WHERE expression, see “Using an
Index for WHERE Processing” on page 702.
In addition to creating indexes for the data set, here are some guidelines for writing
efficient WHERE expressions:

Table 11.5 Constructing Efficient WHERE Expressions

Guideline Efficient Inefficient

Avoid using the LIKE where country like 'A where country like
operator that begins with % %INA'; '%INA';
or _.

Avoid using arithmetic where salary > 48000; where salary > 12*4000;
expressions.

Processing a Segment of Data That Is

Conditionally Selected

Applying FIRSTOBS= and OBS= Options

When you conditionally select a subset of observations with a WHERE expression,
you can also segment that subset by applying FIRSTOBS=, OBS=, or both
processing (as data set options and system options). When used with a WHERE
expression,
n FIRSTOBS= specifies the observation number within the subset of data selected
by the WHERE expression to begin processing.
n OBS= specifies when to stop processing observations from the subset of data
selected by the WHERE expression.
 212 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

When used with a WHERE expression, the values specified for OBS= and
FIRSTOBS= are not the physical observation number in the data set, but a logical
number in the subset. For example, obs=3 does not mean the third observation
number in the data set. Instead, it means the third observation in the subset of data
selected by the WHERE expression.
Applying OBS= and FIRSTOBS= processing to a subset of data is supported for the
WHERE statement, WHERE= data set option, and WHERE clause in the SQL
procedure.
If you are processing a SAS view that is a view of another view (nested views),
applying OBS= and FIRSTOBS= to a subset of data could produce unexpected
results. For nested views, OBS= and FIRSTOBS= processing is applied to each
SAS view, starting with the root (lowest-level) view, and then filtering observations
for each SAS view. The result could be that no observations meet the subset and
segment criteria. See “Processing a SAS View” on page 212.

Applying FIRSTOBS= and OBS= to a Subset of Data

The following SAS program illustrates how to specify a condition to subset data, and
how to specify a segment of the subset of data to process.
data A; 1
do I=1 to 100;
X=I + 1;
output;
end;
run;

proc print data=work.a (firstobs=2 3 obs=4; 4

where I > 90; 2
run;

1 The DATA step creates a data set named Work.A containing 100 observations
and two variables: I and X.
2 The WHERE expression I > 90 tells SAS to process only the observations that
meet the specified condition, which results in the subset of observations 91
through 100.
3 The FIRSTOBS= data set option tells SAS to begin processing with the 2nd
observation in the subset of data, which is observation 92.
4 The OBS= data set option tells SAS to stop processing when it reaches the 4th
observation in the subset of data, which is observation 94.

The result of PROC PRINT is observations 92, 93, and 94.

Processing a SAS View

The following SAS program creates a data set, a SAS view for the data set, then a
second SAS view that subsets data from the first SAS view. Both a WHERE
statement and the OBS= system option are used.
data a; 1
do I=1 to 100;
 Processing a Segment of Data That Is Conditionally Selected 213

X=I + 1;
output;
end;
run;

data viewa/view=viewa; 2

set a;
Z = X+1;
run;

data viewb/view=viewb; 3

set viewa;
where I > 90;
run;

options obs=3; 4

proc print data=work.viewb; 5

run;

1 The first DATA step creates a data set named Work.A, which contains 100
observations and two variables: I and X.
2 The second DATA step creates a SAS view named Work.ViewA containing 100
observations and three variables: I, X (from data set Work.A), and Z (assigned in
this DATA step).
3 The third DATA step creates a SAS view named Work.ViewB and subsets the
data with a WHERE statement, which results in the view accessing ten
observations.
4 The OBS= system option applies to the previous SET ViewA statement, which
tells SAS to stop processing when it reaches the 3rd observation in the subset of
data being processed.
5 When SAS processes the PRINT procedure, the following occurs:
1 First, SAS applies obs=3 to Work.ViewA, which stops processing at the 3rd
observation.
2 Next, SAS applies the condition I > 90 to the three observations being
processed. None of the observations meet the criteria.
3 PROC PRINT results in no observations.

To prevent the potential of unexpected results, you can specify obs=max when
creating Work.ViewA to force SAS to read all the observations in the root (lowest-
level) view:
data viewa/view=viewa;
set a (obs=max);
Z = X+1;
run;

The PRINT procedure processes observations 91, 92, and 93.

 214 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing

Deciding Whether to Use a WHERE Expression

or a Subsetting IF Statement
To conditionally select observations from a SAS data set, you can use either a
WHERE expression or a subsetting IF statement. They both test a condition to
determine whether SAS should process an observation. However, they differ as
follows:
n The subsetting IF statement can be used only in a DATA step. A subsetting IF
statement tests the condition after an observation is read into the Program Data
Vector (PDV). If the condition is true, SAS continues processing the current
observation. Otherwise, the observation is discarded, and processing continues
with the next observation.
n You can use a WHERE expression in both a DATA step and SAS procedures, as
well as in a windowing environment, SCL programs, and as a data set option. A
WHERE expression tests the condition before an observation is read into the
PDV. If the condition is true, the observation is read into the PDV and processed.
If the condition is false, the observation is not read into the PDV, and processing
continues with the next observation. This can yield substantial savings when
observations contain many variables or very long character variables (up to 32K
bytes). In addition, a WHERE expression can be optimized with an index, and
the WHERE expression enables more operators, such as LIKE and CONTAINS.
Note: Although it is generally more efficient to use a WHERE expression and
avoid the move to the PDV before processing, if the data set contains
observations with very few variables, the move to the PDV could be cheap.
However, one variable containing 32K bytes of character data is not cheap, even
though it is only one variable.
In most cases, you can use either method. However, the following table provides a
list of tasks that require you to use a specific method:

Table 11.6 Tasks Requiring Either WHERE Expression or Subsetting IF Statement

Task Method

Make the selection in a procedure without using a WHERE expression

preceding DATA step

Take advantage of the efficiency available with an indexed WHERE expression

data set

Use one of a group of special operators, such as WHERE expression

BETWEEN-AND, CONTAINS, IS MISSING or IS NULL,
LIKE, SAME-AND, and Sounds-Like

Base the selection on anything other than a variable value subsetting IF

that already exists in a SAS data set. For example, you can
select a value that is read from raw data, or a value that is
calculated or assigned during the course of the DATA step
 Deciding Whether to Use a WHERE Expression or a Subsetting IF Statement 215

Task Method

Make the selection at some point during a DATA step rather subsetting IF
than at the beginning

Execute the selection conditionally subsetting IF

216 Chapter 11 / WHERE-Expression Processing
 217

12
Optimizing System Performance

Definitions for Optimizing System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Collecting and Interpreting Performance Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Using the FULLSTIMER and STIMER System Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Interpreting FULLSTIMER and STIMER Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Techniques for Optimizing I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Overview of Techniques for Optimizing I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Using WHERE Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Using DROP and KEEP Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Using LENGTH Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Using the OBS= and FIRSTOBS= Data Set Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Creating SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Using Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Accessing Data through SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Using Engines Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Setting System Options to Improve I/O Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Setting VBUFSIZE= and OBSBUF= for SAS DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Using the SASFILE Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Using the DATASETS Procedure to Modify Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Storing Variables as Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Techniques for Optimizing Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
System Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Using the BY Statement with PROC MEANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Techniques for Optimizing CPU Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Reducing CPU Time By Using More Memory or Reducing I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Storing a Compiled Program for Computation-Intensive DATA Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Reducing Search Time for SAS Executable Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Specifying Variable Lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Using Parallel Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Reducing CPU Time By Modifying Program Compilation Optimization . . . . . . . . . . 229
Calculating Data Set Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Definitions for Optimizing System Performance

performance statistics
are measurements of the total input and output operations (I/O), memory, and
CPU time used to process individual DATA steps or PROC steps. You can obtain
 218 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

these statistics by using SAS system options that can help you to measure your
job's initial performance and to determine how to improve performance.
system performance
is measured by the overall amount of I/O, memory, and CPU time that your
system uses to process SAS programs. By using the techniques discussed in
the following sections, you can reduce or reallocate your usage of these three
critical resources to improve system performance. You might not be able to take
advantage of every technique for every situation, but you can choose the ones
that are most appropriate for a particular situation.

Collecting and Interpreting Performance

Statistics

Using the FULLSTIMER and STIMER System Options

The FULLSTIMER and STIMER system options control the printing of performance
statistics in the SAS log. These options produce different results, depending on your
operating environment. See the SAS documentation for your operating environment
for details about the output that SAS generates for these options.
The following output shows an example of the FULLSTIMER output in the SAS log,
as produced in a UNIX operating environment.
Example Code 12.1 Sample Results of Using the FULLSTIMER Option in a UNIX
Operating Environment

NOTE: DATA statement used:

real time 0.19 seconds
user cpu time 0.06 seconds
system cpu time 0.01 seconds
Memory 460k
Semaphores exclusive 194 shared 9 contended 0
SAS Task context switches 1 splits 0

The STIMER option reports a subset of the FULLSTIMER statistics. The following
example shows STIMER output in the SAS log.
Example Code 12.2 Sample Results of Using the STIMER Option in a UNIX Operating
Environment

NOTE: DATA statement used:

real time 1.16 seconds
cpu time 0.09 seconds

Operating Environment Information: See the documentation for your operating

environment for information about how STIMER differs from FULLSTIMER in your
operating environment. The information that these options display varies depending
 Techniques for Optimizing I/O 219

on your operating environment, so statistics that you see might differ from the ones
shown.

Interpreting FULLSTIMER and STIMER Statistics

Several types of resource usage statistics are reported by the STIMER and
FULLSTIMER options, including real time (elapsed time) and CPU time. Real time
represents the clock time it took to execute a job or step; it is heavily dependent on
the capacity of the system and the current load. As more users share a particular
resource, less of that resource is available to you. CPU time represents the actual
processing time required by the CPU to execute the job, exclusive of capacity and
load factors. If you must wait longer for a resource, your CPU time does not
increase, but your real-time increases. It is not advisable to use real time as the only
criterion for the efficiency of your program. The reason is that you cannot always
control the capacity and load demands on your system. A more accurate
assessment of system performance is CPU time, which decreases more predictably
as you modify your program to become more efficient.
The statistics reported by FULLSTIMER relate to the three critical computer
resources: I/O, memory, and CPU time. Under many circumstances, reducing the
use of any of these three resources usually results in better throughput of a
particular job and a reduction of real time used. However, there are exceptions, as
described in the following sections.

Techniques for Optimizing I/O

Overview of Techniques for Optimizing I/O

I/O is one of the most important factors for optimizing performance. Most SAS jobs
consist of repeated cycles of reading a particular set of data to perform various data
analysis and data manipulation tasks. To improve the performance of a SAS job,
you must reduce the number of times SAS accesses disk or tape devices.
To do this, you can modify your SAS programs to process only the necessary
variables and observations by:
n using WHERE processing

n using DROP and KEEP statements

n using LENGTH statements

n using the OBS= and FIRSTOBS= data set options

You can also modify your programs to reduce the number of times it processes the
data internally by:
n creating SAS data sets

n using indexes

n accessing data through SAS views

 220 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

n using engines efficiently

n using PROC DATASETS when modifying variable attributes

n storing numeric values as characters

n using techniques to optimize memory usage

You can reduce the number of data accesses by processing more data each time a
device is accessed by:
n setting the ALIGNSASIOFILES, BUFNO=, BUFSIZE=, CATCACHE=,
COMPRESS= , DATAPAGESIZE=. STRIPESIZE=, UBUFNO=, and UBUFSIZE=
system options
n using the SASFILE global statement to open a SAS data set and allocate
enough buffers to hold the entire data set in memory
When using SAS DATA step views, you can improve performance by:
n specifying the VBUFSIZE= system option

n specifying the OBSBUF= data set option

Note: Sometimes you might be able to use more than one method, making your
SAS job even more efficient.

Using WHERE Processing

You might be able to use a WHERE statement in a procedure to perform the same
task as a DATA step with a subsetting IF statement. The WHERE statement can
eliminate extra DATA step processing when performing certain analyses because
unneeded observations are not processed.
For example, the following DATA step creates the data set Seatbelt. This data set
contains only those observations from the Auto.Survey data set for which the value
of Seatbelt is YES. The new data set is then printed.
libname auto 'SAS-library';
data seatbelt;
set auto.survey;
if seatbelt='yes';
run;

proc print data=seatbelt;

run;

However, you can get the same output from the PROC PRINT step without creating
a data set if you use a WHERE statement in the PRINT procedure, as in the
following example:
proc print data=auto.survey;
where seatbelt='yes';
run;

The WHERE statement can save resources by eliminating the number of times that
you process the data. In this example, you might be able to use less time and
memory by eliminating the DATA step. Also, you use less I/O because there is no
intermediate data set. Note that you cannot use a WHERE statement in a DATA
step that reads raw data.
 Techniques for Optimizing I/O 221

The extent of savings that you can achieve depends on many factors, including the
size of the data set. It is recommended that you test your programs to determine the
most efficient solution. For more information, see “Deciding Whether to Use a
WHERE Expression or a Subsetting IF Statement” on page 214.

Using DROP and KEEP Statements

Another way to improve efficiency is to use DROP and KEEP statements to reduce
the size of your observations. When you create a temporary data set and include
only the variables that you need, you can reduce the number of I/O operations that
are required to process the data. For more information, see “DROP Statement” in
SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference and “KEEP Statement” in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

Using LENGTH Statements

You can also use LENGTH statements to reduce the size of your observations.
When you include only the necessary storage space for each variable, you can
reduce the number of I/O operations that are required to process the data. Before
you change the length of a numeric variable, however, see “LENGTH Statement” in
SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference. For more information, see “LENGTH
Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Using the OBS= and FIRSTOBS= Data Set Options

You can also use the OBS= and FIRSTOBS= data set options to reduce the number
of observations processed. When you create a temporary data set and include only
the necessary observations, you can reduce the number of I/O operations that are
required to process the data. See “FIRSTOBS= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set
Options: Reference and “OBS= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set Options:
Reference for more information.

Creating SAS Data Sets

If you process the same raw data repeatedly, it is usually more efficient to create a
SAS data set. SAS can process SAS data sets more efficiently than it can process
raw data files.
Another consideration involves whether you are using data sets created with
previous releases of SAS. If you frequently process data sets created with previous
releases, it is sometimes more efficient to convert that data set to a new one by
creating it in the most recent version of SAS. See Chapter 35, “Cross-Release
Compatibility and Migration,” on page 779 for more information.
 222 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

Using Indexes
An index is an optional file that you can create for a SAS data file to provide direct
access to specific observations. The index stores values in ascending value order
for a specific variable or variables and includes information as to the location of
those values within observations in the data file. In other words, an index enables
you to locate an observation by the value of the indexed variable.
Without an index, SAS accesses observations sequentially in the order in which
they are stored in the data file. With an index, SAS accesses the observation
directly. Therefore, by creating and using an index, you can access an observation
faster.
In general, SAS can use an index to improve performance in these situations:
n For WHERE processing, an index can provide faster and more efficient access
to a subset of data.
n For BY processing, an index returns observations in the index order, which is in
ascending value order, without using the SORT procedure.
n For the SET and MODIFY statements, the KEY= option enables you to specify
an index in a DATA step to retrieve particular observations in a data file.
Note: An index exists to improve performance. However, an index conserves some
resources at the expense of others. Therefore, you must consider costs associated
with creating, using, and maintaining an index. See “Understanding SAS Indexes”
on page 692 for more information about indexes and deciding whether to create
one.

Accessing Data through SAS Views

You can use the SQL procedure or a DATA step to create SAS views of your data. A
SAS view is a stored set of instructions that subsets your data with fewer
statements. Also, you can use a SAS view to group data from several data sets
without creating a new one, saving both processing time and disk space. For more
information, see Chapter 29, “SAS Views,” on page 721 and the Base SAS
Procedures Guide.
For information about optimizing system performance with SAS views, see “Setting
VBUFSIZE= and OBSBUF= for SAS DATA Step Views” on page 225.

Using Engines Efficiently

If you do not specify an engine in a LIBNAME statement, SAS must perform extra
processing steps in order to determine which engine to associate with the SAS
library. SAS must look at all of the files in the directory until it has enough
information to determine which engine to use. For example, the following statement
is efficient because it explicitly tells SAS to use a specific engine for the libref Fruits:
/* Engine specified. */
 Techniques for Optimizing I/O 223

libname fruits v9 'SAS-library';

The following statement does not explicitly specify an engine. In the output, notice
the Note about mixed engine types that is generated:
/* Engine not specified. */

libname fruits 'SAS-library';

Example Code 12.3 SAS Log Output from the LIBNAME Statement

NOTE: Directory for library FRUITS contains files of mixed engine types.
NOTE: Libref FRUITS was successfully assigned as follows:
Engine: V9
Physical Name: SAS-library

z/OS Specifics: In the z/OS operating environment, you do not need to specify an
engine for certain types of libraries.
See Chapter 37, “SAS Engines,” on page 803 for more information about SAS
engines.

Setting System Options to Improve I/O Performance

The following SAS system options can help you reduce the number of disk
accesses that are needed for SAS files, though they might increase memory usage
and the SAS data set size:
ALIGNSASIOFILES
A SAS data set consists of a header that is followed by one or more pages of
data. Normally, the header is 1K on Windows and 8K on UNIX. The
ALIGNSASIOFILES system option forces the header to be the same size as the
data pages so that the data pages are aligned to boundaries that allow for more
efficient I/O. The page size is set using the BUFSIZE= option.
For more information, see “ALIGNSASIOFILES System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference and the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
BUFNO=
SAS uses the BUFNO= option to adjust the number of open page buffers when it
processes a SAS data set. Increasing this option's value can improve your
application's performance by allowing SAS to read more data with fewer passes;
however, your memory usage increases. Experiment with different values for this
option to determine the optimal value for your needs.
Note: You can also use the CBUFNO= system option to control the number of
extra page buffers to allocate for each open SAS catalog.
For more information, see “BUFNO= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference and the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
BUFSIZE=
When the BASE engine creates a data set, it uses the BUFSIZE= option to set
the permanent page size for the data set. The page size is the amount of data
that can be transferred for an I/O operation to one buffer. The default value for
BUFSIZE= is determined by your operating environment. Note that the default is
224 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

set to optimize the sequential access method. To improve performance for direct
(random) access, you should change the value for BUFSIZE=.
Whether you use your operating environment's default value or specify a value,
the engine always writes complete pages regardless of how full or empty those
pages are.
If you know that the total amount of data is going to be small, you can set a small
page size with the BUFSIZE= option, so that the total data set size remains
small and you minimize the amount of wasted space on a page. In contrast, if
you know that you are going to have many observations in a data set, you
should optimize BUFSIZE= so that as little overhead as possible is needed. Note
that each page requires some additional overhead.
Large data sets that are accessed sequentially benefit from larger page sizes
because sequential access reduces the number of system calls that are required
to read the data set. Note that because observations cannot span pages,
typically there is unused space on a page.
“Calculating Data Set Size” on page 229 discusses how to estimate data set
size.
For more information, see “BUFSIZE= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference and the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
CATCACHE=
SAS uses this option to determine the number of SAS catalogs to keep open at
one time. Increasing its value can use more memory, although this might be
warranted if your application uses catalogs that are needed relatively soon by
other applications. (The catalogs closed by the first application are cached and
can be accessed more efficiently by subsequent applications.)
For more information, see “CATCACHE= System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference and the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
COMPRESS=
One further technique that can reduce I/O processing is to store your data as
compressed data sets by using the COMPRESS= data set option. However,
storing your data this way means that more CPU time is needed to decompress
the observations as they are made available to SAS. But if your concern is I/O
and not CPU usage, compressing your data might improve the I/O performance
of your application.
For more information, see “COMPRESS= System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference.
DATAPAGESIZE=
Beginning with SAS 9.4, the optimal buffer page size is increased to improve I/O
performance. The increase in page size might increase the size of the data set
or utility file. If you find that the current optimization processes are not ideal for
your SAS session, you can use DATAPAGESIZE=COMPAT93 to use the
optimization processes that were used prior to SAS 9.4.
For more information, see “DATAPAGESIZE= System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference.
STRIPESIZE=
When data is stored in a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) device,
you can use the STRIPESIZE= system option to set the I/O buffer size for a
directory to be the size of a RAID stripe. SAS data sets or utility files that are
created in the directory have a page size that matches the RAID stripe size.
Using this option can improve the performance of individual disk.
 Techniques for Optimizing I/O 225

For more information, see “STRIPESIZE= System Option” in SAS System

Options: Reference.
UBUFNO=
The UBUFNO= system option sets the number of utility buffers that SAS uses to
process data sets.
For more information, see “UBUFNO= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
UBUFSIZE=
The UBUFSIZE= option sets the page size for utility files that SAS uses to
process data sets. You can improve the number of disk accesses when values of
the UBUFSIZE= option and the BUFSIZE= option are the same.
For more information, see “UBUFSIZE= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
VBUFSIZE=
The VBUFSIZE= option set the size of the view buffer. View performance can be
improved by setting the size of the view buffer large enough to hold more
generated observations. For more information, see “VBUFSIZE= System Option”
in SAS System Options: Reference and “Setting VBUFSIZE= and OBSBUF= for
SAS DATA Step Views” on page 225.

Setting VBUFSIZE= and OBSBUF= for SAS DATA Step

Views
When working with SAS DATA step views, specifying either the OBSBUF= data set
option or the VBUSIZE= system option can improve processing efficiency by
reducing task switching. The VBUFSIZE= system option enables you to specify the
size of the view buffer based on number of bytes. The default buffer size is 65536.
The OBSBUF= data set option sets the view buffer size based on a specified
number of observations. In either case, setting the view buffer so that it can hold
more generated observations speeds up execution time by reducing task switching.
For more information about the VBUFSIZE= system option, see “VBUFSIZE=
System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference. For more information about the
OBSBUF= data set option, see “OBSBUF= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set
Options: Reference.

Using the SASFILE Statement

The SASFILE global statement opens a SAS data set and allocates enough buffers
to hold the entire data set in memory. Once it is read, data is held in memory,
available to subsequent DATA and PROC steps, until either a second SASFILE
statement closes the file and frees the buffers or the program ends, which
automatically closes the file and frees the buffers.
Using the SASFILE statement can improve performance by
n reducing multiple open and close operations (including allocation and freeing of
memory for buffers) to process a SAS data set to one open and close operation
n reducing I/O processing by holding the data in memory
 226 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

If your SAS program consists of steps that read a SAS data set multiple times and
you have an adequate amount of memory so that the entire file can be held in real
memory, the program should benefit from using the SASFILE statement. Also,
SASFILE is especially useful as part of a program that starts a SAS server such as
a SAS/SHARE server. For more information about the SASFILE global statement,
see the SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Using the DATASETS Procedure to Modify Attributes

Using the DATASETS procedure to modify variable attributes is more efficient than
using a DATA step, as long as this task is the only one PROC DATASETS has to
perform. The DATASETS procedure processes only the data descriptor information
of a data set. A DATA step processes an entire data set. For more information, see
“DATASETS Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Storing Variables as Characters

SAS uses eight bytes of storage for each numeric value processed in the DATA step
and one byte for each character. If you are not going to perform calculations on a
variable that contains numbers, you can save storage by defining the variable as a
character variable. When you reduce the amount of storage that is necessary for
each variable, you reduce the number of I/O operations.

Techniques for Optimizing Memory Usage

System Options
If memory is a critical resource, several techniques can reduce your dependence on
increased memory. However, most of them also increase I/O processing or CPU
usage.
You can use the MEMSIZE= system option to increase the amount of memory
available to SAS and therefore decrease processing time. By increasing memory,
you reduce processing time because the amount of time spent on paging, or
reading pages of data into memory, is reduced.
The SORTSIZE= and SUMSIZE= system options enable you to limit the amount of
memory that is available to sorting and summarization procedures.
You can also make tradeoffs between memory and other resources, as discussed in
“Reducing CPU Time By Modifying Program Compilation Optimization” on page
229. To use the I/O subsystem most effectively, you must use more and larger
buffers. However, these buffers share space with the other memory demands of
your SAS session.
 Techniques for Optimizing CPU Performance 227

Operating Environment Information: The MEMSIZE= system option is not

available in some operating environments. If MEMSIZE= is available in your
operating environment, it might not increase memory. See the documentation for
your operating environment for more information.

Using the BY Statement with PROC MEANS

When you use the CLASS statement and class variables in PROC MEANS, the
memory requirements can be substantial. SAS keeps a copy of unique values of
each class variable in memory. If PROC MEANS encounters insufficient memory for
the summarization of all class variables, you can save memory by using the CLASS
and BY statement together to analyze the data by classes.
For more information, see “Comparison of the BY and CLASS Statements” in Base
SAS Procedures Guide.

Techniques for Optimizing CPU Performance

Reducing CPU Time By Using More Memory or Reducing

I/O
Executing a single stream of code takes approximately the same amount of CPU
time each time that code is executed. Optimizing CPU performance in these
instances is usually a tradeoff. For example, you can reduce CPU time by using
more memory. This allows more information to be read and stored in one operation.
However, less memory is available to other processes.
Also, because the CPU performs all the processing that is needed to perform an I/O
operation, an option or technique that reduces the number of I/O operations can
also have a positive effect on CPU usage.

Storing a Compiled Program for Computation-Intensive

DATA Steps
Another technique that can improve CPU performance is to store a DATA step that
is executed repeatedly as a compiled program rather than as SAS statements. This
is especially true for large DATA step jobs that are not I/O-intensive. For more
information about storing compiled DATA steps, see Chapter 30, “Stored Compiled
DATA Step Programs,” on page 731.
 228 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance

Reducing Search Time for SAS Executable Files

The PATH= system option specifies the list of directories (or libraries, in some
operating environments) that contain SAS executable files. Your default
configuration file specifies a certain order for these directories. You can rearrange
the directory specifications in the PATH= option so that the most commonly
accessed directories are listed first. Place the least commonly accessed directories
last.
Operating Environment Information: The PATH= system option is not available in
some operating environments. See the documentation for your operating
environment for more information.

Specifying Variable Lengths

When SAS processes the program data vector, it typically moves the data in one
large operation rather than by individual variables. When data is properly aligned (in
8-byte boundaries), data movement can occur in as little as two clock cycles (a
single load followed by a single store). SAS moves unaligned data by more complex
means, at worst, a single byte at a time. This would be at least eight times slower for
an 8-byte variable.
Many high-performance RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processors pay
a very large performance penalty for movement of unaligned data. When possible,
leave numeric data at full width (eight bytes). Note that SAS must widen short
numeric data for any arithmetic operation. On the other hand, short numeric data
can save both memory and I/O. You must determine which method is most
advantageous for your operating environment and situation.
Note: Alignment can be especially important when you process a data set by
selecting only specific variables or when you use WHERE processing.

Using Parallel Processing

SAS System 9 supports a new wave of SAS functionality related to parallel
processing. Parallel processing means that processing is handled by multiple CPUs
simultaneously. This technology takes advantage of SMP computers and provides
performance gains for two types of SAS processes: threaded I/O and threaded
application processing.
For information, see Chapter 13, “Support for Parallel Processing,” on page 231.
 Calculating Data Set Size 229

Reducing CPU Time By Modifying Program Compilation

Optimization
When SAS compiles a program, the code is optimized to remove redundant
instructions, missing value checks, and repetitive computations for array subscripts.
The code detects patterns of instruction and replaces them with more efficient
sequences, and also performs optimizations that pertain to the SAS register. In most
cases, performing the code-generation optimization is preferable. If you have a large
DATA step program, performing code generation optimization can result in a
significant increase in compilation time and overall execution time.
You can reduce or turn off the code generation optimization by using the
CGOPTIMIZE= system option. Set the code generation optimization that you want
SAS to perform using these CGOPTIMIZE= system option values:

0 performs no optimization during code compilation.

1 specifies to perform stage 1 optimization. Stage 1 optimization removes
redundant instructions, missing value checks, and repetitive computations
for array subscripts; detects patterns of instructions and replaces them with
more efficient sequences.
2 specifies to perform stage 2 optimization. Stage 2 performs optimizations
that pertain to the SAS register. Performing stage 2 optimization on large
DATA step programs can result in a significant increase in compilation time.
3 specifies to perform full optimization, which is a combination of stages 1 and
2. This is the default value.
For more information, see “CGOPTIMIZE= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.

Calculating Data Set Size

If you have already applied optimization techniques but still experience lengthy
processing times or excessive memory usage, the size of your data sets might be
very large. In that case, further improvement might not be possible.
You can estimate the size of a data set by creating a dummy data set that contains
the same variables as your data set. Run the CONTENTS procedure, which shows
the size of each observation. Multiply the size by the number of observations in your
data set to obtain the total number of bytes that must be processed. You can
compare processing statistics with smaller data sets to determine whether the
performance of the large data sets is in proportion to their size. If not, further
optimization might still be possible.
Note: When you use this technique to calculate the size of a data set, you obtain
only an estimate. Internal requirements, such as the storage of variable names,
might cause the actual data set size to be slightly different.
230 Chapter 12 / Optimizing System Performance
 231

13
Support for Parallel Processing

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
What Is Threading Technology in SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
How Is Threading Controlled in SAS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Threading in Base SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
SAS/ACCESS Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
SAS Scalable Performance Data Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
SAS Intelligence Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
SAS High-Performance Analytics Portfolio of Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
SAS Grid Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
SAS In-Database Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
SAS In-Memory Analytics Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
SAS High-Performance Analytics Product Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
SAS Viya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Overview
SAS introduced threading technology starting in SAS 9 with the introduction of
several Base SAS procedures that had been enhanced to execute, in part, in
multiple threads. SAS has continued to develop and enhance products and
components that take advantage of the threaded processing capabilities provided
by proprietary internal subsystems. Threading is available on a variety of platforms
from a local desktop with multiple CPUs to high-performance platform servers.
These high-performance servers include large multi-core symmetric multi-processor
(SMP) systems and massively parallel processing (MPP) appliances typically
configured as a distributed cluster. Many SAS components that execute on these
platforms take advantage of threading technology.
With SAS 9.4M5, when you license SAS Viya, you can access SAS Cloud Analytic
Services (CAS), a distributed server environment that supports multithreaded, in-
memory processing. See “What is SAS Cloud Analytic Services?” on page 433 for
more information.
Previous releases of Base SAS 9.4 support programs written in the SAS DS2
programming language or the SAS Federated SQL language. These languages can
 232 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

take advantage of threading. Many other SAS products also use threading
technology. For example, the SAS High-Performance Analytics procedures, SAS
Stored Processes, and SAS Embedded Process either execute or generate code
that executes in high-performance distributed computing environments.

What Is Threading Technology in SAS?

Threading technology provides multiple paths of execution within an operating
environment. Each path of execution is called a thread, and each thread can handle
a program task or data transfer. The result is multiple program tasks and data I/O
operations performed at the same time, in parallel. A thread requires a context (like
a register set and a program counter), a segment of code to execute, and some
amount of memory to use in the process. A threading operating environment might
have multiple CPUs but only one core per CPU. Other more high-performance
configurations might include multiple CPUs with multiple cores per CPU and even
multiple threads per core. In situations in which each CPU might execute only one
thread at a time, the CPU’s ability to quickly switch between threads provides near-
simultaneous execution.
Threaded execution in SAS software includes one or both of these two general
techniques.
n Threaded I/O means that data (frequently in very high volume) is delivered to an
application in threads so that the application is continually processing, not
waiting on data. In Base SAS and SAS/STAT, several procedures take
advantage of threaded reads. Also Base SAS includes the SPD engine that
reads from a data set that is partitioned to optimize for threaded input to the
application. The SAS High-Performance Analytics procedures require very rapid
data delivery. They require threaded reads from data distributed across a
computing cluster to deliver huge amounts of data to the application (which is
also processing on the cluster) and then write the data in parallel to the data
storage appliance. SAS 9.4M5 includes access to SAS Viya, which supports
distributed, in-memory, multithreaded processing. See “What is SAS Cloud
Analytic Services?” on page 433 for more information about SAS Cloud Analytic
Services with SAS Viya.
n Threaded application processing means that the application itself is structured to
perform certain tasks in parallel on multiple-CPU machines. Threaded
application processing enables the application to process large amounts of data
to be processed more quickly because multiple threads execute on smaller
segments of data. Applications can be designed to take advantage of machines
with multiple CPUs whether it is a local four-way desktop or a server-class
machine. The SAS High-Performance Analytics Server executes on appliances
that distribute both the data and copies of the application across the appliance
nodes so that the data is co-located with the application processing
With SAS 9.4 and SAS Analytics 12.1, customers can access a wide variety of
products and components that use threading to support ever-increasing amounts of
data as well as computationally intensive algorithms and models. Base SAS and
Foundation SAS threading technologies support all of these.
 Threading in Base SAS 233

How Is Threading Controlled in SAS?

Many SAS components take advantage of threading technologies automatically.
Mechanisms within SAS can detect certain environment variables and either use or
not use threading depending on the application’s likely performance. Some
environment variables and system options can be configured by the administrator.
Data set options, where available, can also be specified to affect I/O or application
processing in threads. Because many components might be using threads
automatically, it is likely that thread usage would continue, even if the specific
options to control threading were turned off.
The system options THREADS, NOTHREADS, and CPUCOUNT influence
threading throughout SAS where threading is not automatic. Some products have
additional options for controlling threading such as DBSLICE in SAS/ACCESS. The
system option THREADS is the default in all products so that threading can occur
wherever use of threading is possible and performance is improved. NOTHREADS
disables threading in Base SAS or SAS clients and in products that execute in a
symmetric multi-processor environment. Procedure statement options are provided
to override the system options when necessary.
Certain procedures in SAS products such as SAS/STAT, SAS/OR, SAS/ETS, SAS
Enterprise Miner, and SAS High-Performance Analytics Server procedures can
execute in either SMP mode on a SAS client, or in massively parallel processing
mode in the distributed computing environment. In SMP mode, NOTHREADS is
honored, if set; if THREADS is set, CPUCOUNT defaults to the number of threads
available for processing on the client, but can be adjusted. In MPP mode, threads
are always assumed. NOTHREADS is ignored and threading is always enabled
(unless you execute from the client SAS session or SAS Enterprise Miner).
However, in MPP mode, NOTHREADS has no effect. In most of these products,
thread controls and execution mode are specified in the PERFORMANCE
statement. Refer to the SAS System Options: Reference along with the specific SAS
product documentation for information about the threading technologies used in that
product or component.

Threading in Base SAS

Some threading is automatic in Base SAS. In addition, the THREADS option is the
default for all Base SAS components that support threaded reads or threaded
application processing.
Base Language
SAS uses threading technology to build indexes on SAS data files. An index can
speed performance in SAS Language WHERE processing, BY-group
processing, SET and MODIFY statements, and ARRAY processing in a DO loop.
The sorting algorithm in Base SAS, which is used in building an index, is thread-
enabled by default but can be disabled with NOTHREADS. For more
information, see SAS System Options: Reference along with the specific SAS
234 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

product documentation for information about the threading technologies used in

that product or component.
Thread-Enabled Base SAS Procedures
Certain Base SAS procedures have algorithms that can take advantage of
threaded processing. These procedures are thread-enabled to split parts of the
procedure algorithm so that it executes some parts of the algorithm in threads.
For example, the SORT procedure is thread-enabled so that the sorting takes
place in available threads and each thread sorts a part of the data. The
procedure then quickly generates the data set in sorted order from the multiple
threads. These procedures can also read data in threads.
The number of threads and CPUs available to the procedures is specified by
system or procedure options CPUCOUNT and THREADS|NOTHREADS.
NOTHREADS specifies not to use threaded processing for running SAS
applications that support it. THREADS is the default. When NOTHREADS is in
effect, CPUCOUNT is ignored. Base SAS thread-enabled procedures are the
following:
n MEANS

n REPORT

n SORT

n SUMMARY

n TABULATE

n SQL

For details, see “Threaded Processing for Base SAS Procedures” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide. For details of the thread-enabled SQL procedure, see the
SAS SQL Procedure User’s Guide. Details of SAS System Options, see the SAS
System Options: Reference.
Some procedures in SAS/STAT software are also thread-enabled and most of
them can run in either SMP or MPP mode. In SMP mode, NOTHREADS and
CPUCOUNT are honored. In MPP mode, the PERFORMANCE statement
provides the options to control threading. These are the thread-enabled
SAS/STAT procedures:
n ADAPTIVEREG

n FMM

n GLM

n GLMSELECT
n LOESS

n MIXED

n QUANTLIFE

n QUANTREG

n QUANTSELECT

n ROBUSTREG

See the SAS/STAT Procedures Guide for details for each procedure.
SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine
The SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine, which is included in Base SAS, is
engineered to exploit SMP hardware capabilities. The SAS Scalable
 Threading in Base SAS 235

Performance Data Engine uses partitioned data sets that are optimized for
reading data in threads. The partition size can be configured with the SAS
Scalable Performance Data Engine PARTSIZE option. THREADNUM and
SPDEMAXTHREADS control threading for optimum threaded reads. The Base
SAS NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT system options have no effect on SPD
Engine threaded reads. They remain in effect for the SAS thread-enabled
procedures executing on the SPD Engine data set. SPD Engine indexes are also
created in threads in parallel automatically without regard to NOTHREADS, if
set. You can use SPDEINDEXSORTSIZE= to optimize threaded index creation.
The SPD Engine is described in the SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine:
Reference.
SAS FedSQL Language
SAS FedSQL is a SAS proprietary SQL implementation based on the ANSI
SQL:1999 standard. It provides support for ANSI SQL data types and other ANSI
compliance features. The core strength of SAS FedSQL is its ability to execute
federated queries across a heterogeneous database environment and return a
single result set. FedSQL queries are automatically optimized with multi-
threaded algorithms in order to resolve large-scale operations. In addition,
FedSQL can execute outside of a SAS session, for example in the SAS
Federation Server and SAS Scalable Performance Data Server environments.
The NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT options have no effect on FedSQL
processing.
The FedSQL procedure, which submits FedSQL programs for execution, is
included. See the SAS FedSQL Language Reference for complete information.
SAS DS2 Programming Language
DS2 is a SAS proprietary programming language that is appropriate for
advanced data manipulation and data modeling applications. DS2 is included
with Base SAS and intersects with the SAS DATA step but also supports
additional data types, ANSI SQL types, programming structure elements, user-
defined methods, and packages. The DS2 SET statement accepts embedded
FedSQL syntax and the runtime-generated queries can exchange data
interactively between DS2 and any supported database. This allows SQL
preprocessing of input tables which effectively combines the power of the two
languages.
DS2 programs are thread-enabled by using the THREAD statement on a
program coded for parallel execution. The NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT
options have no effect. See the SAS 9.4 DS2 Language Reference for details
about whether your DATA step programs would benefit from being converted to
DS2.
The DS2 procedure, which submits thread-enabled DS2 programs to the SAS
Embedded Process for execution is also included. A high-performance version of
the DS2 procedure, PROC HPDS2, submits DS2 language statements to the
separately licensed High-Performance Analytics Server for processing. See the
SAS High-Performance Analytics Server Usage Guide for documentation on this
and other high-performance versions of certain SAS procedures.
DS2 can execute outside of a SAS session. For example:
n SAS Federation Server

n SAS Scalable Performance Data Server

n MPP computing environments such as the SAS In-Database Scoring

Accelerator, the SAS Embedded Process environment, and SAS High-
Performance Analytics Server distributed environment
 236 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

SAS Logging
The SAS Logging Facility ignores the NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT options. It
handles all incoming logging events in threads. The client identity that is
associated with the current thread or task is reported in the log. The logging
facility supports many SAS products and components, but it is included with
Base SAS. See the SAS Logging: Configuration and Programming Reference.
SAS Code Analyzer
The SAS Code Analyzer (SCAPROC procedure) runs an existing SAS program
(executing the program as usual) when generating metadata about the SAS job
that are recorded comments. PROC SCAPROC captures information about the
job step, I/O information such as file dependencies, and macro symbol usage
information from a running SAS job. The output is a SAS program containing
comments with the dependencies described in the comments. An application can
read this text and create SAS metadata or determine a process flow based on
these dependencies. For example, developers for SAS Data Integration Studio
can use the information emitted by the SAS Code Analyzer to reverse engineer
legacy SAS jobs. It can also be used with SAS Grid Manager. When the saved
job is run on the grid, SAS Grid Manager automatically assigns the identified
subtasks to a grid node. For more information, see the SCAPROC procedure
documentation in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.

SAS/ACCESS Engines
SAS/ACCESS engines are LIBNAME engines that provide Read, Write, and Update
access to more than 60 relational and nonrelational databases, PC files, data
warehouse appliances, and distributed file systems. These engines are not part of
Base SAS but they depend on Base SAS. They are licensed separately or are
included in many product bundles such as SAS BI Server or SAS Activity-Based
Management. Many bundles offer the customer a choice of two out of the many
SAS/ACCESS engines available.
SAS/ACCESS engines enable SAS programs to connect to a DBMS as if it were a
SAS data set. This takes advantage of performance-related DBMS features and
benefits including bulk load support, temporary table support, and native SQL
support with Explicit Pass-Through. If the DBMS is a parallel server, the engine
accesses the DBMS data in parallel by using multiple threads to connect to the
DBMS server. If your SAS program is executing a thread-enabled SAS procedure
with these SAS/ACCESS engines, even greater gains in performance are likely.
In SAS/ACCESS, threaded reads partition the result set across multiple threads.
Unlike threaded processing in Base SAS procedures, threaded reads in
SAS/ACCESS are not dependent on the number of processors on a machine.
Instead, the result set is retrieved on multiple connections between SAS and the
DBMS. SAS causes the DBMS to partition the result set by appending a WHERE
clause to the SQL statement. When this happens, a single SQL statement becomes
multiple SQL statements, one on each thread. The DBMS reads the partitions one
per thread also.
The amount of scalability that is provided with the SAS/ACCESS engines depends
on the efficiency of parallelization implemented in the DBMS itself. However,
SAS/ACCESS engines have options available in the LIBNAME statement that
enable tuning of the threaded implementation within the SAS/ACCESS engines.
The options that control threaded reads in SAS/ACCESS are DBSLICE,
 SAS Intelligence Platform 237

DBSLICEPARM, THREADS|NOTHREADS, and whether BY, OBS, or KEY options

are used in a PROC or DATA step. Refer to the SAS/ACCESS for Relational
Databases documentation for more information.

SAS Scalable Performance Data Server

SAS Scalable Performance Data Server is a multi-user parallel-processing data
server with a comprehensive security infrastructure, backup and restore utilities, and
administrative and tuning options. SPD Server supports native SQL, FedSQL, and
DS2 languages. Options specific to the SPD Server control threaded processing.
The NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT options have no effect. See the SAS Scalable
Performance Data Server: Administrator’s Guide and SAS Scalable Performance
Data Server: User’s Guide for information.

SAS Intelligence Platform

The SAS Intelligence Platform is an infrastructure for creating, managing, and
distributing enterprise intelligence. This infrastructure supports SAS solutions for
industries such as financial services, life sciences, health care, retail, and
manufacturing. The SAS Intelligence Platform is not part of Base SAS but instead it
relies on SAS Foundation, which includes Base SAS and these components:
n SAS Management Console for defining metadata

n SAS Business Intelligence Server and SAS Data Integration Server technologies

n SAS Integration Technologies, which provides the following:

o the SAS servers and supporting services such as SAS Stored Process
Servers
o application messaging
o SAS BI Web Services
o publishing framework
o SAS Foundation Services
The SAS Intelligence Platform Overview discusses individual components and
references a wide spectrum of related SAS Intelligence Platform documentation.
These are the SAS servers in the Intelligence Platform:
n SAS Workspace Server

n SAS Stored Process Server

n SAS Pooled Workspace Server

n SAS OLAP Server

n SAS Metadata Server

Each server is initiated with a pool of active threads. These threads are controlled
by the server and are used by server processes (for example, handling incoming
 238 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

requests). If the NOTHREADS and CPUCOUNT options are specified, they are
ignored, except during the execution of submitted code that includes a SAS
procedure that honors these options.
For the SAS Metadata Server, thread usage is controlled by default settings for the
object server parameters (THREADSMAX and THREADSMIN) and for the metadata
server configuration option, MACACTIVETHREADS. Administrators can override
these settings in order to fine-tune performance. See the SAS Intelligence Platform:
System Administrator’s Guide for details and examples. The THREADMAX and
THREADMIN object server parameters are rarely used for servers other than the
SAS Metadata Server.
In the intelligent platform middle tier (which is an infrastructure for web applications),
incoming requests are processed on threads. These threads are defined using the
job execution service. The threads are not constrained by the NOTHREADS or
CPUCOUNT options. Both the number of job queue threads and number of job
execution threads can be specified. Refer to the SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-
Tier Administration Guide.
SAS MP CONNECT is a part of SAS/CONNECT software that is bundled with the
intelligence platform. It supports parallel processing by establishing a connection
between multiple SAS sessions and enabling each of the sessions to
asynchronously execute tasks in parallel. By establishing connections to processes
on the same local computer, the application can use network resources to process
in parallel and coordinate all the results into the client SAS session. Many SAS
processes use multiple processors on an SMP computer, but they can also be
executed on multiple remote single or multiprocessor computers on a network.
Threads are always assumed to be available.
Some SAS High-Performance Analytics products can execute on the SAS
Intelligence Platform if it is configured as an MPP environment. For example, SAS
Grid Manager (discussed in the next section) handles workload management for
SAS applications that execute in SMP configurations. It can also manage
applications that are coded for parallel execution and distributed across the nodes
of the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server.
SAS Visual Analytics is a web-based suite of high-performance analytics
applications that executes on the SAS Intelligence Platform if it is configured as an
MPP environment. This execution environment for SAS Visual Analytics is
documented in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide.
(SAS Visual Analytics is discussed further in the next section. See “SAS High-
Performance Analytics Portfolio of Products” on page 238.)

SAS High-Performance Analytics Portfolio of

Products
SAS High-Performance Analytics products are engineered to make high use of
threads. These products are not part of Base SAS or SAS Foundation. However,
they rely on and extend Base SAS functionality to provide capabilities that support
rapid analysis of huge volumes of data.
Some SAS High-Performance Analytics products can work in concert with, or are
directly integrated with, other SAS applications and solutions. For example, you can
configure SAS Grid Manager to distribute the workload from SAS Enterprise Guide
 SAS Grid Manager 239

executing on the SAS Intelligence Platform. The SAS Grid Manager can be used to
manage the workload of SAS jobs on the SAS High-Performance Analytic Server
running on a DBMS appliance such as EMC Greenplum or Teradata. And SAS
Visual Analytics can be used to explore data that is consumed by SAS Enterprise
Miner executing in a SAS Grid environment.
SAS High-Performance Analytics technologies include the following:
n SAS Grid Manager

n SAS In-Database
n SAS In-Memory Analytics technologies, which include:
o SAS High-Performance Analytics Server
o SAS Visual Analytics
o SAS High-Performance Risk Management
o other SAS high-performance products and solutions

SAS Grid Manager

SAS Grid Manager provides scalable workload management and prioritization, high-
availability processing, and optimized performance across various SAS processes
and services that execute in threads on a grid of configured servers. By coordinating
the resources of separate servers into a centrally managed SAS environment, SAS
Grid Manager can provide accelerated processing for SAS jobs.
SAS programs, that are grid-enabled to run in multiple independent steps within the
overall program flow, execute in threads. The threaded execution typically occurs at
the DATA step or procedure boundaries. Because the programs are specifically
written to execute in threads, it is assumed that the THREADS option is set and the
CPUCOUNT option is greater than one. SAS Grid Manager enables subtasks of
individual SAS jobs to run in parallel on different parts of the grid and share a pool of
resources. The threaded subtasks can further benefit from threaded processing
performed by any of the thread-enabled procedures executed from within the code.
Programs that have been analyzed for parallel processing using the SAS Code
Analyzer can be run on the grid with SAS Grid Manager. This automatically assigns
the identified subtasks to a grid node.
Many SAS products, such as SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Enterprise Miner, SAS
Data Integration Studio, SAS Web Report Studio, SAS Marketing Automation, and
SAS Marketing Optimization are integrated with SAS Grid Manager. An option within
the application or in the SAS Metadata enables the integration. SAS Data
Integration Studio and SAS Enterprise Miner have code generation engines that can
recognize opportunities for parallelization and generate the appropriate code to
submit to SAS Grid Manager to execute in parallel across the grid.
Other SAS components, such as the SAS Intelligence Platform, use SAS Grid
Manager to determine the optimal SAS server for processing by distributing server
workloads across multiple computers on a network. SAS Grid Manager divides jobs
into separate processes that run in parallel across multiple servers. SAS Grid
Manager is documented in Grid Computing for SAS.
 240 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

SAS In-Database Technology

SAS In-Database technology provides faster execution of commands and functions
by sending them to execute inside the databases by SAS applications. This process
avoids data movement and conversion but also takes advantage of the threading
capabilities of the host database.
SAS In-Database runs on a variety of threaded DBMS and hardware or software
appliance architectures such as Teradata, Greenplum, Aster Data, Netezza, and
DB2. Because the threading is controlled by the database, NOTHREADS and
CPUCOUNT options have no effect.
In-Database processes are divided into multiple parallel tasks within the database,
each working with small subsets of the overall data to be processed. As the results
of the smaller subsets are derived, they are consolidated and returned to the SAS
application. Typically, th execution times are much shorter than if the data were
transferred to the SAS server.
In-Database technology uses existing database functionality and standard SAS
functionality to extend that SAS functionality into the database. For example, Base
SAS procedures such as SORT or SUMMARY can be executed within the database
environment with the inclusion of simple options to the procedure’s code. These
procedures are “translated” into native database functions for execution within the
database environment. As an example of extending SAS functionality into the
database, scoring code generated by SAS Enterprise Miner can be exported as
functions. Once exported, these functions can be executed by either SAS processes
or called from third-party or database-specific applications using standard SQL
statements.
SAS In-Database technology is described in the SAS In-Database Products:
Administrators Guide and SAS In-Database Products: User’s Guide. SAS In-
Database components include scoring and analytic accelerators for most of the
supported databases.

SAS In-Memory Analytics Technology

SAS In-Memory Analytics technology takes advantage of the large number of
threads and high level of memory that is available in some specially configured
DBMS appliances such as Teradata and EMC Greenplum and on commodity
hardware using Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). The Teradata and EMC
Greenplum appliances are assembled as computing clusters using specific
massively parallel processing (MPP) techniques. With SAS In-Memory Analytics
technology, all of the data to be processed is distributed across the cluster and
loaded into memory before the analytic procedure begins. This is in distinct contrast
to traditional processing where data is loaded in blocks as they are needed. In
addition, SAS High-Performance Analytics procedures are engineered to execute on
hundreds of threads and each thread is responsible for a small subset of the overall
data to be processed. Faster analysis of large data sets results in greater refinement
of analytic models.
 SAS In-Memory Analytics Technology 241

Several members of the SAS High-Performance Analytics family of products are

based on SAS In-Memory Analytics technology, including the SAS High-
Performance Analytics Server, SAS Visual Analytics, and SAS High-Performance
Risk. For more detail on the array of SAS In-Memory Analytics components, please
see the In-Memory Analytics website: Products & Solutions/In-Memory Analytics.
SAS High-Performance Analytics Server
The SAS High-Performance Analytics Server is engineered to run in threads and
provides high-performance analytic procedures that focus on predictive model
development with computationally intensive calculations. These procedures are
drawn from the libraries of SAS/STAT, SAS/QC, and SAS/ETS. The procedures
execute in the MPP computing environment provided by EMC Greenplum and
Teradata appliances and Hadoop clusters. High-performance MPP
configurations typically have a minimum 1.5TB of memory and upward of 192
cores with multiple threads per core.
The SAS High-Performance Analytics procedures are invoked on the requesting
SAS client where a Base SAS session is executing. This can be the traditional
Display Manager System, SAS Enterprise Guide, or through the SAS High-
Performance Data Mining tab in SAS Enterprise Miner. In the MPP environment,
the SAS client communicates with the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server
nodes where a thin SAS environment executes a copy of the requested SAS
procedure or DS2 code. Once completed, the analytic results are returned to the
requesting application on the SAS client.
The PERFORMANCE statement in the SAS High-Performance Analytics
procedures enables you to specify parameters to control threading and the mode
of processing, SMP (client mode) or MPP (distributed mode). In SMP mode
(which is a SAS session on the client machine), the CPUCOUNT default is the
number of CPUs on the client machine. CPUCOUNT and NOTHREADS options
can override the SAS system options. In this environment, if the procedure
executes in MPP mode, then the CPUCOUNT option default is that the number
of threads is determined by the number of CPUs on the appliance nodes. The
NTHREADS option available only in the PERFORMANCE statement throttles the
number of threads.
The SAS High-Performance Analytics Server and procedures are documented in
the SAS High-Performance Server Administration Guide. The SAS High-
Performance Analytics Server relies on the SAS LASR Analytic Server to provide
a highly scalable and reliable analytics infrastructure that is optimized for large
volumes of data and complex computations.
SAS Visual Analytics
SAS Visual Analytics runs on SAS High-Performance Analytics Server and on a
SAS Intelligence Platform if it is configured as an MPP environment. SAS Visual
Analytics provides the ability for business users and business analysts to
perform a wide variety of tasks using visualizations specifically designed for
exploring big data and deriving value. This enables you to go beyond descriptive
statistics and use more specialized analytics in a very scalable way. This
provides more accurate insights into the future and aids decision making. For
example, users can visually explore data, execute analytic correlations on
billions of rows of data in just seconds, and visually present results. This helps
quickly identify patterns, trends, and relationships in data that were not evident
before.
SAS Visual Analytics can be combined with the SAS High-Performance
Analytics Server and SAS In-Database to provide a high-performance model
lifecycle. For example, use SAS Visual Analytics to explore the data and decide
which information to use. Use SAS High-Performance Analytics Server to build
 242 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

your models, and then use SAS In-Database to push the models into an
appropriate database for scoring.
SAS Visual Analytics requires a dedicated and specialized configuration of blade
hardware such as Teradata or EMC Greenplum appliances or Hadoop HDFS
configured as an MPP cluster. This environment is always threaded. SAS
options CPUCOUNT and NOTHREADS have no effect. Instead, the NTHREADS
option in the PERFORMANCE statement provides a way to throttle thread
usage. See the the SAS Visual Analytics: User’s Guide for product information.
SAS Visual Analytics relies on the SAS LASR Analytic Server to provide a highly
scalable analytics infrastructure that is optimized for large volumes of data and
complex computations.
SAS LASR Analytic Server
The SAS LASR Analytic Server is an analytic platform that provides a secure
environment for concurrent access to data. It loads the data into memory across
the computing nodes of a SAS High-Performance Analytics Server. The SAS
LASR Analytic Server executes on the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server
root node with worker nodes across the appliance that read data into memory in
parallel very fast. If the data is not from a co-located data provider, then the data
is read from the DBMS appliance or Hadoop cluster and transferred to the root
node of the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server. Then, it is loaded into the
memory of the worker nodes. The SAS LASR Analytic Server is not influenced
by CPUCOUNT or NOTHREADS. Instead, the NTHREADSoption in the
PERFORMANCE statement throttles thread usage. Refer to the SAS LASR
Analytic Server: Administration Guide for details.
For more SAS In-Memory Analytics products, see Products & Solutions/In-Memory
Analytics.

SAS High-Performance Analytics Product

Integration
The SAS High-Performance Analytics portfolio supports many SAS solutions and
products. Some SAS products are integrated with SAS Grid Manager and (to some
extent) other high-performance analytics products in order to take advantage of
parallel processing.
SAS Enterprise Guide:
SAS Enterprise Guide executes as a SAS client and provides a front end to SAS
servers to execute SAS programs. Users create programs that take advantage
of the parallel processing capabilities in Base SAS (for example, thread-enabled
procedures and stored processes). SAS Enterprise Guide can detect whether
SAS Grid Manager is managing the environment to provide workload balancing,
resource assignment, and job prioritization. SAS Enterprise Guide can run
Process Flow branches in parallel on different grid nodes. It enables parallel
execution of tasks on the same server, and you can run tasks at the project or
individual level in a SAS Grid Manager environment. See the SAS Enterprise
Guide for details.
SAS Data Integration Studio
SAS Data Integration Studio runs on the SAS Data Integration Server and
automatically takes advantage of grid computing if SAS Grid Manager is
 SAS High-Performance Analytics Product Integration 243

installed. SAS Data Integration Studio 3.4 was enhanced to automatically

generate SAS applications that are enabled to execute on a SAS Grid Manager
managed grid. Users can produce grid-enabled SAS applications without any
programming knowledge or knowledge of the underlying grid infrastructure.
These SAS applications detect the existence of a SAS Grid Manager
environment at run time and distribute the execution accordingly. These grid-
enabled applications can be saved as SAS stored processes and subsequently
executed by the SAS Intelligence Platform components including SAS Web
Report Studio, SAS Information Map Studio, and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft
Office. (These applications need SAS BI or SAS Enterprise BI servers, which
depend on SAS Foundation).
SAS Data Integration Studio can execute with in-memory products SAS High-
Performance Analytics Server and SAS Visual Analytics Server configured with
the SAS Intelligence Platform as an MPP environment, which is always
threaded. SAS Data Integration Studio provides High-Performance Analytics
transformations for SAS LASR Analytic Servers or HDFS. NOTHREADS and
CPUCOUNT options have no effect. The SAS Data Integration Server is
administered as part of the SAS Intelligence Platform.
SAS Risk Dimensions
The iterative workflow in SAS Risk Dimensions is similar to that in SAS Data
Integration Studio; they both execute the same analysis over different subsets of
the data. This workflow makes them ideal for taking advantage of SAS Grid
Manager to distribute the processing across the grid. For more information, see
SAS Risk Dimensions User’s Guide.
SAS Enterprise Miner
SAS Enterprise Miner can automatically generate SAS applications that are
enabled to execute on a SAS Grid Manager grid. These SAS applications detect
the presence of a SAS Grid Manager environment at run time and distribute the
execution accordingly. The applications can also be saved as SAS stored
processes and subsequently executed by the SAS Business Intelligence
components such as SAS Web Report Studio. The DMINE, DMREG, and DMDB
procedures are thread-enabled with THREADS as the default. NOTHREADS
disables multithreaded computation.
SAS Enterprise Miner includes a key set of high-performance statistical and data
mining procedures for tasks such as data binning, imputation, scoring, and
transformations, and others. These procedures execute in the highly threaded
SAS High-Performance Analytics Server. In MPP mode, SAS Enterprise Miner
distributes data, memory, and computation across the server nodes to build
predictive models. If the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server is installed and
specific Hadoop HPDM code is enabled, an HPDM tab is available in SAS
Enterprise Miner that permits execution on the server nodes. Scoring code from
Enterprise Miner can be run inside the database using SAS In-Database
technology. For more information, see SAS Enterprise Miner: Administration and
Configuration.
 244 Chapter 13 / Support for Parallel Processing

SAS Viya
With SAS 9.4M5, you can license SAS Viya, software that offers a variety of high
performance products and access to SAS Cloud Analytic Services. For more
information, see An Introduction to SAS Viya Programming.
 245

14
The SAS Registry

Introduction to the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

What Is the SAS Registry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Who Should Use the SAS Registry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Where the SAS Registry Is Stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
How Do I Display the SAS Registry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Definitions for the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Managing the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Primary Concerns about Managing the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Backing Up the Sasuser Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Recovering from Registry Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Using the SAS Registry to Control Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Using the Registry Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Configuring Your Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Configuring Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Configuring SAS Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Configuring Libraries and File Shortcuts with the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Fixing Library Reference (Libref) Problems with the SAS Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Introduction to the SAS Registry

What Is the SAS Registry?

The SAS registry is the central storage area for configuration data for SAS. For
example, the registry stores the following:
n the libraries and file shortcuts that SAS assigns at startup

n the menu definitions for Explorer pop-up menus

n the printers that are defined for use

n configuration data for various SAS products

This configuration data is stored in a hierarchical form. The form works in a manner
similar to how directory-based file structures work under the operating environments
in UNIX and Windows, and under the z/OS UNIX System Services (USS).
Note: Host printers are not referenced in the SAS registry.
 246 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

Who Should Use the SAS Registry?

The SAS registry is designed for use by system administrators and experienced
SAS users. This section provides an overview of registry tools, and describes how
to import and export portions of the registry.
CAUTION! If you make a mistake when you edit the registry, your system might
become unstable or unusable.
Wherever possible, use the administrative tools, such as the New Library window,
the PRTDEF procedure, Universal Print windows, and the Explorer Options window,
to make configuration changes, rather than editing the registry directly. Using the
administrative tools ensures that values are stored properly in the registry when you
change the configuration.
CAUTION! If you use the Registry Editor to change values, you are not warned if
any entry is incorrect. Incorrect entries can cause errors, and can even prevent you
from starting a SAS session.

Where the SAS Registry Is Stored

Registry Files in the Sasuser and the Sashelp Libraries

Although the SAS registry is logically one data store, physically it consists of two
different files located in both the Sasuser and Sashelp libraries. The physical
filename for the registry is regstry.sas7bitm. By default, these registry files are
hidden in the SAS Explorer views of the Sashelp and Sasuser libraries.
n The Sashelp library registry file contains the site defaults. The system
administrator usually configures the printers that a site uses, the global file
shortcuts or libraries that are assigned at start-up, and any other configuration
defaults for your site.
n The Sasuser library registry file contains the user defaults. When you change
your configuration information through a specialized window such as the Print
Setup window or the Explorer Options window, the settings are stored in the
Sasuser library.

How to Restore the Site Defaults

If you want to restore the original site defaults to your SAS session, delete the
regstry.sas7bitm file from your Sasuser library and restart your SAS session.

How Do I Display the SAS Registry?

You can use one of the following three methods to view the SAS registry:
n Issue the REGEDIT command. This opens the SAS Registry Editor.
 Introduction to the SAS Registry 247

n Select Solutions ð Accessories ð Registry Editor.

n Submit the following line of code:

proc registry list;
run;

This method prints the registry to the SAS log, and it produces a large list that
contains all registry entries, including subkeys. Because of the large size, it
might take a few minutes to display the registry using this method.
For more information about how to view the SAS registry, see the REGISTRY
PROCEDURE in “REGISTRY Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide. Base
SAS Procedures Guide.

Definitions for the SAS Registry

The SAS registry uses keys and subkeys as the basis for its structure, instead of
using directories and subdirectories like the file systems in DOS or UNIX. These
terms and several others described here are frequently used when discussing the
SAS Registry:
key
An entry in the registry file that refers to a particular aspect of SAS. Each entry in
the registry file consists of a key name, followed on the next line by one or more
values. Key names are entered on a single line between square brackets
([ and ]).
The key can be a place holder without values or subkeys associated with it, or it
can have many subkeys with associated values. Subkeys are delimited with a
backslash (\). The length of a single key name or a sequence of key names
cannot exceed 255 characters (including the square brackets and the
backslash). Key names can contain any character except the backslash and are
not case sensitive.
The SAS Registry contains only one top-level key, called SAS_REGISTRY. All
the keys under SAS_REGISTRY are subkeys.
subkey
A key inside another key. Subkeys are delimited with a backslash (\). Subkey
names are not case-sensitive. The following key contains one root key and two
subkeys:[SAS_REGISTRY\HKEY_USER_ROOT\CORE]
SAS_REGISTRY
is the root key.
HKEY_USER_ROOT
is a subkey of SAS_REGISTRY. In the SAS registry, there is one other subkey at
this level it is HKEY_SYSTEM_ROOT.
CORE
is a subkey of HKEY_USER_ROOT, containing many default attributes for
printers, windowing, and so on.
link
a value whose contents reference a key. Links are designed for internal SAS use
only. These values always begin with the word “link:”.
 248 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

value
the names and content associated with a key or subkey. There are two
components to a value, the value name and the value content, also known as a
value datum.

Figure 14.1 Section of the Registry Editor Showing Value Names and Value Data for the
Subkey 'HTML'

.SASXREG file
a text file with the file extension .SASXREG that contains the text representation
of the actual binary SAS Registry file.

Managing the SAS Registry

Primary Concerns about Managing the SAS Registry

CAUTION! If you make a mistake when you edit the registry, your system might
become unstable or unusable. Whenever possible, use the administrative tools, such
as the New Library window, the PRTDEF procedure, Universal Print windows, and the
Explorer Options window, to make configuration changes, rather than editing the registry.
This is to ensure that values are stored properly in the registry when changing the
configuration.
CAUTION! If you use the Registry Editor to change values, you are not warned if
any entry is incorrect. Incorrect entries can cause errors, and can even prevent you
from starting a SAS session.

Backing Up the Sasuser Registry

Why Back Up the Sasuser Registry?

The Sasuser1 part of the registry contains personal settings. It is a good idea to
back up the Sasuser part of the registry if you have made substantial customizations
to your SAS session. Substantial customizations include the following:
n installing new printers

1. The Sashelp part of the registry contains settings that are common to all users at your site. Sashelp is Write protected,
and can be updated only by a system administrator.
 Managing the SAS Registry 249

n modifying printer settings from the default printer settings that your system
administrator provides for you
n changing localization settings

n altering translation tables with TRANTAB

When SAS Resets to the Default Settings

When SAS starts up, it automatically scans the registry file. SAS restores the
registry to its original settings under two conditions:
n If SAS detects that the registry is corrupted, then SAS rebuilds the file.

n If you delete the registry file called regstry.sas7bitm, which is located in the
Sasuser library, then SAS restores the Sasuser registry to its default settings.
CAUTION! Do not delete the registry file that is located in Sashelp; this
prevents SAS from starting.

Ways to Back Up the Registry

There are two methods for backing up the registry and each achieves different
results:
Method 1: Save a copy of the Sasuser registry file called regstry.sas7bitm.
The result is an exact copy of the registry at the moment that you copied it. If you
need to use that copy of the registry to restore a broken copy of the registry, then
any changes to the registry after the copy date are lost. However, it is probably
better to have this backup file than to revert to the original default registry.
Method 2: Use the Registry Editor or PROC REGISTRY to back up the parts of the
Sasuser registry that have changed.
The result is a concatenated copy of the registry, which can be restored from the
backup file. When you create the backup file using the EXPORT= statement in
PROC REGISTRY, or by using the Export Registry File utility in the Registry
Editor, SAS saves any portions of the registry that have been changed. When
SAS restores this backup file to the registry, the backup file is concatenated with
the current registry in the following way:
n Any completely new keys, subkeys, or values that were added to the Sasuser
registry after the backup date are retained in the new registry.
n Any existing keys, subkeys, or values that were changed after SAS was
initially installed, then changed again after the backup, are overwritten and
revert to the backup file values after the restore.
n Any existing keys or subkeys (or values that retain the original default values)
will have the default values after the restore.

Using the Explorer to Back Up the SAS Registry

To use the Explorer to back up the SAS Registry:

1 Start SAS Explorer with the EXPLORER command, or select View ð Explorer.

2 Select Tools ð Options ð Explorer.

The Explorer Options window appears.
 250 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

3 Select the Members tab.

4 Select ITEMSTOR in the Type list.

5 Click Unhide.
If there is no icon associated with ITEMSTOR in the Type list, then you are
prompted to select an icon.

6 Open the Sasuser library in the Explorer window.

7 Right-click the Regstry.Itemstor file.

8 Select Copy from the pop-up menu and copy the Regstry file. SAS assigns the
name Regstry_copy to the file.
Operating Environment Information: You can also use a copy command from
your operating environment to make a copy of your registry file for backup
purposes. When viewed from outside SAS Explorer, the filename is
regstry.sas7bitm. Under z/OS, you cannot use the environment copy
command to copy your registry file unless your Sasuser library is assigned to an
HFS directory.

Using the Registry Editor to Back Up the SAS Registry

Using the Registry Editor to back up the SAS registry is generally the preferred
backup method, because it retains any new keys or values in case you must restore
the registry from the backup.
To use the Registry Editor to back up the SAS Registry:

1 Open the Registry Editor with the REGEDIT command.

2 Select the top-level key in the left pane of the registry window.

3 From the Registry Editor, select File ð Export Registry File.

A Save As window appears.

4 Enter a name for your registry backup file in the filename field. (SAS applies the
proper file extension name for your operating system.)

5 Click Save.

This saves the registry backup file in Sasuser. You can control the location of your
registry backup file by specifying a different location in the Save As window.

Recovering from Registry Failure

This section gives instructions for restoring the registry with a backup file, and
shows you how to repair a corrupt registry file.
To install the registry backup file that was created using SAS Explorer or an
operating system copy command:

1 Change the name of your corrupt registry file to something else.

 Managing the SAS Registry 251

2 Rename your backup file to regstry.sas7bitm, which is the name of your registry
file.

3 Copy your renamed registry file to the Sasuser location where your previous
registry file was located.

4 Restart your SAS session.

To restore a registry backup file created with the Registry Editor:

1 Open the Registry Editor with the REGEDIT command.

2 Select File ð Import Registry File.

3 Select the registry file that you previously exported.

4 Click Open.

5 Restart SAS.

To restore a registry backup file created with PROC REGISTRY:

1 Open the Program editor and submit the following program to import the registry
file that you created previously.
proc registry import=<registry file specification>;
run;

This imports the registry file to the Sasuser library.

2 If the file is not already properly named, then use Explorer to rename the registry
file to regstry.sas7bitm:

3 Restart SAS.

To attempt to repair a damaged registry:

1 Rename the damaged registry file to something other than “registry” (for
example, temp).

2 Start your SAS session.

3 Define a library pointing to the location of the temp registry.

libname here '.'

4 Run the REGISTRY procedure and redefine the Sasuser registry:

proc registry setsasuser="here.temp";
run;

5 Start the Registry Editor with the REGEDIT command. Select Solutions ð
Accessories ð Registry Editor ð View All.

6 Edit any damaged fields under the HKEY_USER_ROOT key.

7 Close your SAS session and rename the modified registry back to the original
name.

8 Open a new SAS session to see whether the changes fixed the problem.
 252 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

Using the SAS Registry to Control Color

Overview of Colors and the SAS Registry

The SAS registry contains the RGB values for color names that are common to
most web browsers. These colors can be used for ODS and GRAPH output. The
RGB value is a triplet (Red, Green, Blue), and each component has a range of 00 to
FF (0 to 255).
The registry values for color are located in the COLORNAMES\HTML subkey.

Adding Colors Using the Registry Editor

You can create your own new color values by adding them to the registry in the
COLORNAMES\HTML subkey:

1 Open the SAS Registry Editor using the REGEDIT command.

2 Select the COLORNAMES\HTML subkey.

3 Select Edit ð New Binary Value. A pop-up menu appears.

4 Enter the color name in the Value Name field and the RGB value in the Value
Data field.

5 Click OK.

Adding Colors Programmatically

You can create your own new color values by adding them to the registry in the
COLORNAMES\HTML subkey, using SAS code.
The easiest way is to first write the color values to a file in the layout that the
REGISTRY procedure expects. Then you import the file by using the REGISTRY
procedure. In this example, Spanish color names are added to the registry.
filename mycolors temp;
data _null_;
file "mycolors";
put "[colornames\html]";
put ' "rojo"=hex:ff,00,00';
put ' "verde"=hex:00,ff,00';
put ' "azul"=hex:00,00,ff';
put ' "blanco"=hex:ff,ff,ff';
put ' "negro"=hex:00,00,00';
put ' "anaranjado"=hex:ff,a5,00';
run;

proc registry import="mycolornames";

run;
 Managing the SAS Registry 253

After you add these colors to the registry, you can use these color names anywhere
that you use the color names supplied by SAS. For example, you could use the
color name in the GOPTIONS statement as shown in the following code:
goptions cback=anaranjado;
proc gtestit;
run;

Using the Registry Editor

When to Use the Registry Editor

The best way to view the contents of the registry is using the Registry Editor. The
Registry Editor is a graphical alternative to PROC REGISTRY, an experienced SAS
user might use the Registry Editor to do the following:
n View the contents of the registry. The registry shows keys and values stored in
keys.
n Add, modify, and delete keys and values stored in the registry.

n Import registry files into the registry, starting at any key.

n Export the contents of the registry to a file, starting at any key.

n Uninstall a registry file.

n Compare a registry file to the SAS registry.

Many of the windows in the SAS windowing environment update the registry for you
when you make changes to such items as your printer setting or your color
preferences. Because these windows update the registry using the correct syntax
and semantics, it is often best to use these alternatives when making adjustments to
SAS.

Starting the Registry Editor

To run the Registry Editor, issue the REGEDIT command on a SAS command line.
You can also open the registry window by selecting Solutions ð Accessories ð
Registry Editor.

Finding Specific Data in the Registry

In the Registry Editor window, double-click a folder icon that contains a registry key.
This displays the contents of that key.
Another way to find things is to use the Find utility.

1 From the Registry Editor, select Edit ð Find.

2 Enter all or part of the text string that you want to find, and click Options to
specify whether you want to find a key name, a value name, or data.

3 Click Find.
254 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

Figure 14.2 The Registry Editor Find Utility

Changing a Value in the SAS Registry

CAUTION! Before modifying registry values, always back up the regstry.sas7bitm
file from Sasuser.

1 In the left pane of the Registry Editor window, click the key that you want to
change. The values contained in the key appear in the right pane.

2 Double-click the value.

The Registry Editor displays several types of windows, depending on the type of
value that you are changing.
 Managing the SAS Registry 255

Figure 14.3 Example Window for Changing a Value in the SAS Registry

Adding a New Value or Key to the SAS Registry

1 In the SAS Registry Editor, right-click the key that you want to add the value to.

2 From the pop-up menu, select the New menu item with the type that you want to
create.

3 Enter the values for the new key or value in the window that is displayed.

Figure 14.4 Registry Editor with Pop-up Menu for Adding New Keys and Values
256 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

Deleting an Item from the SAS Registry

From the SAS Registry Editor:

1 Right-click the item that you want to delete.

2 Select Delete from the pop-up menu.

3 Confirm the deletion.

Renaming an Item in the SAS Registry

From the SAS Registry Editor:

1 Right-click the item that you want to rename.

2 Select Rename from the pop-up menu and enter the new name.

3 Click OK.

Displaying the Sasuser and Sashelp Registry Items

Separately
After you open the Registry Editor, you can change your view from the default. The
default view shows the registry contents without regard to the storage location. The
other registry view displays both Sasuser and Sashelp items in separate trees in the
Registry Editor's left pane.

1 Select TOOLS ð Options ð Registry Editor This opens the Select Registry
View group box.

2 Select View All to display the Sasuser and Sashelp items separately in the
Registry Editor's left pane.
n The Sashelp portion of the registry is listed under the
HKEY_SYSTEM_ROOT folder in the left pane.
n The Sasuser portion of the registry is listed under the HKEY_USER_ROOT
folder in the left pane.
 Managing the SAS Registry 257

Figure 14.5 The Registry Editor in View Overlay Mode

Importing a Registry File

You usually import a registry file or SASXREG file when you are restoring a backup
registry file. A registry file can contain a complete registry or just part of a registry.
To import a registry file using the SAS Registry Editor:

1 Select File ð Import Registry File.

2 In the Open window, select the SASXREG file to import.

Note: In order to first create the backup registry file, you can use the REGISTRY
Procedure or the Export Registry File menu choice in the Registry Editor.

Exporting a Registry File

You usually export a registry file or SASXREG file, when you are preparing a
backup registry file. You can export a complete registry or just part of a registry.
To export a registry file using the SAS Registry Editor:

1 In the left pane of the Registry Editor, select the key that you want to export to a
SASXREG file.
To export the entire registry, select the top key.

2 Select File ð Export Registry File.

3 In the Save As window, give the export file a name.

4 Click Save.
 258 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

Configuring Your Registry

Configuring Universal Printing

Universal Printers should be configured by using either the PRTDEF procedure or
the Print Setup window. The REGISTRY procedure can be used to back up a printer
definition and to restore a printer definition from a SASXREG file. Any other direct
modification of the registry values should be done only under the guidance of SAS
Technical Support.

Configuring SAS Explorer

Use the Explorer Options window to configure your Explorer settings. You can also
use the Registry Editor to view the current Explorer settings in the SAS registry. The
Explorer Options Window is available from the TOOLS ð Options ð Explorer
menu when you click on the SAS Explorer window. All the Explorer configuration
data is stored in the registry under CORE\Explorer. The following table outlines the
location of the most commonly used Explorer configuration data.

Table 14.1 Registry Locations for Commonly Used Explorer Configuration Data

What portion of the Explorer it

Registry Key configures

CORE\EXPLORER\CONFIGURATION the portions of the Explorer get initialized at

startup.

CORE\EXPLORER\MENUS the pop-up menus that are displayed in the

Explorer.

CORE\EXPLORER\KEYEVENTS the valid key events for the 3270 interface.

This key is used only on the mainframe
platforms.

CORE\EXPLORER\ICONS Which icons to display in the Explorer. If the

icon value is –1, this causes the icon to be
hidden in the Explorer.

CORE\EXPLORER\NEW This subkey controls what types of objects

are available from the File ð New menu in
the Explorer.
 Configuring Your Registry 259

Configuring Libraries and File Shortcuts with the SAS

Registry
When you use the New Library window or the File Shortcut Assignment window to
create a library reference (libref) or a file reference (fileref), you can click the Enable
at startup check box to save the libref or fileref for future use.
When you do this, they are stored in the SAS registry, where it is possible to modify
or delete them, as follows:
Deleting an “Enable at startup” library reference
You can use the Registry Editor to delete an “Enable at startup” library reference
by deleting the corresponding key under CORE\OPTIONS\LIBNAMES\“your
libref”. However, it is best to delete your library reference by using the SAS
Explorer. This removes this key from the registry when you delete the library
reference.
Deleting an “Enable at startup” file shortcut
You can use the Registry Editor to delete an “Enable at startup” file shortcut by
deleting the corresponding key under CORE\OPTIONS\FILEREFS\your fileref.
However, it is best to delete your library reference by using the SAS Explorer.
This removes this key automatically when you delete the file shortcut.
Creating an “Enable at startup” File Shortcut as a site default
A site administrator might want to create a file shortcut that is available to all
users at a site. To do this, you first create a version of the file shortcut definition
in the Sasuser registry. Then you modify it so that it can be used in the Sashelp
registry.
Note: You need special permission to write to the Sashelp part of the SAS
registry.

1 Enter the DMFILEASSIGN command.

This opens the File Shortcut Assignment window.

2 Create the file shortcut that you want to use.

3 Check Enable at startup.

4 Click OK.

5 Verify that the file shortcut was created successfully and enter the REGEDIT
command.

6 Find and select the key CORE\OPTIONS\FILEREFS\your fileref.

7 Select File ð Export Registry File and export the file.

8 Edit the exported file and replace all instances of HKEY_USER_ROOT with
HKEY_SYSTEM_ROOT.

9 To apply your changes to the site's Sashelp, use PROC REGISTRY.

The following code imports the file:

proc registry import="yourfile.sasxreg" usesashelp;

 260 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry

run;

Creating an “Enable at startup” library as a site default

A site administrator might want to create a library that is available to all users at
a site. To do this, the Sasuser version of the library definition needs to be
migrated to Sashelp.
Note: You need special permission to write to the Sashelp part of the SAS
registry.

1 Enter the dmlibassign command.

This opens the New Library window.

2 Create the library reference that you want to use.

3 Select Enable at startup.

4 Select Enable at startup.

5 Click OK.

6 Issue the REGEDIT command after verifying that the library was created
successfully.

7 Find and select the registry key CORE\OPTIONS\LIBNAMES\your libref.

8 Select File ð Export Registry File.

The Save As window appears.

9 Select a location to store your registry file.

10 Enter a filename for your registry file in the Filename field.

11 Click Save to export the file.

12 Right-click the file and select Edit in NOTEPAD to edit the file.

13 Edit the exported file and replace all instances of “HKEY_USER_ROOT” with
“HKEY_SYSTEM_ROOT”.

14 To apply your changes to the site's Sashelp use PROC REGISTRY. The
following code imports the file:
proc registry import="yourfile.sasxreg" usesashelp;
run;

Fixing Library Reference (Libref) Problems with the SAS

Registry
Library references (librefs) are stored in the SAS Registry. You might encounter a
situation where a libref fails after it had previously worked. In some situations,
editing the registry is the fastest way to fix the problem. This section describes what
is involved in repairing a missing or failed libref.
If any permanent libref that is stored in the SAS Registry fails at startup, then the
following note appears in the SAS Log:
 Configuring Your Registry 261

NOTE: One or more library startup assignments were not restored.

The following errors are common causes of library assignment problems:

n Required field values for libref assignment in the SAS Registry are missing.

n Required field values for libref assignment in the SAS Registry are invalid. For
example, library names are limited to eight characters, and engine values must
match actual engine names.
n Encrypted password data for a libref has changed in the SAS Registry.

Note: You can also use the New Library window to add librefs. You can open this
window by typing DMLIBASSIGN in the toolbar, or selecting File ð New from the
Explorer window.
CAUTION! You can correct many libref assignment errors in the SAS Registry
Editor. If you are unfamiliar with librefs or the SAS Registry Editor, then ask for technical
support. Errors can be made easily in the SAS Registry Editor, and they can prevent
your libraries from being assigned at startup.
To correct a libref assignment error using the SAS Registry Editor:

1 Select Solutions ð Accessories ð Registry Editor or issue the REGEDIT

command to open the Registry Editor.

2 Select one of the following paths, depending on your operating environment, and
then make modifications to keys and key values as needed:
CORE\OPTIONS\LIBNAMES

or
CORE\OPTIONS\LIBNAMES\CONCATENATED

Note: These corrections are possible only for permanent librefs. That is, those that
are created at startup by using the New Library or File Shortcut Assignment window.
For example, if you determine that a key for a permanent, concatenated library has
been renamed to something other than a positive whole number, then you can
rename that key again so that it is in compliance. Select the key, and then select
Rename from the pop-up menu to begin the process.
262 Chapter 14 / The SAS Registry
 263

15
Printing with SAS

Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

What Is Universal Printing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Setting Up the Universal Printing Interface and the Default Printing Environment 265
Universal Printing Output Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Viewing Universal Printers and Printer Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Viewing Universal Printer Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Modifying Universal Printing Printer Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Universal Printing and ODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Specifying the Page Orientation for Universal Printing Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Color Support for Universal Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Embedding Non-Viewable Comments in Universal Printing Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Overview of the Universal Printing Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Setting Up Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Printing with Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Working with Previewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Set Page Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
System Options That Control Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
About Using the PRTDEF Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Examples of Creating New Printers and Previewers Using the
PRTDEF Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Forms Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Overview of Forms Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Creating or Editing a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Rendering Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
The FONTEMBEDDING and FONTRENDERING System Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
ODS Styles and TrueType Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Portability of TrueType Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
International Character Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
TrueType Fonts Supplied by SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Registering Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Listing the Registered Fonts for a Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Using Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Examples of Specifying Fonts and Printing International Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Creating EMF (Enhanced Metafile Format) Graphics Using Universal Printing . 328
EMF Graphics in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Creating an EMF Graphic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Example of Creating an EMF Graphic Using the ODS PRINTER Statement . . . . . 330
264 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Creating GIF Images Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

GIF Images in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Creating a GIF Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Example of Creating a GIF Image Using the ODS PRINTER Statement . . . . . . . . . 332
Creating PCL (Printer Command Language) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . 333
PCL Files in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Creating a PCL File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Creating PDF Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
PDF Files in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Creating a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Example of Creating a PDF Using the ODS PDF Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
System Options That Affect PDF Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Creating PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . 338
Portable Network Graphics in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
The PNG Universal Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Creating a PNG Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Example of Creating a PNG File Using the ODS PRINTER Statement . . . . . . . . . . 339
Web Browsers and Viewers That Support PNG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Creating PostScript Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
PostScript Files in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Creating a PostScript File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Example of Creating a PostScript File Using the ODS PS Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . 343
Overview of Scalable Vector Graphics in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Web Server Content Type for SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
The SVG Universal Printers and the Output That They Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
How to Create SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Browser Support for Viewing SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Images in SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Setting the Environment to Create Stand-alone SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Creating Stand-alone SVG Documents Using the ODS PRINTER Destination . . . 358
SVG Documents in HTML Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Printing an SVG Document from a Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
TIFF Images in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
The TIFF Universal Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Creating a TIFF Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Example of Creating a TIFF Image Using the ODS PRINTER Statement . . . . . . . . 374
Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
About Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Animation System Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Example: Creating an Animated SVG Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
 Universal Printing 265

Universal Printing

What Is Universal Printing?

Universal Printing is a system that provides both interactive and batch printing
capabilities to create variety of document and graphic output formats. For example,
you can use Universal Printing to create HTML, PDF, documents, and PNG, GIF,
and SVG graphics. For a complete list of supported document and graphic types,
see Table 15.1 on page 266.
Universal Printing enables you to define printers and print previewers, and to set
options to control the printed output. In addition to creating the various document
and graphic output types, you can send output to a printer.
Windows Specifics: By default, the Windows operating environment uses
Windows printing and not Universal Printing. For more information about using
Universal Printing under Windows, see “Setting Up the Universal Printing Interface
and the Default Printing Environment” on page 265.
SAS routes all printing through Universal Printing services. All Universal Printing
features are controlled by system options, thereby enabling you to control many
print features, even in batch mode. For more information about these system
options, see “System Options That Control Universal Printing” on page 300.
Note: Before the introduction of Universal Printing, SAS supported a utility for print
jobs known as Forms. Forms printing is still available if you select File ð Print
Setup from the menu in the windowing environment. Then check the Use Forms
check box. This turns off Universal Printing menus and functionality. For more
information, see “Forms Printing” on page 308.

Setting Up the Universal Printing Interface and the Default

Printing Environment

Universal Printing in UNIX and z/OS

Universal Printing is enabled when SAS starts in the UNIX and z/OS operating
environments. No further action is required.

Universal Printing in Windows

Under Windows, Windows printing is enabled when SAS starts. To use Universal
Printing in Windows, you must set the UNIVERSALPRINT system option to enable
the Universal Printing environment, menus, and dialog boxes, and to set up the
printing defaults. If you use the SAS windowing environment, you can also use the
UPRINTMENUSWITCH system option to enable the print commands on the File
 266 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

menu. These options can be set only in a SAS configuration file or at start-up. You
cannot enable or disable Universal Printing menus and dialog boxes after SAS
starts.
Include the following system options when you start SAS:
-uprint -uprintmenuswitch

UPRINT is an alias for the UNIVERSALPRINT system option.

If you start SAS with only the UPRINT option, you need to close the HTML
destination, which is open by default. Use the PRINTERPATH= option to specify the
output format type. Then, use an ODS PRINTER statement and ODS PRINTER
CLOSE statement around the code that you want to execute. Here is an example:
ods html close;
options printerpath=pdf;
ods printer;
proc print data=sashelp.class;
run;
ods printer close;

Return to the Default Printer

When you use the PRINTERPATH= system option to specify a printer, the print job
is controlled by Universal Printing. To return to the default Universal Printer (the
PostScript printer) set the PRINTERPATH= option to a null value (double quotation
marks with no space between them):
options printerpath="";

In Windows, when Universal Printing is not enabled, setting PRINTERPATH= to a

null value returns printing to Windows printing.

Universal Printing Output Formats

In addition to sending print jobs to a printer, you can also direct output to external
files that are widely recognized by different types of printers and software programs.
You can use Universal Printing to produce the following commonly recognized file
types.

Table 15.1 Available Print Output Formats

Type Full Name Description

GIF Graphics An image format designed for the online transmission and
Interchange interchange of graphic data. The format is widely used to
Format display images on the World Wide Web because of its
smaller size and portability.
 Universal Printing 267

Type Full Name Description

EMF Enhanced A metafile format that is a collection of graphic drawing

Metafile Format commands, configuration properties, and graphic objects to
create true color, scalable, device-independent graphics.
Applications that support EMF run on Windows. Universal
Printing currently supports EMF, EMFPlus, and EMFDual
levels of the metafile format. The EMF Universal Printer
uses the EMFPlus level of metafile formatting, which is the
default EMF printer.

PCL Printer Control Developed by Hewlett-Packard as a language that

Language applications use to control a wide range of printer features
across a number of printing devices. Universal Printing
currently supports PCL4, PCL5, PCL5e, and PCL5c levels
of the language.

PDF Portable A file format developed by Adobe Systems for viewing and
Document printing a formatted document. To view a file in PDF format,
Format you need Adobe Reader, a free application distributed by
Adobe Systems.
Note: Adobe Acrobat is not required to produce PDF
files with Universal Printing.

PNG Portable An image format that was designed as a replacement for

Network the older simple GIF format and the more complex TIFF
Graphics format. As with GIF, one of the major uses of PNG is to
display images on the web. PNG has these major
advantages over GIF on the web: gamma correction, two-
dimensional interlacing, variable transparency (alpha
channel), setting the resolution, and more than 256 colors.

PS PostScript A page description language developed by Adobe Systems.

This is the default Universal Printer.

SVG Scalable A vector format that is a language for describing two-

Vector dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML.
Graphics

TIFF Tagged Image An Adobe raster image format that supports both image and
File Format data in a single file. The TIFF Universal Printer supports
RGBA color printing and transparency. The TIFFk Universal
Printer supports CYMK color printing.

You set the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option to a Universal Printer or
use ODS statements to create output in one of the above formats. When the
PRINTERPATH= system option is set to a printer that prints to a file, the default
filename is sasprt.extension. extension is the printer format type. Here are some
example filenames: sasprt.pdf, sasprt.emf, sasprt.png, and sasprt.gif. The file is
written to the current directory.
You can use the PRINTERPATH= system option to change the location and the
name of the file. Here is an example:
options printerpath=(svg out);
filename out 'c:\myimages\graph1.svg';
 268 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Viewing Universal Printers and Printer Prototypes

SAS provides Universal Printers and printer prototypes that you can use to create
your own printers. You can access the list of available printers from the Print dialog
box. You can also use the QDEVICE procedure to create a data set of printers and
then print the printer information using the PRINT procedure.
To create a table of printers and print the list with a description of each printer,
submit this code:
proc qdevice out=printers;
printer _all_;
run;

proc print data=printers;

var name desc;
run;

For more information, see “QDEVICE Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
To print a list of printer prototypes to the SAS log, submit this SAS program:
filename registry temp;
proc printto log=registry;
run;

proc registry list keysonly levels=1 startat="core\printing\prototypes";

proc printto;
run;

data protypes;
keep prototype;
infile registry lrecl=300 pad;
length line $300;
input line $300.;
if substr(line,1,1) = "["
then do;
prototype = strip(substr(line,2,length(line)-2));
if index(prototype,'core\printing\prototypes') ne 0
then delete;
else
output;
end;

run;

proc print label;

label prototype = "Prototype";
run;

For more information, see “REGISTRY Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
 Universal Printing 269

Viewing Universal Printer Settings

You can use the QDEVICE procedure or the Print dialog box to view the settings of
a Universal Printer. To view printer settings using the QDEVICE procedure, submit
this code:
proc qdevice;
printer printer-name;
run;
Here are the printer settings for the GIF printer:

19 proc qdevice;
20 printer gif;
21 run;

Name: GIF
Description: Graphics Interchange Format RGB Color/Alpha Blending
Module: SASPDGIF
Type: Universal Printer
Registry: SASHELP
Prototype: GIF
Default Typeface: Cumberland AMT
Typeface Alias: Courier
Font Style: Regular
Font Weight: Normal
Font Height: 8 points
Font Version: Version 1.03
Maximum Colors: 16777216
Visual Color: True Color
Color Support: RGBA
Destination: sasprt.gif
I/O Type: DISK
Data Format: GIF
Height: 6.25 inches
Width: 8.33 inches
Ypixels: 600
Xpixels: 800
Rows(vpos): 50
Columns(hpos): 114
Left Margin: 0 inches
Minimum Left Margin: 0 inches
Right Margin: 0 inches
Minimum Right Margin: 0 inches
Bottom Margin: 0 inches
Minimum Bottom Margin: 0 inches
Top Margin: 0 inches
Minimum Top Margin: 0 inches
XxY Resolution: 96x96 pixels per inch
Compression Enabled: Always
Compression Method: LZW
Font Embedding: Never
Animation: Enabled

The QDEVICE procedure does not report all printer settings.For a description of the
printer settings that can be reported, see “QDEVICE Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide.
 270 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Modifying Universal Printing Printer Settings

You modify printer settings using the Universal Printer dialog boxes, by setting SAS
system options, or by using the PRTDEF procedure. See the following topics:
n “Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment” on page 283

n “System Options That Control Universal Printing” on page 300

n “Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure” on page 302

Universal Printing and ODS

The ODS PRINTER statement can use Universal Printing whether the
UNIVERSALPRINT or NOUNIVERSALPRINT system option is set. The PRINTER
destinations used by the ODS PRINTER statement are described in the “ODS
PRINTER Statement” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.
The Output Delivery System (ODS) uses Universal Printing for the following ODS
statements.

Table 15.2 ODS Statements That Use Universal Printing

ODS Statement Description

Document Formats

ODS PRINTER PRINTER= option Uses the selected printer.

ODS PDF statement Uses the Universal Printing PDF printer.*

ODS PS statement Uses the Universal Printing PostScript Level

1 printer.

ODS PCL statement Uses the Universal Printing PCL5 printer.

Graphic Formats

ODS LISTING Uses the selected printer.

ODS HTML Use with ODS Graphics and SAS/GRAPH.

ODS HTML5 Use with ODS Graphics and SAS/GRAPH.

ODS RTF Use with ODS Graphics and SAS/GRAPH.

ODS EPUB Use with ODS Graphics and SAS/GRAPH.

* You must have SAS/GRAPH installed to create drill-down regions in a graph created by the PDF
Universal Printer. For more information, see “Adding Drill-Down Graphs in Your PDF File” in
SAS/GRAPH: Reference.
 Universal Printing 271

Windows Specifics: In the Windows operating environment, the ODS PRINTER

destination uses the Windows system printers unless SAS is started with the
UNIVERSALPRINT system option, or when you specify a printer with the
PRINTERPATH= system option. If Universal Printing is enabled in Windows, SAS
overrides the use of the Windows system printer and causes ODS to use Universal
Printing. To return to Windows printing, set the PRINTERPATH= system option to a
null string: PRINTERPATH="" (double quotation marks with no space between
them).
For more information about ODS, see SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

Specifying the Page Orientation for Universal Printing

Documents
You can specify the page orientation for each page of a multiple-page document
that is created by a Universal Printer. You can also use page orientation for
documents that are created for the ODS LISTING, PCL, PDF, PRINTER, and PS
destinations.
The ORIENTATION= system option has four values: PORTRAIT, LANDSCAPE,
REVERSEPORTRAIT, and REVERSELANDSCAPE. To change the orientation of a
document page, specify the OPTIONS statement, using the ORIENTATION= system
option, between the steps that create output to change the page orientation.
Note: The EMF, GIF, PNG, and TIFF Universal Printers do not support multiple-
page documents. These printers also do not support the REVERSELANDSCAPE
and the REVERSEPORTRAIT orientations.
The following example creates a four-page SVG document. The orientation is
changed between landscape and portrait for each page in the document. The
OPTIONS statements are highlighted:
options nodate nonumber;
ods printer printer=svgview file='orientation.svg' style=Ocean;
title 'Demonstration of Page Orientation Changes in a Document';
footnote 'PROC SGPLOT in Landscape Orientation';
options orientation=landscape;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
vbar age;
run;

options orientation=portrait;
footnote 'PROC PRINT in Portrait Orientation';
proc print data=sashelp.class;
run;

options orientation=landscape;
footnote 'PROC SGSCATTER in Landscape Orientation';
proc sgscatter data=sashelp.cars;
matrix mpg_city enginesize horsepower /
diagonal=(histogram kernel);
run;

options orientation=portrait;
footnote 'PROC MEANS in Portrait Orientation';
proc means data=sashelp.cars n mean;
 272 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

var mpg_city enginesize horsepower;

run;

ods printer close;

The following output shows the third and fourth pages of the document. The third
page has a landscape orientation and the fourth page has a portrait orientation.

Figure 15.1 Page Three of an SVG Document Showing the Landscape Orientation
 Universal Printing 273

Figure 15.2 Page Four of an SVG Document Showing the Portrait Orientation

For more information, see “ORIENTATION= System Option” in SAS System

Options: Reference.

Color Support for Universal Printers

Universal Printers and the Color Spaces They Support

All Universal Printers support 24-bit RGB colors. Most printers support 32-bit CMYK
colors or 32-bit RGBA (transparency) colors. The following table lists the Universal
Printers and their respective color support.

Table 15.3 Color Support for Universal Printers

Supports
Universal Printer Color Support Transparency

EMF RGBA (32–bit) Yes

274 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Supports
Universal Printer Color Support Transparency

EMFDual If the EMF viewer supports the EMFPlus Yes

format, the color support is RGBA
Yes, for bitmap
If the EMF viewer does not support images
EMFPlus format, the color support is
RGBA for bitmap images and RGB for
vector elements.

SASEMF RGBA only for bitmap images. RGB for Yes, for bitmap
vector elements. images

GIF RGBA (24–bit with support for Yes

transparent backgrounds)

PCL5c* RGBA Yes

PDF CMYK and RGBA Yes, for RGBA

colors

PNG RGBA (32–bit) Yes

PostScript CMYK and RGB No

RGBA for GIF images ** No

SVG RGBA (32–bit) Yes

TIFF RGBA Yes

TIFFk CYMK No

* PCL4 and PCL5 Universal Printers support only monochrome printing.

** The PostScript Universal Printer recognizes RGBA colors but transparency is not supported.

For information about CYMK, RGB, and RGBA colors, see “CMYK Colors” on page
274 and “RGB and RGBA Colors” on page 276.

CMYK Colors
CMYK colors setting specify eight hexadecimal characters with a value of 0–255 to
specify the amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. Use your printer’s
Pantone Color Lookup table to find the CMYK values for your printer. If you specify
an unsupported color, such as a CMYK color with an EMF printer, the color is
converted to a color that is supported.
You can specify CMYK colors where ever colors can be set (for example, in the
PROC PRINT statement STYLE option or in the TITLE statement).
Preface the hexadecimal number with a CMYK or a K. Here are some examples of
CMYK colors that you can set in SAS:
 Universal Printing 275

Table 15.4 Example CMYK Colors

Hexadecimal
Representation Color

cmykFF000000 cyan

k00FF0000 magenta

cmyk0000FF00 yellow

kFFFF0000 blue

cmykFF00FF00 green

k00FFFF00 red

cmykFFFFFF00 process black, using cyan, magenta, and yellow

k000000FF black

The first byte of the hexadecimal number represents cyan. The second byte
represents magenta. The third byte represents yellow. The fourth byte represents
black.
This example uses the STYLE option to set the column background color to
magenta and sets the foreground color to white. The TITLE statement sets the
output title to blue.
options obs=5 nodate;
ods html close;
ods pdf;
proc print data=sashelp.demographics label
style(header)={background=cmyk00ff0000 foreground=k00000000} noobs;
var name pop;
label name=Country Name pop=Population;
title color=kffff0000 'Demographics 2005';
run;
ods pdf close;
ods html;
276 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.3 CMYK Color Specified in the STYLE Option

Note: When you use the TIFFk Universal Printer, specify the
UPRINTCOMPRESSION system option to avoid very large TIFF files.

RGB and RGBA Colors

RGB and RGBA colors combines red, green, and blue colors in different ratios to
create colors. The A is the alpha channel, which represents a percentage of opacity.
You specify RGB colors as a triple of hexadecimal numbers, ranging from 00–FF,
Each hexadecimal number indicates how much of the red, green, or blue is included
in the color. RGBA color includes an additional hexadecimal number for the alpha
channel that indicates how transparent the color is. FF is opaque and 00 is
transparent. In both RGB and RGBA color specifications, the first hexadecimal
number is red, the second, is green, and the third is blue. In RGBA colors, the fourth
hexadecimal number is the alpha channel specification.
You can specify RGB and RGBA colors where ever colors can be set (for example,
as an option in the VBAR statement in the SGPLOT procedure or in the TITLE
statement). For RGB colors, preface the hexadecimal number with a CX. For RGBA
colors, preface the hexadecimal number with RGBA or A.
The following SGPLOT procedure uses an RGBA color to create the bar labels:
ods html close;
ods printer printer=png;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks (where=(date >= "01jan2000"d
and date <= "01jan2001"d
and stock = "IBM"));
title color=a6495edff "Stock Volume vs. Close";
vbar date / response=volume
datalabel
datalabelattrs=(color=a8a44ff8a size=10);
vline date / response=close y2axis;
 Universal Printing 277

run;
title;
ods printer close;
ods html;

Here is the PNG file with bar labels:

Figure 15.4 RGBA Color Specified for the Bar Labels

Example: Static and Varying Background Color in a Table

Using RGBA Colors
This example program does the following:
n Creates the format PCT. using a DATA _NULL_ statement. The DATA step
defines salary ranges of $3,000.00 and calculates an RGBA color value for each
salary range. The CALL EXECUTE statement is used to output the FORMAT
procedure code as it is generated.
n Creates a data set.

n The PRINT procedure uses an RGBA color value for the background of the table
header and formats the salary variable using the PCT. format.
options nodate;
278 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

/* Create the PCT format. */

/* The color variable is a concatenation of calculated */
/* hexadecimal values. */

data _null_ ;
call execute('proc format fmtlib ; value pct');
max=10000;
maxloop=255;
do i=1 to maxloop by 10;
color='RGBA'||put(((maxloop)/(maxloop+i)*200),hex2.)
||put(((maxloop)/(maxloop+i)*235),hex2.)
||put(((maxloop)/(maxloop+i)*255),hex2.)||'95';
from=max;
to=(max+3000);
max=max+3000;
/* Create salary ranges of $3000.00 equal to the calculated RGBA color value.*/
call execute(put(from,best.)||'-'||put(to,best.)||'='||quote(color));
end;

/* Create RGBA values for missing values and values outside the salary ranges. */
call execute('.="RGBAF7F5F0480" other="RGBAFF2A2A88"; run;');
run;

data staff;
infile datalines dlm='#';
input Name $16. IdNumber $ Salary
Site $ HireDate date7.;
format hiredate date7.;
datalines;
Capalleti, Jimmy# 2355# 21163# BR1# 30JAN09
Chen, Len# 5889# 20976# BR1# 18JUN06
Davis, Brad# 3878# 19571# BR2# 20MAR84
Leung, Brenda# 4409# 34321# BR2# 18SEP94
Martinez, Maria# 3985# 49056# US2# 10JAN93
Orfali, Philip# 0740# 50092# US2# 16FEB03
Patel, Mary# 2398# 35182# BR3# 02FEB90
Smith, Robert# 5162# 40100# BR5# 15APR66
Sorrell, Joseph# 4421# 38760# US1# 19JUN11
Zook, Carla# 7385# 22988# BR3# 18DEC10
;
run;
ods html close;
ods pdf file='outpdf.pdf';
proc print data=staff noobs label
style(HEADER)={background=rgbac7eafe95 fontstyle=italic}
style(DATA)={foreground=black};
var name IdNumber ;
var salary /style(DATA)={background=pct.};
label IdNumber='Employee Number' salary='Salary in U.S. Dollars';
format salary dollar7.;
title 'Generated Colors for the Variable Salary';
run;
ods pdf close;
 Universal Printing 279

Example Code 15.1 Static and Varying Background Color in a Table Using RGBA Colors

501 options nodate;

502
503 /* Create the PCT format. */
504 /* The color variable is a concatenation of calculated */
505 /* hexadecimal values. */
506
507 data _null_ ;
508 call execute('proc format fmtlib ; value pct');
509 max=10000;
510 maxloop=255;
511 do i=1 to maxloop by 10;
512 color='RGBA'||put(((maxloop)/(maxloop+i)*200),hex2.)||put(((maxloop)/
(maxloop+i)*235),
512! hex2.)
513 ||put(((maxloop)/(maxloop+i)*255),hex2.)||'95';
514 from=max;
515 to=(max+3000);
516 max=max+3000;
517
518 /* Create salary ranges of $3000.00 equal to the calculated RGBA color
value.*/
519 call execute(put(from,best.)||'-'||put(to,best.)||'='||quote(color));
520 end;
521
522 /* Create RGBA values for missing values and values outside the salary
ranges. */
523 call execute('.="RGBAF7F5F0480" other="RGBAFF2A2A88"; run;');
524 run;

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
280 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

NOTE: CALL EXECUTE generated line.

1 + proc format fmtlib ;
1 + value pct
2 + 10000-13000="RGBAC7EAFE95"
3 + 13000-16000="RGBABFE1F495"
4 + 16000-19000="RGBAB8D9EB95"
5 + 19000-22000="RGBAB2D1E395"
6 + 22000-25000="RGBAACCADB95"
7 + 25000-28000="RGBAA6C3D495"
8 + 28000-31000="RGBAA1BDCD95"
9 + 31000-34000="RGBA9CB7C795"
10 + 34000-37000="RGBA97B2C195"
11 + 37000-40000="RGBA93ADBB95"
12 + 40000-43000="RGBA8FA8B695"
13 + 43000-46000="RGBA8BA3B195"
14 + 46000-49000="RGBA879FAC95"
15 + 49000-52000="RGBA849BA895"
16 + 52000-55000="RGBA8097A495"
17 + 55000-58000="RGBA7D93A095"
18 + 58000-61000="RGBA7A909C95"
19 + 61000-64000="RGBA778C9895"
20 + 64000-67000="RGBA74899595"
21 + 67000-70000="RGBA72869195"
22 + 70000-73000="RGBA6F838E95"
23 + 73000-76000="RGBA6D808B95"
24 + 76000-79000="RGBA6B7D8895"
25 + 79000-82000="RGBA687B8595"
26 + 82000-85000="RGBA66788395"
27 + 85000-88000="RGBA64768095"
28 + .="RGBAF7F5F0480" other="RGBAFF2A2A88";
NOTE: Format PCT has been output.
28 + run;

NOTE: PROCEDURE FORMAT used (Total process time):

real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

525
526 data staff;
527 infile datalines dlm='#';
528 input Name $16. IdNumber $ Salary
529 Site $ HireDate date7.;
530 format hiredate date7.;
531 datalines;

NOTE: The data set Work.Staff has 10 observations and 5 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

542 ;
543 run;
544
 Universal Printing 281

545 /* Close the HTML destination and open the PDF destination.*/
546 /* Format the header background using an RGBA color. */
547 /* Use the PCT. format to format the salary variable. */
548
549 ods html close;
550 ods pdf file='outpdf.pdf';
NOTE: Writing ODS PDF output to DISK destination "c:\public\mySASPrograms
\outpdf.pdf",
printer "PDF".
551 proc print data=staff noobs label
552 style(HEADER)={background=rgbac7eafe95 fontstyle=italic}
553 style(DATA)={foreground=black};
554 var name IdNumber ;
555 var salary /style(DATA)={background=pct.};
556 label IdNumber='Employee Number' salary='Salary in U.S. Dollars';
557 format salary dollar7.;
558 title 'Generated Colors for the Variable Salary';
559 run;

NOTE: There were 10 observations read from the data set Work.Staff.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.03 seconds

560 ods pdf close;

NOTE: ODS PDF printed 1 page to c:\public\mySASPrograms\outpdf.pdf.
561 ods html;
NOTE: Writing HTML Body file: sashtml7.htm

Here is the formatted PDF output:

 282 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Output 15.1 PDF Formatted Using RGBA Color Values

Embedding Non-Viewable Comments in Universal Printing

Output
You can embed a comment in Universal Printer output that does not appear in the
output when the file is displayed or printed. The comment can be a text string up to
4,000 characters that you specify using the COLOPHON= system option. You might
want to use the comment as a digital signature or to identify the image, vector
graphic, or PDF file. You can use a text editor or a third-party application to view the
text string in the file.
This example adds text to an SVG document using the COLOPHON= option::
options printerpath=svg colophon='Colophon text: SVG SGPLOT for sashelp.class';
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
reg x=height y=weight / CLM CLI;
run;
ods printer close;
ods html;
 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 283

Here is the comment in the SVG document on the second line:

For more information, see “COLOPHON= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.

Configuring Universal Printing Using the

Windowing Environment

Overview of the Universal Printing Menu

SAS Universal Printing windows are accessible from the File menu.
The following display shows the File menu containing the Universal Printing choices
of Page Setup, Print Setup, Print Preview, and Print.

Figure 15.5 File Menu Displaying Universal Printing Options

 284 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Table 15.5 Menu Choices or Commands to Open Universal Printing Windows

Menu Choice Equivalent Command

Page Setup DMPAGESETUP

Print Setup DMPRINTSETUP

Print Preview DMPRTPREVIEW

Print DMPRINT

Windows Specifics: In the Windows operating environment, SAS uses the

Windows print windows as the default. To access the Universal Printing user
interface, the UNIVERSALPRINT system option must be set. To do this, include the
following line of code in the string that you use to invoke SAS in Windows:
-uprint

UPRINT is an alias for the UNIVERSALPRINT system option.

You can open Universal Printing windows by entering commands at the command
line or into the command box in the menu bar. The following table lists the
commands for the most common tasks.

Table 15.6 Commands to Open Universal Printing Windows

Action Command

Print the current window DMPRINT

Change the default printer DMPRINT or DMPRINTSETUP

Create a new printer or previewer definition DMPRTCREATE PRINTER or

DMPRTCREATE PREVIEWER

Modify, add, remove, or test printer DMPRINTSETUP

definitions

Show default printer properties sheet DMPRINTPROPS

Show page properties sheet DMPAGESETUP

Print preview the current window DMPRTPREVIEW

Setting Up Printers

Print Setup Window

The File ð Print Setup menu selection opens the Print Setup window, where you
can perform the following tasks:
 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 285

n Change the default printer.

n Remove a printer from the selection list.

n Print a test page.

n Open the Printer Properties window.

n Launch the New Printer wizard.

Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRINTSETUP command.

Change the Default Printer

To change the default printer device for this SAS session and future SAS sessions,
follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Print Setup. The Print Setup window appears.

2 Select the new default device from the list of printers in the Printer field.

3 Click OK.

Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRINTSETUP command.

Remove a Printer from the Selection List

To remove a printer from the selection list:

1 Select File ð Print Setup. The Print Setup window appears.

2 Select the printer that you want to delete from the list of printers in the Printer
field

3 Click Remove.

Note: Only your system administrator can remove printers that the administrator
has defined for your site. If you select a printer that was defined by your system
administrator, the Remove button is unavailable.
Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRINTSETUP command.

Define a New Printer

While Universal Printing provides you with predefined printers, you can also add
your own printers with the Define a New Printer wizard. This wizard guides you step-
by-step through the process of installing a printer.
To start the New Printer wizard and define a new printer, follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Print Setup and click New.

The following window appears.

286 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.6 Printer Definition Window to Enter Name and Description

Alternatively, you can either issue the DMPRTCREATE PRINTER command or

issue the DMPRINTSETUP command and click New.

2 Enter the name and a description for the new printer (127-character maximum,
no backslash characters, not case sensitive).
The printer name is required. The description is optional.

3 Click Next to proceed to Step 2 of the wizard.

Select a printer model. If your exact printer model is not available, select a
general model that is compatible with your printer. For example, for the HP
LaserJet printer series, select PCL5 for monochrome printers or PCL5c for color
printers.
Note: General models might provide fewer options than specific models.
Figure 15.7 Printer Definition Window to Select Printer Model

4 Click Next to proceed to Step 3 of the wizard.

 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 287

The following window appears:

Figure 15.8 Printer Definition Window to Select Output Device

5 Select the Device type for your print output. Put this sentence in a paragraph
under the numbered item
The device type selections are host-dependent.
If you select Catalog, Disk, Ftp, Socket, or Pipe as the device type, then you
must specify a destination.
If you select a device type of Printer, then a destination might not be required,
because some operating environments use the Host options box to route output.
Note: Examples for your operating system of Device Type, Destination, and
Host options are also provided in “Sample Values for the Device Type,
Destination, and Host Options Fields” on page 307.

6 Enter the Destination for your file.

The destination is the target location for your device type. For example, if your
device type is disk, then your destination is an operating environment-specific
filename. With some system device types, the destination might be blank and
you can specify the target location using the Host options box.

7 Select or enter any host-specific options for the device that you chose.

This field might be optional for your operating environment. For a list of host
options, see the FILENAME statement information for your operating
environment.
Note: The Destination and Host Options lists can also be populated using the
REGISTRY procedure. Click the Help button in step 3 to see the “Populating
Destination and Host Option Lists” topic, which contains more details.

8 Click Next to proceed to Step 4 of the wizard, in which you select from a list of
installed print previewers.
If no previewers are defined, proceed to the next step of the wizard.
288 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.9 Printer Definition Window to Select Previewer

If the previewer selection box appears, select the previewer for this printer. If you
do not need a previewer, choose None or leave the field blank.
Note: You can add a previewer to any printer through the DMPRTCREATE
PREVIEWER command. For more information, see “Define a New Previewer” on
page 294.
Note: It is not required that printers and print previewers share a common
language.

9 Click Next to proceed to Step 5 of the wizard.

The following window appears:
Figure 15.10 Printer Definition Window to Complete Process

10 Click Previous to change any information. Click Finish when you have
completed your printer definition.

You have now finished setting your default printer.

 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 289

After you have returned to the Print Setup window, you can test your default printer
by clicking Print Test Page.
Note: You can also use the PRTDEF procedure to define a printer
programmatically. For more information, see “Managing Universal Printers Using the
PRTDEF Procedure” on page 302.

Set Printer Properties for Your Default Printer

Printer properties that you can change include the following:
n the printer name and description

n the printer destination device and its properties

n the default font for the printer

n advanced features such as translation tables, printer resolution, and the print
previewer associated with the printer
To change printer properties for your default printer, follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Print Setup and choose Properties.

The Printer Properties window appears.
Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRTPROPS command.

2 From the Printer Properties window, select the tab that contains the information
that you need to modify.
n In the Name tab, you can modify the printer name and the printer description.

Note: The printer name is not case sensitive. If you change only the casing,
the printer name change fails. To change the case of the printer name, you
can delete the printer and re-create it with the new casing. You can also
modify the name of the printer, save the modifications, and then change the
name again to the name and casing that you want.
Figure 15.11 Printer Properties Window Displaying Name Tab

n The Destination tab enables you to designate the device type, destination,
and host options for the printer. See “Sample Values for the Device Type,
Destination, and Host Options Fields” on page 307 for examples.
290 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.12 Printer Properties Window Displaying Destination Tab

n The Font tab controls the available font options. The selections available in
the drop-down boxes are printer specific. The font size is in points.
Note: This window enables you to set attributes for the default fonts.
Typically, procedure output is controlled by the fonts specified by the ODS
style or by program statements that specify font attributes.
Figure 15.13 Printer Properties Window Displaying Font Tab

n The Advanced tab lists the Resolution, Protocol, Translate table, Buffer size,
Previewer, and Preview command options for the printer. The information in
the drop-down fields is printer specific.
 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 291

Figure 15.14 Printer Properties Window Displaying Advanced Tab

Resolution
specifies the resolution for the printed output in dots per inch (dpi).
Protocol
provides the mechanism for converting the output to a format that can be
processed by a protocol converter that connects the EBCDIC host
mainframe to an ASCII device. Protocol is required in the z/OS operating
environment, and if you must use one, select one of the protocol
converters that are listed.
Translate table
manages the transfer of data between an EBCDIC host and an ASCII
device. Normally, the driver selects the correct table for your locale; the
translate table needs to be specified only when you require nonstandard
translation.
Buffer size
controls the size of the output buffer or record length. If the buffer size is
left blank, a default size is used.
Previewer
specifies the Previewer definition to use when Print Preview is requested.
The Previewer box contains the previewer application that you have
defined. See “Define a New Previewer” on page 294.
Preview command
is the command that is used to open an external printer language viewer.
For example, if you want Ghostview as your previewer, type ghostview
%s. When a Preview Command is entered into a Printer definition, the
printer definition becomes a previewer definition. The Preview Command
must a valid command. When the command is executed as part of the
preview process the %s are replaced with the name of a temporary file
that contains the input for the preview command.
Note: The Previewer and Preview Command fields are mutually exclusive.
When you enter a command path into the Preview Command field, the
Previewer box is dimmed.
 292 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

How to Specify a Printer for Your Session

The PRINTERPATH= system option enables you to specify a Universal Printer to
use for the current SAS session. This printer specification is not retained across
SAS sessions. The PRINTERPATH= system option is primarily used in batch mode,
when there is no windowing environment in which to set the default printer. This
option accepts a character string as its value. For example:
options printerpath=myprinter;
options printerpath="Print PostScript to disk";

Note: If the printer name contains blanks, you must enclose it in quotation marks.
You can get a list of printers that are currently defined from two places:
n The list of printers in the Printer field of the Print Setup window.
n Submit this code:
proc qdevice out=printers;
printer _all_;
run;

proc print data=printers;

var name desc;
where nametype contains "Printer";
run;

You can also override the printer destination by specifying a fileref with the
PRINTERPATH= system option:
options printerpath= (myprinter printout);
filename printout path;

Printing with Universal Printing

Print a Test Page

To print a test page, follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Print Setup and choose Print Test Page to open the Print Setup
window.

2 Select the printer for which you would like a test page from Printer list view.

3 Click Print Test Page.

Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRINTSETUP command.

Print the Contents of an Active SAS Window

To print the contents of a window in SAS, follow these steps:

1 Click inside the window to make it active.

2 Select File ð Print.

 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 293

A print window appears. Your print window might differ from the window that
follows.
Alternatively, you can issue the DMPRINT command.
Figure 15.15 Print Window

3 If the Use Forms check box is visible, clear it in order to use Universal Printing.

4 From the Printer group box, select the name of the printer definition.

5 Enter the number of copies that you want.

6 If you want to save your print job to a file, follow these steps:

a Select Print to File.

b Select OK. The File Selection window appears.

c Select an existing file or enter a new filename.

Note: If you print to an existing file, the contents of the file are either overwritten
or appended, depending on whether you choose replace or append from the
open print window. Most viewers for EMF, GIF, PNG, SVG, and TIFF files do not
view appended files. When append is selected with a PDF printer, a merged
PDF file is not produced.

7 Set additional printing options.

The fields in the Page Options area provide choices according to the content in
the SAS window that you are trying to print. By default, SAS prints the entire
contents of the selected window.
 294 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Table 15.7 Page Options

Item to Print Do This

Selected lines of text in a window Select the text that you want to print, and
then open the Print window. In the Page
Note: not available on z/OS Options box, check the Print Selected
Text box.

The page that is currently displayed in the Select Current page.

window

A range of pages or other individual Select Range and enter the page
pages numbers in the Pages field. Separate
individual page numbers and page ranges
with either a comma (,) or a blank. You
can enter page ranges in any of these
formats:
n n–m prints all pages from n to m,
inclusive.
n –n prints all pages from page 1 to page
n.
n n– prints all pages from page n to the
last page.

In color Check the Print Color box.

Line numbers Check the Print Line Numbers box.

Page numbers Check the Print Page Numbers box.

A graph Use the DMPRINT command, or select

File ð Print. Verify that the Use
SAS/GRAPH Drivers check box is
deselected in order to use Universal
Printing.

8 Click OK to print.

Working with Previewers

Define a New Previewer

Previewers enable you to preview a print job. SAS does not set a default previewer
application. To use the Print Preview feature in SAS, you or your system
administrator must first define a previewer for your system.
z/OS Specifics: Print Previewers are not supported on z/OS.
Previewers can be defined using the New Previewer wizard. To use the New
Previewer wizard to define a new print previewer, follow these steps:

1 Issue the DMPRTCREATE PREVIEWER command.

 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 295

The following window appears:

Figure 15.16 Previewer Definition Window to Enter Name and Description

2 Enter the name and a description for the new previewer (127-character
maximum, no backslashes, not case sensitive).
The previewer name is required. The description is optional.

3 Click Next to proceed to Step 2 of the wizard.

Figure 15.17 Previewer Definition Window to Enter Previewer Language

4 Select the printer model that you want to associate with your previewer
definition.
The PostScript, PCL, or PDF language generated for the model must be a
language that your external viewer package supports. For best results, select the
generic models such as PostScript Level 1 (Color) or PCL 5.

5 Click Next to proceed to Step 3 of the wizard.

296 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.18 Previewer Definition Window to Enter Command to Open Previewer

Application

6 Enter the command or commands used to open the previewer application,

followed by %s where you would normally put the input filename.
For example, if the command for starting your previewer is “ghostview,” then you
would enter ghostview %s in the text field.
You can populate or seed a list of commands used to invoke a print preview
application. For more information, see “Seeding the Print Previewer Command
Box” on page 297.
Note: The %s directive can be used as many times as needed in the commands
for starting the viewer. However, the start command needs to be the fully
qualified command if it is not in the machine's command path.

7 Click Next to proceed to Step 4 of the wizard.

Figure 15.19 Previewer Definition Window to Complete Process
 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 297

8 Click Previous to correct any information. Click Finish when you have finished
defining your default previewer.

The newly defined previewer displays a previewer icon in the Print Setup window.

Figure 15.20 Print Setup Window Displaying New Previewer

This previewer application can be tested with the Print Test Page button on the
Print Setup window.

Seeding the Print Previewer Command Box

Print Preview is supported by print previewer applications such as Ghostview, gv,
and Adobe Reader. The Preview command box that appears in the Previewer
Definition wizard (Figure 15.18 on page 296) and on the Advanced tab of the
Printer Properties window (Figure 15.14 on page 291) can be pre-populated or
seeded with a list of commands. These commands are used to invoke print
previewer applications that are available at your site. Users and administrators can
manually update the registry, or define and import a registry file that contains a list of
previewer commands. This is an example of a registry file.
[CORE\PRINTING\PREVIEW COMMANDS]
"1"="/usr/local/gv %s"
"2"="/usr/local/ghostview %s"

Previewing Print Jobs

You can use the print preview feature if a print viewer is installed for the designated
printer. Print Preview is always available from the File menu in SAS. You can also
issue the DMPRTPREVIEW command.

Set Page Properties

You can customize how your printed output appears in the Page Setup window.
Depending on which printer you have currently set, some of the Page Setup options
that are described in the following steps might be unavailable.
298 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

To customize your printed output, follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Page Setup.

The Page Setup window appears.

Alternatively, you can issue the DMPAGESETUP command.

2 Select a tab to open windows that control various aspects of your printed output.
Descriptions of the tabbed windows follow.

The Page Setup window consists of four tabs: General, Orientation, Margins, and
Paper.
n The General tab enables you to change the options for Binding, Collate,
Duplex, and Color Printing.
Figure 15.21 Page Setup Window Displaying the General Tab

Binding
specifies the binding edge (Long Edge or Short Edge) to use with duplexed
output. This sets the Binding option.
Collate
specifies whether the printed output should be collated. This sets the Collate
option.
Duplex
specifies whether the printed output should be single-sided or double-sided.
This sets the Duplex option.
Color Printing
specifies whether output should be printed in color. This sets the
COLORPRINTING option.
n The Orientation tab enables you to change the output's orientation on the page.
The default is Portrait. This tab sets the ORIENTATION option.
 Configuring Universal Printing Using the Windowing Environment 299

Figure 15.22 Page Setup Window Displaying the Orientation Tab

n The Margin tab enables you to change the top, bottom, left, and right margins
for your pages. The value range depends on the type of printer that you are
using. The values that are specified on this tab set the TOPMARGIN,
BOTTOMMARGIN, LEFTMARGIN, and RIGHTMARGIN options.
Figure 15.23 Page Setup Window Displaying the Margins Tab

n The Paper tab specifies the Size, Type, Source, and Destination of the paper
used for the printed output.
 300 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.24 Page Setup Window Displaying Paper Tab

Size
specifies the size of paper to use by setting the PAPERSIZE option. Paper
sizes include Letter, Legal, A4, and so on.
Type
specifies the type of paper to use. Examples of choices include Standard,
Glossy, and Transparency. This sets the PAPERTYPE option.
Source
designates which input paper tray is to be used. This sets the
PAPERSOURCE option.
Destination
specifies the bin or output paper tray that is to be used for the resulting
output. This sets the PAPERDEST option.
Note: Page settings are stored in the SAS registry. Although your page settings
should remain in effect from one SAS session to another, changing default printers
could lose, change, or disable some of the settings. If you change printers during a
SAS session, check the Page Setup window to ensure that all of your settings are
valid for your new default printer.

System Options That Control Universal Printing

The following system options control Universal Printing.

Table 15.8 System Options That Control Universal Printing

System Option Description

BINDING= Specifies the binding edge for the printer.

BOTTOMMARGIN= Specifies the size of the margin at the bottom of the

page for printing.
 System Options That Control Universal Printing 301

System Option Description

COLLATE Specifies the collation of multiple copies for output for

the printer.

COLORPRINTING Specifies color printing, if it is supported.

COPIES= Specifies the number of copies to make when printing.

DUPLEX Specifies double-sided printing, if it is supported.

LEFTMARGIN= Specifies the size of the margin on the left side of the
page.

ORIENTATION= Specifies the paper orientation to use (either portrait,

landscape, reverse-portrait, or reverse-landscape) for
the whole document or for changing the orientation of
individual pages in a document.

PAPERDEST= Specifies the bin or output paper tray to receive printed

output.

PAPERSIZE= Specifies the paper size to use when printing.

PAPERSOURCE= Specifies the input paper tray to use for printing.

PAPERTYPE= Specifies the type of paper to use for printing.

PRINTERPATH= Specifies a printer for Universal Printing print jobs.

RIGHTMARGIN= Specifies the size of the margin on the right side of the
page.

SYSPRINTFONT= Specifies the default font to use when printing.

TOPMARGIN= Specifies the size of the margin at the top of the page.

Note: The PRINTERPATH= system option specifies which printer is used.

n If the PRINTERPATH= system option is blank, then the default printer is used.

n If the PRINTERPATH= system option is not blank, then Universal Printing is

used.
Note: In the Windows environment, the default printer is the current Windows
system printer or the printer specified by the SYSPRINT system option. Therefore,
Universal Printing is not used.
 302 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF

Procedure

About Using the PRTDEF Procedure

Printer definitions can be created for an individual or for all SAS users at a site by
using the PRTDEF procedure. The PRTDEF procedure can be used to do many of
the same printer management activities that you can do with the Universal Printing
windows. The PRTDEF procedure can be used in any execution mode, but it is
especially useful if you use SAS in batch mode, where the Universal Printing
windows are unavailable.
To define or modify one or more printers with the PRTDEF procedure, you first
create a SAS data set that contains variables that correspond to printer attributes.
These four variables must be specified for every printer destination:
DEST
specifies the printer destination.
DEVICE
specifies the device name.
MODEL
specifies the name of a printer prototype. For a list of printer prototypes, open
the SAS registry to this key: \CORE\PRINTING\PROTOTYPES.
NAME
specifies the name of the printer.
For a list of optional variables, see “Input Data Set Variables That Are Used To
Create Printer Definitions” in Base SAS Procedures Guide. The PRTDEF procedure
reads the data set and converts the variable attributes into one or more printer
definitions in the SAS registry.
After you create the printer definition data set, you run the PRTDEF procedure to
create the printer.
Only system administrators or others who have Write permission to the Sashelp
library can use the PRTDEF procedure to create printer definitions for all SAS users
at a site. Individuals have Write permission to their Sasuser library and can use the
PRTDEF procedure to create their own printers. However, the printer definition is
stored in the Sasuser library and is lost if the Sasuser library is deleted. Printer
definitions that are created by individuals are available only when the directory
where the printer definition is stored is specified as the Sasuser library. For
information about assigning the Sasuser library, see “SASUSER= System Option” in
SAS System Options: Reference.
For more information see, “PRTDEF Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
 Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure 303

Examples of Creating New Printers and Previewers Using

the PRTDEF Procedure

Introduction
These examples show you how to use the PRTDEF procedure to define new
printers and to manage your installed printers and previewers.
After a program statement containing the PRTDEF procedure runs successfully, the
printers or previewers that have been defined appear in the Print Setup window. A
complete set of all available printers and previewers appear in the Printer name list.
Printer definitions can also be viewed in the Registry Editor window under CORE
\PRINTING\PRINTERS.

Creating a Data Set That Defines Multiple Printers

When you create a data set to use with the PRTDEF procedure to define a printer,
you must specify the name, model, device and, destination variables.
See the “PRTDEF Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide in Base SAS
Procedures Guide for the names of the optional variables that you can also use.
The following code creates a data set to use with the PRTDEF procedure:
data printers;
input name $15. model $35. device $8. dest $14.;
datalines;
Myprinter PostScript Level 1 (Gray Scale) PRINTER printer1
Laserjet PCL 5 PCL 5e (RunLength) PIPE lp -dprinter5
Color LaserJet PostScript Level 2 (Color, Duplex) PIPE lp -dprinter2
;
run;

proc print data=printers;

run;

Here is the output:

Output 15.2 The Printer Data Set

304 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

After you create the data set containing the variables, you run the PRTDEF
procedure. The PRTDEF procedure creates the printers that are named in the data
set by creating the appropriate entries in the SAS registry.
proc prtdef data=printers usesashelp replace;
run;

The USESASHELP option specifies that the printer definitions are to be placed in
the Sashelp library, where they are available to all users. If the USESASHELP
option is not specified, then the printer definitions are placed in the current Sasuser
library, where they are available to the local user only. The printers that are defined
are available only in the local Sasuser directory. However, to use the USESASHELP
option, you must have permission to write to the Sashelp library.
The REPLACE option specifies that the default operation is to modify existing printer
definitions. Any printer name that already exists is modified by using the information
in the printer attributes data set. Any printer name that does not exist is added.

Creating a Printer for Multiple Users

This example creates a Tektronix Phaser 780 printer definition that specifies to use
Ghostview as the preview application and to store the printer definition in the
Sashelp library. The bottom margin is set to two centimeters, the font size to 14
point, and the paper size to ISO A4.
data tek780;
name = "Tek780";
desc = "Test Lab Phaser 780P";
model = "Tek Phaser 780 Plus";
device = "PRINTER";
dest = "testlab3";
preview = "Ghostview";
units = "cm";
bottom = 2;
fontsize = 14;
papersiz = "ISO A4";
run;

proc prtdef data=tek780 usesashelp;

run;

Note: To preview output for this printer, you must create a Ghostview printer
definition. You can do this either in the Preview Definition Wizard (Figure 15.14 on
page 291), on the Advanced tab of the Printer Properties window (Figure 15.18 on
page 296) or by using the PRTDEF procedure.
Here is a Ghostview printer definition using the PRTDEF procedure:
data gsview;
name = "Ghostview";
desc = "Print Preview with Ghostview";
model= "Tek Phaser 780 Plus";
viewer = 'gv %s';
device = "dummy";
dest = " ";

proc prtdef data=gsview list replace usesashelp;

run;
 Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure 305

The PROC PRTDEF statement LIST option specifies to write the printer definition to
the log.
Note: You must specify a preview command either in the Preview Definition Wizard
(Figure 15.14 on page 291) or on the Advanced tab of the Printer Properties
window (Figure 15.18 on page 296). An example of a preview command is
ghostview ‑bg white ‑fg black ‑magstep ‑2 –nolabel %s
For more information about print previewers see, “Creating PostScript Previewer
Definitions” on page 306.

Adding, Modifying, and Deleting Printers

This example uses the Printers data set to add, modify, and delete printer
definitions. See the “PRTDEF Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide for more
variables that you can use to define a printer. The following list describes the
variables used in the example:
n The MODEL variable specifies the printer prototype to use when defining this
printer.
n The DEVICE variable specifies the type of I/O device to use when sending
output to the printer.
n The DEST variable specifies the output destination for the printer.

n The OPCODE variable specifies what action (Add, Delete, or Modify) to perform
on the printer definition.
n The first Add operation creates a new printer definition for Color PostScript in the
registry and the second Add operation creates a new printer definition for
ColorPS in the registry.
n The Mod operation modifies the existing printer definition for LaserJet 5 in the
registry.
n The Del operation deletes the printer definitions for printers named “Gray
PostScript” and “test” from the registry.
The following example creates a printer definition in the Sashelp library. Because
the definition is in Sashelp, the definition becomes available to all users. Special
system administration privileges are required to write to the Sashelp library. An
individual user can create a personal printer definition by specifying the Sasuser
library instead.
data printers;
infile datalines dlm='#';
length name $ 80
model $ 80
device $ 8
dest $ 80
opcode $ 3;
input opcode $ name $ model $ device $ dest $ ;
datalines;
add# Color PostScript F2# PostScript Level 2 (Color)# DISK# sasprt.ps
mod# LaserJet 5# PCL 5c (DeltaRow)# DISK# sasprt.pcl
del# Gray PostScript# PostScript Level 2(Gray Scale)# DISK# sasprt.ps
del# test# PostScript Level 2 (Color)# DISK# sasprt.ps
add# ColorPS# PostScript Level 2 (Color)# DISK# sasprt.ps
;
306 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

proc prtdef data=printers list;

run;

Note: If the end user modifies and saves new attributes for an administrator-defined
printer in the Sashelp library, the printer becomes a user-defined printer in the
Sasuser library. Values that are specified by the user override the values that were
set by the administrator. If the user-defined printer definition is deleted, the
administrator-defined printer reappears.

Creating PostScript Previewer Definitions

These examples show how to create the Adobe Acrobat Reader print previewer and
the Ghostview print previewer in order to preview PDF output in both formats. The
variables in the data sets have values that the PRTDEF procedure uses to produce
the print previewer definition in the SAS registry.
n The NAME variable specifies the printer name that is associated with the rest of
the attributes in the printer definition data record.
n The DESC variable specifies the description of the printer.

n The MODEL variable specifies the printer prototype to use when defining this
printer.
n The VIEWER variable specifies the host system commands for print preview.

Note: The ghostview %s command needs to be the fully qualified command if it

is not in the machine's command path.
Note: You must specify a preview command either in the Preview Definition
Wizard (Figure 15.14 on page 291) or on the Advanced tab of the Printer
Properties window (Figure 15.18 on page 296). An example of a preview
command is ghostview ‑bg white ‑fg black ‑magstep ‑2 –nolabel %s and
c:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe' %s.pdf.
n The DEVICE variable should always be DUMMY.

n DEST should be blank to specify that output is not returned.

The following program creates a print previewer definition for using Adobe Acrobat
Reader:
data adobeR;
name = "myAdobeReader";
desc = "Adobe Reader Print Preview";
model= "PDF Version 1.2";
viewer = "'c:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe' %s.pdf";
device = "dummy";
dest = " ";
run;
proc prtdef data=adobeR list replace;
run;

The following program creates a print previewer definition for using Ghostview:
data gsview;
name = "MyGhostview";
desc = "Print Preview with Ghostview";
model= "PostScript Level 2 (Color)";
viewer = 'ghostview %s';
device = "dummy";
dest = " ";
 Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure 307

run;
proc prtdef data=gsview list replace;
run;

Exporting and Backing Up Printer Definitions

The PRTEXP procedure enables you to back up your printer definitions as a SAS
data set that can be restored with the PRTDEF procedure.
The PRTEXP procedure has the following syntax.
PROC PRTEXP <USESASHELP> <OUT=dataset>
<SELECT | EXCLUDE> printer_1 printer_2 ... printer_n;

The following example shows how to back up four printer definitions (named PDF,
postscript, PCL5, and PCL5c) using the PRTEXP procedure:
proc prtexp out=printers;
select PDF postscript PCL5 PCL5c;
run;

For more information, see “PRTEXP Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Sample Values for the Device Type, Destination, and Host

Options Fields
The following list provides examples of the printer values for device type,
destination, and host options. Because these values can be dependent on each
other, and the values can vary by operating environment, several examples are
shown. You might want to refer to this list when you are installing a printer or when
you change the destination of your output.
n Device Type: Printer
o z/OS
n Device type: Printer
n Destination: (leave blank)
n Host options: sysout=class-value dest=printer-name
o UNIX and Windows
n Device type: Printer
n Destination: printer name
n Host options: (leave blank)
n Device Type: Pipe

Note: A sample command to send output to an lp-defined printer queue on a

UNIX host is lp -ddest
o UNIX
n Device Type: Pipe
n Destination: command
n Host options: (leave blank)
n Device Type: FTP

Note: An example of a node name is pepper.unx

 308 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

o z/OS
n Device type: FTP
n Destination: ftp.out
n Host options: host='nodename' recfm=vb prompt
n Device type: Printer
n Destination: printer name
n Host options: (leave blank)
o Windows
n Device type: FTP
n Destination: ftp.out
n Host options: host='nodename' prompt
o UNIX
n Device type: FTP
n Destination: filename.ext
n Host options: host='nodename' prompt
n Device Type: Socket

Note: An example of an lp destination queue is lp286nc0.prt:9100

o UNIX
n Device type: Socket
n Destination: destination-queue
n Host options: (leave blank)

Forms Printing

Overview of Forms Printing

Before Universal Printing was introduced, SAS provided a utility for print jobs called
a form. A form was a standard template that let you control such things as line size
and margin information for pages in a print job. Universal Printing is easier to use
and has more features than the simple controls offered in forms printing, but SAS
still supports forms.
Printing with forms is still available through the Print window. You can switch to
forms print mode by selecting File ð Print and selecting Use Forms.
Note: Forms printing is not available in batch mode.
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 309

Creating or Editing a Form

If your organization has legacy reports that need to be printed using forms, you
might have to use the FORM window to create or edit a form. SAS still supports the
ability to create or edit forms, though Universal Printing provides more features, and
is the recommended method of printing.
You can create or edit a form by entering the FSFORM command:
FSFORM<catalog-name.>form-name
If you do not specify a catalog-name, SAS uses the SASUSER.PROFILE catalog. If
the form name that you specify does not exist, SAS creates a new form.
If you are creating a new form, SAS displays the Printer Selection frame. If you are
editing an existing form, SAS displays the Text Body and Margin Information frame.
To move between the FORMS frames, you can do the following:
n Use the NEXTSCR command to scroll to the next frame and the PREVSCR
command to scroll to the previous frame.
n Enter an equal sign (=) and the number of the frame that you want to go to. For
example, =1 displays the Text Body and Margin Information frame, and =2
displays the Carriage Control Information frame.
n Select the name of the frame from the Tools menu.

n Select Next Screen or Previous Screen from the Tools menu.

You can move between fields on a frame with the TAB key.
After you finish defining or editing your form, issue the END command to save your
changes and exit the FORM window.
Note: Turning on Forms by checking the Use Forms check box in the print window
turns Universal Printing off for printing non-graphic windows.
Operating Environment Information: For more information about printing with
Forms, see the documentation for your operating environment.

Using Fonts with Universal Printers and

SAS/GRAPH Devices

Rendering Fonts
Universal printing uses the following two methods to generate and display fonts in
SAS output.
n the FreeType library

n the font-rendering capabilities of the host

 310 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Universal printing supports the following font formats:

n TrueType fonts

n Type1 fonts

Note: Universal Printing and SAS/GRAPH do not support double-byte Type1 fonts.
The output methods in the following table are recommended because they use the
FreeType library to render fonts. This means that they can render fonts in all of the
operating environments that SAS supports. 1

Table 15.9 Recommended Devices (because they use the FreeType library to render fonts)

Output Method Device

SAS/GRAPH devices GIF, GIFANIM, HTML, WEBFRAME

TIFFB, TIFFP, TIFFG3, TIFFB300,

TIFFP300

JPEG

PCL5, PCL5C, PCL5E

PDF, PDFC, PDFA

PNG, PNGT, PNG300

PSL, PSCOLOR, PSLEPSF, PSLEPSFC

SVG, SVGT, SVGVIEW, SVGANIM, and

SVGZ*

SASEMF, SASWMF**

SASPRTC, SASPRTG, SASPRTM printer

interface devices

1. The FreeType library is used to perform two distinct operations in SAS: measuring the text and rendering the font.
Depending on the output devices specified, the FreeType library can perform one or both of these operations. to render
fonts.
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 311

Output Method Device

ODS printing and Universal Printing EMF, EMFDUAL**

GIF

PCL5, PCL5C, PCL5E

PDF, PDFA

PNG, PNGT, PNG300

PostScript

SVG, SVGT, SVGZ, SVGView, and

SVGnotip

SVGANIM

ODS RTF PNG, SASEMF*

, EMF

ODS HTML PNG, PNGT, PNG300, GIF, JPEG, SVG,

SVGT*

* If the NOFONTRENDERING option is set, the device driver uses only the FreeType library for
measuring the text. See “FONTRENDERING= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference
** These devices use the FreeType library only for measuring text. The final font rendering is done by
an application such as Microsoft Word, which displays the output using system installed fonts.

You can specify the QDEVICE procedure to see a list of supported fonts. For a more
detailed example, see Example 5: Generate a Font Report.
proc qdevice;
run;

Table 15.10 Devices That Use Host Font-Rendering Only

Output Method Device

SAS/GRAPH devices ACTIVEX, ACTXIMG, JAVA, JAVAIMG

Note: These are client devices.

BMP

EMF, WMF

ZGIF
 312 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Table 15.11 Devices That Use Either FreeType Font-Rendering or Host Font-Rendering

Output Method Device By Default, uses ...

SAS/GRAPH devices ZGIF, ZPNG Host font-rendering

HTML, WEBFRAME FreeType font-rendering

TIFFB, TIFFP, TIFFB300, FreeType font-rendering

TIFFP300

JPEG FreeType font-rendering

Note: You can set OPTIONS FONTRENDERING= FREETYPE_POINTS or OPTIONS

FONTRENDERING=HOST_PIXELS to change the rendering method for devices that
support both the FreeType library and host rendering.
UNIX Specifics: With devices that use host rendering in a UNIX operating
environment, the TrueType fonts must be installed on the X server that is being
used. This is usually specified by the DISPLAY environment variable. For more
information, see the Configuration Guide for SAS 9.4 Foundation for UNIX
Environments.

The FONTEMBEDDING and FONTRENDERING System

Options

Embedding Fonts in Your Output

Font embedding (using the “FONTEMBEDDING System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference. ) allows fonts used in the creation of output to travel with that
output, ensuring that it is displayed or printed exactly as you intended. Here are
some important points to know about font embedding:
n Fonts are included in the output files that are created by the Universal Printer
and SAS/GRAPH.
n Output files with embedded fonts do not rely on fonts being installed on the
computer that is used to view or print the output file.
n When NOFONTEMBEDDING is set, the output files rely on the fonts being
installed on the computer that is used to view or print the font.
n File size is increased for vector output for printers such as PDF and PostScript.

n Not all printers support font embedding. To determine whether the printer that
you are using supports font embedding, use the QDEVICE procedure . If Font
Embedding is listed in the SAS log with a value of Option or Always, then the
printer supports font embedding.
proc qdevice report=general;
printer pdf;
run;

For more information about the FONTEMBEDDING system option see

“FONTEMBEDDING System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 313

Measuring Fonts in Pixels or in Points

The FONTRENDERING system option specifies whether SAS/GRAPH devices that
are based on the SASGDGIF, SASGDTIF, and SASGDIMG modules render fonts by
using the operating system or by using the FreeType engine.
n If the operating system is used (that is, you specify options
fontrendering=host_pixels;), then font size is requested in pixels.
n If the FreeType engine is used (that is, you specify options
fontrendering=freetype_points;), then font size is requested in points.

ODS Styles and TrueType Fonts

By default, many SAS/GRAPH device drivers and all Universal Printers generate
output by using ODS styles, and these ODS styles use TrueType fonts. If no style is
specified, the default style is used. If you want the appearance of graphs to be
compatible with graphs that were generated prior to SAS 9.2, set the GSTYLE
system option to specify NOGSTYLE. For information about the GSTYLE System
Option, see “Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices” on
page 309.

Portability of TrueType Fonts

TrueType fonts are portable across operating environments and are always
available in Microsoft Windows environments. A few TrueType fonts are included
with some versions of UNIX X Windows.

International Character Support

TrueType fonts support a wide range of international characters. For more
information about SAS code that uses TrueType fonts, see “Examples of Specifying
Fonts and Printing International Characters” on page 322.

TrueType Fonts Supplied by SAS

When you install SAS, a number of TrueType fonts are available based on choices
that were made during the installation.
TrueType fonts that are supplied by SAS are categorized into four groups:
n Windows Glyph List (WGL) Pan-European character set fonts that are
compatible with Microsoft
n graphic symbol

n multilingual
314 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

n monolingual Asian

Windows Glyph List (WGL) fonts are also called Pan-European Character Set
Fonts. These fonts are about the same shape and size as the Microsoft fonts and
can be substituted for the Microsoft fonts without changing formatting or paging. The
following table shows the SAS font and the compatible Microsoft font.

Table 15.12 Windows Glyph List (WGL) and Compatibility with Microsoft

Compatibility with
Font Name Font Description Microsoft Font

Albany AMT sans-serif Arial

Thorndale AMT serif Times New Roman

Cumberland AMT serif fixed Courier New

(fixed refers to uniform
spacing)

Table 15.13 Graphic Symbol TrueType Fonts

Compatibility with Compatibility with

Font Name Font Description Microsoft Font Adobe Type1 Font

Symbol MT 192 symbols Symbol Symbol

Monotype Sorts* 205 Wingdings Not applicable* Not applicable*

characters

Arial Symbol 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Arial Symbol Bold 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Arial Symbol Bold 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Italic

Arial Symbol Italic 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Times New Roman 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Symbol

Times New Roman 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Symbol Bold

Times New Roman 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Symbol Bold Italic

Times New Roman 42 symbols** Not applicable Not applicable

Symbol Italic

* SAS Monotype Sorts is an ornamental font consisting of shapes, symbols, and decorative glyphs that
have no one-to-one mapping to Microsoft TrueType or Adobe Type1 fonts. However, the SAS
Monotype Sorts font closely resembles Microsoft "Wingdings" TrueType and Adobe "ITC Zapf
Dingbats" Type1 fonts.
** These fonts have special glyphs for the Latin characters 0, <. =, C, D, L, M, N, P, R, S, U, V ,W, X, Z,
and a-z. All other characters are undefined and might be rendered as a rectangle. For example, in
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 315

the HTML destination, the rectangle is replaced with the matching Latin1 character when it is
displayed in Internet Explorer.

Table 15.14 Multilingual TrueType Fonts

Font Name Language Supported Font Description

Arial Unicode MS* Arabic, Armenian, Basic sans-serif

Latin, Bengali, Bopomofo,
Cyrillic, Devanagari,
Georgian, Greek and
Coptic, Gujarati,
Gurmukhi, hangul jamo,
Hebrew, hiragana, Kanbun,
Kannada,
katakana, Lao, Malayalam,
Oriya, Tamil, Telugu,
Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Thai
Tibetan.

Times New Roman Uni* Arabic, Basic Latin, serif

Bopomofo,
Cyrillic,Devanagari,
Georgian, Greek and
Coptic,Gujarati, hangul
jamo,
Hebrew, hiragana, Kanbun,
katakana, Lao, Mongolian,
Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan.

* In SAS 9.4, the Arial Unicode MS and Times New Roman fonts replace the Monotype Sans WT and
Thorndale Duospace WT fonts.

In SAS 9.4M5, the following new AvenirNextforSAS replaces the Avenir Next fonts
that were added in a previous maintenance release.

New Font Replaces

AvenirNextforSAS These replace the Avenir Next Fonts that

were added in SAS 9.4M3.
AvenirNextforSASItalic

AvenirNextforSASBold

AvenirNextforSASBoldItalic

AvenirNextforSASLight

AvenirNextfor SASLightItalic

In SAS 9.4M5, the following new HelveticaNeueforSAS replace the Helvetica fonts
that were added in a previous maintenance release.
316 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

New Font Replaces

HelveticaNeueforSAS These replace the Helvetica LT Pro Fonts

that were added in SAS 9.4M4.
HelveticaNeueforSASItalic

HelveticaNeueforSASBold

HelveticaNeueforSASBoldItalic

HelveticaNeueforSASlightItalic

HelveticaNeueforSASLight

Table 15.15 Monolingual Asian TrueType Fonts

Language Supported Font Name Character Set

Japanese MS Gothic, MS UI Gothic, MS PGothic Shift JIS

MS Mincho, MS PMincho Shift JIS

Korean Gulim, GulimChe, Dotum, DotumChe KSC5601

Batang, BatangChe, Gungsuh, GungsuhChe KSC5601

Simplified Chinese MYingHei_18030_C-Medium GB18030 and

GB2312
MYingHei_18030_C-MediumHWL

CSongGB18030C-Light GB18030 and

GB2312
CSongGB18030C-LightHWL

Traditional Chinese* HeiT Big5

MingLiU, MingLiU_HKSCS, PMingLiU Big5

* HeiT, MingLiU, MingLiU_HKSCS, and PMingLiu support HKSCS2004 (Hong Kong Supplemental
Character Set) characters.

The fonts that are supplied by SAS and the fonts that are already installed on
Windows are automatically registered in the SAS registry when you install SAS.
Fonts already installed on UNIX and z/OS must be registered manually in the SAS
registry after you install SAS. To register other TrueType Fonts, see “Registering
Fonts” on page 317.
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 317

Registering Fonts

Fonts Supported by SAS

In addition to the TrueType fonts that come installed with SAS, SAS supports
PostScript Type1 fonts. The following table shows the font prefix and file extension
for TrueType and Type1 fonts:

Table 15.16 Supported Font Types

Type Tag File Extension

TrueType <ttf> .ttf

Type1 <at1> .pfb *

* Data from a .pfm file is used to generate output using the SAS/GRAPH SASEMF and SASWMF
devices on Windows. On UNIX and z/OS, data from a .pfm file is used to generate output using the
WMF device and the EMF universal printer. This file is not required to register Type1 fonts using
PROC FONTREG. If you do not register a .pfm file, you might not have the desired results.

Registering Fonts with the SAS Registry

To use TrueType or Type1 fonts that are not registered when SAS is installed, use
the FONTREG procedure to register these fonts in the SAS registry. For more
information, see “FONTREG Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
Note: The fonts that are supplied by SAS and the fonts that are installed by
Microsoft are automatically registered in the SAS registry when you install SAS.
Fonts that are installed after you install SAS must be registered manually in the SAS
registry.

Registering Fonts for UNIX, Windows, or the z/OS HFS File

System
Submit the following SAS program. The FONTPATH statement specifies the
directory that contains the fonts and pathname is the directory path of the fonts.
proc fontreg;
fontpath 'pathname';
run;

For more information about adding fonts to the SAS Registry, see “FONTREG
Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
Note: In Microsoft Windows environments, TrueType fonts are usually located in
either the C:\WINNT\Fonts or C:\Windows\Fonts directory. For all other operating
environments, contact your system administrator for the location of the TrueType
font files.
For more information, see “FONTREG Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
 318 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Registering Fonts for z/OS

On z/OS systems that do not use the HFS file system, you can use the FONTFILE
statement instead of the FONTPATH statement to specify the fixed block sequential
file that contains a font. Because the default value of MODE= option is ALL, the
PROC statement below adds new fonts that do not already exist in the SAS registry
and replaces existing fonts.
proc fontreg;
fontfile 'filename';
run;

z/OS Specifics: When you add fonts to a z/OS system, the font file must be
allocated as a sequential data set with a fixed block record format and a record
length of 1.
For more information, see “FONTREG Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Listing the Registered Fonts for a Device

You can use the QDEVICE procedure to view the list of fonts that have been
registered in the SAS registry, including fonts that you registered with the
FONTREG procedure. You can submit the following program to view fonts for a
device or universal printer.
/* Macro FONTLIST - Report fonts supported by a device */

%macro fontlist(type, name);

proc qdevice report=font out=fonts;
&type &name;
var font ftype fstyle fweight;
run;

data;
set fonts;
drop ftype;
length type $16;
if ftype = "System"
then do;
if substr(font,2,3) = "ttf" then type = "TrueType";
else if substr(font,2,3) = "at1" then type = "Adobe Type1";
else if substr(font,2,3) = "cff" then type = "Adobe CFF/Type2";
else if substr(font,2,3) = "pfr" then type = "Bitstream PFR";
else type = "System";
if type ^= "System" then font = substr(font,7,length(font)-6);
else if substr(font,1,1) = "@" then font = substr(font, 2,length(font)-1);
end;
else type = "Printer Resident";
run;

proc sort;
by font;
run;
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 319

title "Fonts Supported by the %upcase(&name) &type";

proc print label;

label fstyle="Style" fweight="Weigth" font="Font" type="Type";
run;

%mend fontlist;

%fontlist(printer, pdf)
%fontlist(device, pdf)
%fontlist(device, win)
%fontlist(printer, png)
%fontlist(device, pcl5c)

Here is the output for the first 25 fonts in the output data set::

Output 15.3 List of Fonts Supported by the PDF Printer (Partial Output)
 320 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

For more information, see “QDEVICE Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Using Fonts

Specifying Fonts with the Display Manager

After you update the SAS Registry, the newly registered fonts are available for use
within SAS. To access the fonts interactively when Universal Printing is enabled,
follow these steps:

1 Select File ð Print.

2 Select an appropriate printer, such as PDF or PCL5.

3 Click the Properties button.

4 Click the Font tab.

This window contains drop-down boxes for Font, Style, Weight, Size (in points),
and Character Set.

5 Click the arrow on the right side of the Font box and scroll through the list of
available fonts.
TrueType fonts are indicated by the letters ttf enclosed in angle brackets (< >),
and Type1 fonts are indicated by the letters at1 enclosed in angle brackets (< >).
For example, the TrueType font Albany AMT is listed as <ttf> Albany AMT and
the Type1 Font Times is listed as <at1> Times. The three-character tag
enclosed in angle brackets makes the distinction between the different types of
fonts with the same name, such as <ttf> Symbol and a Symbol font that resides
on a physical printer. Fonts that do not have a <ttf> tag or an <at1> tag reside
in the printer's memory. To ensure that you are using SAS fonts when you
specify a font that has different types, use only the font syntax with the angled
brackets. For example, you can specify the Symbol font as follows: <ttf>
Symbol.

6 Select the font that you want to use.

7 Click OK to return to the Print dialog box.

8 Click OK to create your output.

Specifying Fonts with SAS Program Statements

You can specify a font in the TITLE statement. For example, if you want to use the
TrueType font Albany AMT in a TITLE statement, include the following line of code
in your SAS program.
Title1 f="Albany AMT" "Text in Albany AMT";

You can also specify attributes such as style or weight in the TITLE statement by
using the forward slash (/) as a delimiter.
Title1 f="Albany AMT/Italic/Bold" "Text in Bold Italic Albany AMT";
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 321

For ODS templates, the attributes are specified after the text size parameter. See
“Specifying a Font with PROC PRINT and a User-Defined ODS Template” on page
324 for a complete example.
Note: You should use the <ttf> tag only when it is necessary (for example, to
distinguish between a TrueType font and another type of font with the same name).

Specifying a Font with the SYSPRINTFONT Option

The SYSPRINTFONT= system option sets the default font that you want to use for
printing from windows such as the Program Editor, the Log, and Output windows.
For example, you could use the SYSPRINTFONT= system option to print your
output in the Albany AMT font by submitting the following OPTIONS statement.
options sysprintfont=("Albany AMT");

You can also use the SYSPRINTFONT= system option to specify the weight and
size of a font. For example, the following code specifies an Arial font that uses bold
face, is italicized, and has a size of 14 points.
options sysprintfont=("Arial" bold italic 14);

You can override the default font by explicit font specifications or ODS styles.
For more information, see the “SYSPRINTFONT= System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference.

Slanting and Emboldening Fonts

Some font families do not have italic or bold fonts. If you specify italic or bold on
these fonts, SAS will automatically generate the font as slanted or emboldened on
universal printers that support this feature. The following universal printers support
font slanting and emboldening:

Table 15.17 Universal Printers That Support Font Slanting and Emboldening

GIF PCL

TIFF PNG

SVG*

*Font slanting and emboldening is not supported on Internet Explorer and Firefox.
However, it is supported on Chrome, Opera, and Safari browsers.
The following universal printers do not support font slanting and emboldening:
n PDF

n EMF

n PostScript

Changing the Slant Factor

You can adjust the degree of slanting on fonts that support glyph slanting. These are
typefaces that do not already have italic style fonts. True italic fonts are not subject
 322 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

to font slanting. To change the slant factor for all universal printers, follow these
steps:
n open the Registry Editor by entering regedit in the command bar or by selecting
Tools ð Options ð Registry Editor from the Application Toolbar.
n in the SAS Registry panel of the Registry Editor window, expand the CORE/
PRINTING/FREETYPE folder
n right-click and choose New Double Value from the pop-up menu

n enter SlantFactor in the Value Name field of the Edit Double Value window

n enter the desired slant factor value in the Value Data field. The default is
value .25.
To change the slant factor for a specific font, perform the following tasks using the
SAS Registry Editor:
n in the left SAS Registry panel of the SAS Registry Editor, expand the CORE/
PRINTING/FREETYPE/FONTS/<ttf>font-name/Attributes folder
n right-click and choose New Double Value from the pop-up menu

n enter SlantFactor in the Value Name field of the Edit Double Value window

n enter the desired slant factor value in the Value Data field. The default is
value .25.

Examples of Specifying Fonts and Printing International

Characters

Specifying a Font with SAS/GRAPH

The following example creates an output file, sasprt.pdf, with a title in the Albany
AMT font that uses bold face and is italicized.
options printerpath=pdf device=sasprtc;
ods printer;
title1 color=black f="Albany AMT/Italic/Bold" "Sample Title in Bold Italic Albany AMT";
proc gplot data=sashelp.class;
plot height*weight;
run;
quit;
ods printer close;

Note: The DEVICE= option defaults to either SASPRTM, SASPRTG, or SASPRTC,

depending on the type of printer. If PRINTERPATH=PCL5, which is a monochrome
printer, ODS PRINTER defaults to SASPRTM.
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 323

Figure 15.25 GPLOT Output

Specifying a Font with PROC PRINT

The following example produces an output file ,print1.pdf, with the titles in the
Albany AMT, Thorndale AMT, and Cumberland AMT fonts.
filename new 'print1.pdf';
options printerpath=(PDF new) device=sasprtc obs=5;
ods printer;
proc print data=sashelp.class;
title1 f='Albany AMT' h=2 'TrueType Albany AMT';
title2 f='Thorndale AMT' h=3 'Thorndale AMT';
title3 f='Cumberland AMT' 'Cumberland AMT ';
run;
ods printer close;
324 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.26 PDF Output Using PROC PRINT

Specifying a Font with PROC PRINT and a User-Defined

ODS Template
The following example creates a template of font styles and then produces a PDF
file.
filename out 'print2.pdf';

options printerpath=(pdf out) device=sasprtc;

proc template;
define style New_style / store = SASUSER.TEMPLAT;
parent = styles.printer;
style fonts /
'docFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 12pt)
'headingFont' = ("Albany AMT", 10pt, bold)
'headingEmphasisFont' = ("Albany AMT", 10pt, bold italic)
'TitleFont' = ("Albany AMT", 12pt, italic bold)
'TitleFont2' = ("Albany AMT", 11pt, italic bold)
'FixedFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 11pt)
'BatchFixedFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 6pt)
'FixedHeadingFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 9pt, bold)
'FixedStrongFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 9pt, bold)
'FixedEmphasisFont' = ("Cumberland AMT", 9pt, italic)
'EmphasisFont' = ("Albany AMT", 10pt, italic)
'StrongFont' = ("Albany AMT", 10pt, bold);
end;
run;

ods printer style=New_style;

proc print data=sashelp.class;
title1 'Proc Print';
title2 'Templated ODS output';
run;
ods printer close;
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 325

Figure 15.27 PDF Output Using PROC PRINT and a User-Defined ODS Template

Printing International Characters

Example 1
The following example produces an output file, titles.png. It is printed ten Unicode
characters.
filename new 'titles.png';
options printerpath=(png new)device=sasprtc;
ods printer;

proc gslide;
title1 "Printing Unicode code points";
title2 "double exclamation mark" f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=2 '203C'x;
title3 "French Franc symbol " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '20A3'x;
title4 "Lira symbol " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '20A4'x;
title4 "Rupee symbol " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '20A8'x;
title5 "Euro symbol " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '20Ac'x;
title6 "Fraction, one third " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '2153'x;
title7 "Fraction, one fifth " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '2155'x;
title8 "Fraction one eighth " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '215B'x;
title9 "Black Florette " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '273F'x;
title10 "Black Star " f="Arial Unicode MS/Unicode" h=3 '2605'x;
run;
quit;
ods printer close;
326 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.28 Output of Ten Unicode Characters

Example 2
The following example produces an output file, utf8.gif. It must be run with a
UTF-8 server and requires a TrueType font that contains the characters that are
used. The table of character names and the associated codes can be found on the
Unicode website at http://www.unicode.org/charts.
proc template;
define style utf8_style / store = SASUSER.TEMPLAT;
parent = styles.printer;
style fonts /
'docFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 12pt)
'headingFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 10pt, bold)
'headingEmphasisFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 10pt, bold italic)
'TitleFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 12pt, italic bold)
'TitleFont2' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 11pt, italic bold)
'FixedFont' = ("Times New Roman Uni", 11pt)
'BatchFixedFont' = ("Times New Roman Uni", 6pt)
'FixedHeadingFont' = ("Times New Roman Uni", 9pt, bold)
'FixedStrongFont' = ("Times New Roman Uni", 9pt, bold)
'FixedEmphasisFont' = ("Times New Roman Uni", 9pt, italic)
'EmphasisFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 10pt, italic)
'StrongFont' = ("Arial Unicode MS", 10pt, bold);
end;
run;
 Using Fonts with Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH Devices 327

%macro utf8chr(ucs2);
kcvt(&ucs2, 'ucs2b', 'utf8');
%mend utf8chr;
%macro namechar(name, char);
name="&name"; code=upcase("&char"); char=%utf8chr("&char"x); output;
%mend namechar;

data uft8char;
length name $40;
%namechar(Registered Sign, 00AE);
%namechar(Cent Sign, 00A2);
%namechar(Pound Sign, 00A3);
%namechar(Currency Sign, 00A4);
%namechar(Yen Sign, 00A5);
%namechar(Rupee Sign, 20A8);
%namechar(Euro Sign, 20Ac);
%namechar(Dong Sign, 20Ab);
%namechar(Euro-currency Sign, 20A0);
%namechar(Colon Sign, 20A1);
%namechar(Cruzeiro Sign, 20A2);
%namechar(French Franc Sign, 20A3);
%namechar(Lira Sign, 20A4);
run;

options printerpath=(gif out) device=sasprtc;

filename out 'utf8.gif';

ods printer style=utf8_style;

proc print;
run;
ods printer close;
Note: If you get an “unable to write to template store” error when running this code,
place the following before the proc step:

PROC TEMPLATE step:

ODS PATH work.templat(update) sasuser.templat(read)
sashelp.tmplmst(read);

This statement causes the templates to be written to the WORK library where the
server has Read and Write access.
 328 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.29 Output of International Characters

Creating EMF (Enhanced Metafile Format)

Graphics Using Universal Printing

EMF Graphics in SAS

Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF) graphics are scalable vector graphics that
produce true color graphics. Applications that support EMF graphics run on
Windows. The default output size of 800x600 pixels and the default resolution of 96
dpi produce output that closely resembles the screen resolution. EMF graphics are
device-independent and are rendered by an EMF viewer.
 Creating EMF (Enhanced Metafile Format) Graphics Using Universal Printing 329

Universal Printing supports three EMF metafile formats, EMF, EMFPlus, and
EMFDual. The following table shows the EMF Universal Printers and their
corresponding EMF metafile formats:

EMF
Universal Type of EMF
Printer Metafile Format Description

EMF EMFPlus The EMF Universal Printer creates a graphic that

uses commands, objects, and properties in
EMFPlus records. EMFPlus records have a
different structure and use different commands,
objects, and properties than those in EMF
records. The output .emf file contains no EMF
records, only EMFPlus records that are
embedded within comment records.
The EMFPlus Universal Printer supports only
TrueType fonts. If you specify another type of font,
the font is mapped to the TrueType font.

EMFDual EMFDual The EMFDual Universal Printer creates both EMF

and EMFPlus graphics in the same output file.
The file that is presented is determined by the
support of the EMF viewer.
Output from the EMFDual printer is large because
it contains both EMF and EMFPlus formats.

SASEMF EMF The SASEMF Universal Printer creates EMF

records that contain drawing commands, object
definitions, and properties. Alpha channel color
support is available only for images, not vector
graphics. The SASEMF Universal Printer is
equivalent to the EMF Universal Printer in
previous releases of SAS.

EMFDual and SASEMF Universal Printers support TrueType and Type1 fonts. The
EMF Universal Printer supports only TrueType fonts. Use the FONTREG procedure
to register Fonts. If you specify another type of font when the Universal Printer is
EMF, the font is mapped to the TrueType font.
Compression and font embedding are not supported.
For a description of the EMF printers, submit the following QDEVICE procedure and
view the output in the SAS log:
proc qdevice;
printer emf-universal-printer;
run;

EMF printers do not support multiple page documents. If a procedure creates

multiple pages or if more than one procedure is used in the code for ODS PRINTER
output, only the first page is viewable.

See Also
“Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273
 330 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Creating an EMF Graphic

You can create a stand-alone EMF graphic using the ODS PRINTER statement.
Specify the EMF Universal Printer either as the value of the PRINTERPATH=
system option or as the value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER
statement. The following sample code specifies the EMF Universal Printer as the
value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement:
ods html close;
ods printer printer=emf;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates the file sasprt.emf in the current directory.

Example of Creating an EMF Graphic Using the ODS

PRINTER Statement
Using the example data set Sashelp.Class and the SGPLOT procedure, the
following ODS PRINTER statement prints the EMF file sasprt.emf in the current
directory:
options printerpath=emf papersize=("4in" "4in") nodate;
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
reg x=height y=weight / CLM CLI;
run;
ods printer close;
ods html;
The following output is the EMF metafile displayed in the Windows Picture and Fax
Viewer:
 Creating GIF Images Using Universal Printing 331

Figure 15.30 Sashelp.Class in Enhanced Metafile Format

Creating GIF Images Using Universal Printing

GIF Images in SAS

The Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) is an image format that has been used
extensively on the web. The GIF printer supports RGBA colors, animation,
transparency, and renders fonts using the FreeType engine. The default output size
of 800x600 pixels. For a description of the GIF printer, you can either view the
printer in the SAS registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the
output in the SAS log:
proc qdevice;
printer gif;
run;

The GIF printer does not support multiple page documents. If a procedure creates
multiple pages or if more than one procedure is used in the code for ODS PRINTER
output, only the first page is viewable.
 332 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

See Also
n “Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273
n “Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents” on page 375

Creating a GIF Image

You can create GIF images using the ODS PRINTER statement. You specify the
GIF Universal Printer either as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option or as
the value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement. The following
sample code specifies the GIF Universal Printer as the value of the PRINTER=
option in the ODS PRINTER statement:
ods html close;
ods printer printer=gif;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates a file sasprt.gif in the current directory

Example of Creating a GIF Image Using the ODS

PRINTER Statement
Using the example data set Sashelp.Class and the SGPLOT procedure, the
following ODS PRINTER statement prints the GIF image sasprt.gif in the current
directory:
options printerpath=gif papersize=("4in" "4in") nodate;
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
reg x=height y=weight / CLM CLI;
run;
ods printer close;
ods html;
Here is the GIF image in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer:
 Creating PCL (Printer Command Language) Files Using Universal Printing 333

Creating PCL (Printer Command Language)

Files Using Universal Printing

PCL Files in SAS

PCL was developed by Hewlett-Packard (HP) as a language that applications use to
control a wide range of printer features across a number of printing devices. PCL
files that are created by Universal Printing can be sent to HP LaserJet printers and
HP Color LaserJet printers. Universal Printing PCL printers include the PCL4, PCL5,
PCL5c, and PCL5e printers:
n PCL4 produces monochrome output that is to be printed on legacy Hewlett-
Packard printers that support the PCL 4 language.
n PCL5 produces monochrome output that is to be printed on Hewlett-Packard
printers that support the PCL 5 language.
n PCL5c produces color output that is to be printed on Hewlett-Packard printers
that support the PCL 5c language.
n PCL5e produces monochrome output at 600 dpi by default and is to be printed
on Hewlett-Packard printers that support the PCL 5e language.
 334 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

For a description of the PCL printers, you can either view the printers in the SAS
registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output in the SAS
log:
proc qdevice;
printer pcl-printer-name;
run;

See Also
“Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273

Creating a PCL File

You can create a PCL file using the ODS PCL or ODS PRINTER statements. ODS
PCL uses the PCL5 Universal Printer by default. You can specify a different PCL
printer by setting a value for PRINTER= in the ODS PCL statement. You specify the
pcl-printer Universal Printer either as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system
option or as the value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement. If
you set the PRINTERPATH=pcl-printer system option, you do not need to specify
pcl-printer in the ODS PRINTER statement.
Here is some sample code to create a PCL file. The first sample specified does not
specify a Universal Printer in the ODS PCL statement and SAS uses the default
PCL5 printer. The second sample specified the PCL5 Universal Printer as the value
of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PCL statement.
n ods html close;
ods pcl;

...more SAS code...

ods pcl close;

ods html;

n ods html close;

ods pcl printer=pcl5;

...more SAS code...

ods pcl close;

ods html;

:
Using the same sample code, you can create a PCL file by substituting ODS PCL
with ODS PRINTER:
n ods html close;
ods printer printer=pcl5c;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

n options printerpath=pcl5c;
 Creating PDF Files Using Universal Printing 335

ods html close;

ods printer;

...more SAS code...

ods printerl close;

ods html;

SAS creates the file sasprt.pcl in the current directory. PCL files can be viewed after
they are created by sending the output to a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer or a
Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet printer. PCL files can also be viewed on a monitor
with some software applications.

Creating PDF Files Using Universal Printing

PDF Files in SAS

PDF files can be read by the Adobe Acrobat Reader and other applications. In SAS,
you create PDF files using the Output Delivery System (ODS). ODS uses the PDF
Universal Printing printer to create a PDF. ODS provides styles and templates that
you can apply to a document, or you can create your own styles and templates to
customize a document. For more information, see “ODS PDF Statement” in SAS
Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.
For a description of the PDF printer, you can either view the printer in the SAS
registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output in the SAS
log:
proc qdevice;
printer pdf;
run;

Note: If you have SAS/GRAPH installed, your PDF output can contain links and
pop-up text boxes. For more information, see “Enhancing Web Presentations with
Chart Descriptions, Data Tips, and Drill-Down Functionality” in SAS/GRAPH:
Reference.

Creating a PDF File

You can create a PDF file using the ODS PDF or ODS PRINTER statements. You
specify the PDF Universal Printer either as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system
option or as the value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement.
The ODS PDF statement creates output using the PDF Universal Printer. Therefore,
you do not need to explicitly specify the PDF Universal Printer when you use the
ODS PDF statement.
Here is some sample code to create a PDF file. In the first sample, the PDF
Universal Printer does not need to be specified because the ODS PDF statement
uses the PDF Universal Printer to create a PDF. In the second sample, the PDF
 336 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Universal Printer is specified as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option and
the ODS PRINTER statement creates the PDF:
n ods html close;
ods pdf;

...more SAS code...

ods pdf close;

ods html;

n options printerpath=pdf;
ods html close;
ods printer;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates a file sasprt.pdf in the current directory and opens the PDF in the
Results Viewer window.

Example of Creating a PDF Using the ODS PDF Statement

This example creates a PDF file that contains the first five observations of the data
set Sashelp.Class:
options obs=5 nodate pageno=1;
ods html close;
ods pdf;

proc print data=sashelp.class;

run;

ods pdf close;

ods html;
Here is the PDF output:
 Creating PDF Files Using Universal Printing 337

Figure 15.31 Sashelp.Class in a PDF File

System Options That Affect PDF Output

Before you create PDF output, you can use SAS system options to set document
security restrictions. The document security restrictions specify what can be done to
the document, as well as the security method, the printing resolution, and the
encryption level.
The following table lists the system options that can be used to set the PDF
document security restrictions:

System Option Description

PDFACCESS Specifies whether the PDF document can be edited.

PDFASSEMBLY Specifies whether PDF documents can be assembled.

PDFCOMMENT Specifies whether PDF document comments can be

modified.

PDFCONTENT Specifies whether the contents of a PDF document can be

changed.
 338 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

System Option Description

PDFCOPY Specifies whether text and graphics from a PDF document

can be copied.

PDFFILLIN Specifies whether PDF forms can be filled in.

PDFPAGELAYOUT Specifies the page layout for PDF documents.

PDFPAGEVIEW Specifies the page viewing mode for PDF documents.

PDFPASSWORD Specifies the password to use to open a PDF document and

the password used by a PDF document owner.

PDFPRINT Specifies the resolution to print PDF documents.

PDFSECURITY Specifies the level of encryption for PDF documents.

Creating PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

Files Using Universal Printing

Portable Network Graphics in SAS

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is an image format that was designed to replace
GIF and TIFF image formats that are viewed on the World Wide Web. PNG images
that are created with the SAS Universal Printer or a SAS/GRAPH device driver use
the PNG Reference Library, also known as Libpng. PNG is the default format for
graphics output for the ODS HTML destination and for SAS/GRAPH.
For a description of the PNG printer, you can either view the printer in the SAS
registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output in the SAS
log:
proc qdevice;
printer png;
run;

See Also
“Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273

The PNG Universal Printers

SAS provides three PNG Universal Printers.
 Creating PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 339

Table 15.18 PNG Universal Printers Provided by SAS

Printer Name Description

PNG produces PNG images at 96 dpi

PNGt produces PNG images at 96 dpi with a transparent background

PNG300 produces PNG images at 300 dpi

PNG printers do not support multiple page documents. If a procedure creates

multiple pages or if more than one procedure is used in the code for ODS PRINTER
output, only the first page is viewable.

Creating a PNG Image

You can create a PNG image using the ODS PRINTER statements. You specify the
PNG Universal Printer as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option or as the
value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement.
Here is sample code to create a PNG image:
ods html close;
ods printer printer=png;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates the file sasprt.png in the current directory.

In SAS/GRAPH, the PNG device is a shortcut to the PNG Universal Printer. For
information about creating PNG images using SAS/GRAPH devices, see
SAS/GRAPH: Reference.

Example of Creating a PNG File Using the ODS PRINTER

Statement
To create a PNG image in SAS using one of the PNG Universal Printers, specify the
PNG printer in the PRINTERPATH= system option and the ODS PRINTER
statement as shown in the following example:
options printerpath=png nodate;
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks
(where=(date >= "01jan2000"d and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Trend";
series x=date y=close;
series x=date y=low;
series x=date y=high;
 340 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

run;
ods printer close;
ods html;

The following output is the PNG graphic displayed in Windows Picture and Fax
Viewer:

Figure 15.32 A PNG Image Using ODS Printer

Web Browsers and Viewers That Support PNG Files

The following browsers and viewers, using the specified version or later, support
most PNG image capabilities:
n Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.01b

n Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.4

n Netscape Navigator 6

n IrfanView for Windows

n Microsoft Photo Editor

n Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

For more information about browsers and viewers that support PNG images, see
the PNG web pages at www.libpng.org.
 Creating PostScript Files Using Universal Printing 341

Creating PostScript Files Using Universal

Printing

PostScript Files in SAS

Universal Printing supports several levels of the PostScript printer. The default
PostScript printer and the default Universal Printer is the PostScript Level 1 color
printer. You create PostScript files using the Output Delivery System (ODS).
For a description of the PostScript Universal Printer, you can either view the printer
in the SAS registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output
in the SAS log:
proc qdevice;
printer postscript;
run;

PostScript output supports transparent GIF files. You can use Ghostview to view
PostScript files. If you have Acrobat Distiller installed, you can distill the PostScript
file to create a PDF file that you can view in Adobe Reader.

See Also
“Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273

Creating a PostScript File

You can create a PostScript file using the ODS PS or ODS PRINTER statements.
You specify the PS Universal Printer either as the value of the PRINTERPATH=
system option or as the value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER
statement. The ODS PS statement creates output using the PS Universal Printer.
Therefore, you do not need to explicitly specify the PS Universal Printer when you
use the ODS PS statement.
Here is some sample code to create a PS file. In the first sample, the PS Universal
Printer does not need to be specified because the ODS PS statement uses the PS
Universal Printer to create a PS file. In the second sample, the PS Universal Printer
is specified as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option and the ODS
PRINTER statement creates the PS file:
n ods html close;
ods ps;

...more SAS code...

ods ps close;
ods html;
 342 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

n options printerpath=ps;
ods html close;
ods printer;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates a file sasprt.ps in the current directory.

Example of Creating a PostScript File Using the ODS PS

Statement
This example creates a PS file that contains the first five observations of the data
set Sashelp.Class:
options obs=5 nodate pageno=1;
ods html close;
ods ps;

proc print data=sashelp.class;

run;

ods ps close;
ods html;
Here is the distilled PostScript file in PDF output:
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 343

Figure 15.33 Sashelp.Class in a PDF File

Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files

Using Universal Printing

Overview of Scalable Vector Graphics in SAS

Scalable Vector Graphics in SAS

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML language for describing two-dimensional
vector graphics. SAS creates SVG documents based on the W3C recommendation
for SVG documents. SAS SVG documents are created using the UNICODE
standard encoding UTF-8.
SAS can create SVG documents by using Universal Printers and SAS/GRAPH
device drivers. Because SAS/GRAPH SVG device drivers use the SVG Universal
Printers, this section contains some information about creating SVG documents
using SAS/GRAPH.
344 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Most often in SAS, the SVG Universal Printers and device drivers are used to create
graphs. Graphs can be created by using ODS Graphics or SAS/GRAPH. You can
also use the SVG Universal Printers to show tables or reports that you create as
SVG documents.
Several ODS destinations (EPUB, HTML, HTML5, LISTING, and PRINTER
destinations) can be used to create SVG documents. SVG is the default Universal
Printer and device driver for the ODS HTML5 destination.
SVG documents can be stand-alone files or integrated within an HTML5 or EPUB
file. A stand-alone SVG document can be referenced as a link target, referenced as
an embedded file in an HTML document, or referenced as a CSS2 or XSL property.
For information about embedding SVG documents in web pages, see the topic on
using SVG documents in web pages in the SVG 1.1 specification on the W3 SVG
website http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG.
Multi-page SVG documents can be animated in Base SAS and SAS/GRAPH. When
you create animated SVG documents in Base SAS using Universal Printing without
specifying any ODS Graphics procedures, the animated SVG documents appear as
a slide show or an animated PowerPoint presentation. For more information, see
“Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents” on page 375.
If you have SAS/GRAPH installed, your SVG documents can contain links and pop-
up text boxes.
The information provided here is limited to creating SVG documents using Universal
Printers in Base SAS and ODS Graphics. For more information about creating SVG
files in SAS/GRAPH, see “Enhancing Web Presentations with Chart Descriptions,
Data Tips, and Drill-Down Functionality” in SAS/GRAPH: Reference.
For detailed information about the SVG standard, see the W3 documentation at
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG.

SVG Terminology
SVG canvas
the space upon which the SVG document is rendered.
viewBox
specifies the coordinate system and the area of the SVG document that is visible
in the viewport.
viewport
a finite rectangular space within the SVG canvas where an SVG document is
rendered. In SAS, the viewport is determined by the value of the PAPERSIZE=
system option for a scalable viewport and by the SVGWIDTH= and
SVGHEIGHT= system options for a static viewport.
viewport coordinate system or viewport space
the starting X and Y coordinates and the width and height values of the viewport.
user coordinate system or user space
the starting X and Y coordinates and the width and height values of the area of
the document to display in the viewport.
user units
is equal to one unit of measurement that is defined in your environment's
coordinate system. In many cases, the coordinate system uses pixels. Check
with your system administrator to determine the unit of measure that is used in
your environment.
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 345

Why Create SVG Documents?

SVG documents are displayed clearly at any size in any viewer or browser that
supports SVG. SVG documents are ideal for producing documents to display on a
computer monitor, PDA, or cell phone; or documents to be printed. Because it is a
vector graphic, a single SVG document can be transformed to any screen resolution
without compromising the clarity of the document. In comparison, a multiple raster
graphic image might require using different screen resolutions in order to display the
image at various screen resolutions and sizes.
An SVG document might also be smaller in file size than the same image created by
a raster graphic Universal Printer, such as GIF or PNG.

Web Server Content Type for SVG Documents

If the mime content type setting for your web server does not have the correct
setting for SVG documents, your web browser might render SVG documents as text
files, or SVG documents might be unreadable.
To ensure that SVG documents are rendered correctly, configure your web server to
use this mime content type:
image/svg+xml

The SVG Universal Printers and the Output That They

Create
The following table lists the SAS SVG Universal Printers.

Table 15.19 SVG Universal Printers

Printer Name Description

SVG * produces SVG 1.1 documents.

SVGt * produces SVG 1.1 documents that are

transparent (no background).

SVGnotip produces SVG 1.1 documents without

tooltips.

SVGZ * produces compressed SVG 1.1 documents.

SVGView * produces SVG1.1 documents with

navigational controls when the SVG file
contains multiple pages.

* When you use this printer in SAS/GRAPH, you can create pop-up data tips. For more information,
see “Data Tips for Web Presentations” in SAS/GRAPH: Reference.
 346 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

SVG prototypes for creating printers are available in the SAS Registry under CORE
\PRINTING\PROTOTYPES. You can define your own SVG printer using the
PRTDEF procedure. For more information, see “PRTDEF Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide and “Managing Universal Printers Using the PRTDEF Procedure”
on page 302.
For a description of an SVG printer, you can either view the printer in the SAS
registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output in the SAS
log:
proc qdevice;
printer svg-printer-name;
run;

See Also
n “Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273
n “Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents” on page 375

How to Create SVG Documents

Fundamentals of Creating SVG Documents Using Universal

Printers
You can create SVG documents by using the Print dialog box or by using
programming statements.
To create SVG documents by using the Print dialog box, select an SVG printer from
the Name drop-down list box.
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 347

Figure 15.34 Print Dialog Box for Printing an SVG Document

To create SVG documents programmatically, specify an SVG Universal Printer as

the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option. Also, specify an ODS destination,
such as the ODS PRINTER statement, as shown below.
options printerpath=svg;
ods html close;
ods printer;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

Alternatively, you can specify the SVG printer in the ODS PRINTER statement and
eliminate the OPTIONS statement, as shown below.
ods html close;
ods printer printer=svg;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;
348 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

To create SVG graphs using SAS/GRAPH, you can use the ODS LISTING
statement:
You can create SVG graphs for ODS Graphics using these statements:
n ods html5 options (svg_mode="inline");
ods graphics /imagefmt=svg;

...more SAS code...

ods html5 close;

n options printerpath=svg;
ods html;

...more SAS code...

ods html close;

n ods listing;
ods graphics /imagefmt=svg;

...more SAS code...

ods listing close;

n Using SAS/GRAPH:
ods listing;
goptions dev=SVG;

...more SAS code...

ods listing close;

SAS has several system options that enable you to modify various aspects of your
SVG document. Here are some SVG document traits:
n a specific SVG Universal Printer

n the height and width of the SVG document

n the size of the viewBox

n whether a multi-page SVG document contains navigational controls

By using the NEWFILE option in the ODS PRINTER statement, you can create an
SVG document for the output from each procedure or DATA step.
For more information, see the following language elements:
n “PRINTERPATH= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “ODS PRINTER Statement” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide

n System Options for SVG Documents on page 353

A Summary of ODS Destinations to Create SVG

Documents
The following table shows the ODS destinations that you can use to create SVG
documents and the output that is created:
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 349

Destination Type of SVG Document Output Created

ODS EPUB * graphs created by ODS an EPUB file with integrated

Graphics and SAS/GRAPH SVG documents

ODS HTML graphs created by ODS an SVG file for each graph
Graphics and SAS/GRAPH and an HTML file

ODS HTML5 graphs created by ODS an HTML file with integrated

svg_mode='inline' * Graphics and SAS/GRAPH SVG documents

ODS HTML5 graphs created by ODS an SVG file for each graph
svg_mode='embed' * Graphics and SAS/GRAPH and an HTML file

ODS LISTING graphs created by ODS an SVG file for each graph
Graphics and SAS/GRAPH

ODS PRINTER all output created by the one SVG file for all output
DATA step and SAS created between ODS
procedures PRINTER and ODS
PRINTER CLOSE

* SVG is the default printer.

Note: Graphs that are created by ODS Graphics do not use options that are
specified by the GOPTIONS SAS/GRAPH statement. The GOPTIONS statement is
valid only for SAS/GRAPH.
The default filename for an SVG file that was created with an ODS Graphics
procedure is prefixed with the procedure name. For example, the default filename
for PROC SGPLOT output could be sgplot01.svg. The default filename for an SVG
file that was created using ODS PRINTER is sasprt.svg.

Browser Support for Viewing SVG Documents

Browsers That Support SVG Documents

In order to view SVG documents, you need a viewer or browser that supports
Scalable Vector Graphics. Some browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, have built-in
support for SVG documents.
The following table lists some browsers and viewers that support SVG documents.

Table 15.20 SVG Browser Support

Browser or Viewer Company

Batik SVG Toolkit Apache Software Foundation

eSVG Viewer and IDE eSVG Viewer for PC, PDA, Mobile

Google Chrome * Google Inc.

GPAC Project GPAC

 350 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Browser or Viewer Company

Internet Explorer 9 or later* Microsoft

Mozilla Firefox * Mozilla Foundation

Opera Opera Software ASA

Safari, including iPad* Apple, Inc.

TinyLine TinyLine

* This browser is supported by SAS.

Notes on Using Mozilla Firefox

n Compressed SVG documents using the SVGZ Universal Printer are not
supported.
n Zooming and panning features are not currently implemented.

n If you select View ð Page Style ð No Style, all graphs appear as a black
rectangle.
n Firefox does not support font embedding. To avoid font mapping problems in
your SVG document, you can set the NOFONTEMBEDDING system option. If
the FONTEMBEDDING option is set when an SVG document is created and the
SVG document is subsequently viewed in Firefox, Firefox uses the default font
setting that is defined on the Contents tab in the Firefox Options dialog box.

Notes on SVG Documents in HTML5 Output

In HTML5 output, SVG document height and width attributes are set to the size of
the SVG because many browsers do not scale an SVG file to 100% of the container.
The Google Chrome and Safari browsers do scale the SVG file to 100% of the
container.
To enable scaling of SVG files that can be scaled to the size of the container, you
set the SVGHEIGHT= and SVGWIDTH= system options to 100%:
options svgheight="100%" svgwidth="100%";

SVGZ documents that you create for ODS HTML5 output can be viewed only with
the Google Chrome or Opera web browsers.

Images in SVG Documents

When your SAS program creates an SVG document that contains images, SAS
does the following for each image in the document:
n converts the specified image to a PNG format

n encodes the PNG image using base64 encoding

n embeds the base64 encoded PNG image into the SVG document
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 351

In the SVG document, the <image> element has an xlink attribute that begins as
follows:
xlink:href="data:image/png;base64,

The base64 encoded image follows after base64,.

By default, the SVG Universal printer encodes PNG files and embeds them in the
SVG document. In the following example, you see the <image> element at the
bottom. The encoded image begins after the /png;base64, element attribute. The
first characters of the image are iVBORwOK. The encoded characters extend to the
right on the same line and cannot be shown in this document.

The image is the SAS logo in this SVG document:

Output 15.4 SVG document viewed in a web browser

The following program created the embedded image:

proc template;
define style logo;
parent = Styles.barrettsblue;
style Body from Body /
backgroundimage = 'c:\saslogo.png';
end;
run;

ods html close;

options nodate nonumber orientation=landscape obs=5;

ods printer style=logo printer=svgview file='logo.svg';

proc print data=sashelp.class;

title color="black" 'Five Observations of sashelp.class';
 352 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

run;
ods printer close;
ods html;

An alternative to embedding encoded PNG files in an SVG document, the SVG

Universal Printer can create separate PNG files and link to them from within the
SVG document. Here is an example of an <image> element in an SVG document:
<image id="Image3" width="200" height="150" xlink:href="I3svgimg.png">
</image>

The SVG Universal Printer creates separate PNG files when the SVG printer that
you are using has the Images Embedded registry setting set to 0.
To set this registry setting, do the following:

1 To open the Registry editor, select Solutions ð Accessories ð Registry

Editor.

2 In the Registry Editor, expand CORE ð PRINTING ð PRINTERS ð svg-printer

ð ADVANCED.

3 Right—click Images Embedded, select Modify, and change Value Data to 0.

4 Click OK.

The PNG filename has the form counterPrinterDestinationFilename.png. counter is

an integer that is incremented each time a new image is created.
PrinterDestinationFilename is the output destination filename for the printer. For
example, using the default printer destination filename, sasprt, the first three images
would be named I1sasprt.png, I2sasprt.png, and I3sasprt.png.
SAS writes a note in the SAS log with the path to the images.

Setting the Environment to Create Stand-alone SVG

Documents

Overview of Setting the Environment to Create Stand-alone

SVG Documents
As shown in “Fundamentals of Creating SVG Documents Using Universal Printers”
on page 346, an SVG Universal Printer must be specified either as the printer value
using the PRINTERPATH= system option or the ODS Printer statement. You can set
any of the SVG system options when SAS is invoked in a SAS program by using the
OPTIONS statement, or by using the SAS System Options window.
SAS SVG documents can be created easily by using default values for SVG system
options (except for the PRINTERPATH= system option) that establish the SVG
environment. This section explains the SVG system options and how they effect
stand-alone SVG documents.
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 353

SAS System Options That Affect Stand-alone SVG

Documents
You can use the following system options to set the environment for creating SVG
documents:

Table 15.21 SAS System Options That Affect SVG Documents

Task System Option

Specify the name of an SVG printer to create a PRINTERPATH=

stand-alone SVG document.

Embed a comment in the SVG document COLOPHON

Options to set the SVG document size

Set the paper size to use for Universal Printing. PAPERSIZE=

Set the height of the SVG document. If the SVG SVGHEIGHT=

document has embedded SVG documents, the
height value affects only the outermost SVG
document.

Set the width of the SVG document. If the SVG SVGWIDTH=

document has embedded SVG documents, the
width value affects only the outermost SVG
document.

Set the x-axis coordinate for the lower left SVGX=

corner of an embedded SVG document.

Set the y-axis coordinate for lower left corner of SVGY=

an embedded SVG document.

Specify the X and Y coordinates, and the width SVGVIEWBOX=

and height that are used to set the viewBox for
the outermost SVG document; specify the
coordinates of the area of the document that is
displayed in the viewport.

Specify whether to force uniform scaling of an SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO=

SVG document.

Options that modify the SVG document appearance

Set the title that appears in the title bar of the SVGTITLE=
SVG document.

Specify whether to display navigational controls SVGCONTROLBUTTONS

in a multi-page SVG document.

Specify whether to display the magnify tool in SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON

SVG documents.

Options for animating SVG documents

354 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Task System Option

Start or stop creating an animation file. ANIMATION

Set the amount of time that each frame of an ANIMDURATION

animated document is held in view.

Specifies whether to loop through the animation ANIMLOOP

continuously or to play it one time.

Specifies whether to overlay frames in the ANIMOVERLAY

animation or to play them sequentially.

Specifies whether to immediately start an SVGAUTOPLAY

animation when an SVG document appears in
the web browser.

Sets the number of seconds for a frame to fade SVGFADEIN

into view.

Specifies whether a frame in the animation SVGFADEMODE

overlaps the previous frame or if each frame is
played sequentially when a frame is specified to
fade in and out.

Sets the number of seconds for a frame to fade SVGFADEOUT

out of view.

For more information, see SAS System Options: Reference.

Setting the SVG Universal Printer

You set the SVG Universal Printer by setting the PRINTERPATH= system option to
one of the SVG Universal Printers. You can set the PRINTERPATH= system option
at any time. The following OPTIONS statement sets the Universal Printer to create
compressed SVG documents:
options printerpath=svgz;

For more information, see the following topics:

n “The SVG Universal Printers and the Output That They Create” on page 345

n “PRINTERPATH= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “Fundamentals of Creating SVG Documents Using Universal Printers” on page
346

Scaling an SVG Document to the Viewport

To scale an SVG document to the viewport, you can use the default value of null for
the SVGHEIGHT= and SVGWIDTH= system options. A null value equates to the
value of 100%, which scales the SVG document to the size of the viewport. In
addition, the value of the SVGVIEWBOX= system option must be null.
For more information, see the following system options in SAS System Options:
Reference:
n SVGHEIGHT= System Option
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 355

n SVGWIDTH= System Option

n SVGVIEWBOX= System Option

Setting the ViewBox

The viewBox attribute on the <svg> element is a set of four numbers: the starting X
coordinate, the starting Y coordinate, the height of the SVG document, and the
width of the SVG document. SAS sets the viewBox attribute value from the value of
the SVGVIEWBOX= system option. If that option has no value, SAS uses the value
of the PAPERSIZE= system option to set the height and the width arguments of the
viewBox attribute. The starting coordinate values are set to 0.
When the SVGVIEWBOX=, SVGHEIGHT=, and SVGWIDTH= system options have
a null value (the default value for each of these system options), the SVG document
scales to the size of the viewport. If you specify a value for the SVGVIEWBOX=
system option, the SVG document is scaled to the dimensions specified in the
SVGVIEWBOX= option.
If you specify the SVGHEIGHT= option and the SVGWIDTH= option using
percentage units, the SVG document scales to the size of the browser window
whenever the browser window changes size. If these options are specified using
units other than percentage, such as in, cm, or px, the SVG document is a static
size and does not scale to the browser window when the window changes size.
For more information, see the following topics:
n “ODS PRINTER Statement” in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide

n “SVGVIEWBOX= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “PAPERSIZE= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference

n “Creating a Static viewBox” on page 356

Interaction between SAS SVG System Options and the

SVG Element Attributes
SAS uses the values of the SVGHEIGHT=, SVGWIDTH=, SVGVIEWBOX=,
SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO=, SVGX=, and SVGY= system options as values
for their respective attributes on the outermost <svg> element: height, width,
viewBox, and preserveAspectRatio. For example, if you specify SVGWIDTH=“400”
and SVGHEIGHT=“300”, SAS creates the <svg> element with the attributes
width=“400” and height=“300”. The values of the SVGX= and SVGY= system
options are used only on embedded <svg> elements for the x and y attributes.
All of these system options have a null default value. When the SVGVIEWBOX=
system option is null, SAS determines the viewBox size based on the value of the
PAPERSIZE= system option. Therefore, if you do not specify a value for any of
these system options, the only <svg> attribute that SAS sets is the viewBox attribute
using the SAS SVG system options. Other <svg> attributes, such as version and
xmlns are set by SAS and not by using system options.
SAS creates the following <svg> element when all of the SAS SVG system options
are set to their default values:
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xml:space="preserve" baseProfile="full" version="1.1"
id="SVGMain" onload='SVGMain_Init("SVGMain")'
356 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

viewBox="-1 -1 801 601">

The SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO= system option is used to set the

preserveAspectRatio attribute in the <svg> element and has an effect only when the
viewBox attribute has also been specified in an SVG document.
Negative values can be specified for the values of SVG options. However, if a
negative value is specified for the SVGHEIGHT= option or the SVGWIDTH= option,
or the height or width arguments in the SVGVIEWBOX= option, the SVG document
is not rendered by the browser. It can be useful to specify negative values for the x
and y arguments of the SVGVIEWBOX= option to place the origin of the SVG
document. A negative argument in the SVGVIEWBOX= option shifts the output to
the right. A negative value of the SVGVIEWBOX= option shifts the placement of the
document downward.

Creating a Static viewBox

A static viewBox is a viewBox that cannot be changed. When the viewport changes,
such as when you resize your browser window, the viewBox remains the same size.
To create a static viewBox, you specify the same width and height values for the
PAPERSIZE=, SVGWIDTH=, and SVGHEIGHT= system options. The PAPERSIZE=
system option sets the viewBox. The SVGWIDTH= and SVGHEIGHT= system
options set the size of the SVG document. IF the SVGHEIGHT= and SVGWIDTH=
options are specified using percentage unit, the SVG document scales to the size of
the browser window when the browser window changes size. Figure 15.35 on page
356 shows a static viewBox created by using the following system options:
options nodate printerpath=svg papersize=("8cm" "5cm") svgwidth="8cm" svgheight="5cm"
svgtitle="Sashelp.Class Plotted by The SGPLOT Procedure";

Figure 15.35 A Static Viewbox

 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 357

To reset the SVGWIDTH=, SVGHEIGHT=, and SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO=

system options to null, specify two single quotation marks or two double quotation
marks with no space between them:
options printerpath=svg svgwidth="" svgheight="" svgpreserveaspectratio="";

Preserving the Aspect Ratio

When you change the size of the viewBox, you can use the
SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO= system option to specify whether you want to
preserve the aspect ratio of the SVG document and how to place the SVG
document in the viewport. Set this option by using one of the following assignments:
SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO=align | meetOrSlice | NONE | “”
SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO=“align meetOrSlice”
The first argument, align, specifies whether to force uniform scaling by specifying
the alignment method to use. For example, you can use the xMidYMid value to align
the midpoint X value of the viewBox to the midpoint X value of the viewport, which
centers the document horizontally.
The second argument, meetOrSlice, specifies how to scale the SVG document to
the viewBox. The value for this argument can be either meet or slice. If you specify
meet, the SVG document is scaled up as much as possible while meeting other
criteria. The viewport displays some unused space. If you specify slice, the SVG
document is scaled down as much as possible while meeting other criteria. In the
latter case, some of the SVG document appears to be cut off. The SVG document is
still complete, but you cannot see all of it in the viewport. You can use your browser
controls to move the SVG document around in the viewport.
For more information, see “SVGPRESERVEASPECTRATIO= System Option” in
SAS System Options: Reference.

Including the Magnify Tool in SVG Documents

You can include a magnify tool in SVG documents by setting the
SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON system option. When the tool is enabled, a magnifying
glass is available to enlarge a portion of an SVG document. The size of the
magnification area cannot be changed.

By default, the magnify tool is not included in the SVG document. You must explicitly
set the SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON system option. You can use this OPTIONS
statement:
options svgmagnifybutton;

To disable the magnify tool, use the NOSVGMAGNIFYBUTTON system option.

 358 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

When the magnify tool is enabled, the Magnify button, ,

appears at the top of the SVG document. To make the magnifying glass appear,
click Magnify. Using the mouse, move the magnifying glass over the SVG
document to enlarge the area under the glass. To turn the magnifying glass off, click
Magnify again. By default, the magnifying glass enlarges the area using a
magnification level of three. Click on + to increase the magnification level and – to
decrease the magnification level. When the SVG document is viewed on an iPad,
the first tap of the Magnify button displays the tooltip. The second and subsequent
taps change the magnification and closes the magnifying glass.
There are some restrictions for using the magnify tool:
n The magnify tool is not supported for the SVGT printer and animated SVG
documents.
n When you use the SVGnotip printer, no tooltip is displayed to tell you to enable
or disable the magnifying glass.
n When the magnify tool is enabled, the magnify tool is turned off on the Index
page of a multi-page document.
The magnify tool is more useful when the SVG document is viewed in browsers that
expect an SVG document to control the zoom level.
For more information, see “SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON System Option” in SAS System
Options: Reference.

Adding a Title to an SVG Document

You use the SVGTITLE= system option to add a title to the title bar of a window
when the browser displays only the SVG document. If the SVG document is
embedded in an HTML page, the svgtitle attribute on the <svg> tag has no effect.
The static viewport example in the previous topic shows a title in the browser title
bar.
For more information, see “SVGTITLE= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.

Creating Stand-alone SVG Documents Using the ODS

PRINTER Destination

Creating an SVG Document

To create an SVG document, you need to at least set the PRINTERPATH= system
option to an SVG Universal printer and specify the ODS PRINTER statement in your
SAS program. Or, specify the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement:
options printerpath=svg;
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
reg x=height y=weight / CLM CLI;
run;
ods printer close;
ods html;
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 359

In this example, no specific SVG system option values were set to size the SVG
document. Therefore, the viewBox is the default size specified by the PAPERSIZE=
system option. The SVG document scales to the viewport because no value was
specified for the SVGWIDTH= and SVGHEIGHT= system options. The following is
the <svg> element that SAS creates:
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xml:space="preserve" baseProfile="full" version="1.1"
id="SVGMain" onload='SVGMain_Init("SVGMain")'
viewBox="-1 -1 801 601">

SAS creates a single SVG document named sasprt.svg and stores it in a specific
location, depending on your operating environment. Under Windows, the file is
stored in the current directory. Under UNIX, the file is stored in your home directory.
Under z/OS, the file is stored as a z/OS UNIX System Services Hierarchal File
System (HFS) file, or as a z/OS data set. If the SVG file is written to a z/OS data set,
it is written to PDSE library userid.SASPRT.SVG. You can use the FILE= option in
the ODS PRINTER statement to specify a different filename.
The following figure is an SVG file that uses the Adobe Acrobat SVG plug-in for
Microsoft Internet Explorer. This file was created by using the SGPLOT procedure to
plot the Sashelp.Class data set.

Figure 15.36 Sashelp.Class Plotted by the SGPLOT Procedure as an SVG File

360 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

When you use the SVG, SVGnotip, SVGt, SVGView, and SVGZ Universal Printers,
SAS creates a single SVG document. Depending on the size of the SVG document,
the browser might display the complete SVG document. Check the documentation
for your browser to determine whether your browser has controls for viewing SVG
documents. In the Adobe SVG Viewer plug-in for Internet Explorer, you can press
the Alt key and the left mouse button to pan and move to different pages in a
continuous, multi-page SVG document.

Multi-Page SVG Documents in a Single File

When a DATA step or procedure creates a new page in the output, a new SVG page
is created in an SVG document. SAS creates either one file with multiple pages or
multiple SVG files with one file for each SVG document page. The
SVGCONTROLBUTTONS system option and the NEWFILE= option in the ODS
PRINTER statement control whether a multi-page SVG document is one continuous
file (with controls to navigate the pages in the file) or multiple SVG files.
SAS creates a single-file, multi-page SVG document with navigational controls when
the NEWFILE= option of the ODS PRINTER statement is a value other than PAGE,
and one of the following set of system options is specified:
n The PRINTERPATH= system option is set to SVG or SVGZ, and the
SVGCONTROLBUTTONS system option is set.
n The PRINTERPATH= system option is set to SVGView.

The SVGView Universal Printer enables the SVGCONTROLBUTTONS system

option.
If the SVGCONTROLBUTTONS system option is not specified or the Universal
Printer is not SVGView, the SVG document is created in a continuous-page layout.
To navigate the document, you would use your browser controls.
The navigation controls enable you to go to the next page, the previous page, the
first page, or the last page; to display an index of all pages; or to hide or show the
controls.
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 361

Figure 15.37 First Page of a Multi-page SVG File with Navigation Controls

To display an index of all pages in the SVG file, select the Index button. To go to a
specific page from the index, select the thumbnail image of the page.
362 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.38 Index of a Multi-page SVG File with Navigation Controls

You can hide the control buttons by selecting the SVG Controls button. The tooltip
is displayed when the cursor is over the control. To show the navigation controls
again, click in the top area of the output when you see the tooltip Click to toggle
SVG control button bar. This is useful when you want to print a page in the
document without the SVG controls.
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 363

Figure 15.39 A Multi-page SVG File That Hides the Navigational Controls

Here is the SAS code that created the stocks.svg file:

options nodate printerpath=(svgview stocks) papersize=("6" "6") ;
filename stocks 'c:\mySas\output\stocks.svg';
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks (where=(date >= "01jan2000"d
and date <= "01jan2001"d
and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Volume vs. Close";
vbar date / response=volume;
vline date / response=close y2axis;
run;
title;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks
(where=(date >= "01jan2000"d and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Trend";
series x=date y=close;
series x=date y=low;
364 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

series x=date y=high;

run;
title;
title "Stock High, Low, and Close";
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks;
where Date >= '01JAN2005'd and stock='IBM';
highlow x=date high=high low=low
/ close=close;
run;
title;
ods printer close;
ods html;

For information about the NEWFILE= option, see “ODS PRINTER Statement” in
SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

Animating Multi-Page SVG Files

You can animate multi-page SVG files using SAS system options. For more
information, see “Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents” on page
375.

Creating Separate Files for Multi-Page SVG Documents

You can create a separate file for each page in an SVG document by specifying the
NEWFILE=PAGE option in the ODS PRINTER statement. A new page is created
when a procedure explicitly starts a new page and not when the page size is
exceeded. The first file is named filename.svg. Subsequent filenames have a
number appended, starting with the number 1: filename1.svg, filename2.svg, and so
on.
Using the default filename sasprt.svg, the following code creates three files:
n sasprt.svg contains the output from the first SGPLOT procedure.

n sasprt1.svg contains the output from the second SGPLOT procedure.

n sasprt2.svg contains the output from the third SGPLOT procedure.

options nodate printerpath=svgview papersize=("6" "6");
ods html close;
ods printer newfile=page;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks (where=(date >= "01jan2000"d
and date <= "01jan2001"d
and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Volume vs. Close";
vbar date / response=volume;
vline date / response=close y2axis;
run;
title;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks
(where=(date >= "01jan2000"d and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Trend";
series x=date y=close;
series x=date y=low;
series x=date y=high;
run;
title;
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 365

title "Stock High, Low, and Close";

proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks;
where Date >= '01JAN2005'd and stock='IBM';
highlow x=date high=high low=low
/ close=close;
run;
title;
ods printer close;
ods html;

For information about the NEWFILE= option, see “ODS PRINTER Statement” in
SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.

Creating Overlaid Transparent SVG Documents

You use the SVTt Universal Printer to create a transparent SVG document in which
the pages are transparent and can be overlaid. The following is a SAS program that
overlays a bar chart on a map of the United States:
data boxanno;
length function color style $20 text $16;
retain xsys ysys '2' hsys '3' when 'a';
set maps.uscity(keep=x y city state);
where city='Raleigh' and state=stfips('NC');
color='blue'; size=4; text='V'; position='5'; style='marker'; output;
myx=x;
myy=y;
function='move';
x=myx; y=myy; output;
function='draw';
x=myx-.432; y=myy+.0417; color='black'; line=1; size=.2; style='solid'; output;
function='move';
x=myx; y=myy; output;
function='draw';
x=myx-.432; y=myy+.178; output;
function='move';
x=myx; y=myy; output;
function='draw';
x=myx-.251; y=myy+.178; output;
function='move';
x=myx; y=myy; output;
function='draw';
x=myx-.251; y=myy+.0417; output;

run;

%let name=annomap;
filename odsout '.';

goptions reset=all;
/* Close the HTML and LISTING destinations for map creation. */
ods html close;
ods listing close;
options printerpath=svgt nodate nonumber;
ods printer file='annomap.svg' ;
366 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

goptions border;

goptions gunit=pct htitle=3 htext=2 ftext="arial/bo"

iback='c:\public\mySASPrograms\ripple.jpg';
pattern1 v=s c=cornsilk;

title1 c=red "SAS/Graph gmap and Overlayed gchart with printerpath=svgt";

proc gmap data=maps.us map=maps.us ;
id state;
choro state / levels=1 nolegend coutline=blue anno=boxanno
des="" name="&name";
run;

quit;

goptions iback= hsize=2.07 vsize=1.57 horigin=2.1 vorigin=3.12 autosize=on dev=svgt;

/* you must use the default ods style, for transparency to work */

goptions gunit=pct htext=8 ftext="Albany AMT" ;

title c=blue h=10 'Transparent SVG';
axis1 label=none value=none major=none minor=none style=0;
axis2 color=blue label=none offset=(7,7) value=(color=blue);
proc gchart data=sashelp.class;
vbar3d age / discrete patternid=midpoint
descending raxis=axis1 maxis=axis2 width=9 space=5
frame cframe=rgba0195FF50 coutline=blue woutline=1
des="" name="&name.b";
run;

quit;

ods printer close;

This code creates the following SVG:

 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 367

Figure 15.40 A Bar Chart Overlaying a SAS/GRAPH Map

See “Enhancing Drill-Down Behavior in SVG Presentations Using HTML Attributes”

in SAS/GRAPH: Reference for an example of using overlaid images for drill-down
links in graphs.

SVG Documents in HTML Files

Overview of SVG Documents in HTML Files

To view an SVG document in an HTML file, you either create a link to the SVG
document, embed the SVG document in the HTML file, or create an SVG graph that
is integrated in the HTML file.
You can embed an SVG document in an HTML file using these methods:
n Create an SVG graph using ODS GRAPHICS and the ODS HTML5 statement
with the option SVG_MODE="EMBED".
n Use SAS/GRAPH and run your SAS program using the ODS HTML DEV=SVG
statement. SAS creates the SVG document and the HTML file, embedding the
SVG document in the HTML file using the <EMBED> element.
368 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

n Create an SVG document using the ODS PRINTER statement and the
PRINTERPATH=SVG option. Then, embed the SVG document in an HTML file
using the <EMBED> element.
You can integrate an SVG graph in an HTML file by using the ODS HTML5
SVG_MODE='INLINE' statement.
For information about creating SVG document in SAS/GRAPH, see “Generating
SVG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF Graphics” in SAS/GRAPH: Reference.

Linking to an SVG Document

If you link to an SVG document in an HTML document and you are using the default
values for the SVG system options, the SVG document opens in the browser
window and scales to the size of the viewable area in the window. For an example
of an HTML file that links to an SVG document, see Figure 15.41 on page 369 and
Figure 15.42 on page 370.

Embedding SVG Documents in HTML Files

When you embed SVG documents in an HTML file, the height and width attributes
of the <EMBED> tag become the dimensions of the viewport. If you use the default
values for the SVG system options when you create your SVG document, the SVG
document scales to the size of the viewport. This is because there is no default
value of the SVGHEIGHT= and SVGWIDTH= system options, which effectively
equates to specifying a value of 100%. A value of 100% for these system options
scales the SVG document to 100% of the viewport.
If you do not specify height and width attributes on the embed tag, the viewport
dimensions are determined by the browser. The embedded document might not
render as you expected it to render.
The following HTML file demonstrates linking and embedding a stand-alone SVG
document in an HTML file:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”>
<html>
<head>
<title>Linking and Embedding an SVG Document in an HTML Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9".

</head>
<body>
<p>Linking to an SVG document:</p>
<a href="sasprt.svg">SGPlot Graph</a>
<p>Embed the SVG document:</p>
<embed src="sasprt.svg" type="image/svg+xml" height="400" width="300">
</body>
</html>

Here is the HTML file:

 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 369

Figure 15.41 An HTML Document Displaying a Link to a Stand-alone SVG Document and
an Embedded SVG Document

The viewport has a height of 400 pixels and a width of 300 pixels. Because the
default SVG system option values were used, the SVG document scales to 100% of
the viewport.
If you click the SGPLOT Graph link, the browser displays the following SVG
document:
370 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Figure 15.42 A Stand-alone SVG Document Displayed as a Result of Clicking an HTML

Link

The viewport is the area in the browser window that can be displayed and the SVG
document scales to 100% of the viewport.
The following example uses the ODS HTML5 destination to embed an SVG graph in
an HTML file:
ods html close;
ods html5 options(svg_mode="embed");
 Creating SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Files Using Universal Printing 371

ods graphics /imagefmt=svg;

proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks
(where=(date >= "01jan2000"d and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Trend";
series x=date y=close;
series x=date y=low;
series x=date y=high;
run;
ods html5 close;
ods html;

The default svg_mode for the HTML5 destination is INLINE. In order to embed the
SVG graph, you must specify SVG_MODE="EMBED" as an option in the ODS
HTML5 statement. Here is the <EMBED> element in the HTML file:
<embed style="height: 480px; width: 640px" src="SGPLOT.svg" type="image/svg+xml"/>

Integrating an ODS Graphics SVG Graph in an HTML5 File

To integrate an ODS Graphics SVG graph in an HTML file, you specify the option
SVG_MODE='INLINE' in the ODS HTML5 statement:
ods html close;
ods html5 options(svg_mode="inline");
ods graphics /imagefmt=svg;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.stocks
(where=(date >= "01jan2000"d and stock = "IBM"));
title "Stock Trend";
series x=date y=close;
series x=date y=low;
series x=date y=high;
run;
ods html5 close;
ods html;

Here is the HTML file with the integrated SVG graph:

 372 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Printing an SVG Document from a Browser

SVG document printing is controlled by the browser. The browser prints only what is
displayed in the browser window.

Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing

TIFF Images in SAS

Tagged image file format (TIFF) images are raster images that are commonly used
in word processing, scanning, faxing, and other applications.
SAS supports TIFF 6.0 for RGBA and CMYK colors. When SAS creates a TIFF
image, the image is compressed. If the NOUPRINTCOMPRESSION system option
is set, the size of a TIFF image file that SAS creates is extremely large.
 Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing 373

For a description of the TIFF printer, you can either view the printer in the SAS
registry or submit the following QDEVICE procedure and view the output in the SAS
log:
proc qdevice;
printer tiff;
run;

See Also
“Color Support for Universal Printers” on page 273

The TIFF Universal Printers

SAS provides these Universal Printers:

Printer Name Description

TIFF produces TIFF images using RGBA color and transparency.

TIFFk produces TIFF images using CMYK color. Transparency is

not supported.

TIFF printers do not support multiple-page documents. If a procedure creates

multiple pages or if more than one procedure is used in the code for ODS PRINTER
output, only the first page is viewable.

Creating a TIFF Image

You can create a TIFF image using the ODS PRINTER statements. You specify the
TIFF Universal Printer as the value of the PRINTERPATH= system option or as the
value of the PRINTER= option in the ODS PRINTER statement.
Here is sample code to create a TIFF image:
ods html close;
ods printer printer=tiff;

...more SAS code...

ods printer close;

ods html;

SAS creates the file sasprt.tif in the current directory.

In SAS/GRAPH, the TIFF device is a shortcut to the TIFF Universal Printer. For
information about creating TIFF images using SAS/GRAPH devices, see
SAS/GRAPH: Reference.
 374 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

Example of Creating a TIFF Image Using the ODS

PRINTER Statement
Using the example data set Sashelp.Class and the SGPLOT procedure, the
following ODS PRINTER statement prints the TIFF file sasprt.tif in the current
directory:
options printerpath=tiff papersize=("4in" "4in") nodate;
ods html close;
ods printer;
proc sgplot data=sashelp.class;
reg x=height y=weight / CLM CLI;
run;
ods printer close;
ods html;
 Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents 375

Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG

Documents

About Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents

When you create a multi-page GIF image or SVG document using the ODS
PRINTER destination, you can animate the GIF image or SVG document that is
created by setting SAS system options. Each page in the GIF image or SVG
document creates one frame in the output file. The system options enable you to
configure these animation attributes:
n start or stop creating an animated file

n the amount of time that a frame is in view

n whether frames are overlaid or are played sequentially

n the number of times an animation loop is repeated

n for SVG documents only, whether to immediately start the animation when the
document is loaded in the web page
n for SVG documents only, whether a frame fades in and out of view and if during
the fade-in and fade-out time, the frames are overlaid or played sequentially
SAS/GRAPH is required to create animated files for the ODS HTML5, ODS HTML,
and the ODS LISTING destinations. For more information, see SAS/GRAPH:
Reference.
You set the options using the OPTIONS statement before opening the ODS
PRINTER destination:
options printerpath=gif animation=start animduration=5 animloop=yes noanimoverlay;
ods printer file='myfile.gif';

In this OPTIONS statement, the ANIMATION option starts creating the animation
file, the ANIMDURATION option specifies that each frame is held for 5 seconds. The
ANIMLOOP option specifies to continuously repeat the animation loop. The
NOANIMOVERLAY option specifies that each frame is played sequentially.
When the PRINTERPATH= option is set to SVG, you can use the SVG animation
options to configure the fade-in and fade-out attributes and the autoplay attribute.
The animation options that begin with SVG do not affect GIF images.
After you set the options and opened the PRINTER destination, proceed with your
SAS code to create each frame in your file. The animation frame is created when
you run SAS procedures. You can use animation options in between procedures to
change the duration that a frame is held in view and the fade-in and fade-out times.
For example, you can hold a particular frame in view for a longer period of time. You
would use the OPTIONS ANIMDURATION= statement before a procedure to
increase the time that the frame is held in view. Specify ANIMATION=STOP to end
the creation of the animation file. Use the ODS PRINTER CLOSE statement to
close the file.
 376 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

TIP Be sure to specify ANIMATION=STOP after you create the frames for your
animation file. If ANIMATION=START remains set, you might create an animation
file unintentionally for subsequent procedure statements.

To embed the file in a web page or to create a link to the file from a web page, see
“SVG Documents in HTML Files” on page 367.
When an animated file is displayed in a browser, the animation control buttons can
be used to reset ( ) the animation, to pause ( ) the animation, and to play
( ) the animation. You can toggle SVG Controls to show or hide the control
buttons. Here is one frame of an animated SVG document with the control buttons:

If you are creating SVG files that will be viewed on an iPad, a best practice is to use
the SVGVIEW Universal Printer for optimal sizing.
You can view animated SVG files using Internet Explorer 9 or later. You can view
animated GIF files in releases prior to Internet Explorer 9.

Animation System Options

You use the animation system options to configure the attributes of an animation
GIF or SVG file. All of the system options can be configured for SVG documents.
The options that begin with SVG are not applicable for GIF images. Here are the
animation system options.

Table 15.22 Animation System Options and Valid Universal Printers

Valid Universal
Description Option Name Printers

Starts or stops the creation of an ANIMATION GIF and SVG

animation file.
 Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents 377

Valid Universal
Description Option Name Printers

Specifies the amount of time that each ANIMDURATION= GIF and SVG
frame in an animation is held in view.

Specifies whether the animation loop is ANIMLOOP= GIF and SVG

played continuously or is played once, or
specifies a specific number of times that
the animation loop is repeated.
ANIMLOOP=YES sets a continuous
loop. ANIMLOOP=NO completes one
loop. ANIMLOOP=n specifies a specific
number of times to loop.
For SVG documents, use
ANIMLOOP=YES and ANIMLOOP=NO.
Setting ANIMLOOP=n where n > 0 for
SVG documents completes only one
loop for the document.

Specifies whether animation frames are ANIMOVERLAY GIF and SVG

overlaid or if they are played
sequentially.
If you overlay frames, your frames would
require some level of transparency for
the output not to appear overwritten.

Specifies whether an SVG animation SVGAUTOPLAY SVG

starts immediately in the web browser.
If you specify NOSVGAUTOPLAY, start
the animation by clicking .

Specifies the number of seconds for an SVGFADEIN= SVG

SVG frame to fade into view.

Specifies whether an SVG frame SVGFADEMODE= SVG

overlaps the previous frame or if each
frame is played sequentially when a
frame is fading in and out.

Specifies the number of seconds for an SVGFADEOUT= SVG

SVG frame to fade out of view.

Example: Creating an Animated SVG Document

The data set sashelp.prdsale contains office and furniture sales data for the years
1993 and 1994. This example uses the SGPLOT procedure to plot a vertical bar that
displays the actual sales numbers of office and furniture products for Canada,
Germany, and the United States. The plot uses a vertical bar for each country. Each
vertical bar shows the data for the different products. The example groups the data
by quarters for each year, creating eight charts. When the animation plays, each
SVG frame is a chart for one of the quarters. The chart displays a color for each
season, and the product sales values change in each vertical bar. To see the
animation play for this example, go to support.sas.com. Under Knowledge Base,
378 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

select Samples & SAS Notes. Search for SVG animation, In the search results,
look for the program seasons.sas.
Create a data set for each quarter for the years 1993 and 1994. Each DATA step
uses a WHERE clause to create a data set by year and quarter. The KEEP option in
the SET statement specifies the variables that are in each of the data sets.
data work.q1y93 (where=(year=1993 and quarter=1));
set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q2y93 (where=(year=1993 and quarter=2));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q3y93 (where=(year=1993 and quarter=3));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q4y93 (where=(year=1993 and quarter=4));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q1y94 (where=(year=1994 and quarter=1));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q2y94 (where=(year=1994 and quarter=2));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q3y94 (where=(year=1994 and quarter=3));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;

data work.q4y94 (where=(year=1994 and quarter=4));

set sashelp.prdsale(keep=Actual Country Product Quarter Year);
run;
Create a style for each season. The four TEMPLATE procedures create a style for
each season by specifying seasonal colors for the different parts of the chart. The
colors for the vertical bars are not part of the style because they are automatically
generated by the SGPLOT procedure.

proc template;
define style winter;
parent = Styles.meadow;
style body from body;

style GraphColors from GraphColors /

"gborderlines" = cx000000
"greferencelines" = cx000000
"gaxis" = cx000000
"gwalls" = cx83838C
;
style GraphBackground /
Color = cxB3B2BF
 Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents 379

;
end;
quit;

proc template;
define style spring;
parent = Styles.meadow;
style body from body;

style GraphColors from GraphColors /

"gborderlines" = cx000000
"greferencelines" = cx000000
"gaxis" = cx000000
"gwalls" = cxFF9999
;
style GraphBackground from GraphBackground "Graph background attributes" /
Color = cxFFFF99
;
end;
quit;

proc template;
define style summer;
parent = Styles.meadow;
style body from body;

style GraphColors from GraphColors /

"gborderlines" = cx000000
"greferencelines" = cx000000
"gaxis" = cx000000
"gwalls" = cx669933
;
style GraphBackground from GraphBackground "Graph background attributes" /
Color = cxE5D4A1
;
end;
quit;

proc template;
define style fall;
parent = Styles.meadow;
style body from body;

style GraphColors from GraphColors /

"gborderlines" = cx000000
"greferencelines" = cx000000
"gaxis" = cx000000
"gwalls" = cx996633
;
style GraphBackground from GraphBackground "Graph background attributes" /
Color = cxD9A465
;
end;
quit;
380 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS

ODS LISTING CLOSE;

Set the options to create an animated file for an SVG document. Set the
PRINTERPATH= option to create an SVG document. The ANIMATION= option
starts creating the animation. Each page in the animation is held in view for 3
seconds as specified in the ANIMDURATION option. The SVGFADEIN=0 and
SVGFADEOUT=0 options specify that the pages do not fade in or out of view. The
NOANIMOVERLAY option specifies that the pages are played sequentially. The
ODS PRINTER CLOSE statement closes any files that are open for the PRINTER
destination. Because the ANIMLOOP= option is not specified, the default of YES is
used and the animations loop continuously.
goptions reset=all;
options printerpath=svg animate=start animduration=3 svgfadein=0 svgfadeout=0
noanimoverlay nodate nonumber;

ODS PRINTER CLOSE;

Create an SVG document for each quarter, using the SGPLOT procedure. The
%LET macro variable is used to name the SVG file. The first ODS PRINTER
statement opens the PRINTER destination and creates the SVG file. After the first
ODS PRINTER statement, an ODS PRINTER statement is used before each
procedure to specify the style that indicates the seasonal colors to use to create a
chart. The TITLE statement specifies the season and the year that is reported. Each
SGPLOT procedure plots the sales for each country by using identical VBAR and
YAXIS options in each procedure. The vbar country / response=actual
group=product; statement specifies to create a vertical bar for each country. Each
vertical bar contains sales data for each product. The visual aspects for each
product in vertical bar are automatically determined by the SGPLOT procedure. The
YAXIS statement specifies the values to plot for the Y axis.
%let name=seasons;

ODS PRINTER file="&name..svg";

ods printer style=winter;
title1 h=18pt "Winter 1993 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q1y93 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=spring;

title1 h=18pt "Spring 1993 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q2y93 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=summer;

title1 h=18pt "Summer 1993 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q3y93 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;
 Creating Animated GIF Images and SVG Documents 381

ods printer style=fall;

title1 h=18pt "Fall 1993 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q4y93 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product ;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=winter;

title1 h=18pt "Winter 1994 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q1y94 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product ;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=spring;

title1 h=18pt "Spring 1994 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q2y94 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product ;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=summer;

title1 h=18pt "Summer 1994 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q3y94 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product ;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

ods printer style=fall;

title1 h=18pt "Fall 1994 Sales";
proc sgplot data=work.q4y94 uniform=all;
vbar country / response=actual group=product ;
yaxis values=(0 to 40000 by 10000);
run;

options animation=stop;
ods printer close;
Here are the charts that were created for 1993 by season:
382 Chapter 15 / Printing with SAS
 383

PART 2

Windowing Environment

Chapter 16
Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Chapter 17
Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
384
 385

16
Introduction to the SAS Windowing
Environment

What Is the SAS Windowing Environment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Overview of SAS Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
SAS Explorer Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Enhanced Editor Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Log Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Results Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Output Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Overview of SAS Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Menus in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Toolbars in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
The Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Getting Help in SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Type Help in the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Open the Help Menu from the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Click Help in Individual SAS Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
List of SAS Windows and Window Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

What Is the SAS Windowing Environment?

SAS provides a graphical user interface that makes SAS easier to use. Collectively,
all the windows in SAS are called the SAS windowing environment.
The SAS windowing environment contains the windows that you use to create SAS
programs. However, you also find other windows that enable you to manipulate data
or change your SAS settings without writing a single line of code.
You might find the SAS windowing environment a convenient alternative to writing a
SAS program when you want to work with a SAS data set, or control some aspect of
your SAS session.
 386 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Main Windows in the SAS Windowing

Environment

Overview of SAS Windows

SAS windows have several features that operate in a similar manner across all
operating environments: menus, toolbars, and online Help. You can customize many
features of the SAS windowing environment, including toolbars, icons, menus, and
so on.
The five main windows in the SAS windowing environment are the Explorer,
Results, Enhanced Editor, Log, and Output windows.
Note: The arrangement of your SAS windows depends on your operating
environment. For example, in the Microsoft Windows operating environment, the
Enhanced Editor window appears instead of the Program Editor.
When you first invoke SAS, the Enhanced Editor, Log, Output, and Explorer
windows are displayed. When you execute a SAS program, the default output
(HTML) is displayed in the Results window. If you use a PUT statement in your
program, then output is written to the SAS Log by default.
Note: The Microsoft Windows operating environment was used to create the
examples in this section. Menus and toolbars in other operating environments have
a similar appearance and behavior.
Windows Specifics: If you are using Microsoft Windows, the active window
determines which items are available on the main menu bar.
The following display shows one example of the arrangement of SAS windows. The
Explorer window shows active libraries.
 Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment 387

Figure 16.1 Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment

SAS Explorer Window

Uses of the SAS Explorer Window

The Explorer window enables you to manage your files in the windowing
environment. You can use the SAS Explorer to perform the following tasks:
n View lists of your SAS files.
n Create new SAS files.

n View, add, or delete libraries.

n Create shortcuts to external files.

n Open any SAS file and view its contents.

n Move, copy, and delete files.

n Open related windows, such as the New Library window.

Open the SAS Explorer Window

You can open SAS Explorer in the following ways:
 388 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Command:
Enter EXPLORER in the command line and press Enter.
Menu:
Select View ð Explorer.

Display SAS Explorer with and without a Tree View

You can display the Explorer window with or without a tree view of its contents.
Displaying the Explorer with a tree view enables you to view the hierarchy of the
files. To display the tree view, select Show Tree from the View menu. To turn tree
view off, deselect Show Tree in the menu.
Note: You can resize the Explorer window by dragging an edge or a corner of the
window. You can resize the left and right panes of the Explorer window by clicking
the split bar between the two panes and dragging it to the right or left.

Enhanced Editor Window

Uses of the Enhanced Editor Window

The Enhanced Editor window enables you to enter, edit, submit, and save SAS
programs.

Open the Enhanced Editor Window

To open the Enhanced Editor window select View ð Enhanced Editor from the
main menu.
Note: To open your SAS programs in the SAS windowing environment, you can
drag and drop them onto the Enhanced Editor window.

View a Program in the Enhanced Editor Window

The following example shows a SAS program in the Enhanced Editor window:
 Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment 389

Figure 16.2 Example of the Enhanced Editor Window

Note: In the Microsoft Windows operating environment, the Enhanced Editor

window appears by default instead of the Program Editor Window. To open the
Program Editor window, follow the same steps for opening the Enhanced Editor
window, except select View ð Program Editor from the main menu. Alternatively,
you can enter PROGRAM or PGM in the command line and press Enter.

Log Window

Uses of the Log Window

The Log window enables you to view messages about your SAS session and your
SAS programs. If the program that you submit has unexpected results, then the log
helps you identify the error. You can also use a PUT statement to write program
output to the Log.
Note: To keep the lines of your log from wrapping when your window is maximized,
use the LINESIZE= system option.

Open the Log Window

You can open the Log window in the following ways:
Command:
Enter LOG in the command line and press Enter.
Menu:
Select View ð Log.

View Log Output

The following is an example of Log output.
 390 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Figure 16.3 Example of Output in the Log Window

Results Window

Uses of the Results Window

The Results window enables you to view HTML output from a SAS program. HTML
is the default output type, and HTMLBlue is the default output style. The Results
window uses a tree structure to list various types of output that might be available
after you run SAS. You can view, save, or print individual files. The Results window
is empty until you execute a SAS program and produce output. When you submit a
SAS program, the output is displayed in the Results Viewer and the file is listed in
the Results window.

Open the Results Window

You can open the Results window in the following ways:
Command:
Enter ODSRESULTS in the command line and press Enter.
Menu:
Select View ð Results.
 Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment 391

View Output in the Results Window

The left pane of the following display shows the Results window, and the right pane
shows the Results Viewer where the default HTML output is displayed. The Results
window lists the files that were created when the SAS program executed.

Figure 16.4 Results Window and Results Viewer

Output Window

Uses of the Output Window

The Output window enables you to view LISTING output from your SAS programs.
By default, the Output window is positioned behind the other windows. When you
create LISTING output, the Output window automatically moves to the front of your
display.
Note: To keep the lines of your output from wrapping when your window is
maximized, use the LINESIZE= system option.

Open the Output Window

You can open the Output window in the following ways:
Command:
n Enter OUTPUT or OUT in the command line and press Enter.
 392 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

n Enter LISTING or LST in the command line and press Enter.

Menu:
Select View ð Output.

Create and View LISTING Output

Because LISTING output is not the default output type, you must use ODS
statements to open the LISTING destination. Along with LISTING output, HTML
output is also generated.
The following example shows a program that produces LISTING output. There is an
ODS statement before the DATA statement and after the RUN statement:

Figure 16.5 Example of a Program That Produces Listing Output

SAS creates the following LISTING output:

 Main Windows in the SAS Windowing Environment 393

Figure 16.6 Example of Listing Output in the Output Window

Using the Preferences Dialog Box to Select Output Types

You can use the Preferences dialog box to select output types and set system
preferences. Each tab in the Preferences dialog box holds a related group of items.
To access the Preferences dialog box, select Tools ð Options ð Preferences.
The following is an example of the Preferences dialog box, with the Results tab
selected:
 394 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Figure 16.7 Example of the Preferences Dialog Box

Several default values are selected in the Results tab. Under HTML, Create HTML
is the default output type, and HTMLBlue is the default output style. Use ODS
Graphics is also selected by default. When the Use ODS Graphics box is checked,
you are able to automatically generate graphs when running procedures that
support ODS graphics. Checking or unchecking this box enables you to turn on or
turn off ODS graphics when you invoke SAS.
To produce LISTING output, check the Create listing box under Listing. If you
deselect Create HTML and leave the Create listing box checked, your program
produces listing output only.

Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment

Overview of SAS Navigation

SAS windows have several features that work in a similar manner across all
operating environments: menus, toolbars, and online Help. You can customize many
of these features by selecting Tools ð Customize from the menu. For specific
information about these features, see the documentation for your operating
environment.
 Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment 395

Menus in SAS
Menus contain lists of options that you can select.
The following example shows the menu options that are available when you select
Help from the menu bar:

Figure 16.8 The Help Menu

Menu choices change as you change the windows that you are using. For example,
if you select Explorer from the View menu, and then select View again, the menu
lists the View options that are available when the Explorer window is active.
The following display shows the View menu when the Explorer window is active:
 396 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Figure 16.9 View Options When the Explorer Window Is Active

If you select Program Editor from the View menu, and then select View again, the
menu lists the View options that are available when the Program Editor window is
active.
The following display shows the View menu when the Program Editor window is
active:
 Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment 397

Figure 16.10 View Options When the Program Editor Window Is Active

You can also access menus when you right-click an item. For example, when you
select View ð Explorer and then right-click Libraries in the Explorer window, the
following menu appears:

Figure 16.11 Another Example of a Menu

 398 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

The menu remains visible until you make a selection from the menu or until you click
an area outside of the menu area.

Toolbars in SAS
A toolbar displays a block of window buttons or icons. When you click items in the
toolbar, a function or an action is started. For example, clicking a picture of a printer
in a toolbar starts a print process. The toolbar displays icons for many of the actions
that you perform most often in a particular window.
z/OS Specifics: SAS in the z/OS operating environment does not have a toolbar.
See SAS Companion for z/OS for more information.
The toolbar that you see depends on which window is active. For example, when
the Program Editor window is active, the following toolbar is displayed:

Figure 16.12 Example of the SAS Toolbar When the Enhanced Editor Window Is Active

When you position your cursor at one of the items in the toolbar, a text window
appears that identifies the purpose of the icon.

The Command Line

The command line is located to the left of the toolbar. In the command line, you can
enter commands, such as those that open SAS windows and those that retrieve
help information.
The following is an example of a command that opens the SASCOLOR window:

Figure 16.13 Example of the Command Line

 Getting Help in SAS 399

Figure 16.14 The SASCOLOR Window

Getting Help in SAS

Type Help in the Command Line

When you enter Help in the command line, help for the active window is displayed.
When you enter Help <item> (for example, Help footnote), you can access help
for the item that you entered. The following window is displayed when you enter
Help footnote in the command line of a SAS session:
 400 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Figure 16.15 Results of Using Help in the Command Line of a SAS Session

Related items are displayed, along with the documents that contain the information.
Click a topic to view Help for that item.

Open the Help Menu from the Toolbar

When you open the Help menu, you can select from the following choices:
Using This Window
opens a Help system window that describes the current active window.
SAS Help and Documentation
opens the SAS Help and Documentation system. Help is available for Base SAS
and other SAS products that are installed on your system. You can find
information by clicking an item in the table of contents or by searching for the
item and then clicking the results.
Getting Started with SAS Software
opens the Getting Started with SAS tutorial. This is a good way to learn the
basics of how to use SAS.
Learning SAS Programming
enables you to use SAS online training if you have an online training license.
The software provides 50–60 hours of instruction for beginning as well as
experienced SAS programmers.
SAS on the web
provides links to the SAS website where you can do the following:
 List of SAS Windows and Window Commands 401

n Contact Technical Support.

n Find information about Training Services.

n Read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

n Send feedback.

n Access the Customer Support Center.

n Browse the SAS Institute home page.

About SAS®9
provides version and release information about SAS.

Click Help in Individual SAS Windows

When you open a SAS window, you can press the HELP key (usually F1) from your
keyboard to display information about that window.

List of SAS Windows and Window Commands

The basic SAS windows consist of the Explorer, Results, Program Editor, Enhanced
Editor (Windows operating environment), Log, and Output windows. However, there
are more than 30 other windows to help you with such tasks as printing and fine-
tuning your SAS session.
The following table lists all portable SAS windows, window descriptions, and the
commands that open the windows.

Table 16.1 List of SAS Windows, Descriptions, and Window Commands

Window Name Description Window Commands

Documents Displays your ODS ODSDOCUMENTS

documents in a hierarchical
tree structure.

Edit Scheme Enables you to change the SYNCONFIG

default colors in edit
windows.

Explorer Provides a central access ACCESS, BUILD,

point to data such as CATALOG, DIR,
catalogs, libraries, data sets, EXPLORER, FILENAME,
and host files. LIBNAME, V6CAT, V6DIR,
V6FILENAME,
V6LIBNAME

Explorer Options Enables you to add or delete DMEXPOPTS

file types, change or add pop-
up menu items, select folders
that appear in the Explorer,
and display member details.
402 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Window Name Description Window Commands

File Shortcut Assignment Assigns a file shortcut to a file DMFILEASSIGN

using a graphical user
interface.

Find Enables you to search for an EXPFIND

expression in a SAS library.

Select Font Enables you to select a font, DLGFONT

font style, and font size.
(operating-environment
specific)

FOOTNOTES Enables you to enter, browse, FOOTNOTES

and modify footnotes for
output.

FSBROWSE Enables you to select a data FSBROWSE

set for browsing.

FSEDIT Enables you to select a data FSEDIT

set to be processed by the
FSEDIT procedure.

FSFORM Enables you to customize a FSFORM formname

form for sending output to the
printer.

FSLETTER Enables you to edit or create FSLETTER

catalog entries.

FSLIST Enables you to browse FSLIST

external files in a SAS
session.

FSVIEW Enables you to browse, edit, FSVIEW

or create a SAS data set,
displaying the data set as a
table with rows and columns.

HELP Displays help information HELP

about SAS.

KEYS Enables you to browse, alter, KEYS

and save function key
settings.

Log Displays messages and SAS LOG

statements for the current
SAS session.

Metabase Accesses the SAS/EIS METABASE

Metabase Facility to register
data, to copy data
registrations, and to create,
delete, or edit repository files.

Metadata Browser Opens the Metadata Server METABROWSE

Configuration dialog box.
(not available on z/OS)
 List of SAS Windows and Window Commands 403

Window Name Description Window Commands

Metafind Enables you to search for METAFIND

metadata objects in
repositories by using Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URIs).

Metadata Server Enables you to import, METACON

Connections export, add, remove, reorder,
and test metadata server
connections.

New Library Enables you to create a new DMLIBASSIGN

SAS library and assign a
libref.

NOTEPAD Enables you to create and NOTEPAD, NOTE,

store notepads of text. FILEPAD filename

Options (SAS system Enables you to view and OPTIONS

options) change some SAS system
options.

Output Displays procedure output in OUTPUT, OUT, LISTING,

listing format. LIST, LST

Page Setup Enables you to specify page DMPAGESETUP

setup options that apply to
Universal Printing jobs.

Password Enables you to edit, assign, SETPASSWORD (followed

or clear passwords for a by a two-level data set
particular data set. name)

Preferences Enables you to set or edit DLGPREF

SAS system preferences.
(operating-environment
specific)

Print Enables you to print the DMPRINT

content of an active SAS
window through Universal
Printing.

Print Setup Enables you to change your DMPRTSETUP

default printer, create or edit
a printer definition, or delete a
printer definition for Universal
Printing.

Program Editor Enables you to enter, edit, PROGRAM, PGM

and submit SAS statements
and save source files.

Properties Shows details that are VAR libref.SAS-data-set,

associated with the current V6VAR libref.SAS-data-set
data set.
404 Chapter 16 / Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment

Window Name Description Window Commands

SAS Registry Editor Enables you to edit the SAS REGEDIT

registry and to customize
aspects of the SAS
windowing environment.

Results Lists the procedure output ODSRESULTS

that is produced by SAS.

SAS/ACCESS ACCESS

SAS/AF Displays windowing AF, AFA

applications that are created
by SAS/AF software.

SAS/ASSIST Displays the primary menu of ASSIST

SAS/ASSIST software, which
simplifies the use of SAS.

SASCOLOR Enables you to change SASCOLOR

default colors for the different
window elements in your SAS
windows.

SQL QUERY Enables you to build, run, and QUERY

save queries without being
familiar with Structured Query
Language (SQL).

SAS System Options Enables you to change SAS OPTIONS

system option settings.

Templates Enables you to browse and ODSTEMPLATES

edit template source code.

TITLES Enables you to enter, browse, TITLES

and modify titles for output.

VIEWTABLE Enables you to browse, edit, VIEWTABLE, VT

or create tables (data sets).

Note: Some additional SAS windows that are specific to your operating
environment might also be available. For more information, see the SAS
documentation for your operating environment.
 405

17
Managing Your Data in the SAS
Windowing Environment

Introduction to Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . 406

Managing Data with SAS Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Introduction to Managing Data with SAS Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Viewing Libraries and Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Assign File Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Rename a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Copy or Duplicate a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Sorting Data Sets in a Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
View the Properties of a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Working with VIEWTABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Overview of VIEWTABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Opening a SAS Data Set in a VIEWTABLE Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Displaying Table Headers as Names or Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Customizing SAS Explorer for Opening the VIEWTABLE Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Order of Precedence for How Column Headings Are Displayed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Mapping the VIEWTABLE Command to a Function Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Temporarily Change Column Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Move Columns in a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Sort by Values of a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Edit Cell Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Subsetting Data By Using the WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Subset Rows of a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Clear the WHERE Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Exporting a Subset of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Overview of Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Export Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Importing Data into a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Overview of Importing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Import a Standard File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Import a Nonstandard File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
 406 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Introduction to Managing Your Data in the SAS

Windowing Environment
The SAS windowing environment contains windows that enable you to perform
common data manipulation and make changes without writing code.
If you are not familiar with SAS or with writing code in the SAS language, then you
might find the windowing environment helpful. With the windowing environment, you
can open a data set, point to rows and columns in your data. Then, you can click
menu items to reorganize and perform analyses on the information.
For more information about the SAS windowing environment, select SAS Help and
Documentation from the Help menu after you invoke a SAS session.

Managing Data with SAS Explorer

Introduction to Managing Data with SAS Explorer

You can use SAS Explorer to view and manage data sets. Data sets are stored in
libraries, which are storage locations for SAS files and catalogs. By default, SAS
defines several libraries for you:
Sashelp
is a library created by SAS that stores the text for Help windows, default
function-key definitions, window definitions, and menus.
Maps
is a library created by SAS that presents graphical representations of
geographical or other areas.
Sasuser
is a permanent SAS library that is created at the beginning of your first SAS
session. This library contains a Profile catalog that stores the customized
features or settings that you specify for SAS. (You can store other SAS files in
this library.)
Work
is a library that is created by SAS at the beginning of each SAS session or SAS
job. Unless you have specified a User library, any newly created SAS file with a
one-level name is placed in the Work library by default. The newly created file is
deleted at the end of the current session or job.
 Managing Data with SAS Explorer 407

Viewing Libraries and Data Sets

Libraries and data sets are represented in SAS by large icons, small icons, or as a
list. With the Explorer window active, you can change this representation by
selecting an option from the View menu:
n To view large icons, select Large Icons from the View menu.
n To view small icons, select Small Icons from the View menu.

n To view data sets in a list, select List from the View menu.

The following example uses large icons to show the contents of Sashelp:

Figure 17.1 Sashelp Library Represented by Large Icons

If you select the Sashelp library and then select View ð Details from the menu bar,
the contents of the Sashelp library is displayed, along with the size and type of the
data sets:
 408 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Figure 17.2 Detailed View of the Sashelp Library

If you double-click a table in this list, the data set opens. The VIEWTABLE window,
which is a SAS table viewer and editor, appears and is populated with the data from
the table.

Assign File Shortcuts

A file shortcut is also known as a file reference or fileref. Filerefs save you
programming time by enabling you to assign a nickname to a commonly used file.
You can use the FILENAME statement to create a fileref, or you can use the File
Shortcut Assignment window from SAS Explorer.
To assign a fileref to a file, follow these steps:

1 Select Tools ð New File Shortcut from the menu.

2 In the File Shortcut Assignment window that appears, enter the name of the
fileref that you want to use in the Name field.

3 Enter the full pathname for the file in the File field.
The following display shows the File Shortcut Assignment window:
 Managing Data with SAS Explorer 409

By default, filerefs that you create are temporary and can be used in the current
SAS session only. Selecting Enable at Start-up from the File Shortcut Assignment
window, however, assigns the fileref to the file whenever you start a new SAS
session.

Rename a SAS Data Set

You can rename any data set in a SAS library as long as it is not Write protected. To
rename a data set, follow these steps:

1 Open SAS Explorer and select a library.

The contents of the library appear in the right pane.

2 Right-click the data set that you want to rename.

3 Select Rename from the menu, and enter the new name of the data set.

4 Click OK.

Copy or Duplicate a SAS Data Set

You can copy a SAS data set to another library or catalog, or you can duplicate the
data set in the same directory as the original data set. To copy or duplicate a data
set, follow these steps:

1 Open SAS Explorer and select a library.

 410 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

The contents of the library appear in the right pane.

2 Right-click the data set you want to copy or duplicate.

3 From the menu that is displayed, choose Copy to copy a data set to another
library or catalog, or choose Duplicate to copy the data set to the same library or
catalog.

4 If you choose Copy, do the following:

a Click the library in the left pane of SAS Explorer to select the library or
catalog into which the data set will be copied.

b In the right pane, right-click the mouse and select Paste from the menu that
appears.
A copy of the data set now resides in the new directory.

5 If you choose Duplicate, then the Duplicate window appears. In the Duplicate
window, SAS appends _copy to the data set name (for example, data-set-
name_copy).
Do one of the following:
n Keep the name and click OK.

n Create another name for your duplicated data set and click OK.

Sorting Data Sets in a Library

Data sets in SAS Explorer are sorted automatically by name. You can change the
sort order of the data sets by size or type by clicking the Size or Type column. To
return data sets to their original order, select the Refresh option from the View
menu.

View the Properties of a SAS Data Set

You can view the properties of a data set by using the Properties window. To view
properties, follow these steps:

1 Open SAS Explorer and select a library.

The contents of the library appears in the right pane.

2 Right-click the data set that you want to view.

3 Select Properties from the menu.

The following window appears for the Air data set:
 Working with VIEWTABLE 411

4 In the Description field of the General tab, you can enter a description of the
data set. To save the description, click OK.

5 Select other tabs to display additional information about the data set.

Working with VIEWTABLE

Overview of VIEWTABLE
To manipulate data interactively, you can use the SAS table editor, VIEWTABLE. In
the VIEWTABLE window, you can create a new table, and view or edit an existing
table.

Opening a SAS Data Set in a VIEWTABLE Window

Using the SAS Explorer Window

You can open an existing SAS data set in a VIEWTABLE window by double-clicking
on the SAS data set icon in the SAS Explorer window, or by specifying the
VIEWTABLE Command. in the SAS Display Manager command line.
412 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Here are the steps for using the SAS Explorer window to open a SAS data set in a
VIEWTABLE window:

1 Open SAS Explorer and double-click on the icon for the library that contains the
target data set.

2 Select the desired data set and double-click on its icon.

3 The VIEWTABLE window should appear, populated with data from the data set.

4 Use the scroll bar on the VIEWTABLE window to view all of the data.
 Working with VIEWTABLE 413

Using the VIEWTABLE Command

You can also open a data set in a VIEWTABLE window by using the VIEWTABLE
command in the SAS Display Manager command line.

1 Specify the VIEWTABLE command in the SAS Display Manager command line
using the following syntax:
VIEWTABLE data-set-name <-options>

2 Here is an example:
viewtable cars

Displaying Table Headers as Names or Labels

When you open a data set that contains labels in a VIEWTABLE window, SAS
automatically displays the table headers as variable labels rather than the variable
names. You can change the way SAS displays table headers by using the
VIEWTABLE pop-up menu or by using the VIEWTABLE command.
n Using the VIEWTABLE pop-up menu to change the way table headers are
displayed:

1 Open a data set in VIEWTABLE (to access the VIEWTABLE pop-up menu,
you must have an active VIEWTABLE window open).

2 Make sure that the VIEWTABLE window is active.

3 Select View ð Column Names or View ð Column Labels from the drop-
down View menu.

4 Once this selection is made, the opened table, and all tables that are
subsequently opened, will display table headers based on this setting in the
VIEWTABLE pop-up menu. When you exit VIEWTABLE, or exit SAS, the
preference for column labels or column names is saved. When you open
VIEWTABLE or invoke SAS again, the preference that you chose is
automatically selected.
This feature is available in SAS 9.4M1 and later releases.
 414 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

n Using the VIEWTABLE command to change the way table headers are displayed
when a table is opened:

1 Specify the COLHEADING= option on the VIEWTABLE command in the SAS

command line using the following syntax.
VIEWTABLE data-set-name -<COLHEADING>=NAMES | LABELS>

2 Here is an example:
viewtable cars colheading=names

Customizing SAS Explorer for Opening the VIEWTABLE

Window
You can customize SAS Explorer to open a VIEWTABLE window so that column
headings are displayed as either names or labels every time that the table is
opened from the SAS Explorer window. To do this, add the COLHEADING= option
to the Action Command in the SAS Explorer Options dialog box.

1 With the SAS Explorer window active, select Tools ð Options ð Explorer to
open the Explorer Options window.

2 Select the Members tab.

3 Select Table in the list of registered types, and then click Edit to open the
TABLE Options dialog box.

4 Select the &Open Action Command in the list of actions, and then click Edit to
open the Edit Action dialog box.
 Working with VIEWTABLE 415

5 In the Edit Action dialog box, add ‑COLHEADING=<value> to the end of the
VIEWTABLE command:
VIEWTABLE %8b.'%s'.DATA colheading=names

6 When you are finished making changes, click OK three times to exit all of the
open dialog boxes. From this point on, when you use the SAS Explorer Window
to open the VIEWTABLE window, SAS displays the table headers according to
what you specified in this SAS Explorer dialog box.

Note: These steps only affect how tables are displayed when they are opened from
the SAS Explorer Window (either by double-clicking on the icon or by right-clicking
on the icon and selecting "Open"). They do not affect how tables are opened when
you use the VIEWTABLE command to open a table.

Order of Precedence for How Column Headings Are

Displayed
If you open a table using the VIEWTABLE command and you do not specify
COLHEADING= to control how column headings should be displayed, then SAS will
display column headings based on how they were last set in the VIEWTABLE pop-
up menu (View ð Column Names or View ð Column Labels).
If you open a table using the VIEWTABLE colheading=<value> command, SAS will
display the column headings according to the COLHEADING value, regardless of
how column headings are set in the VIEWTABLE pop-up menu. The setting in the
VIEWTABLE pop-up menu will reflect the COLHEADING= value. In other words,
COLHEADING= overrides the setting specified in the VIEWTABLE pop-up menu.
For information about the LABEL statement in SAS, see “LABEL Statement” in SAS
DATA Step Statements: Reference.
 416 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Mapping the VIEWTABLE Command to a Function Key

You can map a Function Key in the Display Manager Keys window to execute the
VIEWTABLE command. To do this, follow these steps:

1 Select Tools ð Options ð Keys from the SAS menu. The Keys window will
appear.

2 In the Keys window, select the F-Key that you want to assign to the VIEWTABLE
command and place the cursor in the Definition field of the selected F-Key.

3 Type the VIEWTABLE command with the desired option. Here is an example:
VIEWTABLE %8b. '%s'.DATA colheading=name

4 Close the Keys window.

For more information about using VIEWTABLE, see Doing More with the SAS®
Display Manager: From Editor to ViewTable - Options and Tools You Should Know
(PDF).

Temporarily Change Column Headings

Within the VIEWTABLE window, you can temporarily change column headings. To
temporarily change column headings, follow these steps:

1 Right-click the heading for the column that you want to change, and then select
Column Attributes from the menu.

2 In the Label field of the Column Attributes window, enter the new name of the
column heading and then click Apply.
In this example, the Name heading is replaced by the Name of Player label.
 Working with VIEWTABLE 417

When you press Apply, the column heading in VIEWTABLE changes to the new
name.
In this example, the label was changed to Name of Player.

3 Click Close to close the Column Attributes window.

Move Columns in a Table

Within the VIEWTABLE window, you can rearrange columns in your table. To move
columns in your table, follow these steps:

1 Click a column heading for the column that you want to move.
 418 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

2 Drag and drop the heading onto another column heading.

In this example, if you click the heading Name, and then drag and drop Name
onto Team at the End of 1986, the Name column moves to the right of the
Team at the End of 1986 column.

Sort by Values of a Column

You can sort your table in ascending or descending order, based on the values in a
column. You can sort data permanently or create a sorted copy of your table.
To sort your table, follow these steps:

1 Right-click the heading of the column on which you want to sort, and select Sort
from the menu.

2 Select Ascending or Descending from the menu.

3 When the following warning message appears, click Yes to create a sorted copy
of the table.
 Working with VIEWTABLE 419

Note: If you selected Edit Mode after opening the table and clicking a data cell,
this window does not appear. SAS updates the original table.

4 In the Sort window, enter the name of the new sorted table.
In this example, the name of the sorted table is BaseballStatisticsList.

5 Click OK.

The rows in the new table are sorted in ascending order by values of Team at
the End of 1986.
 420 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Edit Cell Values

By default, VIEWTABLE opens existing tables in browse mode, which protects the
table data. To edit the table, you need to switch to Edit mode. To switch to Edit mode
and edit a table cell, follow these steps:

1 With the table open, select Edit ð Edit Mode from the Edit menu.

2 Click a cell in the table, and the value in the cell is highlighted.
In this example, the third cell in the fifth row is highlighted.

3 Enter a new value in the cell and press Enter.

In this example, the cell has been updated with a new value for Times at Bat in
1986.
 Subsetting Data By Using the WHERE Expression 421

4 Select File ð Close from the File menu.

5 When prompted to save pending changes to the table, click Yes to save your
changes or No to disregard changes.

Note: If you make changes in one row and then edit cells in another row, the
changes in the first row are automatically saved. When you select File ð Close, you
are prompted to save the pending changes to the second row.

Subsetting Data By Using the WHERE

Expression

Subset Rows of a Table

In the VIEWTABLE window, you can subset the display to show only those rows that
meet one or more conditions. To subset rows of a table, follow these steps:

1 In the Explorer window, open a library and double-click the table that you want to
subset.
In this example, the Cars data table is selected.
422 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

2 Right-click any table cell that is not a heading and select Where from the menu.

The WHERE EXPRESSION window appears.

3 In the Available Columns list, select a column, and then select an operator from
the Operators menu.
In this example, Make is selected from the Available Columns list, and EQ
(equal to) is selected from the Operators menu. Note that the WHERE
expression is being built in the Where box at the bottom of the window.
 Subsetting Data By Using the WHERE Expression 423

4 In the Available Columns list, select another value to complete the WHERE
expression.
In this example, scroll to the bottom of the Available Columns window and
select <LOOKUP distinct values>.

5 In the Lookup Distinct Values window that appears, select a value.

In this example, Honda is selected.

Note that the complete WHERE expression appears in the Where box at the
bottom of the window.
 424 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

6 Click OK to close the WHERE EXPRESSION window.

In this example, VIEWTABLE displays only rows where the value of Make is
Honda.

Clear the WHERE Expression

You can clear the WHERE expression that you used to subset your data, and
redisplay all of the data in the table. To do this, follow these steps:

1 Right-click anywhere in the table except in a column heading.

2 Select WHERE Clear from the menu.

The VIEWTABLE window removes any existing subsets of data that were
created with the WHERE expression, and displays all of the rows of the table.
 Exporting a Subset of Data 425

Exporting a Subset of Data

Overview of Exporting Data

The Export Wizard reads data from a SAS data set and writes it to an external file.
You can export SAS data to a variety of formats. The formats that are available
depend on your operating environment and the SAS products that you have
installed.

Export Data
To export data, follow these steps:

1 With the Explorer window active, select File ð Export Data.

The Export Wizard - Select library and member window appears.

2 Select the SAS data set from which you want to export data.
In this example, Sashelp is selected as the library, and Cars is the member
name.

3 Click Next and the Export Wizard - Select export type window appears.

4 Select the type of data source to which you want to export files.

In this example, Microsoft Excel Workbook is selected. Note that Standard

data source is selected by default.
426 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

5 Click Next to display the Connect to MS Excel window.

6 In the Workbook field, enter the name of the workbook that will contain the
exported file and then click OK.
In this example, Myworkbook is entered as the name of the workbook.

7 When the Export Wizard - Select table window appears, enter a name for the
table that you are exporting.
In this example, Mytable is the table name.
 Exporting a Subset of Data 427

8 Click Next.

9 If you want SAS to create a file of PROC EXPORT statements for later use, then
enter the name of the file that will contain the SAS statements.
In this example, PROC EXPORT statements are saved to the file. The Replace
file if it exists box is checked.

10 Click Finish to complete this task.

 428 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

Importing Data into a Table

Overview of Importing Data

Whether your data is stored in a standard file format or in your own special file
format, you can use the Import Wizard to import data into a SAS table. The types of
files that you can import depend on your operating environment.

Import a Standard File

To import a standard file, follow these steps:

1 With the Explorer window active, select File ð Import data.

The Import Wizard - Select import type window appears.

2 Select the type of file that you are importing by selecting a data source from the
Select a data source menu.
Note that Standard data source is selected by default. In this example,
Microsoft Excel Workbook is selected.

3 Click Next to continue.

4 In the Connect to MS Excel window, enter the pathname of the file that you want
to export, and then click OK.
 Importing Data into a Table 429

5 In the Import Wizard - Select table window, enter the name of the table that you
want to import.

6 Click Next to continue.

7 In the Import Wizard - Select library and member window, enter a location in
which to store the imported file.
In this example, Work is selected as the library, and Book1 is selected as the
member name.
 430 Chapter 17 / Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing Environment

8 Click Next to continue.

9 If you want SAS to create a file of PROC IMPORT statements for later use, then
enter the name of a file that will contain the SAS statements.

10 Click Finish to complete this task.

Import a Nonstandard File

If your data is not in standard format, you can use the External File Interface (EFI)
facility to import data. This tool enables you to define your file format and offers you
a range of format options. To use EFI, select User-defined file format in the Import
Wizard and follow the directions for describing your data file.
 431

PART 3

SAS Cloud Analytic Services

Chapter 18
Introduction to SAS Cloud Analytic Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Chapter 19
SAS Language Support for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
432
 433

18
Introduction to SAS Cloud Analytic
Services

What is SAS Cloud Analytic Services? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

What Does This Mean for the SAS 9 Programmer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

What is SAS Cloud Analytic Services?

SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) is a server that provides the cloud-based run-
time environment for data management and analytics with SAS. CAS is part of the
SAS Viya platform, an open, cloud-enabled platform that supports high-performance
analytics. A SAS Viya license is required for access to SAS Cloud Analytic Services.
“What Does This Mean for the SAS 9 Programmer? ”

What Does This Mean for the SAS 9

Programmer?
n When you license SAS Viya, you can write programs in SAS 9.4 in your SAS 9.4
environment and submit them to CAS for processing. This means faster
processing and faster results.
n New and existing SAS 9.4 programs can be submitted to CAS from the SAS
Windowing environment (SAS Display Manager) or from SAS Studio.
n SAS Viya is not a replacement for SAS 9.4. It is a platform designed to work with
SAS 9.4 and other languages such as Java, Python, Lua, and R.
n For more information about using the SAS language to access SAS Cloud
Analytic Services, see, Chapter 19, “SAS Language Support for CAS,” on page
435.
434 Chapter 18 / Introduction to SAS Cloud Analytic Services
 435

19
SAS Language Support for CAS

SAS Language Elements for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
DATA Step Language Elements for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
SAS Procedures for CAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
CAS-specific Language Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

SAS Language Elements for CAS

DATA Step Processing

The DATA step and most of the language elements that run in the DATA step are
supported for processing in CAS. The DATA step runs in multiple threads in CAS,
which means that processing is faster.
For information about DATA step processing in CAS, see SAS Cloud Analytic
Services: DATA Step Programming.

DATA Step Language Elements for CAS

Many SAS language elements, including the new CAS engine LIBNAME statement,
have been enhanced to provide access to CAS via the SAS DATA step. The CAS
engine serves as the bridge between your SAS 9.4 programs and the CAS server.
For more information about DATA step processing in CAS, see SAS Cloud Analytic
Services: DATA Step Programming.
Not all SAS language elements are supported for DATA step processing in CAS.
Language elements that are not supported in CAS are marked in the documentation
with a “Restriction” as shown in the following image:
 436 Chapter 19 / SAS Language Support for CAS

Figure 19.1 Example Documentation Syntax Page That Shows a “Restriction” to Indicate That the Language
Element Is Not Supported in CAS

SAS language elements that are supported in CAS display “CAS” in the Categories
field of the language elements’ syntax page:

Figure 19.2 Example Documentation Syntax Page That Shows Support for CAS in the Categories Field

Each language element dictionary also contains a summary table of CAS-supported

language elements:

Figure 19.3 Example Documentation Category Page Showing CAS-supported Language Elements

Here is a list of category tables for each of the SAS language element types:
n DATA Step Statements By Category in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

n Global Statements by Category in SAS Global Statements: Reference.

 CAS-specific Language Elements 437

n Functions and CALL Routines By Category in SAS Functions and CALL

Routines: Reference.
n Formats By Category in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.

n Informats by Category in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.

n Data Set Options By Category in SAS Data Set Options: Reference.

SAS Procedures for CAS

Like DATA step language elements, SAS procedures can interact with or run in CAS
by using the CAS LIBNAME engine. For information about the Base SAS
procedures that are supported by CAS, see SAS Viya Foundation Procedures in An
Introduction to SAS Viya Programming.

CAS-specific Language Elements

CAS-specific SAS language elements are designed specifically for interfacing with
the CAS server and can be used only in a CAS server environment.
For information about these language elements, see the following CAS
documentation:
n CAS Language Element Syntax: SAS Cloud Analytic Services: User’s Guide

n CAS Conceptual Information: SAS Cloud Analytic Services: Fundamentals

n Introduction for SAS 9 programmers: An Introduction to SAS Viya Programming

n CAS Actions in SAS Viya Actions and Action Sets by Name and Product, SAS
Viya: System Programming Guide and CAS DATA Step Action in SAS Cloud
Analytic Services: DATA Step Programming
Note: A SAS Viya Visual Analytics license is required for access to SAS Cloud
Analytic Services.
438 Chapter 19 / SAS Language Support for CAS
 439

PART 4

DATA Step Concepts

Chapter 20
DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Chapter 21
Reading Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Chapter 22
BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Chapter 23
Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Chapter 24
Using DATA Step Component Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Chapter 25
Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
440
 441

20
DATA Step Processing

Why Use a DATA Step? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Overview of DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Flow of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
The Compilation Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
The Execution Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Sample DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Creating the Input Buffer and the Program Data Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Reading a Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Writing an Observation to the SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Reading the Next Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
When the DATA Step Finishes Executing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
About DATA Step Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
The Default Sequence of Execution in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Changing the Default Sequence of Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Step Boundary—How to Know When Statements Take Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
What Causes a DATA Step to Stop Executing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
About Creating a SAS Data Set with a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Creating a SAS Data File or a SAS View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Sources of Input Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Reading Raw Data: Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Reading Data from SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Generating Data from Programming Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Writing a Report with a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Example 1: Creating a Report without Creating a Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Example 2: Creating a Customized Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Example 3: Creating an HTML Report Using ODS and the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . 465
The DATA Step and ODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
DATA Step Processing Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Why Use a DATA Step?

Using the DATA step is the primary method for creating a SAS data set with Base
SAS software. A DATA step is a group of SAS language statements that begin with
a DATA statement. The group of language statements contains other programming
 442 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

statements that manipulate existing SAS data sets or create SAS data sets from raw
data files.
You can use the DATA step for the following tasks:
n creating SAS data sets (SAS data files or SAS views)

n creating SAS data sets from input files that contain raw data (external files)

n creating new SAS data sets from existing ones by subsetting, merging,
modifying, and updating existing SAS data sets
n analyzing, manipulating, or presenting your data
n computing the values for new variables

n report writing, or writing files to disk or tape

n retrieving information

n file management

Note: A DATA step creates a SAS data set. This data set can be a SAS data file or
a SAS view. A SAS data file stores data values while a SAS view stores instructions
for retrieving and processing data. When you can use a SAS view as a SAS data
file, as is true in most cases, this documentation uses the broader term SAS data
set.

Overview of DATA Step Processing

Flow of Action
When you submit a DATA step for execution, it is first compiled and then executed.
The following figure shows the flow of action for a typical SAS DATA step.
 Overview of DATA Step Processing 443

Figure 20.1 Flow of Action in the DATA Step

compiles
SAS statements Compile Phase
(includes syntax checking)

creates
an input buffer
a program data vector
descriptor information

begins Execution Phase

with a DATA statement
(counts iterations)

sets variable values

to missing in the
program data vector

data-reading closes data set;

statement:
is there a NO goes on to the next
record to read? DATA or PROC step

YES

reads
an input record

executes
additional
executable statements

writes
an observation to
the SAS data set

returns
to the beginning of
the DATA step
 444 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

The Compilation Phase

When you submit a DATA step for execution, SAS checks the syntax of the SAS
statements and compiles them, that is, automatically translates the statements into
machine code. In this phase, SAS identifies the type and length of each new
variable, and determines whether a variable type conversion is necessary for each
subsequent reference to a variable. During the compilation phase, SAS creates the
following three items:
input buffer
is a logical area in memory into which SAS reads each record of raw data when
SAS executes an INPUT statement. Note that this buffer is created only when
the DATA step reads raw data. (When the DATA step reads a SAS data set, SAS
reads the data directly into the program data vector.)
program data vector (PDV)
is a logical area in memory where SAS builds a data set, one observation at a
time. When a program executes, SAS reads data values from the input buffer or
creates them by executing SAS language statements. The data values are
assigned to the appropriate variables in the program data vector. From here,
SAS writes the values to a SAS data set as a single observation.
Along with data set variables and computed variables, the PDV contains two
automatic variables, _N_ and _ERROR_. The _N_ variable counts the number of
times the DATA step begins to iterate. The _ERROR_ variable signals the
occurrence of an error caused by the data during execution. The value of
_ERROR_ is either 0 (indicating no errors exist), or 1 (indicating that one or
more errors have occurred). SAS does not write these variables to the output
data set.
descriptor information
is information that SAS creates and maintains about each SAS data set,
including data set attributes and variable attributes. For example, it contains the
name of the data set, its member type, the date and time that the data set was
created, and the number, names, and data types (character or numeric) of the
variables. The descriptor information also contains information about extended
attributes (if defined on a data set). Extended attribute descriptor information
includes the name of the attribute, the name of the variable, and the value of the
attribute.

The Execution Phase

By default, a simple DATA step iterates once for each observation that is being
created. The flow of action in the Execution Phase of a simple DATA step is
described as follows:

1 The DATA step begins with a DATA statement. Each time the DATA statement
executes, a new iteration of the DATA step begins, and the _N_ automatic
variable is incremented by 1.

2 SAS sets the newly created program variables to missing in the program data
vector (PDV).
 Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through 445

3 SAS reads a data record from a raw data file into the input buffer, or it reads an
observation from a SAS data set directly into the program data vector. You can
use an INPUT, MERGE, SET, MODIFY, or UPDATE statement to read a record.

4 SAS executes any subsequent programming statements for the current record.

5 At the end of the statements, an output, return, and reset occur automatically.
SAS writes an observation to the SAS data set, the system automatically returns
to the top of the DATA step, and the values of variables created by INPUT and
assignment statements are reset to missing in the program data vector. Note that
variables that you read with a SET, MERGE, MODIFY, or UPDATE statement are
not reset to missing here.

6 SAS counts another iteration, reads the next record or observation, and
executes the subsequent programming statements for the current observation.

7 The DATA step terminates when SAS encounters the end-of-file in a SAS data
set or a raw data file.

Note: The figure shows the default processing of the DATA step. You can place
data-reading statements (such as INPUT or SET), or data-writing statements (such
as OUTPUT), in any order in your program.

Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through

Sample DATA Step

The following statements provide an example of a DATA step that reads raw data,
calculates totals, and creates a data set:
data total_points (drop=TeamName); 1
input TeamName $ ParticipantName $ Event1 Event2 Event3; 2
TeamTotal + (Event1 + Event2 + Event3); 3
datalines;
Knights Sue 6 8 8
Kings Jane 9 7 8
Knights John 7 7 7
Knights Lisa 8 9 9
Knights Fran 7 6 6
Knights Walter 9 8 10
;

proc print data=total_points;

run;

1 The DROP= data set option prevents the variable TeamName from being written
to the output SAS data set called Total_Points.
2 The INPUT statement describes the data by giving a name to each variable,
identifying its data type (character or numeric), and identifying its relative location
in the data record.
 446 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

3 The SUM statement accumulates the scores for three events in the variable
TeamTotal.

Creating the Input Buffer and the Program Data Vector

When DATA step statements are compiled, SAS determines whether to create an
input buffer. If the input file contains raw data (as in the example above), SAS
creates an input buffer to hold the data before moving the data to the program data
vector (PDV). (If the input file is a SAS data set, however, SAS does not create an
input buffer. SAS writes the input data directly to the PDV.)
The PDV contains all the variables in the input data set, the variables created in
DATA step statements, and the two variables, _N_ and _ERROR_, that are
automatically generated for every DATA step. The _N_ variable represents the
number of times the DATA step has iterated. The _ERROR_ variable acts like a
binary switch whose value is 0 if no errors exist in the DATA step, or 1 if one or more
errors exist. The following figure shows the Input Buffer and the program data vector
after DATA step compilation.

Figure 20.2 Input Buffer and Program Data Vector

Input Buffer
1 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5

Program Data Vector

TeamName ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal _N_ _ERROR_
0 1 0
Drop Drop Drop

Variables that are created by the INPUT and the Sum statements (TeamName,
ParticipantName, Event1, Event2, Event3, and TeamTotal) are set to missing
initially. Note that in this representation, numeric variables are initialized with a
period and character variables are initialized with blanks. The automatic variable
_N_ is set to 1; the automatic variable _ERROR_ is set to 0.
The variable TeamName is marked Drop in the PDV because of the DROP= data
set option in the DATA statement. Dropped variables are not written to the SAS data
set. The _N_ and _ERROR_ variables are dropped because automatic variables
created by the DATA step are not written to a SAS data set. See Chapter 4, “SAS
Variables,” on page 37 for details about automatic variables.

Reading a Record
SAS reads the first data line into the input buffer. The input pointer, which SAS uses
to keep its place as it reads data from the input buffer, is positioned at the beginning
of the buffer, ready to read the data record. The following figure shows the position
of the input pointer in the input buffer before SAS reads the data.
 Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through 447

Figure 20.3 Position of the Pointer in the Input Buffer Before SAS Reads Data

Input Buffer
1 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
Kn i g h t s S u e 6 8 8

The INPUT statement then reads data values from the record in the input buffer and
writes them to the PDV where they become variable values. The following figure
shows both the position of the pointer in the input buffer, and the values in the PDV
after SAS reads the first record.

Figure 20.4 Values from the First Record Are Read into the Program Data Vector

Input Buffer
1 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
Kn i g h t s S u e 6 8 8

Program Data Vector

TeamName ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal _N_ _ERROR_
Knights Sue 6 8 8 0 1 0
Drop Drop Drop

After the INPUT statement reads a value for each variable, SAS executes the Sum
statement. SAS computes a value for the variable TeamTotal and writes it to the
PDV. The following figure shows the PDV with all of its values before SAS writes the
observation to the data set.

Figure 20.5 Program Data Vector with Computed Value of the Sum Statement

Program Data Vector

TeamName ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal _N_ _ERROR_
Knights Sue 6 8 8 22 1 0
Drop Drop Drop

Writing an Observation to the SAS Data Set

When SAS executes the last statement in the DATA step, all values in the PDV,
except those marked to be dropped, are written as a single observation to the data
set Total_Points. The following figure shows the first observation in the Total_Points
data set.
 448 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

Figure 20.6 The First Observation in Data Set Total_Points

Output SAS Data Set TOTAL_POINTS: 1st observation

ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal

Sue 6 8 8 22

SAS then returns to the DATA statement to begin the next iteration. SAS resets the
values in the PDV in the following way:
n The values of variables created by the INPUT statement are set to missing.

n The value created by the Sum statement is automatically retained.

n The value of the automatic variable _N_ is incremented by 1, and the value of
_ERROR_ is reset to 0.
The following figure shows the current values in the PDV.

Figure 20.7 Current Values in the Program Data Vector

Program Data Vector

TeamName ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal _N_ _ERROR_

22 2 0
Drop Drop Drop

Reading the Next Record

SAS reads the next record into the input buffer. The INPUT statement reads the
data values from the input buffer and writes them to the PDV. The Sum statement
adds the values of Event1, Event2, and Event3 to TeamTotal. The value of 2 for
variable _N_ indicates that SAS is beginning the second iteration of the DATA step.
The following figure shows the input buffer, the PDV for the second record, and the
SAS data set with the first two observations.
 Processing a DATA Step: A Walk-through 449

Figure 20.8 Input Buffer, Program Data Vector, and First Two Observations

Input Buffer
1 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
C a r d i n a l s J a n e 9 7 8

Program Data Vector

TeamName ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal _N_ _ERROR_
Cardinals Jane 9 7 8 46 2 0
Drop Drop Drop

Output SAS Data Set TOTAL_POINTS: 1st and 2nd observations

ParticipantName Event1 Event2 Event3 TeamTotal

Sue 6 8 8 22
Jane 9 7 8 46

As SAS continues to read records, the value in TeamTotal grows larger as more
participant scores are added to the variable. _N_ is incremented at the beginning of
each iteration of the DATA step. This process continues until SAS reaches the end
of the input file.

When the DATA Step Finishes Executing

The DATA step stops executing after it processes the last input record. You can use
PROC PRINT to print the output in the Total_Points data set:

data total_points (drop=TeamName);

input TeamName $ ParticipantName $ Event1 Event2 Event3;
TeamTotal + (Event1 + Event2 + Event3);
datalines;
Knights Sue 6 8 8
Cardinals Jane 9 7 8
Knights John 7 7 7
Cardinals Lisa 8 9 9
Cardinals Fran 7 6 6
Knights Walter 9 8 10
;
proc print data=total_points;
title 'Total Team Scores';
run;
 450 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

Output 20.1 Output from the Walk-through DATA Step

About DATA Step Execution

The Default Sequence of Execution in the DATA Step

The following table outlines the default sequence of execution for statements in a
DATA step. The DATA statement begins the step and identifies usually one or more
SAS data sets that the step will create. (You can use the keyword _NULL_ as the
data set name if you do not want to create an output data set.) Optional
programming statements process your data. SAS then performs the default actions
at the end of processing an observation.

Table 20.1 Default Execution for Statements in a DATA Step

Structure of a DATA Step Action

DATA statement begins the step

counts iterations

Data-reading statements: *

INPUT describes the arrangement of values in the

input data record from a raw data source

SET reads an observation from one or more SAS

data sets

MERGE joins observations from two or more SAS

data sets into a single observation

MODIFY replaces, deletes, or appends observations

in an existing SAS data set in place
 About DATA Step Execution 451

Structure of a DATA Step Action

UPDATE updates a master file by applying

transactions

Optional SAS programming statements, for further processes the data for the current
example: observation

FirstQuarter=Jan+Feb+Mar; computes the value for FirstQuarter for the

current observation
if RetailPrice < 500;
subsets by value of variable RetailPrice for
the current observation

Default actions at the end of processing an

observation

At end of DATA step:

writes an observation to a SAS data set
Automatic write, automatic
returns to the DATA statement
return
resets values to missing in program data
At top of DATA step:
vector
Automatic reset

* The table shows the default processing of the DATA step. You can alter the sequence of statements
in the DATA step. You can code optional programming statements, such as creating or reinitializing a
constant, before you code a data-reading statement.

Note: You can also use functions to read and process data. For information about
how statements and functions process data differently, see “Using Functions to
Manipulate Files” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference. For specific
information about SAS functions, see the SAS File I/O and External Files categories
in “SAS Functions and CALL Routines by Category” in SAS Functions and CALL
Routines: Reference.

Changing the Default Sequence of Execution

Using Statements to Change the Default Sequence of

Execution
You can change the default sequence of execution to control how your program
executes. SAS language statements offer you a lot of flexibility to do this in a DATA
step. The following list shows the most common ways to control the flow of
execution in a DATA step program.
452 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

Table 20.2 Common Methods That Alter the Sequence of Execution

Task Possible Methods

Read a record merge, modify, join data sets

read multiple records to create a single observation
randomly select records for processing
read from multiple external files
read selected fields from a record by using statement or
data set options

Process data use conditional logic

retain variable values

Write an observation write to a SAS data set or to an external file

control when output is written to a data set
write to multiple files

For more information, see the individual statements in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference.

Using Functions to Change the Default Sequence of

Execution
You can also use functions to read and process data. For information about how
statements and functions process data differently, see “Using Functions to
Manipulate Files” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference..

Altering the Flow for a Given Observation

You can use statements, statement options, and data set options to alter how SAS
processes specific observations. The following table lists SAS language elements
and their effects on processing.

Table 20.3 Language Elements That Alter Programming Flow

SAS Language Element Function

subsetting IF statement stops the current iteration when a condition is

false, does not write the current observation to
the data set, and returns control to the top of the
DATA step.

IF-THEN/ELSE statement executes a SAS statement for observations that

meet the current condition and continues with
the next statement.

DO loops cause parts of the DATA step to be executed

multiple times.
 About DATA Step Execution 453

SAS Language Element Function

LINK and RETURN statements alter the flow of control, execute statements
following the label specified, and return control of
the program to the next statement following the
LINK statement.

HEADER= option in the FILE alters the flow of control whenever a PUT
statement statement causes a new page of output to begin;
statements following the label specified in the
HEADER= option are executed until a RETURN
statement is encountered, at which time control
returns to the point from which the HEADER=
option was activated.

GO TO statement alters the flow of execution by branching to the

label that is specified in the GO TO statement.
SAS executes subsequent statements then
returns control to the beginning of the DATA
step.

EOF= option in an INFILE statement alters the flow of execution when the end of the
input file is reached; statements following the
label that is specified in the EOF= option are
executed at that time.

_N_ automatic variable in an IF-THEN causes parts of the DATA step to execute only
construct for particular iterations.

SELECT statement conditionally executes one of a group of SAS

statements.

OUTPUT statement in an IF-THEN outputs an observation before the end of the

construct DATA step, based on a condition; prevents
automatic output at the bottom of the DATA step.

DELETE statement in an IF-THEN deletes an observation based on a condition and

construct causes a return to the top of the DATA step.

ABORT statement in an IF-THEN stops execution of the DATA step and instruct
construct SAS to resume execution with the next DATA or
PROC step. It can also stop executing a SAS
program altogether, depending on the options
specified in the ABORT statement and on the
method of operation.

WHERE statement or WHERE= data causes SAS to read certain observations based
set option on one or more specified criteria.

Step Boundary—How to Know When Statements Take

Effect
Understanding step boundaries is an important concept in SAS programming
because step boundaries determine when SAS statements take effect. SAS
454 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

executes program statements only when SAS crosses a default or a step boundary.
Consider the following DATA steps:
data _null_; 1
set allscores(drop=score5-score7);
title 'Student Test Scores'; 2

data employees; 3
set employee_list;
run;

1 The DATA statement begins a DATA step and is a step boundary.

2 The TITLE statement is in effect for both DATA steps because it appears before
the boundary of the first DATA step. (The TITLE statement is a global
statement.)
3 The DATA statement is the default boundary for the first DATA step.
The TITLE statement in this example is in effect for the first DATA step as well as for
the second because the TITLE statement appears before the boundary of the first
DATA step. This example uses the default step boundary data employees;.
The following example shows an OPTIONS statement inserted after a RUN
statement.
data scores; 1
set allscores(drop=score5-score7);
run; 2

options firstobs=5 obs=55; 3

data test;
set alltests;
run;

1 The DATA statement is a step boundary.

2 The RUN statement is the boundary for the first DATA step.
3 The OPTIONS statement affects the second DATA step only.

The OPTIONS statement specifies that the first observation that is read from the
input data set should be the 5th, and the last observation that is read should be the
55th. Inserting a RUN statement immediately before the OPTIONS statement
causes the first DATA step to reach its boundary (run;) before SAS encounters the
OPTIONS statement. The OPTIONS statement settings, therefore, are put into
effect for the second DATA step only.
Following the statements in a DATA step with a RUN statement is the simplest way
to make the step begin to execute, but a RUN statement is not always necessary.
SAS recognizes several step boundaries for a SAS step:
n another DATA statement

n a PROC statement

n a RUN statement

Note: For SAS programs executed in interactive mode, a RUN statement is

required to signal the step boundary for the last step that you submit.
n the semicolon (with a DATALINES or CARDS statement) or four semicolons
(with a DATALINES4 or CARDS4 statement) after data lines
 About DATA Step Execution 455

n an ENDSAS statement

n in noninteractive or batch mode, the end of a program file containing SAS

programming statements
n a QUIT statement (for some procedures)

When you submit a DATA step during interactive processing, it does not begin
running until SAS encounters a step boundary. This fact enables you to submit
statements as you write them while preventing a step from executing until you have
entered all the statements.

What Causes a DATA Step to Stop Executing

DATA steps stop executing under different circumstances, depending on the type
and number of sources of input.

Table 20.4 Causes That Stop DATA Step Execution

Data Read Data Source SAS Statements DATA Step Stops

no data after only one

iteration

any data when it executes

STOP or ABORT
when the data is
exhausted

raw data instream data lines INPUT statement after the last data
line is read

one external file INPUT and INFILE when end-of-file is

statements reached

multiple external INPUT and INFILE when end-of-file is

files statements first reached on
any of the files

observations one SAS data set SET and MODIFY after the last
sequentially statements observation is read

multiple SAS data one SET, MERGE, when all input data
sets MODIFY, or sets are exhausted
UPDATE statement

multiple SAS data multiple SET, when end-of-file is

sets MERGE, MODIFY, reached by any of
or UPDATE the data-reading
statements statements

A DATA step that reads observations from a SAS data set with a SET statement that
uses the POINT= option has no way to detect the end of the input SAS data set.
(This method is called direct or random access.) Such a DATA step usually requires
a STOP statement.
 456 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

A DATA step also stops when it executes a STOP or an ABORT statement. Some
system options and data set options, such as OBS=, can cause a DATA step to stop
earlier than it would otherwise.
If the VARINITCHK= system option is set to ERROR, a DATA step stops processing
and writes an error to the SAS log if a variable is not initialized. For more
information, see “VARINITCHK= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.

About Creating a SAS Data Set with a DATA

Step

Creating a SAS Data File or a SAS View

You can create either a SAS data file, a data set that holds actual data, or a SAS
view, a data set that references data that is stored elsewhere. By default, you create
a SAS data file. To create a SAS view instead, use the VIEW= option in the DATA
statement. With a SAS view, you can process current input data values without
having to edit your DATA step. For example, you can process monthly sales figures
without having to edit your DATA step. Whenever you need to create output, the
output from a SAS view reflects the current input data values.
The following DATA statement creates a SAS view called Monthly_Sales.
data monthly_sales / view=monthly_sales;

The following DATA statement creates a data file called Test_Results.

data test_results;

Sources of Input Data

You select data-reading statements based on the source of your input data. There
are at least six sources of input data:
n raw data in an external file

n raw data in the jobstream (instream data)

n data in SAS data sets

n data that is created by programming statements

n data that you can remotely access through a SAS catalog entry, the clipboard, a
data URL, an email, an FTP protocol, a Hadoop Distributed File System, TCP/IP
socket, a URL, a WebDAV protocol, or through zlib services
n data that is stored in a Database Management System (DBMS) or other vendor's
data files.
Usually, DATA steps read input data records from only one of the first three sources
of input. However, DATA steps can use a combination of some or all of the sources.
 About Creating a SAS Data Set with a DATA Step 457

Reading Raw Data: Examples

Example 1: Reading External File Data

The components of a DATA step that produce a SAS data set from raw data stored
in an external file are outlined here.
data Weight; 1
infile 'your-input-file'; 2
input IDnumber $ week1 week16; 3
WeightLoss=week1-week16; 4
run; 5

proc print data=Weight; 6

run; 7

1 Begin the DATA step and create a SAS data set called Weight.
2 Specify the external file that contains your data.
3 Read a record and assign values to three variables.
4 Calculate a value for variable WeightLoss.
5 Execute the DATA step.
6 Print data set Weight using the PRINT procedure.
7 Execute the PRINT procedure.

Example 2: Reading Instream Data Lines

This example reads raw data from instream data lines.
data Weight2; 1
input IDnumber $ week1 week16; 2
AverageLoss=week1-week16; 3
datalines; 4
2477 195 163
2431 220 198
2456 173 155
2412 135 116
; 5
proc print data=Weight2; 6
run;

1 Begin the DATA step and create SAS data set Weight2.
2 Read a data line and assign values to three variables.
3 Calculate a value for variable WeightLoss2.
4 Begin the data lines.
5 Signal end of data lines with a semicolon and execute the DATA step.
6 Print data set Weight2 using the PRINT procedure.
458 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

7 Execute the PRINT procedure.

Example 3: Reading Instream Data Lines with Missing

Values
You can also take advantage of options in the INFILE statement when you read
instream data lines. This example shows the use of the MISSOVER option, which
assigns missing values to variables for records that contain no data for those
variables.
data
weight2;
infile datalines missover; 1
input IDnumber $ Week1 Week16;
WeightLoss2=Week1-Week16;
datalines; 2
2477 195 163
2431
2456 173 155
2412 135 116
; 3

proc print data=weight2; 4

run; 5

1 Use the MISSOVER option to assign missing values to variables that do not
contain values in records that do not satisfy the current INPUT statement.
2 Begin data lines.
3 Signal end of data lines and execute the DATA step.
4 Print data set Weight2 using the PRINT procedure.
5 Execute the PRINT procedure.

Example 4: Using Multiple Input Files in Instream Data

This example shows how to use multiple input files as instream data to your
program. This example reads the records in each file and creates the All_Errors
SAS data set. The program then sorts the observations by Station, and creates a
sorted data set called Sorted_Errors. The print procedure prints the results.

data all_errors;
length filelocation $ 60;
input filelocation; /* reads instream data */
infile daily filevar=filelocation
filename=daily end=done;
do while (not done);
input Station $ Shift $ Employee $ NumberOfFlaws;
output;
end;
put 'Finished reading ' daily=;
datalines;
pathmyfile_A
 About Creating a SAS Data Set with a DATA Step 459

pathmyfile_B
pathmyfile_C
;

proc sort data=all_errors out=sorted_errors;

by Station;
run;

proc print data = sorted_errors;

title 'Flaws Report sorted by Station';
run;

Output 20.2 Multiple Input Files in Instream Data

Reading Data from SAS Data Sets

This example reads data from one SAS data set, generates a value for a new
variable, and creates a new data set.
data average_loss; 1
set weight; 2
Percent=round((AverageLoss * 100) / Week1); 3
run; 4

1 Begin the DATA step and create a SAS data set called Average_Loss.
2 Read an observation from SAS data set Weight.
3 Calculate a value for variable Percent.
4 Execute the DATA step.
 460 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

Generating Data from Programming Statements

You can create data for a SAS data set by generating observations with
programming statements rather than by reading data. A DATA step that reads no
input goes through only one iteration.
data investment; 1
begin='01JAN1990'd;
end='31DEC2009'd;
do year=year(begin) to year(end); 2
Capital+2000 + .07*(Capital+2000);
output; 3
end;
put 'The number of DATA step iterations is '_n_; 4
run; 5

proc print data=investment; 6

format Capital dollar12.2; 7
run; 8

1 Begin the DATA step and create a SAS data set called Investment.
2 Calculate a value based on a $2,000 capital investment and 7% interest each
year from 1990 to 2009. Calculate variable values for one observation per
iteration of the DO loop.
3 Write each observation to data set Investment.
4 Write a note to the SAS log proving that the DATA step iterates only once.
5 Execute the DATA step.
6 To see your output, print the Investment data set with the PRINT procedure.
7 Use the FORMAT statement to write numeric values with dollar signs, commas,
and decimal points.
8 Execute the PRINT procedure.

Writing a Report with a DATA Step

Example 1: Creating a Report without Creating a Data Set

You can use a DATA step to generate a report without creating a data set by using
_NULL_ in the DATA statement. This approach saves system resources because
SAS does not create a data set. The report can contain both TITLE statements and
FOOTNOTE statements. If you use a FOOTNOTE statement, be sure to include
FOOTNOTE as an option in the FILE statement in the DATA step.
title1 'Budget Report'; 1
 Writing a Report with a DATA Step 461

title2 'Mid-Year Totals by Department';

footnote 'compiled by Manager,
Documentation Development Department'; 2

data _null_; 3
set budget; 4
file print footnote; 5
MidYearTotal=Jan+Feb+Mar+Apr+May+Jun; 6
if _n_=1 then 7
do;
put @5 'Department' @30 'Mid-Year Total';
end;
put @7 Department @35 MidYearTotal; 8
run; 9

1 Define titles.
2 Define the footnote.
3 Begin the DATA step. _NULL_ specifies that no data set is created.
4 Read one observation per iteration from data set Budget.
5 Name the output file for the PUT statements and use the PRINT fileref. By
default, the PRINT fileref specifies that the file contains carriage-control
characters and titles. The FOOTNOTE option specifies that each page of output
contains a footnote.
6 Calculate a value for the variable MidYearTotal on each iteration.
7 Write variable name headings for the report on the first iteration only.
8 Write the current values of variables Department and MidYearTotal for each
iteration.
9 Execute the DATA step.

The example above uses the FILE statement with the PRINT fileref to produce
LISTING output. If you want to print to a file, specify a fileref or a complete filename.
Use the PRINT option if you want the file to contain carriage-control characters and
titles. The following example shows how to use the FILE statement in this way.
file 'external-file' footnote print;

You can also use the data _null_; statement to write to an external file. For more
information about writing to external files, see the FILE statement in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference, and the SAS documentation for your operating
environment.

Example 2: Creating a Customized Report

You can create very detailed, fully customized reports by using a DATA step with
PUT statements. The following example shows a customized report that contains
three distinct sections: a header, a table, and a footer. It contains existing SAS
variable values, constant text, and values that are calculated as the report is written.
 462 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

Output 20.3 Sample of a Customized Report

Around The World Retailers

EMPLOYEE BUSINESS, TRAVEL, AND TRAINING EXPENSE REPORT

Employee Name: ALEJANDRO MARTINEZ Destination: CARY, NC Departure Date: 11JUL2010

Department: SALES & MARKETING Purpose of Trip/Activity: MARKETING TRAINING Return Date: 16JUL2010
Trip ID#: 93-0002519 Activity from: 12JUL1993
to: 16JUL2010

+-----------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | SUN | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | | PAID BY PAID BY
| EXPENSE DETAIL | 07/11 | 07/12 | 07/13 | 07/14 | 07/15 | 07/16 | 07/17 | TOTALS | COMPANY EMPLOYEE
|-----------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
|Lodging, Hotel | 92.96| 92.96| 92.96| 92.96| 92.96| | | 464.80| 464.80
|Telephone | 4.57| 4.73| | | | | | 9.30| 9.30
|Personal Auto 36 miles @.28/mile | 5.04| | | | | 5.04| | 10.08| 10.08
|Car Rental, Taxi, Parking, Tolls | | 35.32| 35.32| 35.32| 35.32| 35.32| | 176.60| 176.60
|Airlines, Bus, Train (Attach Stub) | 485.00| | | | | 485.00| | 970.00| 970.00
|Dues | | | | | | | | |
|Registration Fees | 75.00| | | | | | | 75.00| 75.00
|Other (explain below) | | | | | | 5.00| | 5.00| 5.00
|Tips (excluding meal tips) | 3.00| | | | | 3.00| | 6.00| 6.00
|-----------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
|Meals | | | | | | | | |
|Breakfast | | | | | | 7.79| | 7.79| 7.79
|Lunch | | | | | | | | |
|Dinner | 36.00| 28.63| 36.00| 36.00| 30.00| | | 166.63| 166.63
|Business Entertainment | | | | | | | | |
|-----------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
|TOTAL EXPENSES | 641.57| 176.64| 179.28| 179.28| 173.28| 541.15| | 1891.20| 1611.40 279.80
+-----------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

Travel Advance to Employee .................................................................................. $0.00

Reimbursement due Employee (or ATWR) ........................................................................ $279.80

Other: (i.e. miscellaneous expenses and/or names of employees sharing receipt.)

CAR RENTAL INCLUDE $5.00 FOR GAS

APPROVED FOR PAYMENT BY: Authorizing Manager: _________________________________________________ Emp. # _______

Employee Signature: _________________________________________________ Emp. # 1118

Charge to Division: ATW Region: TX Dept: MKT Acct: 6003 Date: 27JUL2010

The code shown below generates the report example. You must create your own
input data. It is beyond the scope of this discussion to fully explain the code that
generated the report example. For a complete explanation of this example, see the
SAS Guide to Report Writing: Examples.
 Writing a Report with a DATA Step 463

options ls=132 ps=66 pageno=1 nodate;

data travel;

/* infile 'SAS-data-set' missover; */

infile 'c15expense.dat' missover;
input acct div $ region $ deptchg $ rptdate : date9.
other1-other10 /
empid empname & $char35. / dept & $char35. /
purpose & $char35. / dest & $char35. / tripid & $char35. /
actdate2 : date9. /
misc1 & $char75. / misc2 & $char75. / misc3 & $char75. /
misc4 & $char75. /
misc5 & $char75. / misc6 & $char75. / misc7 & $char75. /
misc8 & $char75. /
dptdate : date9. rtrndate : date9. automile permile /
hotel1-hotel10 /
phone1-phone10 / peraut1-peraut10 / carrnt1-carrnt10 /
airlin1-airlin10 / dues1-dues10 / regfee1-regfee10 /
tips1-tips10 / meals1-meals10 / bkfst1-bkfst10 /
lunch1-lunch10 / dinner1-dinner10 / busent1-busent10 /
total1-total10 / empadv reimburs actdate1 : date9.;
run;

proc format;
value category 1='Lodging, Hotel'
2='Telephone'
3='Personal Auto'
4='Car Rental, Taxi, Parking, Tolls'
5='Airlines, Bus, Train (Attach Stub)'
6='Dues'
7='Registration Fees'
8='Other (explain below)'
9='Tips (excluding meal tips)'
10='Meals'
11='Breakfast'
12='Lunch'
13='Dinner'
14='Business Entertainment'
15='TOTAL EXPENSES';
value blanks 0=' '
other=(|8.2|);
value $cuscore ' '='________';
value nuscore . ='________';
run;

data _null_;
file print;
title 'Expense Report';
format rptdate actdate1 actdate2 dptdate rtrndate date9.;
set travel;

array expenses{15,10} hotel1-hotel10 phone1-phone10

peraut1-peraut10 carrnt1-carrnt10
airlin1-airlin10 dues1-dues10
regfee1-regfee10 other1-other10
464 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

tips1-tips10 meals1-meals10
bkfst1-bkfst10 lunch1-lunch10
dinner1-dinner10 busent1-busent10
total1-total10;
array misc{8} $ misc1-misc8;
array mday{7} mday1-mday7;
dptday=weekday(dptdate);
mday{dptday}=dptdate;
if dptday>1 then
do dayofwk=1 to (dptday-1);
mday{dayofwk}=dptdate-(dptday-dayofwk);
end;
if dptday<7 then
do dayofwk=(dptday+1) to 7;
mday{dayofwk}=dptdate+(dayofwk-dptday);
end;
if rptdate=. then rptdate="&sysdate9"d;

tripnum=substr(tripid,4,2)||'-'||substr(scan(tripid,1),6);

put // @1 'Around The World Retailers' //

@1 'EMPLOYEE BUSINESS, TRAVEL, AND TRAINING EXPENSE REPORT' ///

@1 'Employee Name: ' @16 empname

@44 'Destination: ' @57 dest
@106 'Departure Date:' @122 dptdate /

@4 'Department: ' @16 dept

@44 'Purpose of Trip/Activity: ' @70 purpose
@109 'Return Date:' @122 rtrndate /

@6 'Trip ID#: ' @16 tripnum

@107 'Activity from:' @122 actdate1 /

@118 'to:' @122 actdate2 //

@1 '+-----------------------------------+--------+--------+'
'--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+' /

@1 '| | SUN | MON |'

' TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | |'
' PAID BY PAID BY' /

@1 '| EXPENSE DETAIL '

' | ' mday1 mmddyy5. ' | ' mday2 mmddyy5.
' | ' mday3 mmddyy5. ' | ' mday4 mmddyy5.
' | ' mday5 mmddyy5. ' | ' mday6 mmddyy5.
' | ' mday7 mmddyy5.
@100 '| TOTALS | COMPANY EMPLOYEE' ;
do i=1 to 15;

if i=1 or i=10 or i=15 then

put @1 '|-----------------------------------|--------|--------|'
'--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|';
if i=3 then
put @1 '|' i category. @16 automile 4.0 @21 'miles @'
 Writing a Report with a DATA Step 465

@28 permile 3.2 @31 '/mile' @37 '|' @;

else put @1 '|' i category. @37 '|' @;
col=38;
do j=1 to 10;
if j<9 then put @col expenses{i,j} blanks8. '|' @;
else if j=9 then put @col expenses{i,j} blanks8. @;
else put @col expenses{i,j} blanks8.;
col+9;
if j=8 then col+2;
end;
end;
Put @1 '+-----------------------------------+--------+--------+'
'--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+' //

@1 'Travel Advance to Employee ...............................'

'...................................................'
@121 empadv dollar8.2 //

@1 'Reimbursement due Employee (or ATWR) .....................'

'...................................................'
@121 reimburs dollar8.2 //

@1 'Other: (i.e. miscellaneous expenses and/or names of '

'employees sharing receipt.)' /;
do j=1 to 8;
put @1 misc{j} ;
end;
put / @1 'APPROVED FOR PAYMENT BY: Authorizing Manager:'
@48 '_________________________________________________'
@100 'Emp. # _______' ///

@27 'Employee Signature:'

@48 '_________________________________________________'
@100 'Emp. # ' empid ///

@6 'Charge to Division:' @26 div $cuscore.

@39 'Region:' @48 region $cuscore.
@59 'Dept:' @66 deptchg $cuscore.
@79 'Acct:' @86 acct nuscore.
@100 'Date:' @107 rptdate /
_page_;
run;

Example 3: Creating an HTML Report Using ODS and the

DATA Step

ods html body='your_file.html';

title 'Leading Grain Producers';

title2 'for 2012';
466 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

proc format;
value $cntry 'BRZ'='Brazil'
'CHN'='China'
'IND'='India'
'INS'='Indonesia'
'USA'=''United States';
run;

data _null_;
length Country $ 3 Type $ 5;
input Year country $ type $ Kilotons;
format country $cntry.;
label type='Grain';

file print
ods=(variables=(country type kilotons));

put _ods_;

datalines;
2012 BRZ Wheat 3302
2012 BRZ Rice 10035
2012 BRZ Corn 31975
2012 CHN Wheat 109000
2012 CHN Rice 190100
2012 CHN Corn 119350
2012 IND Wheat 62620
2012 IND Rice 120012
2012 IND Corn 8660
2012 INS Wheat .
2012 INS Rice 51165
2012 INS Corn 8925
2012 USA Wheat 62099
2012 USA Rice 7771
2012 USA Corn 236064
;
run;
 The DATA Step and ODS 467

Output 20.4 HTML File Produced by ODS

The DATA Step and ODS

The Output Delivery System (ODS) is a method of delivering output in a variety of
formats and making these formats easy to access. ODS provides templates that
define the structure of the output from DATA steps and from PROC steps. The DATA
step enables you to use the ODS option in a FILE statement and in a PUT
statement.
ODS combines raw data with one or more templates to produce several types of
output called output objects. Output objects are sent to destinations such as the
LISTING destination, the PRINTER destination, or the HTML destination. For more
information, see “Routing and Customizing SAS Output” on page 177. For complete
information about ODS, see the SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.
 468 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing

DATA Step Processing Time

DATA step processing time occurs in two stages: the first is the start-up (or
compilation time), and the second is the execution time. The compilation time is the
time that it takes the SAS compiler to scan the SAS source code and convert it to an
executable program. The execution time is the time that it takes SAS to execute the
DATA step for each observation in a SAS file. The two phases do not occur
simultaneously: that is, the DATA step compiles first and then it executes. For more
detailed information about these two phases, see “The Compilation Phase” on page
444 and “The Execution Phase” on page 444.
Understanding these processing times and how they relate to the structure of your
SAS programs might be helpful when you are looking for ways to improve
performance. In general, the more statements a DATA step processes, the longer
the compilation time. Alternatively, DATA steps processing large numbers of
observations tend to have longer execution times because they are more I/O-
intensive.
For example, a very large DATA step job that is not I/O-intensive (that is, it has to
process a relatively small number of observations) might need to be rewritten to
reduce complexity and to eliminate repetitive and unused code. DO loops and user-
defined functions created with PROC FCMP are methods available for reducing
compilation time by decreasing the amount of code that has to be compiled. For
more information about how improve performance when running CPU-intensive
programs, see “Techniques for Optimizing CPU Performance” on page 227.
If most of the time used by the DATA step is for processing hundreds of
observations, then other techniques designed to optimize I/O might be more useful.
For more information about how to improve performance when running I/O-intensive
programs, see “Techniques for Optimizing I/O” on page 219.
Several SAS system options provide information that can help you minimize
processing time and optimize performance. For example, the FULLSTIMER option
in SAS collects and displays performance statistics on each DATA step so that you
can determine which resources were used for each step of data processing. For
more information about this option and about optimization in general, see Chapter
12, “Optimizing System Performance,” on page 217.
The following example shows how to estimate the compilation time for a very large
DATA step job that has a small number of observations. The program uses the
DATETIME function with the %PUT macro statement to calculate the compilation
start time. It then uses the _N_ automatic variable to find the execution start time
(SAS always sets this variable to 1 at the start of the execution phase). By
calculating the difference between the two times, the program returns the total
compilation time of the DATA step.
Example Code 20.1 Finding Compilation and Execution Time
options nosource;
%put Starting compilation of DATA step: %QSYSFUNC(DATETIME(), DATETIME20.3);
%let startTime=%QSYSFUNC(DATETIME());

data a;
if _N_ = 1 then do;
endTime = datetime();
 DATA Step Processing Time 469

put 'Starting execution of

DATA step: ' endTime:DATETIME20.3;
timeDiff=endTime-&startTime;
put 'The Compile time for this DATA Step is
approximately ' timeDiff:time20.6;
end;
/* Lots of DATA step code */
run;

Output 20.5 Log Output for Finding Compilation and Execution Time

Note: Macro statements and macro variables are resolved at compilation time and
have no bearing on the time it takes to execute the DATA step. For information
about how SAS processes statements with Macro activity, see “Getting Started with
the Macro Facility” in SAS Macro Language: Reference, and “SAS Programs and
Macro Processing” in SAS Macro Language: Reference.
470 Chapter 20 / DATA Step Processing
 471

21
Reading Raw Data

Definition of Reading Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Ways to Read Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Numeric Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Character Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Sources of Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Instream Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Instream Data Containing Semicolons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Choosing an Input Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
List Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Modified List Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Column Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Formatted Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Named Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Additional Data-Reading Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
How SAS Handles Invalid Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Reading Missing Values in Raw Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Representing Missing Values in Input Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Special Missing Values in Numeric Input Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Reading Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Using Binary Informats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Reading Column-Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
How to Read Column-Binary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Description of Column-Binary Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Definition of Reading Raw Data

raw data
is unprocessed data that has not been read into a SAS data set. You can use a
DATA step to read raw data into a SAS data set from two sources:
 472 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

n instream data

n an external file

Note: Raw data does not include Database Management System (DBMS) files. You
must license SAS/ACCESS software to access data stored in DBMS files. For more
information about SAS/ACCESS features, see Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS
Software,” on page 757.

Ways to Read Raw Data

You can read raw data by using one of the following items:
n SAS statements

n SAS functions

n External File Interface (EFI)

n Import Wizard

When you read raw data with a DATA step, you can use a combination of the
INPUT, DATALINES, and INFILE statements. SAS automatically reads your data
when you use these statements. For more information about these statements, see
“Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement” on page 477.
You can also use SAS functions to manipulate external files and to read records of
raw data. These functions provide more flexibility in handling raw data. For a
description of available functions, see the SAS File I/O and External File categories
in “SAS Functions and CALL Routines by Category” in SAS Functions and CALL
Routines: Reference. For more information about how statements and functions
manipulate files differently, see “Using Functions to Manipulate Files” in SAS
Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.
If your operating environment supports a graphical user interface, you can use the
EFI or the Import Wizard to read raw data. The EFI is a point-and-click graphical
interface that you can use to read and write data that is not in SAS software's
internal format. By using EFI, you can read data from an external file and write it to a
SAS data set. You can also read data from a SAS data set and write it to an external
file. See SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files: Reference for more information about
EFI.
Note: If the data file that you are passing to EFI is password protected, you are
prompted multiple times for your login ID and password.
The Import Wizard guides you through the steps to read data from an external data
source and write it to a SAS data set. As a wizard, it is a series of windows that
present simple choices to guide you through a process. See SAS/ACCESS
Interface to PC Files: Reference for more information about the wizard.
Operating Environment Information: Using external files with your SAS jobs
requires that you specify filenames with syntax that is appropriate to your operating
environment. See the SAS documentation for your operating environment for more
information.
 Types of Data 473

Types of Data

Definitions
data values
are character or numeric values.
numeric value
contains only numbers, and sometimes a decimal point, a minus sign, or both.
When they are read into a SAS data set, numeric values are stored in the
floating-point format native to the operating environment. Nonstandard numeric
values can contain other characters as numbers; you can use formatted input to
enable SAS to read them.
character value
is a sequence of characters.
standard data
are character or numeric values that can be read with list, column, formatted, or
named input. Examples of standard data include:
n ARKANSAS

n 1166.42

nonstandard data
is data that can be read only with the aid of informats. Examples of nonstandard
data include numeric values that contain commas, dollar signs, or blanks; date
and time values; and hexadecimal and binary values.

Numeric Data
Numeric data can be represented in several ways. SAS can read standard numeric
values without any special instructions. To read nonstandard values, SAS requires
special instructions in the form of informats. Table 21.2 on page 474 shows
standard, nonstandard, and invalid numeric data values and the special tools, if any,
that are required to read them. For complete descriptions of all SAS informats, see
SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.

Table 21.1 Reading Standard Numeric Data

Data Description Solution

23 input right aligned None needed

23 input not aligned None needed

23 input left aligned None needed

474 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

Data Description Solution

00023 input with leading zeros None needed

23.0 input with decimal point None needed

2.3E1 in E notation, 2.30 (ss1) None needed

230E‑1 in E notation, 230x10 (ss-1) None needed

‑23 minus sign for negative None needed

numbers

Table 21.2 Reading Nonstandard Numeric Data

Data Description Solution

2 3 embedded blank COMMA. or BZ.

informat

‑ 23 embedded blank COMMA. or BZ.

informat

2,341 comma COMMA. informat

(23) parentheses COMMA. informat

C4A2 hexadecimal value HEX. informat

1MAR90 date value DATE. informat

Table 21.3 Reading Invalid Numeric Data

Data Description Solution

23 ‑ minus sign follows number Put minus sign before

number or solve
programmatically. It might
be possible to use the
S370FZDTw.d informat, but
positive values require the
trailing plus sign (+).[

.. double instead of single Code missing values as a

periods single period or use the ??
modifier in the INPUT
statement to code any
invalid input value as a
missing value.

J23 not a number Read as a character value,

or edit the raw data to
change it to a valid number.

Remember the following rules for reading numeric data:

 Types of Data 475

n Parentheses or a minus sign preceding the number (without an intervening

blank) indicates a negative value.
n Leading zeros and the placement of a value in the input field do not affect the
value assigned to the variable. Leading zeros and leading and trailing blanks are
not stored with the value. Unlike some languages, SAS does not read trailing
blanks as zeros by default. To cause trailing blanks to be read as zeros, use the
BZ. informat described in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.
n Numeric data can have leading and trailing blanks but cannot have embedded
blanks (unless they are read with a COMMA. or BZ. informat).
n To read decimal values from input lines that do not contain explicit decimal
points, indicate where the decimal point belongs by using a decimal parameter
with column input or an informat with formatted input. See the full description of
the INPUT statement in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference for more
information. An explicit decimal point in the input data overrides any decimal
specification in the INPUT statement.

Character Data
A value that is read with an INPUT statement is assumed to be a character value if
one of the following is true:
n A dollar sign ($) follows the variable name in the INPUT statement.

n A character informat is used.

n The variable has been previously defined as character. For example, a value is
assumed to be a character value if the variable has been previously defined as
character in a LENGTH statement, in the RETAIN statement, by an assignment
statement, or in an expression.
Input data that you want to store in a character variable can include any character.
Use the guidelines in the following table when your raw data includes leading blanks
and semicolons.

Table 21.4 Reading Instream Data and External Files Containing Leading Blanks and
Semicolons

Characters in the Data What to Use Reason

leading or trailing blanks that formatted input and the List input trims leading
you want to preserve $CHARw. informat and trailing blanks from a
character value before
the value is assigned to
a variable.

semicolons in instream data DATALINES4 or CARDS4 With the normal

statements and four DATALINES and CARDS
semicolons (;;;;) to mark the statements, a semicolon
end of the data in the data prematurely
signals the end of the
data.
 476 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

Characters in the Data What to Use Reason

delimiters, blank characters, or DSD option, with DLM= or These options enable
quoted strings DLMSTR= option in the SAS to read a character
INFILE statement value that contains a
delimiter within a quoted
string; these options can
also treat two
consecutive delimiters as
a missing value and
remove quotation marks
from character values.

Remember the following when reading character data:

n In a DATA step, when you place a dollar sign ($) after a variable name in the
INPUT statement, character data that is read from data lines remains in its
original case. If you want SAS to read data from data lines as uppercase, use
the CAPS system option or the $UPCASE informat.
n If the value is shorter than the length of the variable, SAS adds blanks to the end
of the value to give the value the specified length. This process is known as
padding the value with blanks.

Sources of Raw Data

Instream Data
The following example uses the INPUT statement to read in instream data:
data weight;
input PatientID $ Week1 Week8 Week16;
loss=Week1-Week16;
datalines;
2477 195 177 163
2431 220 213 198
2456 173 166 155
2412 135 125 116
;

Note: A semicolon appearing alone on the line immediately following the last data
line is the convention that is used in this example. However, a PROC statement,
DATA statement, or a global statement ending in a semicolon on the line
immediately following the last data line also submits the previous DATA step.

Instream Data Containing Semicolons

The following example reads in instream data containing semicolons:
 Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement 477

data weight;
input PatientID $ Week1 Week8 Week16;
loss=Week1-Week16;
datalines4;
24;77 195 177 163
24;31 220 213 198
24;56 173 166 155
24;12 135 125 116
;;;;

External Files
The following example shows how to read in raw data from an external file using the
INFILE and INPUT statements:
data weight;
infile file-specification or path-name;
input PatientID $ Week1 Week8 Week16;
loss=Week1-Week16;
run;

Note: See the SAS documentation for your operating environment for information
about how to specify a file with the INFILE statement.

Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement

Choosing an Input Style

The INPUT statement reads raw data from instream data lines or external files into a
SAS data set. You can use the following different input styles, depending on the
layout of data values in the records:
n list input

n column input

n formatted input

n named input

You can also combine styles of input in a single INPUT statement. For details about
the styles of input, see the INPUT statement in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference.
 478 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

List Input
List input uses a scanning method for locating data values. Data values are not
required to be aligned in columns but must be separated by at least one blank (or
other defined delimiter). List input requires only that you specify the variable names
and a dollar sign ($), if defining a character variable. You do not have to specify the
location of the data fields.
An example of list input follows:
data scores;
length name $ 12;
input name $ score1 score2;

datalines;
Riley 1132 1187
Henderson 1015 1102
;

List input has several restrictions on the type of data that it can read:
n Input values must be separated by at least one blank (the default delimiter) or by
the delimiter specified with the DLM= or DLMSTR= option in the INFILE
statement. If you want SAS to read consecutive delimiters as if there is a missing
value between them, specify the DSD option in the INFILE statement.
n Blanks cannot represent missing values. A real value, such as a period, must be
used instead.
n To read and store a character input value longer than 8 bytes, define a variable's
length by using a LENGTH, INFORMAT, or ATTRIB statement before the INPUT
statement, or by using modified list input, which consists of an informat and the
colon modifier in the INPUT statement. See “Modified List Input” on page 478 for
more information.
n Character values cannot contain embedded blanks when the file is delimited by
blanks.
n Fields must be read in order.

n Data must be in standard numeric or character format.

Note: Nonstandard numeric values, such as packed decimal data, must use the
formatted style of input. See “Formatted Input” on page 480 for more information.

Modified List Input

A more flexible version of list input, called modified list input, includes format
modifiers. The following format modifiers enable you to use list input to read
nonstandard data by using SAS informats:
n The & (ampersand) format modifier enables you to read character values that
contain one or more embedded blanks with list input and to specify a character
informat. SAS reads until it encounters two consecutive blanks, the defined
length of the variable, or the end of the input line, whichever comes first.
 Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement 479

n The : (colon) format modifier enables you to use list input but also to specify an
informat after a variable name, whether character or numeric. SAS reads until it
encounters a blank column, the defined length of the variable (character only), or
the end of the data line, whichever comes first.
n The ~ (tilde) format modifier enables you to read and retain single quotation
marks, double quotation marks, and delimiters within character values.
The following is an example of the : and ~ format modifiers. You must use the DSD
option in the INFILE statement. Otherwise, the INPUT statement ignores the ~
format modifier.
data scores;
infile datalines dsd;
input Name : $9. Score1-Score3 Team ~ $25. Div $;

datalines;
Smith,12,22,46,"Green Hornets, Atlanta",AAA
Mitchel,23,19,25,"High Volts, Portland",AAA
Jones,09,17,54,"Vulcans, Las Vegas",AA
;
proc print data=scores;

Output 21.1 Output from Example with Format Modifiers

Column Input
Column input enables you to read standard data values that are aligned in columns
in the data records. Specify the variable name, followed by a dollar sign ($) if it is a
character variable, and specify the columns in which the data values are located in
each record:
data scores;
infile datalines truncover;
input name $ 1-12 score2 17-20 score1 27-30;

datalines;
Riley 1132 987
Henderson 1015 1102
;

Note: Use the TRUNCOVER option in the INFILE statement to ensure that SAS
handles data values of varying lengths appropriately.
 480 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

To use column input, data values must be:

n in the same field on all the input lines

n in standard numeric or character form

Note: You cannot use an informat with column input.

Features of column input include the following:
n Character values can contain embedded blanks.

n Character values can be from 1 to 32,767 characters long.

n Placeholders, such as a single period (.), are not required for missing data.

n Input values can be read in any order, regardless of their position in the record.

n Values or parts of values can be reread.

n Both leading and trailing blanks within the field are ignored.
n Values do not need to be separated by blanks or other delimiters.

CAUTION! If you insert tabs while entering data in the DATALINES statement in
column format, you might get unexpected results. This issue exists when you use
the SAS Enhanced Editor or SAS Program Editor. To avoid the issue, do one of the
following:
n Replace all tabs in the data with single spaces using another editor outside of
SAS.
n Use the %INCLUDE statement from the SAS editor to submit your code.

n If you are using the SAS Enhanced Editor, select Tools ð Options ð Enhanced
Editor to change the tab size from 4 to 1.

Formatted Input
Formatted input combines the flexibility of using informats with many of the features
of column input. By using formatted input, you can read nonstandard data for which
SAS requires additional instructions. Formatted input is typically used with pointer
controls that enable you to control the position of the input pointer in the input buffer
when you read data.
The INPUT statement in the following DATA step uses formatted input and pointer
controls. Note that $12. and COMMA5. are informats; +4 and +6 are column pointer
controls.
data scores;
input name $12. +4 score1 comma5. +6 score2 comma5.;

datalines;
Riley 1,132 1,187
Henderson 1,015 1,102
;

Note: You can also use informats to read data that is not aligned in columns. See
“Modified List Input” on page 478 for more information.
Important points about formatted input are:
n Characters values can contain embedded blanks.
 Reading Raw Data with the INPUT Statement 481

n Character values can be from 1 to 32,767 characters long.

n Placeholders, such as a single period (.) are not required for missing data.

n With the use of pointer controls to position the pointer, input values can be read
in any order, regardless of their positions in the record.
n Values or parts of values can be reread.

n Formatted input enables you to read data stored in nonstandard form, such as
packed decimal or numbers with commas.

Named Input
You can use named input to read records in which data values are preceded by the
name of the variable and an equal sign (=). The following INPUT statement reads
the data lines containing equal signs.
data games;
input name=$ score1= score2=;

datalines;
name=riley score1=1132 score2=1187
;

Note: When an equal sign follows a variable in an INPUT statement, SAS expects
that data remaining on the input line contains only named input values. You cannot
switch to another form of input in the same INPUT statement after using named
input. Also, note that any variable that exists in the input data but is not defined in
the INPUT statement generates a note in the SAS log indicating a missing field.

Additional Data-Reading Features

In addition to different styles of input, there are many tools to meet the needs of
different data-reading situations. You can use options in the INFILE statement in
combination with the INPUT statement to give you additional control over the
reading of data records. The following table lists common data-reading tasks and
the appropriate features available in the INPUT and INFILE statements.

Table 21.5 Additional Data-Reading Features

Input Goal Use

multiple records create a single observation #n or / line pointer control in

the INPUT statement with a
DO loop.

a single record create multiple observations trailing @@ in the INPUT

statement.
trailing @ with multiple
INPUT and OUTPUT
statements.
482 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

Input Goal Use

variable-length data fields read delimited data list input with or without a
and records format modifier in the INPUT
statement and the
TRUNCOVER, DLM=,
DLMSTR=, or DSD options
in the INFILE statement.

read non-delimited data $VARYINGw. informat in the

INPUT statement and the
LENGTH= and
TRUNCOVER options in the
INFILE statement.

a file with varying record IF-THEN statements with

layouts multiple INPUT statements,
using trailing @ or @@ as
necessary.

hierarchical files IF-THEN statements with

multiple INPUT statements,
using trailing @ as
necessary.

more than one input file or EOF= or END= option in an

to control the program flow INFILE statement.
at EOF
multiple INFILE and INPUT
statements.
FILEVAR=option in an
INFILE statement.
FILENAME statement with
concatenation, wildcard, or
piping.

only part of each record LINESIZE=option in an

INFILE statement.

some but not all records in FIRSTOBS=and OBS=

the file options in an INFILE
statement; FIRSTOBS= and
OBS= system options; #n
line pointer control.

instream data lines control the reading with INFILE statement with
DATALINES and appropriate
special options
options.

starting at a particular @ column pointer controls.

column

leading blanks maintain them $CHARw. informat in an

INPUT statement.

a delimiter other than blanks DLM= or DLMSTR= option,

(with list input or DSD option, or both in an
INFILE statement.
modified list input with the
colon modifier)
 How SAS Handles Invalid Data 483

Input Goal Use

the standard tab character DLM= or DLMSTR= option

in an INFILE statement; or
the EXPANDTABS option in
an INFILE statement.

missing values (with list create observations without TRUNCOVER option in an

input or compromising data integrity INFILE statement; DLM= or
DLMSTR= options, DSD
modified list input with the protect data integrity by
option, or both might also be
colon modifier) overriding the default
needed.
behavior

For further information about data-reading features, see the INPUT and INFILE
statements in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

How SAS Handles Invalid Data

An input value is invalid if it has any of the following characteristics:
n It requires an informat that is not specified.

n It does not conform to the informat specified.

n It does not match the input style used. An example is if it is read as standard
numeric data (no dollar sign or informat) but it does not conform to the rules for
standard SAS numbers.
n It is out of range (too large or too small).

Operating Environment Information: The range for numeric values is operating

environment-specific. See the SAS documentation for your operating environment
for more information.
If SAS reads a data value that is incompatible with the type specified for that
variable, SAS tries to convert the value to the specified type. If conversion is not
possible, an error occurs, and SAS performs the following actions:
n sets the value of the variable being read to missing or to the value specified with
the INVALIDDATA= system option.
n prints an invalid data note in the SAS log.

n sets the automatic variable _ERROR_ to 1 for the current observation.

n prints the input line and column number containing the invalid value in the SAS
log. If a line contains unprintable characters, it is printed in hexadecimal form. A
scale is printed above the input line to help determine column numbers.
 484 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

Reading Missing Values in Raw Data

Representing Missing Values in Input Data

Many collections of data contain some missing values. SAS can recognize these
values as missing when it reads them. You use the following characters to represent
missing values when reading raw data:
numeric missing values
are represented by a single decimal point (.). All input styles except list input also
allow a blank to represent a missing numeric value.
character missing values
are represented by a blank, with one exception: list input requires that you use a
period (.) to represent a missing value.
special numeric missing values
are represented by two characters: a decimal point (.) followed by either a letter
or an underscore (_).
For more information about missing values, see Chapter 5, “Missing Values,” on
page 95.

Special Missing Values in Numeric Input Data

SAS enables you to differentiate among classes of missing values in numeric data.
For numeric variables, you can designate up to 27 special missing values by using
the letters A through Z, in either upper- or lowercase, and the underscore character
(_).
The following example shows how to code missing values by using a MISSING
statement in a DATA step:
data test_results;
missing a b c;
input name $8. Answer1 Answer2 Answer3;

datalines;
Smith 2 5 9
Jones 4 b 8
Carter a 4 7
Reed 3 5 c
;

Note that you must use a period when you specify a special missing numeric value
in an expression or assignment statement, as in the following:
x=.d;

However, you do not need to specify each special missing numeric data value with a
period in your input data. For example, the following DATA step, which uses periods
 Reading Binary Data 485

in the input data for special missing values, produces the same result as the input
data without periods:
data test_results;
missing a b c;
input name $8. Answer1 Answer2 Answer3;
datalines;
Smith 2 5 9
Jones 4 .b 8
Carter .a 4 7
Reed 3 5 .c
;

proc print;
run;

Output 21.2 Output of Data with Special Missing Numeric Values

Note: SAS is displayed and prints special missing values that use letters in
uppercase.

Reading Binary Data

Definitions
binary data
is numeric data that is stored in binary form. Binary numbers have a base of two
and are represented with the digits 0 and 1.
packed decimal data
are binary decimal numbers that are encoded by using each byte to represent
two decimal digits. Packed decimal representation stores decimal data with
exact precision; the fractional part of the number must be determined by using
an informat or format because there is no separate mantissa and exponent.
 486 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

zoned decimal data

are binary decimal numbers that are encoded so that each digit requires one
byte of storage. The last byte contains the number's sign as well as the last digit.
Zoned decimal data produces a printable representation.

Using Binary Informats

SAS can read binary data with the special instructions supplied by SAS informats.
You can use formatted input and specify the informat in the INPUT statement. The
informat that you choose is determined by the following factors:
n the type of number being read: binary, packed decimal, zoned decimal, or a
variation of one of these
n the type of system on which the data was created

n the type of system that you use to read the data

Different computer platforms store numeric binary data in different forms. The
ordering of bytes differs by platforms that are referred to as either “big endian” or
“little endian.” For more information, see “Byte Ordering for Integer Binary Data on
Big Endian and Little Endian Platforms” in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.
SAS provides a number of informats for reading binary data and corresponding
formats for writing binary data. Some of these informats read data in native mode,
that is, by using the byte-ordering system that is standard for the system on which
SAS is running. Other informats force the data to be read by the IBM 370 standard,
regardless of the native mode of the system on which SAS is running. The informats
that read in native or IBM 370 mode are listed in the following table.

Table 21.6 Informats for Native or IBM 370 Mode

IBM 370 Mode

Description Native Mode Informats Informats

ASCII Character $w. $ASCIIw.

ASCII Numeric w.d $ASCIIw.

EBCDIC Character $w. $EBCDICw.

EBCDIC Numeric (Standard) w.d S370FFw.d

Integer Binary IBw.d S370FIBw.d

Positive Integer Binary PIBw.d S370FPIBw.d

Real Binary RBw.d S370FRBw.d

Unsigned Integer Binary PIBw.d S370FIBUw.d,

S370FPIBw.d

Packed Decimal PDw.d S370FPDw.d

Unsigned Packed Decimal PKw.d S370FPDUw.d or PKw.d

 Reading Column-Binary Data 487

IBM 370 Mode

Description Native Mode Informats Informats

Zoned Decimal ZDw.d S370FZDw.d

Zoned Decimal Leading Sign S370FZDLw.d S370FZDLw.d

Zoned Decimal Separate S370FZDSw.d S370FZDSw.d

Leading Sign

Zoned Decimal Separate S370FZDTw.d S370FZDTw.d

Trailing Sign

Unsigned Zoned Decimal ZDw.d S370FZDUw.d

If you write a SAS program that reads binary data and that is run on only one type of
system, you can use the native mode informats and formats. However, if you want
to write SAS programs that can be run on multiple systems that use different byte-
storage systems, use the IBM 370 informats. The IBM 370 informats enable you to
write SAS programs that can read data in this format and that can be run in any
SAS environment, regardless of the standard for storing numeric data.1 The IBM
370 informats can also be used to read data originally written with the corresponding
native mode formats on an IBM mainframe.
Note: Anytime a text file originates from anywhere other than the local encoding
environment, it might be necessary to specify the ENCODING= option on either
EBCDIC or ASCII systems. When you read an EBCDIC text file on an ASCII
platform, it is recommended that you specify the ENCODING= option in the
FILENAME or INFILE statement. However, if you use the DSD and the DLM= or
DLMSTR= options on the INFILE statement, the ENCODING= option is a
requirement because these options require certain characters in the session
encoding (such as quotation marks, commas, and blanks). Reserve encoding-
specific informats for use with true binary files that contain both character and non-
character fields.
For complete descriptions of all SAS formats and informats, including how numeric
binary data is written, see SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.

Reading Column-Binary Data

Definition
column-binary data storage
is an older form of data storage that is no longer widely used and is not needed
by most SAS users. Column-binary data storage compresses data so that more
than 80 items of data can be stored on a single “virtual” punched card. The
advantage is that this method enables you to store more data in the same

1. For example, using the IBM 370 informats, you could download data that contain binary integers from a mainframe to a
PC and then use the S370FIB informats to read the data.
 488 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

amount of space. Because card-image data sets remain in existence, SAS

provides informats for reading column-binary data. See “Description of Column-
Binary Data Storage” on page 488 for a more detailed explanation of column-
binary data storage.

How to Read Column-Binary Data

To read column-binary data with SAS, you need to know:
n how to select the appropriate SAS column-binary informat

n how to set the RECFM= and LRECL= options in the INFILE statement

n how to use pointer controls

The following table lists and describes SAS column-binary informats.

Table 21.7 SAS Informats for Reading Column-Binary Data

Informat Name Description

$CBw. reads standard character data from column-binary files

CBw. reads standard numeric data from column-binary files

PUNCH.d reads whether a row is punched

ROWw.d reads a column-binary field down a card column

To read column-binary data, you must set two options in the INFILE statement:
n Set RECFM= to F for fixed.

n Set the LRECL= to 160, because each card column of column-binary data is
expanded to two bytes before the fields are read.
For example, to read column-binary data from a file, use an INFILE statement in the
following form before the INPUT statement that reads the data:
infile file-specification or path-name
recfm=f
lrecl=160;

Note: The expansion of each column of column-binary data into two bytes does not
affect the position of the column pointer. You use the absolute column pointer
control @, as usual, because the informats automatically compute the true location
on the doubled record. If a value is in column 23, use the pointer control @23 to
move the pointer there.

Description of Column-Binary Data Storage

The arrangement and numbering of rows in a column on physical punched cards
originated with the Hollerith system of encoding characters and numbers. It was
based on using a pair of values to represent either a character or a numeric digit. In
 Reading Column-Binary Data 489

the Hollerith system, each column on a card had a maximum of two punches, one
punch in the zone portion, and one in the digit portion. These punches
corresponded to a pair of values, and each pair of values corresponded to a specific
alphabetic character or sign and numeric digit.
In the zone portion of the punched card (the first three rows), the zone component of
the pair can have the values 12, 11, 0 (or 10), or not punched. In the digit portion of
the card (the fourth through the twelfth rows), the digit component of the pair can
have the values 1 through 9, or not punched.
The following figure shows the multi-punch combinations corresponding to letters of
the alphabet.

Figure 21.1 Columns and Rows in a Punched Card

row punch

12 X X X X X X X X X
zone 11 X X X X X X X X X
portion 10 X X X X X X X X

1 X X
2 X X X
3 X X X
4 X X X
digit
portion 5 X X X
6 X X X
7 X X X
8 X X X
9 X X X

alphabetic
character A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

SAS stores each column of column-binary data (a “virtual” punched card) in two
bytes. Since each column has only 12 positions and since 2 bytes contain 16
positions, the 4 extra positions within the bytes are located at the beginning of each
byte. The following figure shows the correspondence between the rows of “virtual”
punched card data and the positions within 2 bytes that SAS uses to store them.
SAS stores a punched position as a binary 1 bit and an unpunched position as a
binary 0 bit.
490 Chapter 21 / Reading Raw Data

Figure 21.2 Column-Binary Representation on a “Virtual” Punched Card

byte 1 byte 2
byte
positions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

not used not used

row

12
11
10 ( o r 0)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
 491

22
BY-Group Processing in the DATA
Step

Definitions for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Syntax for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
FIRST. and LAST. Automatic DATA Step Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Understanding BY Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
BY Groups with a Single BY Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
BY Groups with Multiple BY Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Invoking BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Determining Whether the Data Requires Preprocessing for BY-
Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Preprocessing Input Data for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Sorting Observations for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Indexing for BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
How the DATA Step Identifies BY Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Using a Name Literal as the FIRST. and LAST. Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
How SAS Determines FIRST.variable and LAST.variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Example 1: Grouping Observations by State, City, and ZIP Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Example 2: Grouping Observations by City, State, and ZIP Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Example 3: A Change Affecting the FIRST.variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Processing BY-Groups Conditionally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Data Not in Alphabetic or Numeric Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Data Grouped by Formatted Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Example 1: Using GROUPFORMAT with Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Example 2: Using GROUPFORMAT with Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Definitions for BY-Group Processing

BY-group processing
is a method of processing observations from one or more SAS data sets that are
grouped or ordered by values of one or more common variables. The most
 492 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

common use of BY-group processing in the DATA step is to combine two or more
SAS data sets. To do this, you use the BY statement with a SET, MERGE,
MODIFY, or UPDATE statement.
BY variable
names a variable or variables by which the data set is sorted or indexed. All data
sets must be ordered or indexed on the values of the BY variable if you use the
SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statements. If you use MODIFY, data does not need
to be ordered. However, your program might run more efficiently with ordered
data. All data sets that are being combined must include one or more BY
variables. The position of the BY variable in the observations does not matter.
BY value
is the value or formatted value of the BY variable.
BY group
includes all observations with the same BY value. If you use more than one
variable in a BY statement, a BY group is a group of observations with the same
combination of values for these variables. Each BY group has a unique
combination of values for the variables.
FIRST.variable and LAST.variable
are variables that SAS creates for each BY variable. SAS sets FIRST.variable
when it is processing the first observation in a BY group, and sets LAST.variable
when it is processing the last observation in a BY group. These assignments
enable you to take different actions, based on whether processing is starting for
a new BY group or ending for a BY group. For more information, see “FIRST.
and LAST. DATA Step Variables” on page 498.
For more information about BY-Group processing, see Chapter 23, “Reading,
Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets,” on page 509. See also Combining and
Modifying SAS Data Sets: Examples.

Syntax for BY-Group Processing

Syntax
DATA step BY-groups are created and managed using the BY statement in SAS.
See “BY Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference for complete syntax
information.

FIRST. and LAST. Automatic DATA Step Variables

In the DATA step, SAS identifies the beginning and end of each BY group by
creating two temporary variables for each BY variable. See How the DATA Step
Identifies BY Groups “How the DATA Step Identifies BY Groups” on page 498 for
more information about how you can use the FIRST. and LAST. variable with BY
groups.
 Understanding BY Groups 493

Understanding BY Groups

BY Groups with a Single BY Variable

The following figure represents the results of using a single BY variable, zipCode, in
a DATA step. The input data set, zip contains street names, cities, states, and ZIP
codes. The groups are created by specifying the variable zipCode in the BY
statement. The DATA step arranges the zipcodes that have the same values into
groups.
The figure shows five BY groups that are created from the examples Example Code
22.1 on page 493 and Example Code 22.2 on page 494.
The first BY group contains all observations with the smallest value for the BY
variable zipCode. The second BY group contains all observations with the next
smallest value for the BY variable, and so on.

Figure 22.1 BY Group Using a Single BY Variable (ZipCode)

Example Code 22.1 Create the Zip Data Set

data zip;
input zipCode State $ City $ Street $20-29;
datalines;
85730 AZ Tucson Domenic Ln
85730 AZ Tucson Gleeson Pl
 494 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

33133 FL Miami Rice St

33133 FL Miami Thomas Ave
33133 FL Miami Surrey Dr
33133 FL Miami Trade Ave
33146 FL Miami Nervia St
33146 FL Miami Corsica St
33801 FL Lakeland French Ave
33809 FL Lakeland Egret Dr
;
You can then specify the BY variable in the DATA step using the following code:
Example Code 22.2 Sort and Group the zipCode Data Set by a Single Variable
proc sort data=zip;
by zipcode;
run;

data zip;
set zip; by zipcode;
run;

proc print data=zip noobs;

title 'BY-Group Uing a Single Variable: ZipCode';
run;

BY Groups with Multiple BY Variables

The following figure represents the results of processing the zip data set with two
BY variables, State and City. This example uses the same data set as in Example
Code 22.1 on page 493, and is arranged in an order that you can use with the
following BY statement:
by State City;

The figure shows three BY groups. The data set is shown with the BY variables
State and City printed on the left for easy reading. The position of the BY variables
in the observations does not affect how the values are grouped and ordered.
The observations are arranged so that the observations for Arizona occur first. The
observations within each value of State are arranged in order of the value of City.
Each BY group has a unique combination of values for the variables State and City.
For example, the BY value of the first BY group is AZ Tucson, and the BY value of
the second BY group is FL Lakeland.
 Understanding BY Groups 495

Figure 22.2 BY Groups with Multiple BY Variables (State and City)

Here is the code for creating the output shown in the figure Figure 22.2 on page
495 :
Example Code 22.3 Create the Zip Data Set
/* BY Groups with Multiple BY Variables */
data zip;
input State $ City $ Street $13-22 ZipCode ;
datalines;
FL Miami Nervia St 33146
FL Miami Rice St 33133
FL Miami Corsica St 33146
FL Miami Thomas Ave 33133
FL Miami Surrey Dr 33133
FL Miami Trade Ave 33133
FL Lakeland French Ave 33801
FL Lakeland Egret Dr 33809
AZ Tucson Domenic Ln 85730
AZ Tucson Gleeson Pl 85730
;

Example Code 22.4 Sort and Group the zipCode Data Set by Multiple BY Variables
proc sort data=zip;
by State City;
run;

data zip;
set zip;
by State City;
run;
proc print data=zip noobs;
title 'BY Groups with Multiple BY Variables: State City';
run;
 496 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

Invoking BY-Group Processing

To create BY groups, you use the BY statement in one of two ways:
n DATA step
n PROC step (For information about BY-group processing with procedures, see
“Creating Titles That Contain BY-Group Information ” in Base SAS Procedures
Guide.)
The following DATA step program uses the SET statement to combine observations
from three SAS data sets by interleaving the files. The data is ordered by State City
and Zip.
data all_sales;
set region1 region2 region3;
by State City Zip;
… more SAS statements …
run;

Determining Whether the Data Requires

Preprocessing for BY-Group Processing
Before you perform BY-group processing on multiple data sets using the SET,
MERGE, and UPDATE statements, you must check the data to determine whether it
requires preprocessing. They require no preprocessing if the observations in all of
the data sets occur in one of the following patterns:
n ascending or descending numeric order

n ascending or descending character order

n not alphabetically or numerically ordered, but grouped in some way, such as by

calendar month or by a formatted value
If the observations are not in the order that you want, you must either sort the data
set or create an index for it before using BY-group processing.
If you use the MODIFY statement in BY-group processing, you do not need to
presort the input data. Presorting, however, can make processing more efficient and
less costly.
You can use PROC SQL views in BY-group processing. For complete information,
see SAS SQL Procedure User’s Guide.
Note: SAS/ACCESS Users: If you use SAS views or librefs, see SAS/ACCESS for
Relational Databases: Reference for information about using BY groups in your SAS
programs.
 Preprocessing Input Data for BY-Group Processing 497

Preprocessing Input Data for BY-Group

Processing

Sorting Observations for BY-Group Processing

You can use the SORT procedure to change the physical order of the observations
in the data set. You can either replace the original data set, or create a new, sorted
data set by using the OUT= option of the SORT procedure. In this example, PROC
SORT rearranges the observations in the data set INFORMATION based on
ascending values of the variables State and ZipCode, and replaces the original data
set.
proc sort data=information;
by State ZipCode;
run;

As a general rule, specify the variables in the PROC SORT BY statement in the
same order that you specify them in the DATA step BY statement. For a detailed
description of the default sorting orders for numeric and character variables, see the
SORT procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
Note: The BY statement honors the linguistic collation of sorted data when you use
the SORT procedure with the SORTSEQ=LINGUISTIC option.

Indexing for BY-Group Processing

You can also ensure that observations are processed in ascending order by creating
an index based on one or more variables in the data set. If you specify a BY
statement in a DATA step, SAS looks for an appropriate index. If it finds the index,
SAS automatically retrieves the observations from the data set in indexed order.
Note: Because creating and maintaining indexes require additional resources, you
should determine whether using them significantly improves performance.
Depending on the nature of the data in your SAS data set, using PROC SORT to
order data values can be more advantageous than indexing. For an overview of
indexes, see “Understanding SAS Indexes” on page 692.
 498 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables

How the DATA Step Identifies BY Groups

In the DATA step, SAS identifies the beginning and end of each BY group by
creating the following two temporary variables for each BY variable:
n FIRST.variable
n LAST.variable

For example, if the DATA step specifies the variable state in the BY statement, then
SAS creates the temporary variables FIRST.state and LAST.state.
These temporary variables are available for DATA step programming but are not
added to the output data set. Their values indicate whether an observation is one of
the following positions:
n the first one in a BY group

n the last one in a BY group

n neither the first nor the last one in a BY group

n both first and last, as is the case when there is only one observation in a BY
group
You can take actions conditionally, based on whether you are processing the first or
the last observation in a BY group. See “Processing BY-Groups Conditionally” on
page 503 for more information.

Using a Name Literal as the FIRST. and LAST. Variable

Using Name Literals in BY Groups

When you designate a name literal as the BY variable in BY-group processing and
you want to refer to the corresponding FIRST. or LAST. temporary variables, you
must include the FIRST. or LAST. portion of the two-level variable name within
quotation marks. Here is an example:
data sedanTypes;
set cars;
by 'Sedan Types'n;
if 'first.Sedan Types'n then type=1;
run;
For more information about BY-Group Processing and how SAS creates the
temporary variables, FIRST and LAST, see “How SAS Determines FIRST.variable
and LAST.variable” on page 499 and “How SAS Identifies the Beginning and End of
a BY Group” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
 FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables 499

How SAS Determines FIRST.variable and LAST.variable

n When an observation is the first in a BY group, SAS sets the value of the
FIRST.variable to 1. This happens when the value of the variable changes from
the previous observation.
n For all other observations in the BY group, the value of FIRST.variable is 0.
n When an observation is the last in a BY group, SAS sets the value of
LAST.variable to 1. This happens when the value of the variable changes in the
next observation.
n For all other observations in the BY group, the value of LAST.variable is 0.
n For the last observation in a data set, the value of all LAST.variable variables are
set to 1.

Example 1: Grouping Observations by State, City, and ZIP

Code
This example shows how SAS uses the FIRST.variable and LAST.variable to flag
the beginning and end of BY groups. Note the following:
n FIRST and LAST variables are created automatically by SAS.

n FIRST and LAST variables are referenced in the DATA step but they are not part
of the output data set.
n Six temporary variables are created for each BY variable: FIRST.State,
LAST.State, FIRST.City, LAST.City, FIRST.ZipCode, and LAST.ZipCode.
data zip;
input State $ City $ ZipCode Street $20-29;
datalines;
FL Miami 33133 Rice St
FL Miami 33133 Thomas Ave
FL Miami 33133 Surrey Dr
FL Miami 33133 Trade Ave
FL Miami 33146 Nervia St
FL Miami 33146 Corsica St
FL Lakeland 33801 French Ave
FL Lakeland 33809 Egret Dr
AZ Tucson 85730 Domenic Ln
AZ Tucson 85730 Gleeson Pl
;
proc sort data=zip; by State City ZipCode; run;
data zip2;
set zip;
by State City ZipCode;
put _n_= City State ZipCode
first.city= last.city=
first.state= last.state=
first.ZipCode= last.ZipCode= ;
 500 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

run;
Example Code 22.1 Grouping Observations by State, City, and ZIP Code

_N_=1 AZ Tucson 85730 FIRST.State=1 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0

FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=2 AZ Tucson 85730 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=1 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=3 FL Lakeland 33801 FIRST.State=1 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=4 FL Lakeland 33809 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=5 FL Miami 33133 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=6 FL Miami 33133 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=7 FL Miami 33133 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=8 FL Miami 33133 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=9 FL Miami 33146 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=10 FL Miami 33146 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=1 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1

Figure 22.3 BY Groups for State, City, and Zipcode

Note: This is a chart used to display the contents of the log more clearly. It is not
the output data set.

Example 2: Grouping Observations by City, State, and ZIP

Code
This example is similar to “Example 1: Grouping Observations by State, City, and
ZIP Code” on page 499 except that the observations are grouped by City first and
then by State and ZipCode.
data zip;
input State $ City $ ZipCode Street $20-29;
 FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables 501

datalines;
FL Miami 33133 Rice St
FL Miami 33133 Thomas Ave
FL Miami 33133 Surrey Dr
FL Miami 33133 Trade Ave
FL Miami 33146 Nervia St
FL Miami 33146 Corsica St
FL Lakeland 33801 French Ave
FL Lakeland 33809 Egret Dr
AZ Tucson 85730 Domenic Ln
AZ Tucson 85730 Gleeson Pl
;
proc sort data=zip; by City State ZipCode; run;
data zip2;
set zip;
by City State ZipCode;
put _n_= City State ZipCode
first.city= last.city=
first.state= last.state=
first.ZipCode= last.ZipCode=;
run;
proc print data=zip2; title 'By City, State, Zip'; run;
Example Code 22.2 Grouping Observations by City, State, and ZIP Code

_N_=1 Lakeland FL 33801 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=1 LAST.State=0

FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=2 Lakeland FL 33809 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=1
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=3 Miami FL 33133 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=1 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=4 Miami FL 33133 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=5 Miami FL 33133 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=6 Miami FL 33133 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=7 Miami FL 33146 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=8 Miami FL 33146 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=1
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1
_N_=9 Tucson AZ 85730 FIRST.City=1 LAST.City=0 FIRST.State=1 LAST.State=0
FIRST.ZipCode=1 LAST.ZipCode=0
_N_=10 Tucson AZ 85730 FIRST.City=0 LAST.City=1 FIRST.State=0 LAST.State=1
FIRST.ZipCode=0 LAST.ZipCode=1

Example 3: A Change Affecting the FIRST.variable

The value of FIRST.variable can be affected by a change in a previous value, even if
the current value of the variable remains the same.
In this example, the values of FIRST.variable and LAST.variable are dependent on
sort order, and not just by the value of the BY variable. For observation 3, the value
of FIRST.Y is set to 1 because BLUEBERRY is a new value for Y. This change in Y
causes FIRST.Z to be set to 1 as well, even though the value of Z did not change.
 502 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

data fruit;
input x $ y $ 10-18 z $ 21-29;
datalines;
apple banana coconut
apple banana coconut
apple blueberry citron
apricot blueberry citron
;

data _null_;
set fruit; by x y z;
if _N_=1 then put 'Grouped by X Y Z';
put _N_= x= first.x= last.x= first.y= last.y= first.z= last.z= ;
run;

data _null_;
set fruit; by y x z;
if _N_=1 then put 'Grouped by Y X Z';
put _N_= first.y= last.y= first.x= last.x= first.z= last.z= ;
run;

Grouped by X Y Z
_N_=1 FIRST.x=1 LAST.x=0 FIRST.y=1 LAST.y=0 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=0
_N_=2 FIRST.x=0 LAST.x=0 FIRST.y=0 LAST.y=1 FIRST.z=0 LAST.z=1
_N_=3 FIRST.x=0 LAST.x=1 FIRST.y=1 LAST.y=1 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=1
_N_=4 FIRST.x=1 LAST.x=1 FIRST.y=1 LAST.y=1 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=1

Grouped by Y X Z
_N_=1 FIRST.y=1 LAST.y=0 FIRST.x=1 LAST.x=0 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=0
_N_=2 FIRST.y=0 LAST.y=1 FIRST.x=0 LAST.x=1 FIRST.z=0 LAST.z=1
_N_=3 FIRST.y=1 LAST.y=0 FIRST.x=1 LAST.x=1 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=1
_N_=4 FIRST.y=0 LAST.y=1 FIRST.x=1 LAST.x=1 FIRST.z=1 LAST.z=1

Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step

Overview
The most common use of BY-group processing is to combine data sets by using the
BY statement with the SET, MERGE, MODIFY, or UPDATE statements. (If you use
a SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statement with the BY statement, your observations
must be grouped or ordered.) When processing these statements, SAS reads one
observation at a time into the program data vector. With BY-group processing, SAS
selects the observations from the data sets according to the values of the BY
variable or variables. After processing all the observations from one BY group, SAS
expects the next observation to be from the next BY group.
The BY statement modifies the action of the SET, MERGE, MODIFY, or UPDATE
statement by controlling when the values in the program data vector are set to
missing. During BY-group processing, SAS retains the values of variables until it has
copied the last observation that it finds for that BY group in any of the data sets.
 Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step 503

Without the BY statement, the SET statement sets variables to missing when it
reads the last observation. The MERGE statement does not set variables to missing
after the DATA step starts reading observations into the program data vector.

Processing BY-Groups Conditionally

You can process observations conditionally by using the subsetting IF or IF-THEN
statements, or the SELECT statement, with the temporary variables FIRST.variable
and LAST.variable (set up during BY-group processing). For example, you can use
the IF or IF THEN statements to perform calculations for each BY group and to write
an observation when the first or the last observation of a BY group has been read
into the program data vector.
The following example computes annual payroll by department. It uses IF-THEN
statements and the values of FIRST.variable and LAST.variable automatic variables
to reset the value of PAYROLL to 0 at the beginning of each BY group and to write
an observation after the last observation in a BY group is processed.
data salaries;
input Department $ Name $ WageCategory $ WageRate;
datalines;
BAD Carol Salaried 20000
BAD Elizabeth Salaried 5000
BAD Linda Salaried 7000
BAD Thomas Salaried 9000
BAD Lynne Hourly 230
DDG Jason Hourly 200
DDG Paul Salaried 4000
PPD Kevin Salaried 5500
PPD Amber Hourly 150
PPD Tina Salaried 13000
STD Helen Hourly 200
STD Jim Salaried 8000
;

proc print data=salaries;

run;
proc sort data=salaries out=temp; by Department; run;

data budget (keep=Department Payroll);

set temp;
by Department;
if WageCategory='Salaried' then YearlyWage=WageRate*12;
else if WageCategory='Hourly' then YearlyWage=WageRate*2000;
/* SAS sets FIRST.variable to 1 if this is a new */
/* department in the BY group. */
if first.Department then Payroll=0;
Payroll+YearlyWage;
/* SAS sets LAST.variable to 1 if this is the last */
/* department in the current BY group. */
if last.Department;
run;

proc print data=budget;

 504 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

format Payroll dollar10.;

title 'Annual Payroll by Department';
run;

Output 22.1 Output from Conditional BY-Group Processing

Data Not in Alphabetic or Numeric Order

In BY-group processing, you can use data that is arranged in an order other than
alphabetic or numeric, such as by calendar month or by category. To do this, use the
NOTSORTED option in a BY statement when you use a SET statement. The
NOTSORTED option in the BY statement tells SAS that the data is not in alphabetic
or numeric order, but that it is arranged in groups by the values of the BY variable.
You cannot use the NOTSORTED option with the MERGE statement, the UPDATE
statement, or when the SET statement lists more than one data set.
This example assumes that the data is grouped by the character variable MONTH.
The subsetting IF statement conditionally writes an observation, based on the value
of LAST.month. This DATA step writes an observation only after processing the last
observation in each BY group.
data sales;
input month

data total_sale(drop=sales);
set region.sales
by month notsorted;
total+sales;
if last.month;
run;

Data Grouped by Formatted Values

Use the GROUPFORMAT option in the BY statement to ensure that
n formatted values are used to group observations when a FORMAT statement
and a BY statement are used together in a DATA step
n the FIRST.variable and LAST.variable are assigned by the formatted values of
the variable
 Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step 505

The GROUPFORMAT option is valid only in the DATA step that creates the SAS
data set. It is particularly useful with user-defined formats. The following examples
illustrate the use of the GROUPFORMAT option.

Example 1: Using GROUPFORMAT with Formats

proc format;
value range
low -55 = 'Under 55'
55-60 = '55 to 60'
60-65 = '60 to 65'
65-70 = '65 to 70'
other = 'Over 70';
run;

proc sort data=class out=sorted_class;

by height;
run;

data _null_;
format height range.;
set sorted_class;
by height groupformat;
if first.height then
put 'Shortest in ' height 'measures ' height:best12.;
run;

SAS writes the following output to the log:

Example Code 22.3 SAS Log Output Using the BY Statement GROUPFORMAT Option

Shortest
in Under 55 measures 51.3
Shortest in 55 to 60 measures 56.3
Shortest in 60 to 65 measures 62.5
Shortest in 65 to 70 measures 65.3
Shortest in Over 70 measures 72

Example 2: Using GROUPFORMAT with Formats

options
linesize=80 pagesize=60;

/* Create SAS data set test */

data test;
infile datalines;
input name $ Score;
datalines;
Jon 1
Anthony 3
Miguel 3
506 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step

Joseph 4
Ian 5
Jan 6
;
/* Create a user-defined format */
proc format;
value Range 1-2='Low'
3-4='Medium'
5-6='High';
run;

/* Create the SAS data set newtest */

data newtest;
set test;
by groupformat Score;
format Score Range.;
run;

/* Print using formatted values */

proc print data=newtest;
title 'Score Categories';
var Name Score;
by Score;
run;
 Processing BY-Groups in the DATA Step 507

Output 22.2 SAS Output Using the BY Statement GROUPFORMAT Option

508 Chapter 22 / BY-Group Processing in the DATA Step
 509

23
Reading, Combining, and Modifying
SAS Data Sets

Definitions for Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Overview of Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Reading SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Reading a Single SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Reading from Multiple SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Controlling the Reading and Writing of Variables and Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
What You Need to Know Before Combining Information Stored in
Multiple SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
The Four Ways That Data Can Be Related . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Access Methods: Sequential versus Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Overview of Methods for Combining SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Overview of Tools for Combining SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
How to Prepare Your Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Concatenating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Interleaving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
One-to-One Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
One-to-One Merging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Match-Merging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Updating with the UPDATE and the MODIFY Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data . . . . . 555
The Importance of Error Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Error-Checking Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Example 1: Routing Execution When an Unexpected Condition Occurs . . . . . . . . . 556
Example 2: Using Error Checking on All Statements That Use KEY= . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Definitions for Reading, Combining, and

Modifying SAS Data Sets
In the context of DATA step processing, the terms reading, combining and modifying
have these meanings:
 510 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Reading a SAS data set

refers to opening a SAS data set and bringing an observation into the program
data vector for processing.
Combining SAS data sets
refers to reading data from two or more SAS data sets and processing them by
n concatenating

n interleaving

n one-to-one reading
n one-to-one merging

n match-merging

n updating a master data set with a transaction data set

The methods for combining SAS data sets are defined in “Combining SAS Data
Sets: Methods” on page 523.
Modifying SAS data sets
refers to using the MODIFY statement to update information in a SAS data set in
place. The MODIFY statement can save disk space because it modifies data in
place, without creating a copy of the data set. You can modify a SAS data set
with programming statements or with information that is stored in another data
set.

Overview of Tools
The primary tools that are used for reading, combining, and modifying SAS data
sets are four statements: SET, MERGE, MODIFY, and UPDATE. This section
describes these tools and shows examples. For complete information about these
statements, see the SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Reading SAS Data Sets

Reading a Single SAS Data Set

To read data from an existing SAS data set, use a SET statement. In this example,
the DATA step creates data set Perm.Tour155_PeakCost by reading data from data
set Perm.Tour155_Basic_Cost and by calculating values for the three new variables
Total_Cost, Peak_Cost, and Average_Night_Cost.
data perm.tour155_peakcost;
set perm.tour155_basic_cost;
Total_Cost=AirCost+LandCost;
Peak_Cost=(AirCost*1.15);
Average_Night_Cost=LandCost/Nights;
 Reading SAS Data Sets 511

run;

Reading from Multiple SAS Data Sets

You can read from multiple SAS data sets and combine and modify data in different
ways. Here are some examples:
n combine two or more input data sets to create one output data set
n merge data from two or more input data sets that share a common variable

n update a master file based on transaction records

For details about reading from multiple SAS data sets, see “Combining SAS Data
Sets: Methods” on page 523.

Controlling the Reading and Writing of Variables and

Observations
If you do not instruct it to do otherwise, SAS writes all variables and all observations
from input data sets to output data sets. You can, however, control which variables
and observations you want to read and write by using SAS statements, data set
options, and functions. The statements and data set options that you can use are
listed in the following table.

Table 23.1 Statements and Options That Control Reading and Writing

Task Statements Data Set Options System Options

Control variables DROP DROP=

KEEP KEEP=

RENAME RENAME=

Control observations WHERE WHERE= FIRSTOBS=

subsetting IF FIRSTOBS= OBS=

DELETE OBS=

REMOVE

OUTPUT

Use statements or data set options (such as KEEP= and DROP=) to control the
variables and observations that you want to write to the output data set. The
WHERE statement is an exception: it controls which observations are read into the
program data vector based on the value of a variable. You can use data set options
(including WHERE=) on input or output data sets, depending on their function and
what you want to control. You can also use SAS system options to control your data.
 512 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts

What You Need to Know Before Combining Information

Stored in Multiple SAS Data Sets
Many applications require input data to be in a specific format before the data can
be processed to produce meaningful results. The data typically comes from multiple
sources and might be in different formats. Therefore, you often, if not always, have
to take intermediate steps to logically relate and process data before you can
analyze it or create reports from it.
Application requirements vary, but there are common factors for all applications that
access, combine, and process data. Once you have determined what you want the
output to look like, you must perform the following tasks:
n Determine how the input data is related.

n Ensure that the data is properly sorted or indexed, if necessary.

n Select the appropriate access method to process the input data.

n Select the appropriate SAS tools to complete the task.

The Four Ways That Data Can Be Related

Data Relationship Categories

Relationships among multiple sources of input data exist when each of the sources
contains common data, either at the physical or logical level. For example,
employee data and department data could be related through an employee ID
variable that shares common values. Another data set could contain numeric
sequence numbers whose partial values logically relate it to a separate data set by
observation number.
You must be able to identify the existing relationships in your data. This knowledge
is crucial for understanding how to process input data in order to produce desired
results. All related data fall into one of these four categories, characterized by how
observations relate among the data sets:
n one-to-one

n one-to-many

n many-to-one

n many-to-many

To obtain the results that you want, you should understand how each of these
methods combines observations, how each method treats duplicate values of
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts 513

common variables, and how each method treats missing values or nonmatched
values of common variables. Some of the methods also require that you preprocess
your data sets by sorting them or by creating indexes. See the description of each
method in “Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods” on page 523.

One-to-One Relationship
In a one-to-one relationship, typically a single observation in one data set is related
to a single observation from another based on the values of one or more selected
variables. A one-to-one relationship implies that each value of the selected variable
occurs no more than once in each data set. When you work with multiple selected
variables, this relationship implies that each combination of values occurs no more
than once in each data set.
In the following example, observations in data sets Salary and Taxes are related by
common values for EmployeeNumber.

Figure 23.1 One-to-One Relationship

SALARY TAXES

EmployeeNumber Salary EmployeeNumber TaxBracket

1234 55000 1111 0.18

3333 72000 1234 0.28
4876 32000 3333 0.32
5489 17000 4222 0.18
4876 0.24

One-to-Many and Many-to-One Relationships

A one-to-many or many-to-one relationship between input data sets implies that one
data set has at most one observation with a specific value of the selected variable,
but the other input data set can have more than one occurrence of each value.
When you work with multiple selected variables, this relationship implies that each
combination of values occurs no more than once in one data set. However, the
combination can occur more than once in the other data set. The order in which the
input data sets are processed determines whether the relationship is one-to-many or
many-to-one.
In the following example, observations in data sets One and Two are related by
common values for variable A. Values of A are unique in data set One but not in
data set Two.
514 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Figure 23.2 One-to-Many Relationship

ONE TWO

A B C A E F

1 5 6 1 2 0
3 3 4 1 3 99
1 4 88
1 5 77
2 1 66
2 2 55
3 4 44

In the following example, observations in data sets One, Two, and Three are related
by common values for variable ID. Values of ID are unique in data sets One and
Three but not in Two. For values 2 and 3 of ID, a one-to-many relationship exists
between observations in data sets One and Two. A many-to-one relationship exists
between observations in data sets Two and Three.

Figure 23.3 One-to-Many and Many-to-One Relationships

ONE TWO THREE

ID Name ID Sales ID Quota

1 Joe Smith 1 28000 1 15000

2 Sally Smith 2 30000 2 7000
3 Cindy Long 2 40000 3 15000
4 Sue Brown 3 15000 4 5000
5 Mike Jones 3 20000 5 8000
3 25000
4 35000
5 40000

Many-to-Many Relationships
The many-to-many category implies that multiple observations from each input data
set can be related based on values of one or more common variables.
In the following example, observations in data sets BreakDown and Maintenance
are related by common values for variable Vehicle. Values of Vehicle are not unique
in either data set. A many-to-many relationship exists between observations in these
data sets for values AAA and CCC of Vehicle.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts 515

Figure 23.4 Many-to-Many Relationship

BREAKDOWN MAINTENANCE

Vehicle BreakDownDate Vehicle MaintenanceDate

AAA 02MAR99 AAA 03JAN99

AAA 20MAY99 AAA 05APR99
AAA 19JUN99 AAA 10AUG99
AAA 29NOV99 CCC 28JAN99
BBB 04JUL99 CCC 16MAY99
CCC 31MAY99 CCC 07OCT99
CCC 24DEC99 DDD 24FEB99
DDD 22JUN99
DDD 19SEP99

Access Methods: Sequential versus Direct

Overview
Once you have established data relationships, the next step is to determine the best
mode of data access to relate the data. You can access observations sequentially in
the order in which they appear in the physical file. Or you can access them directly.
That is, you can go straight to an observation in a SAS data set without having to
process each observation that precedes it.

Sequential Access
The simplest and perhaps most common way to process data with a DATA step is to
read observations in a data set sequentially. You can read observations sequentially
using the SET, MERGE, UPDATE, or MODIFY statements. You can also use the
SAS File I/O functions. OPEN, FETCH, and FETCHOBS are examples.

Direct Access
Direct access allows a program to access specific observations based on one of two
methods:
n by an observation number

n by the value of one or more variables through a simple or composite index

To access observations directly by their observation number, use the POINT= option
with the SET or MODIFY statement. The POINT= option names a variable whose
current value determines which observation a SET or MODIFY statement reads.
To access observations directly based on the values of one or more specified
variables, you must first create an index for the variables and then read the data set
using the KEY= option. The KEY= option can be specified with either the SET
statement or the MODIFY statement. An index is a separate structure that contains
 516 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

the data values of the key variable or variables, paired with a location identifier for
the observations containing the value.
Note: You can also use the SAS File I/O functions such as CUROBS, NOTE,
POINT, and FETCHOBS to access observations by observation number.

Overview of Methods for Combining SAS Data Sets

Methods for Combining SAS Data Sets

You can use these methods to combine SAS data sets:
n concatenating
n interleaving

n one-to-one reading

n one-to-one merging

n match merging

n updating

Concatenating
The following figure shows the results of concatenating two SAS data sets.
Concatenating the data sets appends the observations from one data set to another
data set. The DATA step reads Data1 sequentially until all observations have been
processed, and then reads Data2. Data set Combined contains the results of the
concatenation. Note that the data sets are processed in the order in which they are
listed in the SET statement.

Figure 23.5 Concatenating Two Data Sets

DATA1 DATA2 COMBINED

Year Year Year

1991 1991 1991

1992 1992 1992
1993 + 1993 = 1993
1994 1994 1994
1995 1995 1995
1991
d a t a c o mb i n e d ;
s et dat a1 dat a2; 1992
r un; 1993
1994
1995
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts 517

Interleaving
The following figure shows the results of interleaving two SAS data sets.
Interleaving intersperses observations from two or more data sets, based on one or
more common variables. Data set Combined shows the result.

Figure 23.6 Interleaving Two Data Sets

DATA1 COMBINED
DATA2
Year Year
Year
1991 1991
1992 1992 1992
1993 + 1993 = 1992
1994 1994 1993
1995 1995 1993
1996 1994
1994
d a t a c o mb i n e d ;
1995
s et dat a1 dat a2;
by Year ; 1995
r un;
1996

One-to-One Reading and One-to-One Merging

The following figure shows the results of one-to-one reading and one-to-one
merging. One-to-one reading combines observations from two or more SAS data
sets by creating observations that contain all of the variables from each contributing
data set. Observations are combined based on their relative position in each data
set, that is, the first observation in one data set with the first in the other, and so on.
The DATA step stops after it has read the last observation from the smallest data
set. One-to-one merging is similar to a one-to-one reading, with two exceptions: you
use the MERGE statement instead of multiple SET statements, and the DATA step
reads all observations from all data sets. Data set Combined shows the result.
518 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Figure 23.7 One-to-One Reading and One-to-One Merging

DATA1 DATA2 COMBINED

VarX VarY VarX VarY
X1 Y1 X1 Y1
X2 Y2 X2 Y2
X3 + Y3 = X3 Y3
X4 Y4 X4 Y4
X5 Y5 X5 Y5

d a t a c o mb i n e d ;
s et dat a1;
s et dat a2;
r un;

d a t a c o mb i n e d ;
me r g e d a t a 1 d a t a 2 ;
r un;

Match-Merging
The following figure shows the results of match-merging. Match-merging combines
observations from two or more SAS data sets into a single observation in a new
data set based on the values of one or more common variables. Data set Combined
shows the results.

Figure 23.8 Match-Merging Two Data Sets

DATA1 DATA2 COMBINED

Year VarX Year VarY Year VarX VarY
1991 X1 1991 Y1 1991 X1 Y1
1992 X2 1991 Y2 1991 X1 Y2
1993 X3 + 1993 Y3 = 1992 X2
1994 X4 1994 Y4 1993 X3 Y3
1995 X5 1995 Y5 1994 X4 Y4
1995 X5 Y5

d a t a c o mb i n e d ;
me r g e d a t a 1 d a t a 2 ;
by Year ;
r un;

Updating
The following figure shows the results of updating a master data set. Updating uses
information from observations in a transaction data set to delete, add, or alter
information in observations in a master data set. You can update a master data set
by using the UPDATE statement or the MODIFY statement. If you use the UPDATE
statement, your input data sets must be sorted by the values of the variables listed
in the BY statement. (In this example, Master and Transaction are both sorted by
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts 519

Year.) If you use the MODIFY statement, your input data does not need to be
sorted.
UPDATE replaces an existing file with a new file, enabling you to add, delete, or
rename columns. MODIFY performs an update in place by rewriting only those
records that have changed, or by appending new records to the end of the file.
Note that by default, UPDATE and MODIFY do not replace nonmissing values in a
master data set with missing values from a transaction data set.

Figure 23.9 Updating a Master Data Set

MASTER MASTER
Year VarX VarY Year VarX VarY
1985 X1 Y1 1985 X1 Y1
1986 X1 Y1 1986 X1 Y1
1987 X1 Y1 1987 X1 Y1
1988 X1 Y1 1988 X1 Y1
1989 X1 Y1 TRANSACTION 1989 X1 Y1
1990 X1 Y1 Year VarX VarY 1990 X1 Y1
1991 X1 Y1 1991 X2 1991 X2 Y1
1992 X1 Y1 + 1992 X2 Y2 = 1992 X2 Y2
1993 X1 Y1 1993 X2 1993 X2 Y2
1994 X1 Y1 1993 Y2 1994 X1 Y1
1995 X2 Y2 1995 X2 Y2

d a t a ma s t e r ;
u p d a t e ma s t e r t r a n s a c t i o n ;
by Year ;
r un;

Overview of Tools for Combining SAS Data Sets

Using Statements and Procedures

You can choose from a variety of SAS tools for accessing, combining, and
processing your data. The following table describes the DATA step statements and
procedures that you can use for combining SAS data sets.
 520 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Table 23.2 Statements or Procedures for Combining SAS Data Sets

Access Method

Statement or Can Use with

Procedure Action Performed Sequential Direct BY statement Comments

BY Controls the operation of NA NA NA BY-group

a SET, MERGE, processing is a
UPDATE, or MODIFY means of
statement in the DATA processing
step and sets up special observations that
grouping variables. have the same
values of one or
more variables.

MERGE Reads observations from X X When using

two or more SAS data MERGE with BY,
sets and joins them into a the data must be
single observation. sorted or indexed
on the BY variable.

MODIFY Processes observations X X X Sorted or indexed

in a SAS data set in data are not
place. (Contrast with required for use with
UPDATE.) BY, but are
recommended for
performance.

SET Reads an observation X X X Use KEY= or

from one or more SAS POINT= statement
data sets. options for directly
accessing data.

UPDATE Applies transactions to X X Both the master and

observations in a master transaction data
SAS data set. UPDATE sets must be sorted
does not update by or indexed on the
observations in place; it BY variable.
produces an updated
copy of the current data
set.

PROC Adds the observations X

APPEND from one SAS data set to
the end of another SAS
data set.

PROC SQL* Reads an observation X X X All three access

from one or more SAS methods are
data sets; reads available in PROC
observations from up to SQL, but the access
32 SAS data sets and method is chosen
joins them into single by the internal
observations; optimizer.
manipulates observations
in a SAS data set in
place; easily produces a
Cartesian product.

* PROC SQL is the SAS implementation of Structured Query Language. In addition to expected SQL capabilities, PROC
SQL includes additional capabilities specific to SAS, such as the use of formats and SAS macro language.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Basic Concepts 521

Using Error Checking

You can use the _IORC_ automatic variable and the SYSRC autocall macro to
perform error checking in a DATA step. Use these tools with the MODIFY statement
or with the SET statement and the KEY= option. For more information about these
tools, see “Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update
Data” on page 555.

How to Prepare Your Data Sets

Guidelines to Prepare Your Data Sets

Before combining SAS data sets, follow these guidelines to produce the results that
you want:
n Know the structure and the contents of the data sets.

n Look at sources of common problems.

n Ensure that observations are in the correct order, or that they can be retrieved in
the correct order (for example, by using an index).
n Test your program.

Knowing the Structure and Contents of the Data Sets

To help determine how your data is related, look at the structure of the data sets. To
see the data set structure, execute the DATASETS procedure, the CONTENTS
procedure, or access the SAS Explorer window in your windowing environment to
display the descriptor information. Descriptor information includes the following
information:
n the number of observations in each data set

n the name and attributes of each variable

n an alphabetic list of extended attributes (including data set and variable

extended attributes)
n a list of indexes and index attributes

To print a sample of the observations, use the PRINT procedure or the REPORT
procedure.
You can also use functions such as VTYPE, VLENGTH, and VLENGTHX to show
specific descriptor information. For complete information about these functions, see
SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.

Looking at Sources of Common Problems

If your program does not execute correctly, review your input data for the following
errors:
n variables that have the same name but that represent different data
522 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

SAS includes only one variable of a given name in the new data set. If two data
sets have variables with the same names but different data, the values from the
last data set that was read are written over the values from the previously read
data sets.
To correct the error, you can rename variables before you combine the data sets
by using the RENAME= data set option in the SET, UPDATE, or MERGE
statement. Or you can use the DATASETS procedure.
n common variables with the same data but different attributes

The way SAS handles these differences depends on which attributes are
different:
o type attribute
If the type attribute is different, SAS stops processing the DATA step and
issues an error message stating that the variables are incompatible.
To correct this error, you must use a DATA step to re-create the variables.
The SAS statements that you use depend on the nature of the variable.
o length attribute
If the length attribute is different, SAS takes the length from the first data set
that contains the variable. In the following example, all data sets that are
listed in the MERGE statement contain the variable Mileage. In Quarter1, the
length of the variable Mileage is four bytes; in Quarter2, it is eight bytes and
in Quarter3 and Quarter4, it is six bytes. In the output data set Yearly, the
length of the variable Mileage is four bytes, which is the length derived from
Quarter1.
data yearly;
merge quarter1 quarter2 quarter3 quarter4;
by Account;
run;

To override the default and set the length yourself, specify the appropriate
length in a LENGTH statement that precedes the SET, MERGE, or UPDATE
statement.
Note: If the length of a variable changes as a result of combining data sets,
SAS prints a warning message to the log and issues a nonzero return code.
For example, on z/OS, the value for SYSRC would be 4. If you do not want
SAS to issue a warning, you can turn it off by setting the VARLENCHK
system option to NOWARN. For example, if you expect truncation of data
because you are removing insignificant blanks from the end of a character
value, you might not want the warnings. For more information, see
“VARLENCHK= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
o label, format, and informat attributes
If any of these attributes are different, SAS takes the attribute from the first
data set that contains the variable with that attribute. However, any label,
format, or informat that you explicitly specify overrides a default. If all data
sets contain explicitly specified attributes, the one specified in the first data
set overrides the others. To ensure that the new output data set has the
attributes that you prefer, use an ATTRIB statement.
You can also use SAS File I/O functions, such as VLABEL, VLABELX, and
other Variable Information functions to access this information. For complete
information about these functions, see SAS Functions and CALL Routines:
Reference.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 523

o extended attributes
Like formats and labels, extended attributes are automatically passed from
the input data set to the output data set in a DATA step. If two input data sets
contain extended attributes, then SAS preserves the extended attributes from
the first data set read and applies those attributes to the output data set. To
ensure that the new output data set has the extended attributes that you
prefer, use the DATASETS procedure to add, delete, remove, set, and update
extended attributes. For more information about the DATASETS procedure
see “DATASETS Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Ensuring Correct Order

If you use BY-group processing with the UPDATE, SET, and MERGE statements to
combine data sets, ensure that the observations in the data sets are sorted in the
order of the variables that are listed in the BY statement, or that the data sets have
an appropriate index. If you use BY-group processing in a MODIFY statement, your
data does not need to be sorted, but sorting the data improves efficiency. The BY
variable or variables must be common to both data sets, and they must have the
same attributes. For more information, see Chapter 22, “BY-Group Processing in the
DATA Step,” on page 491.

Testing Your Program

As a final step in preparing your data sets, you should test your program. Create
small temporary SAS data sets that contain a sample of observations that test all of
your program's logic. If your logic is faulty and you get unexpected output, you can
use the DATA step debugger to debug your program. For complete information
about the DATA Step Debugger, see SAS Data Set Options: Reference.

Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods

Concatenating

Definition
Concatenating data sets is the combining of two or more data sets, one after the
other, into a single data set. The number of observations in the new data set is the
sum of the number of observations in the original data sets. The order of
observations is sequential. All observations from the first data set are followed by all
observations from the second data set, and so on.
In the simplest case, all input data sets contain the same variables. If the input data
sets contain different variables, observations from one data set have missing values
for variables defined only in other data sets. In either case, the variables in the new
data set are the same as the variables in the old data sets.
524 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Syntax
Use this form of the SET statement to concatenate data sets:
SET data-set(s);
where
data-set
specifies any valid SAS data set name.
For a complete description of valid SAS data set names, see the SET statement in
SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

DATA Step Processing during Concatenation

Compilation phase
SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set that is named in the SET
statement and then creates a program data vector that contains all the variables
from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step.
Execution — Step 1
SAS reads the first observation from the first data set into the program data
vector. It processes the first observation and executes other statements in the
DATA step. It then writes the contents of the program data vector to the new data
set.
The SET statement does not reset the values in the program data vector to
missing, except for variables whose value is calculated or assigned during the
DATA step. Variables that are created by the DATA step are set to missing at the
beginning of each iteration of the DATA step. Variables that are read from a data
set are not.
Execution — Step 2
SAS continues to read one observation at a time from the first data set until it
finds an end-of-file indicator. The values of the variables in the program data
vector are then set to missing, and SAS begins reading observations from the
second data set, and so on, until it reads all observations from all data sets.

Example 1: Concatenation Using the DATA Step

In this example, each data set contains the variables Common and Number, and the
observations are arranged in the order of the values of Common. Generally, you
concatenate SAS data sets that have the same variables. In this case, each data
set also contains a unique variable to show the effects of combining data sets more
clearly. The following shows the Animal and the Plant input data sets in the library
that is referenced by the libref Example:
Animal Plant

OBS Common Animal Number OBS Common Plant Number

1 a Ant 5 1 g Grape 69
2 b Bird 2 h Hazelnut 55
3 c Cat 17 3 i Indigo .
4 d Dog 9 4 j Jicama 14
5 e Eagle 5 k Kale 5
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 525

6 f Frog 76 6 l Lentil 77

The following program uses a SET statement to concatenate the data sets and then
prints the results:
data concatenation;
set animal plant;
run;

proc print data=concatenation;

var Common Animal Plant Number;
title 'Data Set CONCATENATION';
run;

Output 23.1 Concatenated Data Sets (DATA Step)

The resulting data set CONCATENATION has 12 observations, which is the sum of
the observations from the combined data sets. The program data vector contains all
variables from all data sets. The values of variables found in one data set but not in
another are set to missing.

Example 2: Concatenation Using SQL

You can also use the SQL language to concatenate tables. In this example, SQL
reads each row in both tables and creates a new table named Combined. The
following shows the YEAR1 and YEAR2 input tables:

YEAR1 YEAR2

Date1 Date2
526 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

2009
2010 2010
2011 2011
2012 2012
2013
2014

The following SQL code creates and prints the table Combined.
proc sql;
title 'SQL Table Combined';
create table combined as
select * from year1
union all
select * from year2;
select * from combined;
quit;

Output 23.2 Concatenated Tables (SQL)

Appending Files
Instead of concatenating data sets or tables, you can append them and produce the
same results as concatenation. SAS concatenates data sets (DATA step) and tables
(SQL) by reading each row of data to create a new file. To avoid reading all the
records, you can append the second file to the first file by using the APPEND
procedure:
proc append base=year1 data=year2;
run;

The YEAR1 file contains all rows from both tables.

Note: You cannot use PROC APPEND to add observations to a SAS data set in a
sequential library.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 527

Efficiency
If no additional processing is necessary, using PROC APPEND or the APPEND
statement in PROC DATASETS is more efficient than using a DATA step to
concatenate data sets.

Interleaving

Definition
Interleaving uses a SET statement and a BY statement to combine multiple data
sets into one new data set. The number of observations in the new data set is the
sum of the number of observations from the original data sets. However, the
observations in the new data set are arranged by the values of the BY variable or
variables and, within each BY group, by the order of the data sets in which they
occur. You can interleave data sets either by using a BY variable or by using an
index.

Syntax
Use this form of the SET statement to interleave data sets when you use a BY
variable:
SET data-set(s);
BY variable(s);
where
data-set
specifies a one-level name, a two-level name, or one of the special SAS data set
names.
variable
specifies each variable by which the data set is sorted. These variables are
referred to as BY variables for the current DATA or PROC step.
Use this form of the SET statement to interleave data sets when you use an index:
SET data-set-1 . . . data-set-n KEY= index;
where
data-set
specifies a one-level name, a two-level name, or one of the special SAS data set
names.
index
provides nonsequential access to observations in a SAS data set, which are
based on the value of an index variable or key.
For a complete description of the SET statement, including SET with the KEY=
option, see the SET statement in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
528 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Sort Requirements
Before you can interleave data sets, the observations must be sorted or grouped by
the same variable or variables that you use in the BY statement, or you must have
an appropriate index for the data sets.

DATA Step Processing during Interleaving

Compilation phase
n SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set that is named in the
SET statement and then creates a program data vector that contains all the
variables from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step.
n SAS creates the FIRST.variable and LAST.variable for each variable listed in
the BY statement.
Execution — Step 1
SAS compares the first observation from each data set that is named in the SET
statement to determine which BY group should appear first in the new data set. It
reads all observations from the first BY group from the selected data set. If this
BY group appears in more than one data set, it reads from the data sets in the
order in which they appear in the SET statement. The values of the variables in
the program data vector are set to missing each time SAS starts to read a new
data set and when the BY group changes.
Execution — Step 2
SAS compares the next observations from each data set to determine the next
BY group and then starts reading observations from the selected data set in the
SET statement that contains observations for this BY group. SAS continues until
it has read all observations from all data sets.

Example 1: Interleaving in the Simplest Case

In this example, each data set contains the BY variable Common, and the
observations are arranged in order of the values of the BY variable. The following
shows the Animal and the Plant input data sets in the library that is referenced by
the libref Example:
Animal Plant

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 b Bird 2 b Banana
3 c Cat 3 c Coconut
4 d Dog 4 d Dewberry
5 e Eagle 5 e Eggplant
6 f Frog 6 f Fig

The following program uses SET and BY statements to interleave the data sets, and
prints the results:
data interleaving;
set animal plant;
by Common;
run;
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 529

proc print data=interleaving;

title 'Data Set INTERLEAVING';
run;

Output 23.3 Interleaved Data Sets

The resulting data set INTERLEAVING has 12 observations, which is the sum of the
observations from the combined data sets. The new data set contains all variables
from both data sets. The value of variables found in one data set but not in the other
are set to missing, and the observations are arranged by the values of the BY
variable.

Example 2: Interleaving with Duplicate Values of the BY

Variable
If the data sets contain duplicate values of the BY variables, the observations are
written to the new data set in the order in which they occur in the original data sets.
This example contains duplicate values of the BY variable Common. The following
shows the Animal1 and Plant1 input data sets:
Animal1 Plant1

OBS Common Animal1 OBS Common Plant1

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 a Ape 2 b Banana
3 b Bird 3 c Coconut
4 c Cat 4 c Celery
5 d Dog 5 d Dewberry
6 e Eagle 6 e Eggplant
530 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

The following program uses SET and BY statements to interleave the data sets, and
prints the results:
data interleaving2;
set animal1 plant1;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=interleaving2;

title 'Data Set INTERLEAVING2: Duplicate BY Values';
run;

Output 23.4 Interleaved Data Sets with Duplicate Values of the BY Variable

The number of observations in the new data set is the sum of the observations in all
the data sets. The observations are written to the new data set in the order in which
they occur in the original data sets.

Example 3: Interleaving with Different BY Values in Each

Data Set
The data sets Animal2 and Plant2 both contain values that are present in one data
set but not in the other. The following shows the Animal2 and the Plant2 input data
sets:
Animal2 Plant2

OBS Common Animal2 OBS Common Plant2

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 531

2 c Cat 2 b Banana
3 d Dog 3 c Coconut
4 e Eagle 4 e Eggplant
5 f Fig

This program uses SET and BY statements to interleave these data sets, and prints
the results:
data interleaving3;
set animal2 plant2;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=interleaving3;

title 'Data Set INTERLEAVING3: Different BY Values';
run;

Output 23.5 Interleaving Data Sets with Different BY Values

The resulting data set has nine observations arranged by the values of the BY
variable.

Comments and Comparisons

n In other languages, the term merge is often used to mean interleave. SAS
reserves the term merge for the operation in which observations from two or
more data sets are combined into one observation. The observations in
interleaved data sets are not combined; they are copied from the original data
sets in the order of the values of the BY variable.
n If one table has multiple rows with the same BY value, the DATA step preserves
the order of those rows in the result.
n To use the DATA step, the input tables must be appropriately sorted or indexed.
SQL does not require the input tables to be in order.
 532 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

One-to-One Reading

Definition
One-to-one reading combines observations from two or more data sets into one
observation by using two or more SET statements to read observations
independently from each data set. This process is also called one-to-one matching.
The new data set contains all the variables from all the input data sets. The number
of observations in the new data set is the number of observations in the smallest
original data set. If the data sets contain common variables, the values that are read
in from the last data set replace the values that were read in from earlier data sets.

Syntax
Use this form of the SET statement for one-to-one reading:
SET data-set-1;
SET data-set-2;
where
data-set-1
specifies a one-level name, a two-level name, or one of the special SAS data set
names. data-set-1 is the first file that the DATA step reads.
data-set-2
specifies a one-level name, a two-level name, or one of the special SAS data set
names. data-set-2 is the second file that the DATA step reads.
CAUTION! Use care when you combine data sets with multiple SET statements.
Using multiple SET statements to combine observations can produce undesirable
results. Test your program on representative samples of the data sets before using this
method to combine them.
For a complete description, see SET Statement in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference.

DATA Step Processing during a One-to-One Reading

Compilation phase
SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set named in the SET
statement and then creates a program data vector that contains all the variables
from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step.
Execution — Step 1
When SAS executes the first SET statement, SAS reads the first observation
from the first data set into the program data vector. The second SET statement
reads the first observation from the second data set into the program data vector.
If both data sets contain the same variables, the values from the second data set
replace the values from the first data set, even if the value is missing. After
reading the first observation from the last data set and executing any other
statements in the DATA step, SAS writes the contents of the program data vector
to the new data set. The SET statement does not reset the values in the program
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 533

data vector to missing, except for those variables that were created or assigned
values during the DATA step.
Execution — Step 2
SAS continues reading from one data set and then the other until it detects an
end-of-file indicator in one of the data sets. SAS stops processing with the last
observation of the shortest data set and does not read the remaining
observations from the longer data set.

Example 1: One-to-One Reading: Processing an Equal

Number of Observations
The SAS data sets Animal and Plant both contain the variable Common, and are
arranged by the values of that variable. The following shows the Animal and the
Plant input data sets:
Animal Plant

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 b Bird 2 b Banana
3 c Cat 3 c Coconut
4 d Dog 4 d Dewberry
5 e Eagle 5 e Eggplant
6 f Frog 6 g Fig

The following program uses two SET statements to combine observations from
Animal and Plant, and prints the results:
data twosets;
set animal;
set plant;
run;

proc print data=twosets;

title 'Data Set TWOSETS - Equal Number of Observations';
run;
 534 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Output 23.6 Data Set Created from Two Data Sets That Have Equal Observations

Each observation in the new data set contains all the variables from all the data
sets. Note, however, that the Common variable value in observation 6 contains a
“g.” The value of Common in observation 6 of the Animal data set was overwritten
by the value in Plant, which was the data set that SAS read last.

Comments and Comparisons

n The results that are obtained by reading observations using two or more SET
statements are similar to those that are obtained by using the MERGE statement
with no BY statement. However, with one-to-one reading, SAS stops processing
before all observations are read from all data sets if the number of observations
in the data sets is not equal.
n Using multiple SET statements with other DATA step statements makes the
following applications possible:
o merging one observation with many
o conditionally merging observations
o reading from the same data set twice

One-to-One Merging

Definition
One-to-one merging combines observations from two or more SAS data sets into a
single observation in a new data set. To perform a one-to-one merge, use the
MERGE statement without a BY statement. SAS combines the first observation from
all data sets in the MERGE statement into the first observation in the new data set,
the second observation from all data sets into the second observation in the new
data set, and so on. In a one-to-one merge, the number of observations in the new
data set equals the number of observations in the largest data set that was named
in the MERGE statement.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 535

If you use the MERGENOBY= SAS system option, you can control whether SAS
issues a message when MERGE processing occurs without an associated BY
statement.

Syntax
Use this form of the MERGE statement to merge SAS data sets:
MERGE data-set(s);
where
data-set
names at least two existing SAS data sets.
CAUTION! Avoid using duplicate values or different values of common variables.
One-to-one merging with data sets that contain duplicate values of common variables
can produce undesirable results. If a variable exists in more than one data set, the value
from the last data set that is read is the one that is written to the new data set. The
variables are combined exactly as they are read from each data set. Using a one-to-one
merge to combine data sets with different values of common variables can also produce
undesirable results. If a variable exists in more than one data set, the value from the last
data set read is the one that is written to the new data set even if the value is missing.
Once SAS has processed all observations in a data set, all subsequent observations in
the new data set have missing values for the variables that are unique to that data set.
For a complete description of the MERGE statement, see the MERGE statement in
SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

DATA Step Processing during One-to-One Merging

Compilation phase
SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set that is named in the
MERGE statement. Then, SAS creates a program data vector that contains all
the variables from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step.
Execution — Step 1
SAS reads the first observation from each data set into the program data vector,
reading the data sets in the order in which they appear in the MERGE statement.
If two data sets contain the same variables, the values from the second data set
replace the values from the first data set. After reading the first observation from
the last data set and executing any other statements in the DATA step, SAS
writes the contents of the program data vector to the new data set. Only those
variables that are created or assigned values during the DATA step are set to
missing.
Execution — Step 2
SAS continues until it has read all observations from all data sets.

Example 1: One-to-One Merging with an Equal Number of

Observations
The SAS data sets Animal and Plant both contain the variable Common, and the
observations are arranged by the values of Common. The following shows the
Animal and the Plant input data sets:
Animal Plant
536 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 b Bird 2 b Banana
3 c Cat 3 c Coconut
4 d Dog 4 d Dewberry
5 e Eagle 5 e Eggplant
6 f Frog 6 g Fig

The following program merges these data sets and prints the results:
data combined;
merge animal plant;
run;

proc print data=combined;

title 'Data Set Combined';
run;

Output 23.7 Merged Data Sets That Have an Equal Number of Observations

Each observation in the new data set contains all variables from all data sets. If two
data sets contain the same variables, the values from the second data set replace
the values from the first data set, as shown in observation 6.

Example 2: One-to-One Merging with an Unequal Number

of Observations
The SAS data sets Animal1 and Plant1 both contain the variable Common, and the
observations are arranged by the values of Common. The Plant1 data set has fewer
observations than the Animal1 data set. The following shows the Animal1 and the
Plant1 input data sets:
Animal1 Plant1

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 b Bird 2 b Banana
3 c Cat 3 c Coconut
4 d Dog
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 537

5 e Eagle
6 f Frog

The following program merges these unequal data sets and prints the results:
data combined1;
merge animal1 plant1;
run;

proc print data=combined1;

title 'Data Set Combined1';
run;

Output 23.8 Merged Data Sets That Have an Unequal Number of Observations

Note that observations 4 through 6 contain missing values for the variable Plant.

Example 3: One-to-One Merging with Duplicate Values of

Common Variables
The following example shows the undesirable results that you can obtain by using
one-to-one merging with data sets that contain duplicate values of common
variables. The value from the last data set that is read is the one that is written to
the new data set. The variables are combined exactly as they are read from each
data set. In the following example, the data sets Animal1 and Plant1 contain the
variable Common, and each data set contains observations with duplicate values of
Common. The following shows the Animal1 and the Plant1 input data sets:
Animal1 Plant1

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 a Ape 2 b Banana
3 b Bird 3 c Coconut
4 c Cat 4 c Celery
5 d Dog 5 d Dewberry
6 e Eagle 6 e Eggplant
538 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

The following program produces the data set MERGE1 data set and prints the
results:
/* This program illustrates undesirable results. */
data merge1;
merge animal1 plant1;
run;

proc print data=merge1;

title 'Data Set MERGE1';
run;

Output 23.9 Undesirable Results with Duplicate Values of Common Variables

The number of observations in the new data set is six. Note that observations 2 and
3 contain undesirable values. SAS reads the second observation from data set
Animal1. It then reads the second observation from data set Plant1 and replaces the
values for the variables Common and Plant1. The third observation is created in the
same way.

Example 4: One-to-One Merging with Different Values of

Common Variables
The following example shows the undesirable results obtained from using the one-
to-one merge to combine data sets with different values of common variables. If a
variable exists in more than one data set, the value from the last data set that is
read is the one that is written to the new data set even if the value is missing. Once
SAS processes all observations in a data set, all subsequent observations in the
new data set have missing values for the variables that are unique to that data set.
In this example, the data sets Animal2 and Plant2 have different values of the
Common variable. The following shows the Animal2 and the Plant2 input data sets:
Animal2 Plant2

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 c Cat 2 b Banana
3 d Dog 3 c Coconut
4 e Eagle 4 e Eggplant
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 539

5 f Fig

The following program produces the data set MERGE2 and prints the results:
/* This program illustrates undesirable results. */
data merge2;
merge animal2 plant2;
run;

proc print data=merge2;

title 'Data Set MERGE2';
run;

Output 23.10 Undesirable Results with Different Values of Common Variables

Comments and Comparisons

The results from a one-to-one merge are similar to the results obtained from using
two or more SET statements to combine observations. However, with the one-to-
one merge, SAS continues processing all observations in all data sets that were
named in the MERGE statement.

Match-Merging

Definition
Match-merging combines observations from two or more SAS data sets into a single
observation in a new data set according to the values of a common variable. The
number of observations in the new data set is the sum of the largest number of
observations in each BY group in all data sets. To perform a match-merge, use the
MERGE statement with a BY statement. Before you can perform a match-merge, all
data sets must be sorted by the variables that you specify in the BY statement or
they must have an index.

Syntax
Use this form of the MERGE statement to match-merge data sets:
540 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

MERGE data-set(s);
BY variable(s);
where
data-set
names at least two existing SAS data sets from which observations are read.
variable
names each variable by which the data set is sorted or indexed. These variables
are referred to as BY variables.
For a complete description of the MERGE and the BY statements, see SAS DATA
Step Statements: Reference.

DATA Step Processing during Match-Merging

Compilation phase
SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set that is named in the
MERGE statement and then creates a program data vector that contains all the
variables from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step. SAS
creates the FIRST.variable and LAST.variable for each variable that is listed in
the BY statement.
Execution – Step 1
SAS looks at the first BY group in each data set that is named in the MERGE
statement to determine which BY group should appear first in the new data set.
The DATA step reads into the program data vector the first observation in that
BY group from each data set, reading the data sets in the order in which they
appear in the MERGE statement. If a data set does not have observations in that
BY group, the program data vector contains missing values for the variables
unique to that data set.
Execution – Step 2
After processing the first observation from the last data set and executing other
statements, SAS writes the contents of the program data vector to the new data
set. SAS retains the values of all variables in the program data vector except
those variables that were created by the DATA step; SAS sets those values to
missing. SAS continues to merge observations until it writes all observations
from the first BY group to the new data set. When SAS has read all observations
in a BY group from all data sets, it sets all variables in the program data vector
(except those created by SAS) to missing. SAS looks at the next BY group in
each data set to determine which BY group should appear next in the new data
set.
Execution – Step 3
SAS repeats these steps until it reads all observations from all BY groups in all
data sets.

Example 1: Combining Observations Based on a Criterion

The SAS data sets Animal and Plant each contain the BY variable Common, and
the observations are arranged in order of the values of the BY variable. The
following shows the Animal and the Plant input data sets:
Animal Plant

OBS Common Animal OBS Common Plant

 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 541

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 b Bird 2 b Banana
3 c Cat 3 c Coconut
4 d Dog 4 d Dewberry
5 e Eagle 5 e Eggplant
6 f Frog 6 f Fig

The following program merges the data sets according to the values of the BY
variable Common, and prints the results:
data combined;
merge animal plant;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=combined;

title 'Data Set Combined';
run;

Output 23.11 Data Sets Combined by Match-Merging

Each observation in the new data set contains all the variables from all the data
sets.

Example 2: Match-Merge with Duplicate Values of the BY

Variable
When SAS reads the last observation from a BY group in one data set, SAS retains
its values in the program data vector for all variables that are unique to that data set
until all observations for that BY group have been read from all data sets. In the
following example, the data sets Animal1 and Plant1 contain duplicate values of the
BY variable Common. The following shows the Animal1 and the Plant1 input data
sets:
Animal1 Plant1

OBS Common Animal1 OBS Common Plant1

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 a Ape 2 b Banana
542 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

3 b Bird 3 c Coconut
4 c Cat 4 c Celery
5 d Dog 5 d Dewberry
6 e Eagle 6 e
Eggplant

The following program produces the merged data set MATCH1, and prints the
results:
data match1;
merge animal1 plant1;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=match1;

title 'Data Set MATCH1';
run;

Output 23.12 Match-Merged Data Set with Duplicate BY Values

In observation 2 of the output, the value of the variable Plant1 is retained until all
observations in the BY group are written to the new data set. Match-merging also
produced duplicate values in Animal1 for observations 4 and 5.
Note: The MERGE statement does not produce a Cartesian product on a many-to-
many match-merge. Instead, it performs a one-to-one merge while there are
observations in the BY group in at least one data set. When all observations in the
BY group have been read from one data set and there are still more observations in
another data set, SAS performs a one-to-many merge until all observations have
been read for the BY group.

Example 3: Match-Merge with Nonmatched Observations

When SAS performs a match-merge with nonmatched observations in the input data
sets, SAS retains the values of all variables in the program data vector even if the
value is missing. The data sets Animal2 and Plant2 do not contain all values of the
BY variable Common. The following shows the Animal2 and the Plant2 input data
sets:
Animal2 Plant2
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 543

OBS Common Animal2 OBS Common Plant2

1 a Ant 1 a Apple
2 c Cat 2 b Banana
3 d Dog 3 c Coconut
4 e Eagle 4 e Eggplant
5 f
Fig

The following program produces the merged data set MATCH2, and prints the
results:
data match2;
merge animal2 plant2;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=match2;

title 'Data Set MATCH2';
run;

Output 23.13 Match-Merged Data Set with Nonmatched Observations

As the output shows, all values of the variable Common are represented in the new
data set, including missing values for the variables that are in one data set but not in
the other.

Updating with the UPDATE and the MODIFY Statements

Definitions
Updating a data set refers to the process of applying changes to a master data set.
To update data sets, you work with two input data sets. The data set containing the
original information is the master data set, and the data set containing the new
information is the transaction data set.
544 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

You can update data sets by using the UPDATE statement or the MODIFY
statement:
UPDATE
uses observations from the transaction data set to change the values of
corresponding observations from the master data set. You must use a BY
statement with the UPDATE statement because all observations in the
transaction data set are keyed to observations in the master data set according
to the values of the BY variable.
MODIFY
can replace, delete, and append observations in an existing data set. Using the
MODIFY statement can save disk space because it modifies data in place,
without creating a copy of the data set.
The number of observations in the new data set is the sum of the number of
observations in the master data set and the number of unmatched observations in
the transaction data set.
For complete information about the UPDATE and the MODIFY statements, see SAS
DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Syntax of the UPDATE Statement

Use this form of the UPDATE statement to update a master data set:
UPDATE master-data-set transaction-data-set;
BY variable-list;
where
master-data-set
names the SAS data set that is used as the master file.
transaction-data-set
names the SAS data set that contains the changes to be applied to the master
data set.
variable-list
specifies the variables by which observations are matched.
If the transaction data set contains duplicate values of the BY variable, SAS applies
both transactions to the observation. The last values that are copied into the
program data vector are written to the new data set. If your data is in this form, use
the MODIFY statement instead of the UPDATE statement to process your data.
CAUTION! Values of the BY variable must be unique for each observation in the
master data set. If the master data set contains two observations with the same value
of the BY variable, the first observation is updated and the second observation is
ignored. SAS writes a warning message to the log when the DATA step executes.
For complete information about the UPDATE statement, see SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

Syntax of the MODIFY Statement

This form of the MODIFY statement is used in the examples that follow:
MODIFY master-data–set;
BY variable-list;
where
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 545

master-data–set
specifies the SAS data set that you want to modify.
variable-list
names each variable by which the data set is ordered.
Note: The MODIFY statement does not support changing the descriptor portion of a
SAS data set, such as adding a variable.
For complete information, see MODIFY Statement in the SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

DATA Step Processing with the UPDATE Statement

Compilation phase
n SAS reads the descriptor information of each data set that is named in the
UPDATE statement and creates a program data vector that contains all the
variables from all data sets as well as variables created by the DATA step.
n SAS creates the FIRST.variable and LAST.variable for each variable that is
listed in the BY statement.
Execution – Step 1
SAS looks at the first observation in each data set that is named in the UPDATE
statement to determine which BY group should appear first. If the transaction BY
value precedes the master BY value, SAS reads from the transaction data set
only and sets the variables from the master data set to missing. If the master BY
value precedes the transaction BY value, SAS reads from the master data set
only and sets the unique variables from the transaction data set to missing. If the
BY values in the master and transaction data sets are equal, it applies the first
transaction by copying the nonmissing values into the program data vector.
Execution – Step 2
After completing the first transaction, SAS looks at the next observation in the
transaction data set. If SAS finds one with the same BY value, it applies that
transaction too. The first observation then contains the new values from both
transactions. If no other transactions exist for that observation, SAS writes the
observation to the new data set and sets the values in the program data vector
to missing. SAS repeats these steps until it has read all observations from all BY
groups in both data sets.

Updating with Nonmatched Observations, Missing Values,

and New Variables
In the UPDATE statement, if an observation in the master data set does not have a
corresponding observation in the transaction data set, SAS writes the observation to
the new data set without modifying it. Any observation from the transaction data set
that does not correspond to an observation in the master data set is written to the
program data vector and becomes the basis for an observation in the new data set.
The data in the program data vector can be modified by other transactions before it
is written to the new data set. If a master data set observation does not need
updating, the corresponding observation can be omitted from the transaction data
set.
SAS does not replace existing values in the master data set with missing values if
those values are coded as periods (for numeric variables) or blanks (for character
variables) in the transaction data set. To replace existing values with missing values,
you must either create a transaction data set in which missing values are coded with
 546 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

the special missing value characters, or use the

UPDATEMODE=NOMISSINGCHECK statement option.
With UPDATE, the transaction data set can contain new variables to be added to all
observations in the master data set.
To view a sample program, see “Example 3: Using UPDATE for Processing
Nonmatched Observations, Missing Values, and New Variables” on page 549.

Sort Requirements for the UPDATE Statement

If you do not use an index, both the master data set and the transaction data set
must be sorted by the same variable or variables that you specify in the BY
statement that accompanies the UPDATE statement. The values of the BY variable
should be unique for each observation in the master data set. If you use more than
one BY variable, the combination of values of all BY variables should be unique for
each observation in the master data set. The BY variable or variables should be
ones that you never need to update.
Note: The MODIFY statement does not require sorted files. However, sorting the
data improves efficiency.

Using an Index with the MODIFY Statement

The MODIFY statement maintains the index. You do not have to rebuild the index
like you do for the UPDATE statement.

Choosing between UPDATE or MODIFY with BY

Using the UPDATE statement is comparable to using MODIFY with BY to apply
transactions to a data set. MODIFY is a more powerful tool with several other
applications, but UPDATE is still the tool of choice in some cases. The following
table helps you choose whether to use UPDATE or MODIFY with BY.

Table 23.3 MODIFY with BY versus UPDATE

Issue MODIFY with BY UPDATE

Disk space saves disk space because it updates data in requires more disk space because it
place produces an updated copy of the
data set

Sort and index sorted input data sets are not required, requires only that both data sets be
although for good performance, it is strongly sorted
recommended that both data sets be sorted
and that the master data set be indexed

When to use use only when you expect to process a use if you expect to need to process
SMALL portion of the data set most of the data set

Where to specify the specify the updated data set in both the specify the updated data set in the
modified data set DATA and the MODIFY statements DATA and the UPDATE statements

Duplicate BY-values allows duplicate BY-values in both the allows duplicate BY-values in the
master and the transaction data sets transaction data set only (If
duplicates exist in the master data
set, SAS issues a warning.)
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 547

Issue MODIFY with BY UPDATE

Scope of changes cannot change the data set descriptor can make changes that require a
information, so changes such as adding or change in the descriptor portion of a
deleting variables, variable labels, and so data set, such as adding new
on, are not valid variables, and so on

Error checking has error-checking capabilities using the needs no error checking because
_IORC_ automatic variable and the SYSRC transactions without a
autocall macro corresponding master record are
not applied but are added to the
data set

Data set integrity data might be only partially updated due to no data loss occurs because
an abnormal task termination UPDATE works on a copy of the
data

For more information about tools for combining SAS data sets, see Table 23.2 on
page 520.

Primary Uses of the MODIFY Statement

The MODIFY statement has three primary uses:
n modifying observations in a single SAS data set

n modifying observations in a single SAS data set directly, either by observation

number or by values in an index
n modifying observations in a master data set, based on values in a transaction
data set. MODIFY with BY is similar to using the UPDATE statement
Several of the examples that follow demonstrate these uses.

Example 1: Using UPDATE for Basic Updating

In this example, the data set Master contains original values of the variables Animal
and Plant. The data set NEWPlant is a transaction data set with new values of the
variable Plant. The following shows the Master and the NEWPlant input data sets:
Master NEWPlant

OBS Common Animal Plant OBS Common Plant

1 a Ant Apple 1 a Apricot

2 b Bird Banana 2 b Barley
3 c Cat Coconut 3 c Cactus
4 d Dog Dewberry 4 d Date
5 e Eagle Eggplant 5 e Escarole
6 f Frog Fig 6 f Fennel

The following program updates Master with the transactions in the data set
NEWPlant, writes the results to UPDATE_FILE, and prints the results:
data update_file;
update master newplant;
by common;
run;
548 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

proc print data=update_file;

title 'Data Set Update_File';
run;

Output 23.14 Master Data Set Updated by Transaction Data Set

Each observation in the new data set contains a new value for the variable Plant.

Example 2: Using UPDATE with Duplicate Values of the BY

Variable
If the master data set contains two observations with the same value of the BY
variable, the first observation is updated and the second observation is ignored.
SAS writes a warning message to the log. If the transaction data set contains
duplicate values of the BY variable, SAS applies both transactions to the
observation. The last values copied into the program data vector are written to the
new data set. The following shows the Master1 and the DupPlant input data sets.
Master1 DupPlant

OBS Common Animal1 Plant1 OBS Common Plant1

1 a Ant Apple 1 a Apricot

2 b Bird Banana 2 b Barley
3 b Bird Banana 3 c Cactus
4 c Cat Coconut 4 d Date
5 d Dog Dewberry 5 d Dill
6 e Eagle Eggplant 6 e Escarole
7 f Frog Fig 7 f Fennel

The following program applies the transactions in DupPlant to Master1 and prints
the results:
data update1;
update master1 dupplant;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=update1;

title 'Data Set Update1';
run;
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 549

Output 23.15 Updating Data Sets with Duplicate BY Values

When this DATA step executes, SAS generates a warning message stating that
there is more than one observation for a BY group. However, the DATA step
continues to process, and the data set Update1 is created.
The resulting data set has seven observations. Observations 2 and 3 have duplicate
values of the BY variable Common. However, the value of the variable Plant1 was
not updated in the second occurrence of the duplicate BY value.

Example 3: Using UPDATE for Processing Nonmatched

Observations, Missing Values, and New Variables
In this example, the data set Master2 is a master data set. It contains a missing
value for the variable Plant2 in the first observation, and not all of the values of the
BY variable Common are included. The transaction data set NONPlant contains a
new variable Mineral, a new value of the BY variable Common, and missing values
for several observations. The following shows the Master2 and the NONPlant input
data sets:
Master2 NONPlant

OBS Common Animal2 Plant2 OBS Common Plant2 Mineral

1 a Ant 1 a Apricot Amethyst

2 c Cat Coconut 2 b Barley Beryl
3 d Dog Dewberry 3 c Cactus
4 e Eagle Eggplant 4 e
5 f Frog Fig 5 f Fennel
6 g Grape Garnet

The following program updates the data set Master2 and prints the results:
data update2_file;
update master2 nonplant;
by Common;
run;
550 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

proc print data=update2_file;

title 'Data Set Update2_File';
run;

Output 23.16 Results of Updating with New Variables, Nonmatched Observations, and
Missing Values

As shown, all observations now include values for the variable Mineral. The value of
Mineral is set to missing for some observations. Observations 2 and 6 in the
transaction data set did not have corresponding observations in Master2, and they
have become new observations. Observation 3 from the master data set was written
to the new data set without change, and the value for Plant2 in observation 4 was
not changed to missing. Three observations in the new data set contain updated
values for the variable Plant2.
The following program uses the UPDATEMODE statement option in the UPDATE
statement, and prints the results:
data update2_file;
update master2 nonplant updatemode=nomissingcheck;
by Common;
run;

proc print data=update2_file;

title 'Data Set Update2_File - UPDATEMODE Option';
run;
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 551

Output 23.17 Results of Updating with the UPDATEMODE Option

The value of Plant2 in observation 5 is set to missing because the

UPDATEMODE=NOMISSINGCHECK option is in effect.
For detailed examples for updating data sets, see Combining and Modifying SAS
Data Sets: Examples.

Example 4: Updating a Master Data Set By Adding

Observations
In this example, the MODIFY statement is used to update a master data set based
on values contained in a transaction data set. The observations in the transaction
data set are matched to the observations in the master data set by matching the
values of the common variable, PartNumber.
The data in this example represents inventory for a warehouse that stores tools and
hardware. Each tool is uniquely identified by its PartNumber. The master data set,
Inventory, holds a record of the warehouse’s inventory. The master data set is
updated to reflect changes when the warehouse receives a new shipment of items.
The transaction data set contains the new information about the items being added
to the inventory (new types of tools), as well as changes to the existing inventory
items.
To begin this example, first create the Inventory master data set and the
Add_Inventory transaction data set. Use the PRINT procedure to view the data sets
as tables in HTML.
data Inventory;
input PartNumber $ PartName $ Amount_in_Stock
Price ReceivedDate date9. ;
format Price comma12.2 ReceivedDate mmddyy10.;
datalines;
K89R seal 34 245.00 07jul1998
M4J7 sander 98 45.88 20jun1998
LK43 filter 121 10.99 19may1999
MN21 brace 43 27.87 10aug1999
BC85 clamp 80 9.55 16aug1999
NCF3 valve 198 24.50 20mar1999
552 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

KJ66 cutter 6 19.77 18jun1999

UYN7 rod 211 11.55 09sep1999
JD03 switch 383 13.99 09jan2000
BV1E timer 26 34.50 03aug2000
;
proc sort data=inventory; by PartNumber; run;
proc print data=inventory;
title "Inventory Data Set Sorted By PartNumber";
run;

data add_Inventory;
input PartNumber $ PartName $ Add_New_Stock New_Price;
format New_Price comma12.2;
datalines;
K89R seal 6 247.50
AA11 hammer 55 32.26
BB22 wrench 21 17.35
KJ66 cutter 10 24.50
CC33 socket 7 22.19
BV1E timer 30 36.50
;
proc sort data=add_Inventory; by PartNumber; run;
proc print data=add_Inventory;
title "Add_Inventory Data Set Sorted By PartNumber";
run;
Note: The SORT procedure is not required when modifying a data set using the
MODIFY statement. The data sets in this example are sorted to better show the
differences between the two data sets.
 Combining SAS Data Sets: Methods 553

Notice that observations 1, 2, and 4 in the transaction data set, Add_Inventory, do

not exist in the master data set, Inventory. Also, notice that values for the variables
Amount_in_Stock, Price, and ReceivedDate in the transaction data set contain new
values.
Now, modify the master data set based on the new information in the transaction
data set:

data Inventory;
modify Inventory add_Inventory; /* 1 */
by PartNumber;
select (_iorc_); /* 2 */
/*** The observation exists in the master data set */
when (%sysrc(_sok))do; /* 3 */
Amount_in_Stock = Amount_in_Stock + Add_New_Stock;
ReceivedDate = today();
replace; /* 4 */
end;
/*** The observation does not exist in the master data set*/
when (%sysrc(_dsenmr)) do; /* 5 */
Amount_in_Stock=Add_New_Stock;
ReceivedDate=today();
Price=New_Price;
output; /* 6 */
_error_=0;
end;
otherwise do; /* 7 */
put "An unexpected I/O error has occurred."
_error_ = 0;
stop;
end;
end;
run;
proc sort data=Inventory;
by PartNumber;
run;
proc print data=Inventory;
title "Updated Inventory Data Set Sorted by PartNumber";
run;
quit;

1 The MODIFY statement loads the data from the master and transaction data
sets. The BY statement matches observations from each data set based on the
unique values of the variable PartNumber.
2 If matches for PartNumber from the transaction data set are found for
PartNumber in the master data set, then the _IORC_ automatic variable is
automatically set to a code of _SOK.
3 The %SYSRC autocall macro checks to see whether the value of _IORC_ is
_SOK. If the value is _SOK, then the SELECT statement executes the first DO
statement block. Because the observation in the transaction data set matches
the observation in the master data set, the values in the observation can be
updated by being replaced.
4 The REPLACE statement updates the master data set by replacing its
observation with the observation from the transaction data set. The REPLACE
statement updates observations 4, 7, and 8, highlighted in blue in the output,
554 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

with new values for Amount_in_Stock and Price. The Amount_in_Stock values
are updated based on the values for Add_New_Stock in the transaction data set.
The Price values are updated based on the values for New_Price in the
transaction data set. The ReceivedDate values for these observations are not
updated, because these are existing items that were received in the past.
5 If no matches for PartNumber in the transaction data set are found for
PartNumber in the master data set, then the _IORC_ automatic variable is
automatically set to a code of _DSENMR, which means that no match was
found. The %SYSRC autocall macro checks to see whether the value of _IORC_
is _DSENMR. If the value is _DSENMR, then the SELECT statement executes
the second DO block. Because the observation in the transaction data set does
not exist in the master data set, the values cannot simply be replaced. An entire
observation is created and added to the master data set.
6 The OUTPUT statement writes the new observation to the master data set. The
OUTPUT statement adds observations 1, 2, and 5 to the master data set (see
the observations highlighted in yellow in the output). The ReceivedDate values
for these observations are updated based on the returned value for the TODAY
function.
7 If neither condition is met, the OTHERWISE statement executes the last DO
block and the PUT statement writes an error message to the log.

In the output below, the transaction data set contains 3 new items: hammer, wrench,
and socket. Because some observations do not exist in the master data set and are
being added from the transaction data set, an explicit OUTPUT statement is
needed. For those observations that do already exist in the master data set, the
REPLACE statement is needed to update the values for these observations.
The program uses the OUTPUT statement to add observations 1, 2, and 5 to the
master data set, and it uses the REPLACE statement to update observations 4, 7,
and 8 with new values for Amount_in_Stock and Price.

Figure 23.10 Results for the Inventory Master Data Set Sorted by PartNumber
 Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data 555

Note: Using the OUTPUT or REPLACE statements in a DATA step overrides the
default replacement of observations. If you use these statements in a DATA step,
then you must explicitly program each action that you want to take.
For more information about the statements in this program, see the following:
n “Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data” on
page 555
n “%SYSRC Autocall Macro” in SAS Macro Language: Reference

n “SELECT Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference

n “Error-Checking Tools” on page 555

n “REPLACE Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference

n “OUTPUT Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference

Error Checking When Using Indexes to

Randomly Access or Update Data

The Importance of Error Checking

When reading observations with the SET statement and KEY= option or with the
MODIFY statement, error checking is imperative for several reasons. The most
important reason is that these tools use nonsequential access methods. Therefore,
there is no guarantee that an observation will be located that satisfies the request.
Error checking enables you to direct execution to specific code paths, depending on
the outcome of the I/O operation. Your program continues execution for expected
conditions and terminate execution when unexpected results occur.

Error-Checking Tools
Two tools have been created to make error checking easier when you use the
MODIFY statement or the SET statement with the KEY= option to process SAS data
sets:
n _IORC_ automatic variable

n SYSRC autocall macro

_IORC_ is created automatically when you use the MODIFY statement or the SET
statement with KEY=. The value of _IORC_ is a numeric return code that indicates
the status of the I/O operation from the most recently executed MODIFY or SET
statement with KEY=. Checking the value of this variable enables you to detect
abnormal I/O conditions and to direct execution down specific code paths instead of
having the application terminate abnormally. For example, if the KEY= variable
value does match between two observations, you might want to combine them and
write them to the output data set. If they do not match, however, you might want
SAS to write a note to the log.
 556 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Because the values of the _IORC_ automatic variable are internal and subject to
change, the SYSRC macro was created to enable you to test for specific I/O
conditions while protecting your code from future changes in _IORC_ values. When
you use SYSRC, you can check the value of _IORC_ by specifying one of the
mnemonics listed in the following table.

Table 23.4 Most Common Mnemonic Values of _IORC_ for DATA Step Processing

Mnemonic Value Meaning of Return Code When Return Code Occurs

_DSENMR The Transaction data set MODIFY with BY is used and no

observation does not exist in the match occurs.
Master data set.

_DSEMTR Multiple Transaction data set MODIFY with BY is used and

observations with the same BY consecutive observations with
variable value do not exist in the the same BY values do not find
Master data set. a match in the first data set. In
this situation, the first
observation that fails to find a
match returns _DSENMR. The
subsequent observations return
_DSEMTR.

_DSENOM No matching observation was SET or MODIFY with KEY=

found in the Master data set. finds no match.

_SENOCHN The output operation was the KEY= option in a MODIFY

unsuccessful. statement contains duplicate
values.

_SOK The I/O operation was a match is found.

successful.

Example 1: Routing Execution When an Unexpected

Condition Occurs

Overview
This example shows how to prevent an unexpected condition from terminating the
DATA step. The goal is to update a master data set with new information from a
transaction data set. This application assumes that there are no duplicate values for
the common variable in either data set.
Note: This program works as expected only if the master and transaction data sets
contain no consecutive observations with the same value for the common variable.
For an explanation of the behavior of MODIFY with KEY= when duplicates exist,
see the MODIFY statement in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
 Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data 557

Input Data Sets

The Transaction data set contains three observations: two updates to information in
Master and a new observation about PartNumber value 6 that needs to be added.
Master is indexed on PartNumber. There are no duplicate values of PartNumber in
Master or Transaction. The following shows the Master and the Transaction input
data sets:
Master Transaction

OBS PartNumber Quantity OBS PartNumber AddQuantity

1 1 10 1 4 14
2 2 20 2 6 16
3 3 30 3 2 12
4 4 40
5 5 50

Original Program
The objective is to update the Master data set with information from the Transaction
data set. The program reads Transaction sequentially. Master is read directly, not
sequentially, using the MODIFY statement and the KEY= option. Only observations
with matching values for PartNumber, which is the KEY= variable, are read from
Master.
data master; 1
set transaction; 2
modify master key=PartNumber; 3
Quantity = Quantity + AddQuantity; 4
run;

1 Open the Master data set for update.

2 Read an observation from the Transaction data set.
3 Match observations from the Master data set based on the values of
PartNumber.
4 Update the information about Quantity by adding the new values from the
Transaction data set.

Resulting Log
This program has correctly updated one observation but it stopped when it could not
find a match for PartNumber value 6. The following lines are written to the SAS log:
ERROR: No matching observation was found in Master data set.
PartNumber=6 AddQuantity=16 Quantity=70 _ERROR_=1
_IORC_=1230015 _N_=2
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because
of errors.
NOTE: The data set WORK.MASTER has been updated. There were
1 observations rewritten, 0 observations added and 0
observations deleted.
558 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

Resulting Data Set

The Master file was incorrectly updated. The updated master has five observations.
One observation was updated correctly, a new one was not added, and a second
update was not made. The following shows the incorrectly updated Master data set:
Master

OBS PartNumber Quantity

1 1 10
2 2 20
3 3 30
4 4 54
5 5 50

Revised Program
The objective is to apply two updates and one addition to Master. This action
prevents the DATA step from stopping when it does not find a match in Master for
the PartNumber value 6 in Transaction. By adding error checking, this DATA step is
allowed to complete normally and produce a correctly revised version of Master.
This program uses the _IORC_ automatic variable and the SYSRC autocall macro
in a SELECT group to check the value of the _IORC_ variable. If a match is found,
the program executes the appropriate code.
data master; 1
set transaction; 2
modify master key=PartNumber; 3

select(_iorc_); 4
when(%sysrc(_sok)) do;
Quantity = Quantity + AddQuantity;
replace;
end;
when(%sysrc(_dsenom)) do;
Quantity = AddQuantity;
_error_ = 0;
output;
end;
otherwise do;
put 'ERROR: Unexpected value for _IORC_= ' _iorc_;
put 'Program terminating. DATA step iteration # ' _n_;
put _all_;
stop;
end;
end;
run;

1 Open the Master data set for update.

2 Read an observation from the Transaction data set.
3 Match observations from the Master data set based on the value of PartNumber.
4 Take the correct course of action based on whether a matching value for
PartNumber is found in Master. Update Quantity by adding the new values from
Transaction. The SELECT group directs execution to the correct code. When a
 Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data 559

match occurs (_SOK), update Quantity and replace the original observation in
Master. When there is no match (_DSENOM), set Quantity equal to the
AddQuantity amount from Transaction, and append a new observation.
_ERROR_ is reset to 0 to prevent an error condition that would write the
contents of the program data vector to the SAS log. When an unexpected
condition occurs, write messages and the contents of the program data vector to
the log, and stop the DATA step.

Resulting Log
The DATA step executed without error and observations were appropriately updated
and added. The following lines are written to the SAS log:
NOTE: The data set WORK.MASTER has been updated. There were
2 observations rewritten, 1 observations added and 0
observations deleted.

Correctly Updated Master Data Set

Master contains updated quantities for PartNumber values 2 and 4 and a new
observation for PartNumber value 6. The following shows the correctly updated
Master data set:
Master

OBS PartNumber Quantity

1 1 10
2 2 32
3 3 30
4 4 54
5 5 50
6 6 16

Example 2: Using Error Checking on All Statements That

Use KEY=

Overview
This example shows how important it is to use error checking on all statements that
use the KEY= option when reading data.

Input Data Sets

The Master and Description data sets are both indexed on PartNumber. The Order
data set contains values for all parts in a single order. Only Order contains the
PartNumber value 8. The following shows the Master, Order, and Description input
data sets:

Master ORDER
560 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

OBS PartNumber Quantity OBS PartNumber

1 1 10 1 2
2 2 20 2 4
3 3 30 3 1
4 4 40 4 3
5 5 50 5 8
6 5
7 6
Description

OBS PartNumber PartDescription

1 4 Nuts
2 3 Bolts
3 2 Screws
4 6 Washers

Original Program with Logic Error

The objective is to create a data set that contains the description and number in
stock for each part in a single order, except for the parts that are not found in either
of the two input data sets, Master and Description. A transaction data set contains
the part numbers of all parts in a single order. One data set is read to retrieve the
description of the part and another is read to retrieve the quantity that is in stock.
The program reads the Order data set sequentially and then uses SET with the
KEY= option to read the Master and Description data sets directly. This reading is
based on the key value of PartNumber. When a match occurs, an observation that
contains all the necessary information for each value of PartNumber in Order is
written. This first attempt at a solution uses error checking for only one of the two
SET statements that use KEY= to read a data set.
data combine; /* 1 */
length PartDescription $ 15;
set order; /* 2 */
set description key=PartNumber; /* 2 */
set master key=PartNumber; /* 2 */
select(_iorc_); /* 3 */
when(%sysrc(_sok)) do;
output;
end;
when(%sysrc(_dsenom)) do;
PartDescription = 'No description';
_error_ = 0;
output;
end;
otherwise do;
put 'ERROR: Unexpected value for _IORC_= ' _iorc_;
put 'Program terminating.';
put _all_;
stop;
end;
end;
run;

1 Create the Combine data set.

 Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data 561

2 Read an observation from the Order data set. Read an observation from the
Description and the Master data sets based on a matching value for
PartNumber, the key variable. Note that no error checking occurs after an
observation is read from Description.
3 Take the correct course of action, based on whether a matching value for
PartNumber is found in the Master or Description. (This logic is based on the
erroneous assumption that this SELECT group performs error checking for both
of the preceding SET statements that contain the KEY= option. It actually
performs error checking for only the most recent one.) The SELECT group
directs execution to the correct code. When a match occurs (_SOK), the value of
PartNumber in the observation that is being read from Master matches the
current PartNumber value from Order. The result is to write the observation to
the output data set. When there is no match (_DSENOM), no observations in
Master contain the current value of PartNumber, so set the value of
PartDescription appropriately and output an observation. _ERROR_ is reset to 0
to prevent an error condition that would write the contents of the program data
vector to the SAS log. When an unexpected condition occurs, write messages
and the contents of the program data vector to the log, and stop the DATA step.

Resulting Log
This program creates an output data set but executes with one error. The following
lines are written to the SAS log:
PartNumber=1 PartDescription=Nuts Quantity=10 _ERROR_=1
_IORC_=0 _N_=3
PartNumber=5 PartDescription=No description Quantity=50
_ERROR_=1 _IORC_=0 _N_=6
NOTE: The data set WORK.COMBINE has 7 observations and 3 variables.

Resulting Data Set

The following shows the incorrectly created Combine data set. Observation 5 should
not be in this data set. PartNumber value 8 does not exist in either Master or
Description, so no Quantity should be listed for it. Also, observations 3 and 7 contain
descriptions from observations 2 and 6, respectively.
Combine

OBS PartNumber PartDescription Quantity

1 2 Screws 20
2 4 Nuts 40
3 1 Nuts 10
4 3 Bolts 30
5 8 No description 30
6 5 No description 50
7 6 No description 50

Revised Program
To create an accurate output data set, this example performs error checking on both
SET statements that use the KEY= option:
data combine(drop=Foundes); 1
562 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets

length PartDescription $ 15;

set order; 2
Foundes = 0; 3
set description key=PartNumber; 4
select(_iorc_); 5
when(%sysrc(_sok)) do;
Foundes = 1;
end;
when(%sysrc(_dsenom)) do;
PartDescription = 'No description';
_error_ = 0;
end;
otherwise do;
put 'ERROR: Unexpected value for _IORC_= ' _iorc_;
put 'Program terminating. Data set accessed is Description';
put _all_;
_error_ = 0;
stop;
end;
end;
set master key=PartNumber; 6
select(_iorc_); 7
when(%sysrc(_sok)) do;
output;
end;
when(%sysrc(_dsenom)) do;
if not Foundes then do;
_error_ = 0;
put 'WARNING: PartNumber ' PartNumber 'is not in'
' Description or Master.';
end;
else do;
Quantity = 0;
_error_ = 0;
output;
end;
end;
otherwise do;
put 'ERROR: Unexpected value for _IORC_= ' _iorc_;
put 'Program terminating. Data set accessed is Master';
put _all_;
_error_ = 0;
stop;
end;
end; /* ends the SELECT group */
run;

1 Create the Combine data set.

2 Read an observation from the Order data set.
3 Create the variable Foundes so that its value can be used later to indicate when
a PartNumber value has a match in the Description data set.
4 Read an observation from the Description data set, using PartNumber as the key
variable.
5 Take the correct course of action based on whether a matching value for
PartNumber is found in Description. The SELECT group directs execution to the
 Error Checking When Using Indexes to Randomly Access or Update Data 563

correct code based on the value of _IORC_. When a match occurs (_SOK), the
value of PartNumber in the observation that is being read from Description
matches the current value from Order. Foundes is set to 1 to indicate that
Description contributed to the current observation. When there is no match
(_DSENOM), no observations in Description contain the current value of
PartNumber, so the description is set appropriately. _ERROR_ is reset to 0 to
prevent an error condition that would write the contents of the program data
vector to the SAS log. Any other _IORC_ value indicates that an unexpected
condition has been met, so messages are written to the log and the DATA step is
stopped.
6 Read an observation from the Master data set, using PartNumber as a key
variable.
7 Take the correct course of action based on whether a matching value for
PartNumber is found in Master. When a match is found (_SOK) between the
current PartNumber value from Order and from Master, write an observation.
When a match is not found (_DSENOM) in Master, test the value of Foundes. If
Foundes is not true, then a value was not found in Description either, so write a
message to the log but do not write an observation. If Foundes is true, however,
the value is in Description but not Master. So write an observation but set
Quantity to 0. Again, if an unexpected condition occurs, write a message and
stop the DATA step.

Resulting Log
The DATA step executed without error. Six observations were correctly created and
the following message was written to the log:
WARNING: PartNumber 8 is not in Description or Master.
NOTE: The data set WORK.COMBINE has 6 observations
and 3 variables.

Correctly Created Combine Data Set

The following shows the correctly updated Combine data set. Note that Combine
does not contain an observation with the PartNumber value 8. This value does not
occur in either Master or Description.
Combine

OBS PartNumber PartDescription Quantity

1 2 Screws 20
2 4 Nuts 40
3 1 No description 10
4 3 Bolts 30
5 5 No description 50
6 6 Washers 0
564 Chapter 23 / Reading, Combining, and Modifying SAS Data Sets
 565

24
Using DATA Step Component
Objects

Introduction to DATA Step Component Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Using the Hash Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Why Use the Hash Object? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Declaring and Instantiating a Hash Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Initializing Hash Object Data Using a Constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Defining Keys and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
Non-Unique Key and Data Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Storing and Retrieving Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Maintaining Key Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Replacing and Removing Data in the Hash Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Saving Hash Object Data in a Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Comparing Hash Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Using Hash Object Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Using the Hash Iterator Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
About the Hash Iterator Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Declaring and Instantiating a Hash Iterator Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Example: Retrieving Hash Object Data By Using the Hash Iterator . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Using the Java Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
About the Java Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
CLASSPATH and Java Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Restrictions and Requirements for Using the Java Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Declaring and Instantiating a Java Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Accessing Object Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Accessing Object Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Type Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Java Objects and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Passing Java Object Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Java Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Java Standard Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Java Object Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Introduction to DATA Step Component Objects

SAS provides these five predefined component objects for use in a DATA step:
 566 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

hash and hash iterator objects

enable you to quickly and efficiently store, search, and retrieve data based on
lookup keys. The hash object keys and data are DATA step variables. Key and
data values can be directly assigned constant values or values from a SAS data
set. For information about the hash and hash iterator object language elements,
see “Dictionary of Hash and Hash Iterator Object Language Elements” in SAS
Component Objects: Reference.
Java object
provides a mechanism that is similar to the Java Native Interface (JNI) for
instantiating Java classes and accessing fields and methods on the resultant
objects. For more information, see “Dictionary of Java Object Language
Elements” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.
logger and appender objects
enable you to record logging events and write these events to the appropriate
destination. For more information, see “Component Object Reference” in SAS
Logging: Configuration and Programming Reference.
The DATA step Component Interface enables you to create and manipulate these
component objects using statements, attributes, operators, and methods. You use
the DATA step object dot notation to access the component object's attributes and
methods. For detailed information about dot notation and the DATA step objects'
statements, attributes, methods, and operators, see the Dictionary of Component
Language Elements in SAS Component Objects: Reference.
Note: The DATA step component object statement, attributes, methods, and
operators are limited to those defined for these objects. You cannot use the SAS
Component Language functionality with these predefined DATA step objects.

Using the Hash Object

Why Use the Hash Object?

The hash object provides an efficient, convenient mechanism for quick data storage
and retrieval. The hash object stores and retrieves data based on lookup keys.
To use the DATA step Component Object Interface, follow these steps:

1 Declare the hash object.

2 Create an instance of (instantiate) the hash object.

3 Initialize lookup keys and data.

After you declare and instantiate a hash object, you can perform many tasks,
including these:
n Store and retrieve data.

n Maintain key summaries.

n Replace and remove data.

n Compare hash objects.

 Using the Hash Object 567

n Output a data set that contains the data in the hash object.

For example, suppose you have a large data set that contains numeric lab results
corresponding to a unique patient number and weight. And suppose you have a
small data set that contains patient numbers (a subset of those in the large data
set). You can load the large data set into a hash object using the unique patient
number as the key and the weight values as the data. A single pass is made over
the small data set using the patient number to look up the current patient in the hash
object whose weight is over a certain value and output that data to a different data
set.
Depending on the number of lookup keys and the size of the data set, the hash
object lookup can be significantly faster than a standard format lookup. If you are
just looking up keys, you have a lot of memory, and you want fast performance, load
the large data set first. If you do not want to use a lot of memory, load the small data
set first.

Declaring and Instantiating a Hash Object

You declare a hash object using the DECLARE statement. After you declare the
new hash object, use the _NEW_ operator to instantiate the object. For example:
declare hash myhash;
myhash = _new_ hash();

The DECLARE statement tells the compiler that the object reference MyHash is of
type hash. At this point, you have declared only the object reference MyHash. It has
the potential to hold a component object of type hash. You should declare the hash
object only once. The _NEW_ operator creates an instance of the hash object and
assigns it to the object reference MyHash.
There is an alternative to the two-step process of using the DECLARE statement
and the _NEW_ operator to declare and instantiate a component object. You can
use the DECLARE statement to declare and instantiate the component object in one
step.
declare hash myhash();

The above statement is equivalent to the following code:

declare hash myhash;
myhash = _new_ hash();

For more information, see “DECLARE Statement: Hash and Hash Iterator Objects”
in SAS Component Objects: Reference and the “Hash and Hash Iterator Operator:
Objects” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Initializing Hash Object Data Using a Constructor

When you create a hash object, you might want to provide initialization data. A
constructor is a method that you can use to instantiate a hash object and initialize
the hash object data.
The hash object constructor can have either of the following formats:
n declare hash object_name(argument_tag-1: value-1
<, ...argument_tag-n: value-n>);
 568 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

n object_name = _new_ hash(argument_tag-1: value-1

<, ...argument_tag-n: value-n>);

For more information, see the “DECLARE Statement: Hash and Hash Iterator
Objects” in SAS Component Objects: Reference and the “Hash and Hash Iterator
Operator: Objects” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Defining Keys and Data

The hash object uses lookup keys to store and retrieve data. The keys and the data
are DATA step variables that you use to initialize the hash object by using dot
notation method calls. A key is defined by passing the key variable name to the
DEFINEKEY method. Data is defined by passing the data variable name to the
DEFINEDATA method. After you have defined all key and data variables, the
DEFINEDONE method is called. Keys and data can consist of any number of
character or numeric DATA step variables.
For example, the following code initializes a character key and a character data
variable:
length d $20;
length k $20;

if _N_ = 1 then do;

declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k');
rc = h.defineData('d');
rc = h.defineDone();
end;

You can have multiple key and data variables, but the entire key must be unique,
unless you create the hash object with the MULTIDATA:“YES” argument tag. For
more information, see “Non-Unique Key and Data Pairs” on page 569.
You can store more than one data item with a particular key. For example, you could
modify the previous example to store auxiliary numeric values with the character key
and data. In this example, each key and each data item consists of a character
value and a numeric value:
length d1 8;
length d2 $20;
length k1 $20;
length k2 8;

if _N_ = 1 then do;

declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k1', 'k2');
rc = h.defineData('d1', 'd2');
rc = h.defineDone();
end;

For more information, see the “DEFINEDATA Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference, “DEFINEDONE Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference, and
the “DEFINEKEY Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.
Note: The hash object does not assign values to key variables (for example,
h.find(key:'abc')), and the SAS compiler cannot detect the data variable
assignments that are performed by the hash object and the hash iterator. If you
 Using the Hash Object 569

declare a key or data variable in the program, but do not assign that key or data
variable an initial value, SAS issues a note stating that the variable is uninitialized.
To avoid receiving these notes, you can perform one of the following actions:
n Set the NONOTES system option.

n Provide an initial assignment statement (typically to a missing value) for each

key and data variable.
n Use the CALL MISSING routine with all the key and data variables as
parameters. Here is an example.
length d $20;
length k $20;

if _N_ = 1 then do;

declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k');
rc = h.defineData('d');
rc = h.defineDone();
call missing(k, d);
end;

If you use a key or data variable without declaring or initializing that key or data
variable outside the hash object, an error occurs.

Non-Unique Key and Data Pairs

By default, all of the keys in a hash object are unique. This means one set of data
variables exists for each key. In some situations, you might want to have duplicate
keys in the hash object, that is, associate more than one set of data variables with a
key.
For example, assume that the key is a patient ID and the data is a visit date. If the
patient were to visit multiple times, multiple visit dates would be associated with the
patient ID. When you create a hash object with the MULTIDATA:“YES” argument
tag, multiple sets of the data variables are associated with the key.
If the data set contains duplicate keys, by default, the first instance is stored in the
hash object and subsequent instances are ignored. To store the last instance in the
hash object, use the DUPLICATE argument tag. The DUPLICATE argument tag
also writes an error to the SAS log if there is a duplicate key.
However, the hash object allows storage of multiple values for each key if you use
the MULTIDATA argument tag in the DECLARE statement or _NEW_ operator. The
hash object keeps the multiple values in a list that is associated with the key. This
list can be traversed and manipulated by using several methods such as
HAS_NEXT or FIND_NEXT.
To traverse a multiple data item list, you must know the current list item. Start by
calling the FIND method for a given key. The FIND method sets the current list item.
Then to determine whether the key has multiple data values, call the HAS_NEXT
method. After you have determined that the key has another data value, you can
retrieve that value with the FIND_NEXT method. The FIND_NEXT method sets the
current list item to the next item in the list and sets the corresponding data variable
or variables for that item.
 570 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

In addition to moving forward through the list for a given key, you can loop backward
through the list by using the HAS_PREV and FIND_PREV methods in a similar
manner.
When you have a hash object that has multiple values for a single key, you can use
the DO_OVER method in an iterative DO loop to traverse through the duplicate
keys. The DO_OVER method reads the key on the first method call and continues
to iterate over the duplicate key list until it reaches the end.
Note: The items in a multiple data item list are maintained in the order in which you
insert them.
For more information about these and other methods associated with non-unique
key and data pairs, see “Dictionary of Hash and Hash Iterator Object Language
Elements” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Storing and Retrieving Data

How to Store and Retrieve Data

After you initialize the hash object's key and data variables, you can store data in
the hash object using the ADD method, or you can use the dataset argument tag to
load a data set into the hash object. If you use the dataset argument tag, and if the
data set contains more than one observation with the same value of the key, by
default, SAS keeps the first observation in the hash table and ignores subsequent
observations. To store the last instance in the hash object or to send an error to the
log if there is a duplicate key, use the DUPLICATE argument tag. To allow duplicate
values for each key, use the MULTIDATA argument tag.
You can then use the FIND method to search and retrieve data from the hash object
if one data value exists for each key. Use the FIND_NEXT and FIND_PREV
methods to search and retrieve data if multiple data items exist for each key.
For more information, see “ADD Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference,
“FIND Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference, “FIND_NEXT Method” in
SAS Component Objects: Reference, and the “FIND_PREV Method” in SAS
Component Objects: Reference.
You can consolidate a FIND method and ADD method using the REF method. In the
following example, you can reduce the amount of code from this:
rc = h.find();
if (rc != 0) then
rc = h.add();

to a single method call:

rc = h.ref();

For more information, see the “REF Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference.
Note: You can also use the hash iterator object to retrieve the hash object data,
one data item at a time, in forward and reverse order. For more information, see
“Using the Hash Iterator Object ” on page 579.
 Using the Hash Object 571

Example 1: Using the ADD and FIND Methods to Store and

Retrieve Data
The following example uses the ADD method to store the data in the hash object
and associate the data with the key. The FIND method is then used to retrieve the
data that is associated with the key value Homer.
data _null_;
length d $20;
length k $20;

/* Declare the hash object and key and data variables */

if _N_ = 1 then do;
declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k');
rc = h.defineData('d');
rc = h.defineDone();
end;

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k = 'Homer';
d = 'Odyssey';
/* Use the ADD method to add the key and data to the hash object */
rc =h.add();
if (rc ne 0) then
put 'Add failed.';

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k = 'Joyce';
d = 'Ulysses';
/* Use the ADD method to add the key and data to the hash object */
rc = h.add();
if (rc ne 0) then
put 'Add failed.';

k = 'Homer';
/* Use the FIND method to retrieve the data associated with 'Homer' key */
rc = h.find();
if (rc = 0) then
put d=;
else
put 'Key Homer not found.';
run;

The FIND method assigns the data value Odyssey, which is associated with the key
value Homer, to the variable D.

Example 2: Loading a Data Set and Using the FIND Method

to Retrieve Data
Assume the data set Small contains two numeric variables K (key) and S (data) and
another data set, LARGE, contains a corresponding key variable K. The following
code loads the Small data set into the hash object, and then searches the hash
object for key matches on the variable K from the LARGE data set.
 572 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

data match;
length k 8;
length s 8;
if _N_ = 1 then do;
/* load SMALL data set into the hash object */
declare hash h(dataset: "work.small");
/* define SMALL data set variable K as key and S as value */
h.defineKey('k');
h.defineData('s');
h.defineDone();
/* avoid uninitialized variable notes */
call missing(k, s);
end;

/* use the SET statement to iterate over the LARGE data set using */
/* keys in the LARGE data set to match keys in the hash object */
set large;
rc = h.find();
if (rc = 0) then output;
run;

The dataset argument tag specifies the Small data set whose keys and data are
read and loaded by the hash object during the DEFINEDONE method. The FIND
method is then used to retrieve the data.

Maintaining Key Summaries

You can maintain a summary count for a hash object key by using the SUMINC
argument tag when you declare the hash object. The tag value is a string
expression that resolves to the name of a numeric DATA step variable: the SUMINC
variable.
This SUMINC tag instructs the hash object to allocate internal storage for
maintaining a summary value for each key.
The summary value of a hash key is initialized to the value of the SUMINC variable
whenever the ADD or REPLACE method is used.
The summary value of a hash key is incremented by the value of the SUMINC
variable whenever the FIND, CHECK, or REF method is used.
Note that the SUMINC variable can be negative, positive, or zero valued. The
variable does not need to be an integer. The SUMINC value for a key is zero by
default.
In the following example, the initial ADD method sets the summary count for K=99
to 1 before the ADD. Then each time a new COUNT value is given, the following
FIND method adds the value to the key summary. In this example, one data value
exists for each key. The SUM method retrieves the current value of the key
summary and the value is stored in the DATA step variable TOTAL. If multiple items
exist for each key, the SUMDUP method retrieves the current value of the key
summary.
data _null_;
length k count 8;
length total 8;
dcl hash myhash(suminc: 'count');
 Using the Hash Object 573

myhash.defineKey('k');
myhash.defineDone();

k = 99;
count = 1;
myhash.add();

/* COUNT is given the value 2.5 and the */

/* FIND sets the summary to 3.5*/
count = 2.5;
myhash.find();

/* The COUNT of 3 is added to the FIND and */

/* sets the summary to 6.5. */
count = 3;
myhash.find();

/* The COUNT of -1 sets the summary to 5.5. */

count = -1;
myhash.find();

/* The SUM method gives the current value of */

/* the key summary to the variable TOTAL. */
myhash.sum(sum: total);

/* The PUT statement prints total=5.5 in the log. */

put total=;
run;

In this example, a summary is maintained for each key value K=99 and K=100:
k = 99;
count = 1;
myhash.add();
/* key=99 summary is now 1 */

k = 100;
myhash.add();
/* key=100 summary is now 1 */

k = 99;
myhash.find();
/* key=99 summary is now 2 */

count = 2;
myhash.find();
/* key=99 summary is now 4 */

k = 100;
myhash.find();
/* key=100 summary is now 3 */

myhash.sum(sum: total);
put 'total for key 100 = 'total;
574 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

k = 99;

myhash.sum(sum:total);
put 'total for key 99 = ' total;

The first PUT statement prints the summary for K=100:

total for key 100 = 3

And the second PUT statement prints the summary for K=99:
total for key 99 = 4

You can use key summaries in conjunction with the dataset argument tag. As the
data set is read into the hash object using the DEFINEDONE method, all key
summaries are set to the SUMINC value. And, all subsequent FIND, CHECK, or
ADD methods change the corresponding key summaries.
declare hash myhash(suminc: "keycount", dataset: "work.mydata");

You can use key summaries for counting the number of occurrences of given keys.
In the following example, the data set MyData is loaded into a hash object and uses
key summaries to keep count of the number of occurrences for each key in the data
set Keys. (The SUMINC variable is not set to a value, so the default initial value of
zero is used.)
data mydata;
input key;
datalines;
1
2
3
4
5
;
run;

data keys;
input key;
datalines;
1
2
1
3
5
2
3
2
4
1
5
1
;
run;

data count;
length total key 8;
keep key total;
 Using the Hash Object 575

declare hash myhash(suminc: "count", dataset:"mydata");

myhash.defineKey('key');
myhash.defineDone();
count = 1;

do while (not done);

set keys end=done;
rc = myhash.find();
end;

done = 0;
do while (not done);
set mydata end=done;
rc = myhash.sum(sum: total);
output;
end;
stop;
run;
Here is the output for the resulting data set.

Output 24.1 Key Summary Output

Note: The KEYSUM constructor in the DECLARE statement or _NEW_ operator

declares a variable that tracks the key summary for all keys. The KEYSUM variable
is part of the output data set and works when one or more data items exist for a key.
For more information, see the “SUM Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference and the “SUMDUP Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Replacing and Removing Data in the Hash Object

You can remove or replace data that is stored in the hash object using any of the
following methods:
n Use the REMOVE method to remove all data items.

n Use the REPLACE method to replace all data items.

n Use the REMOVEDUP method to remove only the current data item.

n Use the REPLACEDUP method to replace only the current data item.
576 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

In the following example, the REPLACE method replaces the data Odyssey with
Iliad, and the REMOVE method deletes the entire data entry associated with the
Joyce key from the hash object.
data _null_;
length d $20;
length k $20;

/* Declare the hash object and key and data variables */

if _N_ = 1 then do;
declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k');
rc = h.defineData('d');
rc = h.defineDone();
end;

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k = 'Joyce';
d = 'Ulysses';
/* Use the ADD method to add the key and data to the hash object */
rc = h.add();
if (rc ne 0) then
put 'Add failed.';

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k = 'Homer';
d = 'Odyssey';
/* Use the ADD method to add the key and data to the hash object */
rc = h.add();
if (rc ne 0) then
put 'Add failed.';

/* Use the REPLACE method to replace 'Odyssey' with 'Iliad' */

k = 'Homer';
d = 'Iliad';
rc = h.replace();
if (rc = 0) then
put d=;
else
put 'Replace not successful.';

/* Use the REMOVE method to remove the 'Joyce' key and data */
k = 'Joyce';
rc = h.remove();
if (rc = 0) then
put k 'removed from hash object';
else
put 'Deletion not successful.';

run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log.

d=Iliad
Joyce removed from hash object
 Using the Hash Object 577

Note: If an associated hash iterator is pointing to the key, the REMOVE method
does not remove the key or data from the hash object. An error message is issued
to the log.
For more information, see the “REMOVE Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference, “REMOVEDUP Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference,
“REPLACE Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference, and the
“REPLACEDUP Method” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Saving Hash Object Data in a Data Set

You can create a data set that contains the data in a specified hash object by using
the OUTPUT method. In the following example, two keys and data are added to the
hash object and then output to the Work.Out data set.
options pageno=1 nodate;

data test;
length d1 8;
length d2 $20;
length k1 $20;
length k2 8;

/* Declare the hash object and two key and data variables */
if _N_ = 1 then do;
declare hash h();
rc = h.defineKey('k1', 'k2');
rc = h.defineData('d1', 'd2');
rc = h.defineDone();
end;

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k1 = 'Joyce';
k2 = 1001;
d1 = 3;
d2 = 'Ulysses';
rc = h.add();

/* Define constant value for key and data */

k1 = 'Homer';
k2 = 1002;
d1 = 5;
d2 = 'Odyssey';
rc = h.add();

/* Use the OUTPUT method to save the hash object data to the OUT data set */
rc = h.output(dataset: "work.out");
run;

proc print data=work.out;

run;

The following output shows the report that PROC PRINT generates.
 578 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Output 24.2 Data Set Created from the Hash Object

Note that the hash object keys are not automatically stored as part of the output
data set. The keys can be defined as data items by using the DEFINEDATA method
to be included in the output data set. In addition, if no data items are defined by
using the DEFINEDATA method, the keys are written to the data set specified in the
OUTPUT method. In the previous example, the DEFINEDATA method would be
written this way:
rc = h.defineData('k1', 'k2', 'd1', 'd2');

For more information, see the “OUTPUT Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference.

Comparing Hash Objects

You can compare one hash object to another by using the EQUALS method. In the
following example, two hash objects are being compared. Note that the EQUALS
method has two argument tags. The HASH argument tag is the name of the second
hash object. The RESULTS argument tag is a numeric variable name that holds the
result of the comparison (1 if equal and zero if not equal).
length eq k 8;

declare hash myhash1();

myhash1.defineKey('k');
myhash1.defineDone();

declare hash myhash2();

myhash2.defineKey('k');
myhash2.defineDone();

rc = myhash1.equals(hash: 'myhash2', result: eq);

For more information, see the “EQUALS Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference.

Using Hash Object Attributes

You can use the DATA Step Component Interface to retrieve information from a
hash object using an attribute. Use the following syntax for an attribute:
 Using the Hash Iterator Object 579

attribute_value=obj.attribute_name;

There are two attributes available to use with hash objects. NUM_ITEMS returns the
number of items in a hash object and ITEM_SIZE returns the size (in bytes) of an
item. The following example retrieves the number of items in a hash object:
n = myhash.num_items;

The following example retrieves the size of an item in a hash object:

s = myhash.item_size;

You can obtain an idea of how much memory the hash object is using with the
ITEM_SIZE and NUM_ITEMS attributes. The ITEM_SIZE attribute does not reflect
the initial overhead that the hash object requires, nor does it take into account any
necessary internal alignments. Therefore, the use of ITEM_SIZE does not provide
exact memory usage, but it gives a good approximation.
For more information, see the “NUM_ITEMS Attribute” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference and the “ITEM_SIZE Attribute” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Using the Hash Iterator Object

About the Hash Iterator Object

Use the hash iterator object to store and search data based on lookup keys. The
hash iterator object enables you to retrieve the hash object data in either forward or
reverse key order.

Declaring and Instantiating a Hash Iterator Object

You declare a hash iterator object by using the DECLARE statement. After you
declare the new hash iterator object, use the _NEW_ operator to instantiate the
object. Use the hash object name as an argument tag. For example:
declare hiter myiter;
myiter = _new_ hiter('h');

The DECLARE statement tells the compiler that the object reference MyIter is of
type hash iterator. At this point, you have declared only the object reference MyIter.
It has the potential to hold a component object of type hash iterator. You should
declare the hash iterator object only once. The _NEW_ operator creates an instance
of the hash iterator object and assigns it to the object reference MyIter. The hash
object, H, is passed as a constructor argument. The hash object, not the hash object
variable, is specifically assigned to the hash iterator.
As an alternative to the two-step process of using the DECLARE statement and the
_NEW_ operator to declare and instantiate a component object, you can declare
and instantiate a hash iterator object in one step by using the DECLARE statement
as a constructor method. The syntax is as follows:
declare hiter object_name(hash_object_name);
 580 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

In the above example, the hash object name must be enclosed in single or double
quotation marks.
For example:
declare hiter myiter('h');

The previous statement is equivalent to these:

declare hiter myiter;
myiter = _new_ hiter('h');

Note: You must declare and instantiate a hash object before you create a hash
iterator object. For more information, see “Declaring and Instantiating a Hash
Object” on page 567.
For example:
if _N_ = 1 then do;
length key $10;
declare hash myhash(dataset:"work.x", ordered: 'yes');
declare hiter myiter('myhash');
myhash.defineKey('key');
myhash.defineDone();
end;

This code creates an instance of a hash iterator object with the variable name
MyIter. The hash object, MyHash, is passed as the constructor argument. Because
the hash object was created with the ORDERED argument tag set to 'yes', the
data is returned in ascending key-value order.
For more information about the DECLARE statement and the _NEW_ operator, see
the SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Example: Retrieving Hash Object Data By Using the Hash

Iterator
Using the data set ASTRO that contains astronomical data, the following code
creates the data set that contains Messier objects (OBJ) whose right-ascension
(RA) values are greater than 12. The FIRST and NEXT methods are used to
retrieve the data in ascending order. For more information about the FIRST and
NEXT methods, see SAS Component Objects: Reference.
data astro;
input obj $1-4 ra $6-12 dec $14-19;
datalines;
M31 00 42.7 +41 16
M71 19 53.8 +18 47
M51 13 29.9 +47 12
M98 12 13.8 +14 54
M13 16 41.7 +36 28
M39 21 32.2 +48 26
M81 09 55.6 +69 04
M100 12 22.9 +15 49
M41 06 46.0 -20 44
M44 08 40.1 +19 59
M10 16 57.1 -04 06
M57 18 53.6 +33 02
 Using the Hash Iterator Object 581

M3 13 42.2 +28 23
M22 18 36.4 -23 54
M23 17 56.8 -19 01
M49 12 29.8 +08 00
M68 12 39.5 -26 45
M17 18 20.8 -16 11
M14 17 37.6 -03 15
M29 20 23.9 +38 32
M34 02 42.0 +42 47
M82 09 55.8 +69 41
M59 12 42.0 +11 39
M74 01 36.7 +15 47
M25 18 31.6 -19 15
;
run;

data out;
if _N_ = 1 then do;
length obj $10;
length ra $10;
length dec $10;
/* Read ASTRO data set and store in asc order in hash obj */
declare hash h(dataset:"work.astro", ordered: 'yes');
/* Define variables RA and OBJ as key and data for hash object */
declare hiter iter('h');
h.defineKey('ra');
h.defineData('ra', 'obj');
h.defineDone();
/* Avoid uninitialized variable notes */
call missing(obj, ra, dec);
end;
/* Retrieve RA values in ascending order */
rc = iter.first();
do while (rc = 0);
/* Find hash object keys greater than 12 and output data */
if ra GE '12' then
output;
rc = iter.next();
end;
run;

proc print data=work.out;

var ra obj;
title 'Messier Objects Greater than 12 Sorted by Right Ascension Values';
run;
The following output shows the report that PROC PRINT generates.
 582 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Using the Java Object

About the Java Object

The Java object provides a mechanism that is similar to the Java Native Interface
(JNI) for instantiating Java classes and accessing fields and methods on the
resultant objects. You can create hybrid applications that contain both Java and
DATA step code.
 Using the Java Object 583

CLASSPATH and Java Options

In previous versions of SAS, Java classes were found using the JREOPTIONS
system option.
In SAS 9.2 and later releases, you must set the CLASSPATH environment variable
so that the Java object can find your Java classes. The Java object represents an
instance of a Java class that is found in the current Java classpath. Any class that
you use must appear in the classpath. If the class is in a .jar file, then the .jar
filename must appear in the classpath.
How you set the CLASSPATH environment variable depends on your operating
environment. For most operating systems, you can set the CLASSPATH
environment variable either locally (for use only in your SAS session) or globally.
Table 24.1 on page 583 shows methods and examples for different operating
environments. For more information, see the SAS documentation for your operating
environment.

Table 24.1 Setting the CLASSPATH Environment Variable in Different Operating

Environments

Operating
System Method Example

Windows

Globally Windows System Control Panel ð System and Security ð

Environment Variable System ð Advanced system settings ð
in Control Panel Advanced tab ð Environment Variables
button ð System variables (Windows 10)

SAS configuration file set classpath c:\HelloWorld.jar

Locally SAS command line -set classpath c:\HelloWorld.jar

UNIX

Globally SAS configuration file set CLASSPATH ~/HelloWorld.jar

Locally EXPORT command* export CLASSPATH=~/HelloWorld.jar

z/OS

Globally TKMSENV data set set TKJNI_OPT_CLASSPATH=/u/userid/java:

/u/userid/java/test.jar: asis

Locally Not available

VMS
 584 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Operating
System Method Example

Globally Command line** $ define java$classpath disk:[subdir]

abc.jar, disk:[subdir2]def.jar

detach_template.com define java$classpath disk:[subdir]

script that is abc.jar, disk:[subdir2]def.jar
generated in sas
$root:[misc.base]
at installation

Locally Not available

* The syntax depends on the shell.

** The command line should be defined before you invoke SAS so that the process that the JVM
actually runs in gets the definition as well.

Restrictions and Requirements for Using the Java Object

The following restrictions and requirements apply when using the Java object:
n The Java object is designed to call Java methods from SAS. The Java object is
not intended to extend the SAS library of functions. Calling PROC FCMP
functions is much more efficient for fast in-process extensions to the DATA step,
especially when large data sets are involved. Using the Java object to perform
this type of processing with large data sets takes significantly more time.
n The only Java Runtime Environments (JREs) that are supported by SAS are
those that are explicitly required during the installation of the SAS software.
n The only Java options that are supported by SAS are those that are set when
SAS is installed.
n Ensure that your Java application runs correctly before using it with the Java
object.
n The use of a percent character (%) in the first byte of text output by Java to the
SAS log is reserved by SAS. If you need to output a % in the first byte of a Java
text line, it must be escaped with another percent immediately next to it (%%).

Declaring and Instantiating a Java Object

You declare a Java object by using the DECLARE statement. After you declare the
new Java object, use the _NEW_ operator to instantiate the object, using the Java
object name as an argument tag.
declare javaobj j;
j = _new_ javaobj("somejavaclass");

In this example, the DECLARE statement tells the compiler that the object reference
J is of type Java. That is, the instance of the Java object is stored in the variable J.
At this point, you have declared only the object reference J. It has the potential to
hold a component object of type Java. You should declare the Java object only
 Using the Java Object 585

once. The _NEW_ operator creates an instance of the Java object and assigns it to
the object reference J. The Java class name, SOMEJAVACLASS, is passed as a
constructor argument, which is the first-and-only argument that is required for the
Java object constructor. All other arguments are constructor arguments to the Java
class itself.
As an alternative to the two-step process of using the DECLARE statement and the
_NEW_ operator to declare and instantiate a Java object, you can declare and
instantiate a Java object in one step by using the DECLARE statement as a
constructor method. The syntax is as follows:
DECLARE JAVAOBJobject-name(“java-class”, <argument-1, … argument–n>);
For more information, see the “DECLARE Statement: Java Object” in SAS
Component Objects: Reference and the “_NEW_ Operator: Java Object” in SAS
Component Objects: Reference.

Accessing Object Fields

Once you instantiate a Java object, you can access and modify its public and class
fields in a DATA step through method calls on the Java object. Public fields are non-
static and declared as public in the Java class. Class fields are static and accessed
from Java classes.
Method calls to access object fields have one of these forms, depending on whether
you are accessing non-static or static fields:
GETtypeFIELD(“field-name”, value);
GETSTATICtypeFIELD(“field-name”, value);
Method calls to modify object fields have one of these forms, depending on whether
you access static or non-static fields:
SETtypeFIELD(“field-name”, value);
SETSTATICtypeFIELD(“field-name”, value);
Note: The type argument represents a Java data type. For more information about
how Java data types relate to SAS data types, see “Type Issues” on page 586.
The field-name argument specifies the type for the Java field, and value specifies
the value that is returned or set by the method.
For more information and examples, see “Dictionary of Java Object Language
Elements” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Accessing Object Methods

Once you instantiate a Java object, you can access its public and class methods in
a DATA step through method calls on the Java object. Public methods are non-static
and declared as public in the Java class. Class methods are static and accessed
from Java classes.
Method calls to access Java methods have one of these forms, depending on
whether you are accessing non-static or static methods:
object.CALLtypeMETHOD (“method-name”, <method-argument-1 …, method-
argument-n>,
 586 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

<return value>);
object.CALLSTATICtypeMETHOD (“method-name”,
<method-argument-1 …, method-argument-n>, <return value>);
Note: The type argument represents a Java data type. For more information about
how Java data types relate to SAS data types, see “Type Issues” on page 586.
For more information and examples, see “Dictionary of Java Object Language
Elements” in SAS Component Objects: Reference.

Type Issues
The Java type set is a superset of the SAS data types. Java has data types such as
BYTE, SHORT, and CHAR in addition to the standard numeric and character
values. SAS has only two data types: numeric and character.
The following table describes how Java data types are mapped to SAS data types
when using the Java object method calls.

Table 24.2 How Java Data Types Map to SAS Data Types

Java Data Type SAS Data Type

BOOLEAN numeric

BYTE numeric

CHAR numeric

DOUBLE numeric

FLOAT numeric

INT numeric

LONG numeric

SHORT numeric

STRING character*

* Java string data types are mapped to SAS character data types as UTF-8 strings.

Other than STRING, it is not possible to return objects from Java classes to the
DATA step. However, it is possible to pass objects to Java methods. For more
information, see “Passing Java Object Arguments” on page 589.
Some Java methods that return objects can be handled by creating wrapper classes
to convert the object values. In the following example, the Java hash table returns
object values. However, you can still use the hash table from the DATA step by
creating simple Java wrapper classes to handle the type conversions. Then you can
access the dhash and shash classes from the DATA step.
/* Java code */
import java.util.*;
 Using the Java Object 587

public class dhash

{
private Hashtable table;

public dhash()
{
table = new Hashtable ();
}

public void put(double key, double value)

{
table.put(new Double(key), new Double(value));
}

public double get(double key)

{
Double ret = table.get(new Double(key));
return ret.doubleValue();
}
}

import java.util.*;

public class shash

{
private Hashtable table;

public shash()
{
table = new Hashtable ();
}

public void put(double key, String value)

{
table.put(new Double(key), value);
}

public String get(double key)

{
return table.get(new Double(key));
}
}

/* DATA step code */

data _null_;
dcl javaobj sh('shash');
dcl javaobj dh('dhash');
length d 8;
length s $20;

do i = 1 to 10;
dh.callvoidmethod('vput', i, i * 2);
end;

do i = 1 to 10;
sh.callvoidmethod('put', i, 'abc' || left(trim(i))); end;
 588 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

do i = 1 to 10;
dh.calldoublemethod('get', i, d);
sh.callstringmethod('get', i, s);
put d= s=;
end;
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

d=2 s=abc1
d=4 s=abc2
d=6 s=abc3
d=8 s=abc4
d=10 s=abc5
d=12 s=abc6
d=14 s=abc7
d=16 s=abc8
d=18 s=abc9
d=20 s=abc10

Java Objects and Arrays

You can pass DATA step arrays to Java objects.
In the following example, the arrays d and s are passed to the Java object j.
/* Java code
*/
import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
class jtest
{
public void dbl(double args[])
{
for(int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
System.out.println(args[i]);
}

public void str(String args[])

{
for(int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
System.out.println(args[i]);
}
}

/* DATA Step code */

data _null_;
dcl javaobj j("jtest");
array s{3} $20 ("abc", "def", "ghi");
array d{10} (1:10);
j.callVoidMethod("dbl", d);
j.callVoidMethod("str", s);
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

1.0
 Using the Java Object 589

2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
abc
def
ghi

Only one-dimensional array parameters are supported. However, it is possible to

pass multidimensional array arguments by taking advantage of the fact that the
arrays are passed in row-major order. You must handle the dimensional indexing
manually in the Java code. That is, you must declare a one-dimensional array
parameter and index to the subarrays accordingly.

Passing Java Object Arguments

While it is not possible to return objects from Java classes to the DATA step, it is
possible to pass objects, as well as strings, to Java class methods.
For example, suppose you have the following wrapper classes for java/util/
Vector and its iterator:

/* Java code */
import java.util.*;

class mVector extends Vector

{
public mVector()
{
super();
}

public mVector(double d)
{
super((int)d);
}

public void addElement(String s)

{
addElement((Object)s);
}
}

import java.util.*;
public class mIterator
{
protected mVector m_v;
protected Iterator iter;

public mIterator(mVector v)
590 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

{
m_v = v;
iter = v.iterator();
}

public boolean hasNext()

{
return iter.hasNext();
}

public String next()

{
String ret = null;
ret = (String)iter.next();
return ret;
}
}

These wrapper classes are useful for performing type conversions (for example, the
mVector constructor takes a DOUBLE argument). Overloading the constructor is
necessary because java/util/Vector's constructor takes an integer value, but the
DATA step has no integer type.
The following DATA step program uses these classes. The program creates and fills
a vector, passes the vector to the iterator's constructor, and then lists all the values
in the vector. Note that you must create the iterator after the vector is filled. The
iterator keeps a copy of the vector's modification count at the time of creation, and
this count must stay in synchronization with the vector's current modification count.
The code would throw an exception if the iterator were created before the vector
was filled.
/* DATA step code */
data _null_;
length b 8;
length val $200;
dcl javaobj v("mVector");

v.callVoidMethod("addElement", "abc");
v.callVoidMethod("addElement", "def");
v.callVoidMethod("addElement", "ghi");
dcl javaobj iter("mIterator", v);

iter.callBooleanMethod("hasNext", b);
do while(b);
iter.callStringMethod("next", val);
put val=;
iter.callBooleanMethod("hasNext", b);
end;

m.delete();
v.delete();
iter.delete();
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

val=abc
val=def
val=ghi
 Using the Java Object 591

One current limitation to passing objects is that the JNI method lookup routine does
not perform a full class lookup based on a given signature. This means that you
could not change the mIterator constructor to take a Vector as shown in the
following code:
/* Java code */
public mIterator(Vector v)
{
m_v = v;
iter = v.iterator();
}

Even though mVector is a subclass of Vector, the method lookup routine cannot
find the constructor. Currently, the only solution is to manage the types in Java by
adding new methods or by creating wrapper classes.

Java Exceptions
Java exceptions are handled through the EXCEPTIONCHECK,
EXCEPTIONCLEAR, and EXCEPTIONDESCRIBE methods.
The EXCEPTIONCHECK method is used to determine whether an exception
occurred during a method call. If you call a method that can throw an exception, it is
strongly recommended that you check for an exception after the call. If an exception
is thrown, you should take appropriate action and then clear the exception by using
the EXCEPTIONCLEAR method.
The EXCEPTIONDESCRIBE method is used to turn exception debug logging on or
off. If exception debug logging is on, exception information is printed to the JVM
standard output. By default, JVM standard output is redirected to the SAS log.
Exception debugging is off by default.
For more information, see the “EXCEPTIONCHECK Method” in SAS Component
Objects: Reference, “EXCEPTIONCLEAR Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference, and the “EXCEPTIONDESCRIBE Method” in SAS Component Objects:
Reference.

Java Standard Output

Output from statements in Java that are directed to standard output such as the
following are sent to the SAS log by default.
System.out.println("hello");

The Java output that is directed to the SAS log is flushed when the DATA step ends.
This flushing causes the Java output to appear after any output that was generated
while the DATA step was running. Use the FLUSHJAVAOUTPUT method to
synchronize the output so that it appears in the order of execution.
 592 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Java Object Examples

Example 1: Calling a Simple Java Method

This Java class creates a simple method that sums three numbers.
/* Java code */
class MyClass
{
double compute(double x, double y, double z)
{
return (x + y + z);
}
}

/* DATA step code */

data _null_;
dcl javaobj j("MyClass");

rc = j.callDoubleMethod("compute", 1, 2, 3, r);

put rc= r=;

run;

The following line is written to the SAS log:

rc=0 rc=6

Example 2: Creating a User Interface

In addition to providing a Java component access mechanism, you can use the Java
object to create a simple Java user interface.
This Java class creates a simple user interface with several buttons. The user
interface also maintains a queue of values that represent the sequence of button
choices that are entered by a user.
/* Java code */
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

class colorsUI extends Frame

{
private Button red;
private Button blue;
private Button green;
private Button quit;
private Vector list;
private boolean d;
private colorsButtonListener cbl;

public colorsUI()
{
 Using the Java Object 593

d = false;
list = new Vector();
cbl = new colorsButtonListener();

setBackground(Color.lightGray);
setSize(320,100);
setTitle("New Frame");
setVisible(true);
setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER, 10, 15));
addWindowListener(new colorsUIListener());

red = new Button("Red");

red.setBackground(Color.red);
red.addActionListener(cbl);

blue = new Button("Blue");

blue.setBackground(Color.blue);
blue.addActionListener(cbl);

green = new Button("Green");

green.setBackground(Color.green);
green.addActionListener(cbl);

quit = new Button("Quit");

quit.setBackground(Color.yellow);
quit.addActionListener(cbl);

this.add(red);
this.add(blue);
this.add(green);
this.add(quit);

show();
}

public synchronized void enqueue(Object o)

{
synchronized(list)
{
list.addElement(o);
notify();
}
}

public synchronized Object dequeue()

{
try
{
while(list.isEmpty())
wait();

if (d)
return null;

synchronized(list)
{
594 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Object ret = list.elementAt(0);

list.removeElementAt(0);
return ret;
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
return null;
}
}

public String getNext()

{
return (String)dequeue();
}

public boolean done()

{
return d;
}

class colorsButtonListener implements ActionListener

{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
Button b;
String l;
b = (Button)e.getSource();
l = b.getLabel();
if ( l.equals("Quit") )
{
d = true;
hide();
l = "";
}
enqueue(l);
}
}

class colorsUIListener extends WindowAdapter

{
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
{
Window w;
w = e.getWindow();
d = true;
enqueue("");
w.hide();
}
}

public static void main(String s[])

{
colorsUI cui;
cui = new colorsUI();
}
 Using the Java Object 595

/* DATA step code */

data colors;
length s $10;
length done 8;
drop done;

if (_n_ = 1) then do;

/* Declare and instantiate colors object (from colorsUI.class) */
dcl javaobj j("colorsUI");
end;

/*
* colorsUI.class will display a simple UI and maintain a
* queue to hold color choices.
*/

/* Loop until user hits quit button */

do while (1);
j.callBooleanMethod("done", done);
if (done) then
leave;
else do;
/* Get next color back from queue */
j.callStringMethod("getNext", s);
if s ne "" then
output;
end;
end;
run;
proc print data=colors;
run;
quit;

In the DATA step code, the colorsUI class is instantiated and the user interface is
displayed. You enter a loop that is terminated when you click Quit. This action is
communicated to the DATA step through the Done variable. While looping, the
DATA step retrieves the values from the Java class's queue and writes the values
successively to the output data set.
596 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

Figure 24.1 User Interface Created by the Java Object

Example 3: Creating a Custom Class Loader

You might not want to put all your Java classes in the classpath. You can write your
own class loader to find the classes and load them. The following example
illustrates how you can create a custom class loader.
In this example, you create a class, x, which resides in a folder or directory, y. You
call the methods in this class by using the Java object with the classpath that
includes the y folder.
/* Java code */
package com.sas;

public class x
{
public void m()
{
System.out.println("method m in y folder");
}

public void m2()

{
System.out.println("method m2 in y folder");
}
}

/* DATA step code */

data _null_;
dcl javaobj j('com/sas/x');
j.callvoidmethod('m');
j.callvoidmethod('m2');
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log.

 Using the Java Object 597

method m in y folder
method m2 in y folder

Suppose you have another class, x, that is stored in a different folder, z.

/* Java code
*/
package com.sas;

public class z
{
public void m()
{
System.out.println("method m in y folder");
}

public void m2()

{
System.out.println("method m2 in y folder");
}
}

You can call methods in this class instead of the class in folder y by changing the
classpath, but this requires restarting SAS. The following method allows for more
dynamic control of how classes are loaded.
To create a custom class loader, first you create an interface that contains all the
methods that you will call through the Java object—in this program, m and m2.
/* Java
code */
public interface apiInterface
{
public void m();
public void m2();
}

Then you create a class for the actual implementation.

/* Java code */
import com.sas.x;

public class apiImpl implements apiInterface

{
private x x;

public apiImpl()
{
x = new x();
}

public void m()

{
x.m();
}

public void m2()

{
x.m2();
}
598 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

These methods are called by delegating to the Java object instance class. Note that
the code to create the apiClassLoader custom class loader is provided later in this
section.
/* Java code */
public class api
{
/* Load classes from the z folder */
static ClassLoader customLoader = new apiClassLoader("C:\\z");
static String API_IMPL = "apiImpl";
apiInterface cp = null;

public api()
{
cp = load();
}

public void m()

{
cp.m();
}

public void m2()

{
cp.m2();
}

private static apiInterface load()

{
try
{
Class aClass = customLoader.loadClass(API_IMPL);
return (apiInterface) aClass.newInstance();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
return null;
}
}
}

The following DATA step program calls these methods by delegating through the
api Java object instance class. The Java object instantiates the api class, which
creates a custom class loader to load classes from the z folder. The api class calls
the custom loader and returns an instance of the apiImpl interface implementation
class to the Java object. When methods are called through the Java object, the api
class delegates them to the implementation class.
/* DATA step code */
data _null_;
dcl javaobj j('api');
j.callvoidmethod('m');
j.callvoidmethod('m2');
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

 Using the Java Object 599

method m is z folder
method m2 in z folder

In the previous Java code, you could also use .jar files to augment the classpath in
the ClassLoader constructor.
static ClassLoader customLoader = new apiClassLoader("C:\\z;C:\\temp\some.jar");

In this case, the Java code for the custom class loader is as follows. This code for
this class loader can be added to or modified as needed.
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.jar.*;
import java.util.zip.*;

public class apiClassLoader extends ClassLoader

{
//class repository where findClass performs its search
private List classRepository;

public apiClassLoader(String loadPath)

{
super(apiClassLoader.class.getClassLoader());
initLoader(loadPath);
}

public apiClassLoader(ClassLoader parent,String loadPath)

{
super(parent);
initLoader(loadPath);
}

/**
* This method will look for the class in the class repository. If
* the method cannot find the class, the method will delegate to its parent
* class loader.
*
* @param className A String specifying the class to be loaded
* @return A Class object loaded by the apiClassLoader
* @throws ClassNotFoundException if the method is unable to load the class
*/
public Class loadClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException
{
// Check if the class is already loaded
Class loadedClass = findLoadedClass(name);

// Search for class in local repository before delegating

if (loadedClass == null)
{
loadedClass = myFindClass(name);
}

// If class not found, delegate to parent

if (loadedClass == null)
{
loadedClass = this.getClass().getClassLoader().loadClass(name);
}
600 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

return loadedClass;
}

private Class myFindClass(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException

{
byte[] classBytes = loadFromCustomRepository(className);
if(classBytes != null)
{
return defineClass(className,classBytes,0,classBytes.length);
}
return null;
}

/**
* This method loads binary class file data from the classRepository.
*/
private byte[] loadFromCustomRepository(String classFileName)
throws ClassNotFoundException
{
Iterator dirs = classRepository.iterator();
byte[] classBytes = null;
while (dirs.hasNext())
{
String dir = (String) dirs.next();

if (dir.endsWith(".jar"))
{
// Look for class in jar

String jclassFileName = classFileName;

jclassFileName = jclassFileName.replace('.', '/');

jclassFileName += ".class";

try
{
JarFile j = new JarFile(dir);
for (Enumeration e = j.entries(); e.hasMoreElements() ;)
{
Object n = e.nextElement();

if (jclassFileName.equals(n.toString()))
{
ZipEntry zipEntry = j.getEntry(jclassFileName);
if (zipEntry == null)
{
return null;
}
else
{
// read file
InputStream is = j.getInputStream(zipEntry);
classBytes = new byte[is.available()];
is.read(classBytes);
break;
}
 Using the Java Object 601

}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.out.println("jar file exception");
return null;
}
}
else
{
// Look for class in directory
String fclassFileName = classFileName;

fclassFileName = fclassFileName.replace('.', File.separatorChar);

fclassFileName += ".class";

try
{
File file = new File(dir,fclassFileName);
if(file.exists()) {
//read file
InputStream is = new FileInputStream(file);
classBytes = new byte[is.available()];
is.read(classBytes);
break;
}
}
catch(IOException ex)
{
System.out.println("IOException raised while reading class
file data");
ex.printStackTrace();
return null;
}
}
}
return classBytes;
}

private void initLoader(String loadPath)

{
/*
* loadPath is passed in as a string of directories/jar files
* separated by the File.pathSeparator
*/
classRepository = new ArrayList();
if((loadPath != null) && !(loadPath.equals("")))
{
StringTokenizer tokenizer =
new StringTokenizer(loadPath,File.pathSeparator);
while(tokenizer.hasMoreTokens())
{
classRepository.add(tokenizer.nextToken());
}
}
602 Chapter 24 / Using DATA Step Component Objects

}
}
 603

25
Array Processing

Definitions for Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

A Conceptual View of Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
One-Dimensional Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Two-Dimensional Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Syntax for Defining and Referencing an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Processing Simple Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Grouping Variables in a Simple Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Using a DO Loop to Repeat an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Using a DO Loop to Process Selected Elements in an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Selecting the Current Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Defining the Number of Elements in an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Rules for Referencing Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Variations on Basic Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
Determining the Number of Elements in an Array Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
DO WHILE and DO UNTIL Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Using Variable Lists to Define an Array Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Multidimensional Arrays: Creating and Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Grouping Variables in a Multidimensional Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Using Nested DO Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Specifying Array Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Identifying Upper and Lower Bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Determining Array Bounds: LBOUND and HBOUND Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
When to Use the HBOUND Function Instead of the DIM Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
Specifying Bounds in a Two-Dimensional Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
Examples of Array Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
Example 1: Using Character Variables in an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
Example 2: Assigning Initial Values to the Elements of an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Example 3: Creating an Array for Temporary Use in the Current DATA Step . . . . . 618
Example 4: Performing an Action on All Numeric Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Definitions for Array Processing

array
is a temporary grouping of SAS variables that are arranged in a particular order
and identified by an array-name. The array exists only for the duration of the
 604 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

current DATA step. The array-name distinguishes it from any other arrays in the
same DATA step; it is not a variable.
Note: Arrays in SAS are different from those in many other programming
languages. In SAS, an array is not a data structure. An array is just a convenient
way of temporarily identifying a group of variables.
array processing
is a method that enables you to perform the same tasks for a series of related
variables.
array reference
is a method to reference the elements of an array.
one-dimensional array
is a simple grouping of variables that, when processed, results in output that can
be represented in simple row format.
multidimensional array
is a more complex grouping of variables that, when processed, results in output
that could have two or more dimensions, such as columns and rows.
Basic array processing involves the following steps:
n grouping variables into arrays

n selecting a current variable for an action

n repeating an action

A Conceptual View of Arrays

One-Dimensional Array
The following figure is a conceptual representation of two one-dimensional arrays,
Misc and Mday.

Figure 25.1 One-Dimensional Array

Arrays Variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

MI SC mi s c 1 mi s c 2 mi s c 3 mi s c 4 mi s c 5 mi s c 6 mi s c 7 mi s c 8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

MDAY md a y 1 md a y 2 md a y 3 md a y 4 md a y 5 md a y 6 md a y 7

Misc contains eight elements, the variables Misc1 through Misc8. To reference the
data in these variables, use the form Misc{n}, where n is the element number in the
array. For example, Misc{6} is the sixth element in the array.
 Syntax for Defining and Referencing an Array 605

Mday contains seven elements, the variables Mday1 through Mday7. Mday{3} is the
third element in the array.

Two-Dimensional Array
The following figure is a conceptual representation of the two-dimensional array
Expenses.

Figure 25.2 Example of a Two-Dimensional Array

First Second
Dimension Dimension

Expense
Categories Days of the Week Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Ho t e l 1 hot el 1 hot el 2 hot el 3 hot el 4 hot el 5 hot el 6 hot el 7 hot el 8

Pho ne 2 phone1 phone2 phone3 phone4 phone5 phone6 phone7 phone8

Pe r s . Au t o 3 per aut 1 per aut 2 per aut 3 per aut 4 per aut 5 per aut 6 per aut 7 per aut 8

Re n t a l Ca r 4 car r nt 1 car r nt 2 car r nt 3 car r nt 4 car r nt 5 car r nt 6 car r nt 7 car r nt 8

Ai r f a r e 5 ai r l i n1 ai r l i n2 ai r l i n3 ai r l i n4 ai r l i n5 ai r l i n6 ai r l i n7 ai r l i n8

Du e s 6 dues 1 dues 2 dues 3 dues 4 dues 5 dues 6 dues 7 dues 8

Re g i s t r a t i o n 7 r egf ee1 r egf ee2 r egf ee3 r egf ee4 r egf ee5 r egf ee6 r egf ee7 r egf ee8
Fees
Ot h e r 8 ot her 1 ot her 2 ot her 3 ot her 4 ot her 5 ot her 6 ot her 7 ot her 8

T i p s ( n o n - me a l ) 9 t i ps 1 t i ps 2 t i ps 3 t i ps 4 t i ps 5 t i ps 6 t i ps 7 t i ps 8

Me a l s 10 me a l s 1 me a l s 2 me a l s 3 me a l s 4 me a l s 5 me a l s 6 me a l s 7 me a l s 8

The Expenses array contains ten groups of eight variables each. The ten groups
(expense categories) comprise the first dimension of the array, and the eight
variables (days of the week) comprise the second dimension. To reference the data
in the array variables, use the form Expenses{m,n}, where m is the element number
in the first dimension of the array, and n is the element number in the second
dimension of the array. Expenses{6,4} references the value of dues for the fourth
day (the variable is Dues4).

Syntax for Defining and Referencing an Array

To define a simple or a multidimensional array, use the ARRAY statement. The
ARRAY statement has the following form:
ARRAY array-name {number-of-elements} <$> <length> <array-elements> <(initial-
value-list)>;
where
array-name
is a SAS name that identifies the group of variables.
 606 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

number-of-elements
is the number of variables in the group. You must enclose this value in either
parentheses (), braces {}, or brackets [].
$
specifies that the elements in the array are character elements.
length
specifies the length of the elements in the array that have not been previously
assigned a length.
array-elements
is a list of the names of the variables in the group. All variables that are defined
in a given array must be of the same type, either all character or all numeric.
initial-value-list
is a list of the initial values for the corresponding elements in the array.
For complete information, see the “ARRAY Statement” in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.
To reference an array that was previously defined in the same DATA step, use an
Array Reference statement. An array reference has the following form:
array-name {subscript}
where
array-name
is the name of an array that was previously defined with an ARRAY statement in
the same DATA step.
subscript
specifies the subscript, which can be a numeric constant, the name of a variable
whose value is the number, a SAS numeric expression, or an asterisk (*).
Note: Subscripts in SAS are 1-based by default, and not 0-based as they are in
some other programming languages.
For complete information, see the Array Reference statement in the SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

Processing Simple Arrays

Grouping Variables in a Simple Array

The following ARRAY statement creates an array named Books that contains the
three variables Reference, Usage, and Introduction:
array books{3} Reference Usage Introduction;

When you define an array, SAS assigns each array element an array reference with
the form array-name{subscript}, where subscript is the position of the variable in the
list. The following table lists the array reference assignments for the previous
ARRAY statement:
 Processing Simple Arrays 607

Table 25.1 Array Reference Assignments for Array Books

Variable Array Reference

Reference books{1}

Usage books{2}

Introduction books{3}

Later in the DATA step, when you want to process the variables in the array, you can
refer to a variable by either its name or its array reference. For example, the names
Reference and Books{1} are equivalent.

Using a DO Loop to Repeat an Action

To perform the same action several times, use an iterative DO loop. A simple
iterative DO loop that processes an array has the following form:
DO index-variable=1 TO number-of-elements-in-array;
… more SAS statements …
END;
The loop is processed repeatedly (iterates) according to the instructions in the
iterative DO statement. The iterative DO statement contains an index-variable
whose name you specify and whose value changes at each iteration of the loop.
To execute the loop as many times as there are variables in the array, specify that
the values of index-variable are 1 TO number-of-elements-in-array. SAS increases
the value of index-variable by 1 before each new iteration of the loop. When the
value exceeds the number-of-elements-in-array, SAS stops processing the loop. By
default, SAS automatically includes index-variable in the output data set. Use a
DROP statement or the DROP= data set option to prevent the index variable from
being written to your output data set.
An iterative DO loop that executes three times and has an index variable named
count has the following form:
do count=1 to 3;
… more SAS statements …
end;

The first time that the loop processes, the value of count is 1; the second time, 2;
and the third time, 3. At the beginning of the fourth iteration, the value of count is 4,
which exceeds the specified range and causes SAS to stop processing the loop.

Using a DO Loop to Process Selected Elements in an Array

To process particular elements of an array, specify those elements as the range of
the iterative DO statement. For example, the following statement creates an array
Days that contains seven elements:
array days{7} D1-D7;
 608 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

The following DO statements process selected elements of the array Days:

Table 25.2 DO Statement Processing

DO Statement Description

do i=2 to 4; processes elements 2 through 4

do i=1 to 7 by 2; processes elements 1, 3, 5, and 7

do i=3,5; processes elements 3 and 5

Selecting the Current Variable

You must tell SAS which variable in the array to use in each iteration of the loop.
Recall that you identify variables in an array by their array references and that you
use a variable name, a number, or an expression as the subscript of the reference.
Therefore, you can write programming statements so that the index variable of the
DO loop is the subscript of the array reference (for example, array-name{index-
variable}). When the value of the index variable changes, the subscript of the array
reference (and therefore the variable that is referenced) also changes.
The following example uses the index variable count as the subscript of array
references inside a DO loop:
array books{3} Reference Usage Introduction;
do count=1 to 3;
if books{count}=. then books{count}=0;
end;

When the value of count is 1, SAS reads the array reference as Books{1} and
processes the IF-THEN statement on Books{1}, which is the variable Reference.
When count is 2, SAS processes the statement on Books{2}, which is the variable
Usage. When count is 3, SAS processes the statement on Books{3}, which is the
variable Introduction.
The statements in the example tell SAS to
n perform the actions in the loop three times

n replace the array subscript count with the current value of count for each
iteration of the IF-THEN statement
n locate the variable with that array reference and process the IF-THEN statement
on it
n replace missing values with zero if the condition is true.

The following DATA step defines the array Book and processes it with a DO loop.
options linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data changed(drop=count);
input Reference Usage Introduction;
array book{3} Reference Usage Introduction;
do count=1 to 3;
if book{count}=. then book{count}=0;
 Processing Simple Arrays 609

end;
datalines;
45 63 113
. 75 150
62 . 98
;

proc print data=changed;

title 'Number of Books Sold';
run;
The following output shows the CHANGED data set.

Output 25.1 Using an Array Statement to Process Missing Data Values

Defining the Number of Elements in an Array

When you define the number of elements in an array, you can either use an asterisk
enclosed in braces ({*}), brackets ([*]), or parentheses ((*)) to count the number of
elements or to specify the number of elements. You must list each array element if
you use the asterisk to designate the number of elements. In the following example,
the array C1Temp references five variables with temperature measures.
array c1temp{*} c1t1 c1t2 c1t3 c1t4 c1t5;

If you specify the number of elements explicitly, you can omit the names of the
variables or array elements in the ARRAY statement. SAS then creates variable
names by concatenating the array name with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and so on. If a
variable name in the series already exists, SAS uses that variable instead of
creating a new one. In the following example, the array c1t references five variables:
c1t1, c1t2, c1t3, c1t4, and c1t5.
array c1t{5};

Rules for Referencing Arrays

Before you make any references to an array, an ARRAY statement must appear in
the same DATA step that you used to create the array. Once you have created the
array, you can perform the following tasks:
 610 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

n Use an array reference anywhere that you can write a SAS expression.

n Use an array reference as the arguments of some SAS functions.

n Use a subscript enclosed in braces, brackets, or parentheses to reference an

array.
n Use the special array subscript asterisk (*) to refer to all variables in an array in
an INPUT or PUT statement or in the argument of a function.
Note: You cannot use the asterisk with _TEMPORARY_ arrays.
An array definition is in effect only for the duration of the DATA step. If you want to
use the same array in several DATA steps, you must redefine the array in each step.
You can, however, redefine the array with the same variables in a later DATA step
by using a macro variable. A macro variable is useful for storing the variable names
that you need, as shown in this example:
%let list=NC SC GA VA;

data one;
array state{*} &list;
… more SAS statements …
run;

data two;
array state{*} &list;
… more SAS statements …
run;

Variations on Basic Array Processing

Determining the Number of Elements in an Array Efficiently

The DIM function in the iterative DO statement returns the number of elements in a
one-dimensional array or the number of elements in a specified dimension of a
multidimensional array, when the lower bound of the dimension is 1. Use the DIM
function to avoid changing the upper bound of an iterative DO group each time you
change the number of elements in the array.
The form of the DIM function is as follows:
DIMn(array-name)
where n is the specified dimension that has a default value of 1.
You can also use the DIM function when you specify the number of elements in the
array with an asterisk. Here are some examples of the DIM function:
n do i=1 to dim(days);

n do i=1 to dim4(days) by 2;
 Variations on Basic Array Processing 611

DO WHILE and DO UNTIL Expressions

Arrays are often processed in iterative DO loops that use the array reference in a
DO WHILE or DO UNTIL expression. In this example, the iterative DO loop
processes the elements of the array named Trend.
data test;
array trend{5} x1-x5;
input x1-x5 y;
do i=1 to 5 while(trend{i}<y);
… more SAS statements …
end;
datalines;
… data lines …
;

Using Variable Lists to Define an Array Quickly

SAS reserves the following three names for use as variable list names:
n _CHARACTER_

n _NUMERIC_

n _ALL_

You can use these variable list names to reference variables that have been
previously defined in the same DATA step. The _CHARACTER_ variable lists
character values only. The _NUMERIC_ variable lists numeric values only. The
_ALL_ variable lists either all character or all numeric values, depending on how you
previously defined the variables.
For example, the following INPUT statement reads in variables X1 through X3 as
character values using the $8. informat, and variables X4 through X5 as numeric
variables. The following ARRAY statement uses the variable list _CHARACTER_ to
include only the character variables in the array. The asterisk indicates that SAS
determines the subscript by counting the variables in the array.
input (X1-X3) ($8.) X4-X5;
array item {*} _character_;

You can use the _NUMERIC_ variable in your program (for example, you need to
convert currency). In this application, you do not need to know the variable names.
You need only to convert all values to the new currency.
For more information about variable lists, see the “ARRAY Statement” in SAS DATA
Step Statements: Reference.
 612 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

Multidimensional Arrays: Creating and

Processing

Grouping Variables in a Multidimensional Array

To create a multidimensional array, place the number of elements in each dimension
after the array name in the form {n, … } where n is required for each dimension of a
multidimensional array.
From right to left, the rightmost dimension represents columns; the next dimension
represents rows. Each position farther left represents a higher dimension. The
following ARRAY statement defines a two-dimensional array with two rows and five
columns. The array contains ten variables: five temperature measures (t1 through
t5) from two cities (c1 and c2):
array temprg{2,5} c1t1-c1t5 c2t1-c2t5;

SAS places variables into a multidimensional array by filling all rows in order,
beginning at the upper left corner of the array (known as row-major order). You can
think of the variables as having the following arrangement:
c1t1 c1t2 c1t3 c1t4 c1t5
c2t1 c2t2 c2t3 c2t4 c2t5

To refer to the elements of the array later with an array reference, you can use the
array name and subscripts. The following table lists some of the array references for
the previous example:

Table 25.3 Array References for Array TEMPRG

Variable Array Reference

c1t1 temprg{1,1}

c1t2 temprg{1,2}

c2t2 temprg{2,2}

c2t5 temprg{2,5}

Using Nested DO Loops

Multidimensional arrays are usually processed inside nested DO loops. For
example, the following is one form that processes a two-dimensional array:
DO index-variable-1=1 TO number-of-rows;
 Multidimensional Arrays: Creating and Processing 613

DO index-variable-2=1 TO number-of-columns;
... more SAS statements ...
END;
END;
An array reference can use two or more index variables as the subscript to refer to
two or more dimensions of an array. Use the following form:
array-name {index-variable-1, …,index-variable-n}
The following example creates an array that contains ten variables- five temperature
measures (t1 through t5) from two cities (c1 and c2). The DATA step contains two
DO loops.
n The outer DO loop (DO I=1 TO 2) processes the inner DO loop twice.

n The inner DO loop (DO J=1 TO 5) applies the ROUND function to all the
variables in one row.
For each iteration of the DO loops, SAS substitutes the value of the array element
corresponding to the current values of I and J.
options linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data temps;
array temprg{2,5} c1t1-c1t5 c2t1-c2t5;
input c1t1-c1t5 /
c2t1-c2t5;
do i=1 to 2;
do j=1 to 5;
temprg{i,j}=round(temprg{i,j});
end;
end;
datalines;
89.5 65.4 75.3 77.7 89.3
73.7 87.3 89.9 98.2 35.6
75.8 82.1 98.2 93.5 67.7
101.3 86.5 59.2 35.6 75.7
;

proc print data=temps;

title 'Temperature Measures for Two Cities';
run;
The following data set Temps contains the values of the variables rounded to the
nearest whole number.

Output 25.2 Using a Multidimensional Array

The previous example can also use the DIM function to produce the same result:
 614 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

do
i=1 to dim1(temprg);
do j=1 to dim2(temprg);
temprg{i,j}=round(temprg{i,j});
end;
end;

The value of DIM1(TEMPRG) is 2; the value of DIM2(TEMPRG) is 5.

Specifying Array Bounds

Identifying Upper and Lower Bounds

Typically in an ARRAY statement, the subscript in each dimension of the array
ranges from 1 to n, where n is the number of elements in that dimension. Thus, 1 is
the lower bound and n is the upper bound of that dimension of the array. For
example, in the following array, the lower bound is 1 and the upper bound is 4:
array new{4} Jackson Poulenc Andrew Parson;

In the following ARRAY statement, the bounds of the first dimension are 1 and 2 and
those of the second dimension are 1 and 5:
array test{2,5} test1-test10;

Bounded array dimensions have the following form:

{<lower-1:>upper-1<,…<lower-n:>upper-n>}
Therefore, you can also write the previous ARRAY statements as follows:
array new{1:4} Jackson Poulenc Andrew Parson;
array test{1:2,1:5} test1-test10;

For most arrays, 1 is a convenient lower bound, so you do not need to specify the
lower bound. However, specifying both the lower and the upper bounds is useful
when the array dimensions have beginning points other than 1.
In the following example, ten variables are named Year76 through Year85. The
following ARRAY statements place the variables into two arrays named First and
Second:
array first{10} Year76-Year85;
array second{76:85} Year76-Year85;

In the first ARRAY statement, the element first{4} is variable Year79, first{7} is
Year82, and so on. In the second ARRAY statement, element second{79} is Year79
and second{82} is Year82.
To process the array names Second in a DO group, make sure that the range of the
DO loop matches the range of the array as follows:
do i=76 to 85;
if second{i}=9 then second{i}=.;
end;
 Specifying Array Bounds 615

Determining Array Bounds: LBOUND and HBOUND

Functions
You can use the LBOUND and HBOUND functions to determine array bounds. The
LBOUND function returns the lower bound of a one-dimensional array or the lower
bound of a specified dimension of a multidimensional array. The HBOUND function
returns the upper bound of a one-dimensional array or the upper bound of a
specified dimension of a multidimensional array.
The form of the LBOUND and HBOUND functions is as follows:
LBOUNDn(array-name)
HBOUNDn(array-name)
where
n
is the specified dimension and has a default value of 1.
You can use the LBOUND and HBOUND functions to specify the starting and
ending values of the iterative DO loop to process the elements of the array named
Second:
do i=lbound{second} to hbound{second};
if second{i}=9 then second{i}=.;
end;

In this example, the index variable in the iterative DO statement ranges from 76 to
85.

When to Use the HBOUND Function Instead of the DIM

Function
The following ARRAY statement defines an array containing a total of five elements,
a lower bound of 72, and an upper bound of 76. It represents the calendar years
1972 through 1976:
array years{72:76} first second third fourth fifth;

To process the array named YEARS in an iterative DO loop, make sure that the
range of the DO loop matches the range of the array as follows:
do i=lbound(years) to hbound(years);
if years{i}=99 then years{i}=.;
end;

The value of LBOUND(YEARS) is 72; the value of HBOUND(YEARS) is 76.

For this example, the DIM function would return a value of 5, the total count of
elements in the array YEARS. Therefore, if you used the DIM function instead of the
HBOUND function for the upper bound of the array, the statements inside the DO
loop would not have executed.
 616 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

Specifying Bounds in a Two-Dimensional Array

The following list contains 40 variables named X60 through X99. They represent the
years 1960 through 1999.
X60 X61 X62 X63 X64 X65 X66 X67 X68 X69
X70 X71 X72 X73 X74 X75 X76 X77 X78 X79
X80 X81 X82 X83 X84 X85 X86 X87 X88 X89
X90 X91 X92 X93 X94 X95 X96 X97 X98 X99

The following ARRAY statement arranges the variables in an array by decades. The
rows range from 6 through 9, and the columns range from 0 through 9.
array X{6:9,0:9} X60-X99;

In array X, variable X63 is element X{6,3} and variable X89 is element X{8,9}. To
process array X with iterative DO loops, use one of these methods:
n Method 1:
do i=6 to 9;
do j=0 to 9;
if X{i,j}=0 then X{i,j}=.;
end;
end;

n Method 2:
do i=lbound1(X) to hbound1(X);
do j=lbound2(X) to hbound2(X);
if X{i,j}=0 then X{i,j}=.;
end;
end;

Both examples change all values of 0 in variables X60 through X99 to missing. The
first example sets the range of the DO groups explicitly. The second example uses
the LBOUND and HBOUND functions to return the bounds of each dimension of the
array.

Examples of Array Processing

Example 1: Using Character Variables in an Array

You can specify character variables and their lengths in ARRAY statements. The
following example groups variables into two arrays, NAMES and CAPITALS. The
dollar sign ($) tells SAS to create the elements as character variables. If the
variables have already been declared as character variables, a dollar sign in the
array is not necessary. The INPUT statement reads all the variables in array
NAMES.
 Examples of Array Processing 617

The statement inside the DO loop uses the UPCASE function to change the values
of the variables in array NAMES to uppercase. The statement then stores the
uppercase values in the variables in the CAPITALS array.
options linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data text;
array names{*} $ n1-n5;
array capitals{*} $ c1-c5;
input names{*};
do i=1 to 5;
capitals{i}=upcase(names{i});
end;
datalines;
smithers michaels gonzalez hurth frank
;

proc print data=text;

title 'Names Changed from Lowercase to Uppercase';
run;
The following output shows the TEXT data set.

Output 25.3 Using Character Variables in an Array

Example 2: Assigning Initial Values to the Elements of an

Array
This example creates variables in the array Test and assigns them the initial values
90, 80, and 70. It reads values into another array named Score and compares each
element of Score to the corresponding element of Test. If the value of the element in
Score is greater than or equal to the value of the element in Test, the variable
NewScore is assigned the value in the element Score. The OUTPUT statement
writes the observation to the SAS data set.
The INPUT statement reads a value for the variable named ID and then reads
values for all the variables in the Score array.
options linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data score1(drop=i);
array test{3} t1-t3 (90 80 70);
array score{3} s1-s3;
input id score{*};
do i=1 to 3;
if score{i}>=test{i} then
do;
 618 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

NewScore=score{i};
output;
end;
end;
datalines;
1234 99 60 82
5678 80 85 75
;

proc print noobs data=score1;

title 'Data Set SCORE1';
run;
The following output shows the Score1 data set.

Output 25.4 Assigning Initial Values to the Elements of an Array

Example 3: Creating an Array for Temporary Use in the

Current DATA Step
When elements of an array are constants that are needed only for the duration of
the DATA step, you can omit variables from an array group and instead use
temporary array elements. You refer to temporary data elements by the array name
and dimension. Although they behave like variables, temporary array elements do
not have names, and they do not appear in the output data set. Temporary array
elements are automatically retained, instead of being reset to missing at the
beginning of the next iteration of the DATA step.
To create a temporary array, use the _TEMPORARY_ argument. The following
example creates a temporary array named Test:
options linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data score2(drop=i);
array test{3} _temporary_ (90 80 70);
array score{3} s1-s3;
input id score{*};
do i=1 to 3;
if score{i}>=test{i} then
do;
 Examples of Array Processing 619

NewScore=score{i};
output;
end;
end;
datalines;
1234 99 60 82
5678 80 85 75
;

proc print noobs data=score2;

title 'Data Set SCORE2';
run;
The following output shows the Score2 data set.

Output 25.5 Using _TEMPORARY_ Arrays

Example 4: Performing an Action on All Numeric Variables

This example multiplies all the numeric variables in array Test by 3.
options nodate pageno=1 linesize=80 pagesize=60;

data sales;
infile datalines;
input Value1 Value2 Value3 Value4;
datalines;
11 56 58 61
22 51 57 61
22 49 53 58
;
data convert(drop=i);
set sales;
array test{*} _numeric_;
do i=1 to dim(test);
test{i} = (test{i}*3);
end;
run;

proc print data=convert;

620 Chapter 25 / Array Processing

title 'Data Set CONVERT';

run;
The following output shows the CONVERT data set.

Output 25.6 Output from Using a _NUMERIC_ Variable List

 621

PART 5

SAS Files Concepts

Chapter 26
SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Chapter 27
SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Chapter 28
SAS Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Chapter 29
SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Chapter 30
Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Chapter 31
DICTIONARY Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Chapter 32
SAS Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Chapter 33
About SAS/ACCESS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Chapter 34
Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA) . . . . . . 765

Chapter 35
Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

Chapter 36
File Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Chapter 37
SAS Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Chapter 38
SAS File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Chapter 39
External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
622
 623

26
SAS Libraries

Definition of a SAS Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Library Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Physical Names and Logical Names (Librefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Assigning Librefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Associating and Clearing Logical Names (Librefs) with the LIBNAME Statement . 627
Reserved Librefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Accessing Remote SAS Libraries on SAS/CONNECT, SAS/
SHARE, and WebDAV Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
Library Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Definition of Library Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
How SAS Concatenates Library Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Rules for Library Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
Permanent and Temporary Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Definition of a Metadata-Bound Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
SAS System Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
Introduction to SAS System Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
Work Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
User Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Sashelp Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
Sasuser Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Sequential Data Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Tools for Managing Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
SAS Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
Library Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Accessing Permanent SAS Files without a Libref . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Operating Environment Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638

Definition of a SAS Library

The logical concept of a SAS library remains constant, regardless of the operating
environment. In any operating environment where SAS can be installed, the
structure for organizing, locating, and managing SAS files is the same.
624 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

At the operating environment level, however, a SAS library has different physical
implementations. Most SAS libraries implement the storage of files in a manner
similar to how the operating environment stores and accesses files.
For example, in directory-based operating environments, a SAS library is a group of
SAS files that are stored in the same directory and accessed by the same engine.
Other files can be stored in the directory, but only the files with file extensions that
are assigned by SAS are recognized as part of the SAS library. Under z/OS, a SAS
library can be implemented as either a bound library in a traditional OS data set or
as a directory under UNIX System Services.
SAS files can be any of the following file types:
n SAS data set (SAS data file or SAS view)

n SAS catalog

n stored compiled SAS program

n SAS utility file

n access descriptors

n multi-dimensional database files such as MDDB, FDB, and DMDB files

n item store files

SAS D ata Lib rary

SAS D ata Sets

(can be a SAS D ata File SAS C atalogs
or a SAS D ata V iew)

Multidimensional
Utility Files
D atabase Files

Sto red C ompiled

Item Sto re F iles
SAS Prog rams

Each SAS file, in turn, stores information in smaller units that are characteristic of
the SAS file type. For example, SAS data sets store information as variables and
observations, while SAS catalogs store information in units called entries. SAS
determines the type of a file from the context of the SAS program in which the file is
created or specified. Therefore, a library can contain files with the same name but
with different member types.
SAS libraries can contain files that you create, or they can be one of several special
libraries that SAS provides for convenience, support, and customizing capability
such as the Work library. SAS does not limit the number of SAS files that you can
store in a SAS library.
 Library Names 625

Library Engines
Each SAS library is associated with a library engine. SAS library engines are
software components that form the interface between SAS and the SAS library. It is
the SAS library engine that locates files in a SAS library and renders the file
contents to SAS in a form that it can recognize. Library engines perform such tasks
as:
n reading and writing data

n listing the files in the library

n deleting and renaming files

SAS has a Multi Engine Architecture in order to read to and write from files in
different formats. Each SAS engine has specific processing characteristics, such as
the ability to
n process a SAS file generated by an older version of SAS

n read database files created by other software programs

n store and access files on disk or tape

n determine how variables and observations are placed in a file

n place data into memory from its physical location

n transport SAS files between operating environments

You generally are not aware of the particular type of engine that is processing data
at any given time. If you issue an instruction that is not supported by the engine, an
error message is displayed in the SAS log. When needed, you can select a specific
engine to perform a task. But usually, you do not have to specify an engine,
because SAS automatically selects the appropriate one.
More than one engine might be involved in processing a DATA step; for example,
one engine might be used to input data, and another engine might be used to write
observations to the output data set.
For more information about library engines, including a list of engines available in
Base SAS, see “About Library Engines” on page 808.

Library Names

Physical Names and Logical Names (Librefs)

Before you can use a SAS library, you must tell SAS where it is. SAS recognizes
SAS libraries based on either operating environment naming conventions or SAS
naming conventions. There are two ways to define SAS libraries:
 626 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

n a physical location name that the operating environment recognizes

n a logical name (libref) that you assign using the LIBNAME statement, LIBNAME
function, or the New Library window
The physical location name of the SAS library is a name that identifies your SAS
files to the operating environment. The physical location name must conform to the
naming conventions of your operating environment. The physical location name fully
identifies the directory, or operating environment data set that contains the SAS
library.
The logical name, or libref, is the way you identify a group of files to SAS. A libref is
a name that you associate with the physical location of the SAS library.

Assigning Librefs
Librefs can be assigned using the following methods:
n LIBNAME statement

n LIBNAME function

n New Library window that is available in your toolbar

n operating environment commands

Once the libref is assigned, you can read, create, or update files in a SAS library. A
libref is valid only for the current SAS session, unless it is assigned using the New
Library window with the Enable at start-up box checked.
A libref can have a maximum length of eight characters. You can use the LIBREF
function to verify that a libref has been assigned. Librefs can be referenced
repeatedly within a SAS session. SAS does not limit the number of librefs that you
can assign during a session. However, your operating environment or site might set
limitations. If you are running in batch mode, the library must exist before you can
allocate or assign it. In interactive mode, you might be allowed to create it if it does
not already exist.
Operating Environment Information: Here are examples of the LIBNAME
statement for different operating environments. The rules for assigning and using
librefs differ across operating environments. See the SAS documentation for your
operating environment for specific information.

Table 26.1 Syntax for Assigning a Libref

Operating Environment Examples

DOS, Windows libname mylibref 'c:\root\mystuff\sasstuff\work';

UNIX libname mylibref '/u/mystuff/sastuff/work';

z/OS libname mylibref 'userid.mystuff.sastuff.work';

libname mylibref '/mystuff/sastuff/work';

You can also access files without using a libref. See “Accessing Permanent SAS
Files without a Libref” on page 637.
 Library Names 627

Associating and Clearing Logical Names (Librefs) with the

LIBNAME Statement
You can assign or clear a physical name with a libref using the LIBNAME statement,
which is described in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference, or the LIBNAME
function, which is described in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.
Operating Environment Information: For some operating environments, you can
use operating environment commands to associate a libref with a SAS library. When
using operating environment commands to assign librefs to a SAS library, the
association might persist beyond the SAS session in which the libref was created.
For some operating environments, you can use only the LIBNAME statement or
function. See the SAS documentation for your operating environment for more
information about assigning librefs.
The most common form of the LIBNAME statement is used in this example to
associate the libref Annual with the physical name of the SAS library.
libname annual 'SAS-library';

If you use the LIBNAME statement to assign the libref, SAS clears (deassigns) the
libref automatically at the end of each SAS session. If you want to clear the libref
Annual before the end of the session, you can issue the following form of the
LIBNAME statement:
libname annual clear;

SAS also provides a New Library window to assign or clear librefs and SAS Explorer
to view, add, or delete SAS libraries. You can select the New Library or the SAS
Explorer icon from the Toolbar.

Reserved Librefs
SAS reserves a few names for special uses. You should not use Sashelp, Sasuser,
or Work as librefs, except as intended. The purpose and content of these libraries
are discussed in “Permanent and Temporary Libraries” on page 631.
Operating Environment Information: There are other librefs reserved for SAS
under some operating environments. In addition, your operating environment might
have reserved certain words that cannot be used as librefs. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more information.
 628 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

Accessing Remote SAS Libraries on SAS/CONNECT,

SAS/SHARE, and WebDAV Servers

Remote Library Access for SAS/CONNECT and

SAS/SHARE
You can use a LIBNAME statement to read, write, and update server (remote) data
as if it were stored on the client's disk. SAS processes the data in client memory,
which gets overwritten in subsequent client requests for server data.
The LIBNAME statement can be used to access SAS data sets across computers
that have different architectures. The LIBNAME statement also provides Read-Only
access to some SAS catalog entry types across computers that have different
architectures.
The LIBNAME statement provides access to remote server data by associating a
SAS library reference (libref) with a permanent SAS library.
SAS/CONNECT Example:
The SAS/CONNECT client creates a LIBNAME statement to access a server library
that is located on a SAS/CONNECT server. The client creates the new libref,
Reports.
signon rempc;
libname reports 'd:\prod\reports' server=rempc;

The SAS/CONNECT client signs on to the SAS/CONNECT server named REMPC.

A server library is assigned to the client session. The value for SERVER= is the
same as the server session ID that is used in the SIGNON statement.
For more information about SAS/CONNECT, see SAS/CONNECT User’s Guide.
SAS/SHARE Example:
The SAS/SHARE client uses a LIBNAME statement to access a server library via
the existing libref, Sales, which was pre-defined at the SAS/SHARE server for client
access.
libname sales server=server1;

For more information about SAS/SHARE, see SAS/SHARE User’s Guide.

Remote Library Access for WebDAV Servers

WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a protocol that enhances
the HTTP protocol. It provides a standard infrastructure for collaborative authoring
across the Internet. WebDAV enables you to edit web documents, stores versions
for later retrieval, and provides a locking mechanism to prevent overwriting. SAS
supports the WebDAV protocol under the UNIX and Windows operating
environments.
You use a LIBNAME statement to access WebDAV servers, as shown in the
following example:
libname davdata v9 "http://www.webserver.com/users/mydir/datadir"
webdav user="mydir" pw="12345";
 Library Concatenation 629

When you access files on a WebDAV server, SAS pulls the file from the server to
your local disk for processing. The files are temporarily stored in the SAS Work
directory, unless you use the LOCALCACHE= option in the LIBNAME statement,
which specifies a different directory for temporary storage. When you finish updating
the file, SAS pushes the file back to the WebDAV server for storage and removes
the file from the local disk.
For more information, see “WHEREUP= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set Options:
Reference.

Library Concatenation

Definition of Library Concatenation

Concatenation is the logical combining of two or more libraries. Concatenation
enables you to access the SAS data sets in several libraries with one libref.
You can concatenate two or more libraries by specifying their librefs or physical
names in the LIBNAME statement or function.
Physical names must be enclosed in single or double quotation marks in a
LIBNAME statement. Otherwise, SAS looks for a previously assigned libref with the
same name.
In the following examples, Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall, and Annual are previously
defined librefs:
libname annual (summer winter spring fall);

libname annual ('SAS-library-1' 'SAS-library-2' 'SAS-library-3');

libname annual ('SAS-library' winter spring fall);

libname total (annual 'SAS-library');

How SAS Concatenates Library Members

When there are members of the same name in more than one library, the first
occurrence of the member is used for input and update processes. Output always
goes to the first library.
This example contains three SAS libraries, and each library contains two SAS data
files:
Lib1
Apples and Pears
Lib2
Apples and Oranges
 630 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

Lib3
Oranges and Plums
The LIBNAME statement concatenates Lib1, Lib2, and Lib3:
libname fruit (lib1 lib2 lib3);

The concatenated library Fruit has the following members:

n Apples

n Pears
n Oranges

n Plums

Note: Output always goes to the first library. For example, the following statement
writes to the first library in the concatenation, Lib1:
data fruit.oranges;

Note that in this example, if the file Apples in Lib1 was different from the file Apples
in Lib2, and if an update to Apples was specified, it is updated only in Lib1 because
that is the first occurrence of the member Apples.
For complete documentation on library concatenation, see the “LIBNAME
Statement” in SAS Global Statements: Reference.
Operating Environment Information: For more information about how specific
operating environments handle concatenation, see the SAS documentation for your
operating environment.

Rules for Library Concatenation

After you create a library concatenation, you can specify the libref in any context
that accepts a simple (nonconcatenated) libref. These rules determine how SAS
files (that is, members of SAS libraries) are located among the concatenated
libraries:
n If you specify any options or an engine, the options apply only to the libraries that
you specified with the physical name, not to any library that you specified with a
libref.
n When a SAS file is opened for input or update, the concatenated libraries are
searched and the first occurrence of the specified file is used.
n When a SAS file is opened for output, it is created in the first library that is listed
in the concatenation.
n When you delete or rename a SAS file, only the first occurrence of the file is
affected.
n Any time a list of SAS files is displayed, only one occurrence of a filename is
shown, even if the name occurs multiple times in the concatenation. For
example, if library One contains A.DATA and library Two contains A.DATA, only
A.DATA from library One is listed because it is the first occurrence of the
filename.
In addition, a SAS file that is logically connected to another file (such as an index
to a data file) is listed only if the parent file is the first (or only) occurrence of the
filename. For example, if library One contains A.DATA and library Two contains
 Permanent and Temporary Libraries 631

A.DATA and A.INDEX, only A.DATA from library One is listed. A.DATA and
A.INDEX from library Two are not listed.
n If any library in the concatenation is sequential, then the concatenated library is
considered sequential by applications that require random access. For example,
the DATASETS procedure cannot process sequential libraries, and therefore
cannot process a concatenated library that contains one or more sequential
libraries.
n The attributes of the first library that is specified determine the attributes of the
concatenation. For example, if the first SAS library that is listed is “read only,”
then the entire concatenated library is “read only.”
n Once a libref has been assigned in a concatenation, any changes made to the
libref does not affect the concatenation.
n Changing a data set name to an existing name in the concatenation will fail.

Permanent and Temporary Libraries

SAS libraries are generally stored as permanent data libraries. However, SAS
provides a temporary or scratch library where you can store files for the duration of
a SAS session or job.
A permanent SAS library is one that resides on the external storage medium of your
computer and is not deleted when the SAS session terminates. Permanent SAS
libraries are stored until you delete them. The library is available for processing in
subsequent SAS sessions. When working with files in a permanent SAS library, you
generally specify a libref as the first part of a two-level SAS filename. The libref tells
SAS where to find or store the file.
Note: You can also skip using a libref and point directly to the file that you want to
use, using syntax that your operating system understands. An example of this in the
Windows environment is
data 'C:\root\sasfiles\myfile.ext';

Operating Environment Information: Files are specified differently in various

operating environments. See the SAS documentation for your operating
environment for more information.
A temporary SAS library is one that exists only for the current SAS session or job.
SAS files that are created during the session or job are held in a special work space
that might or might not be an external storage medium. This work space is generally
assigned the default libref Work. Files in the temporary Work library can be used in
any DATA step or SAS procedure during the SAS session, but they are typically not
available for subsequent SAS sessions. Normally, you specify that data sets be
stored in or retrieved from this library by specifying a one-level name. Files held in
the Work library are deleted at the end of the SAS session if it ends normally.
There are a number of SAS system options that enable you to customize how you
name and work with your permanent and temporary SAS libraries. See the USER=,
WORK=, WORKINIT, and WORKTERM system options in SAS System Options:
Reference for more information.
 632 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

Definition of a Metadata-Bound Library

A metadata-bound library is a physical library that is tied to a corresponding
metadata secured table object. Each physical table within a metadata-bound library
has information in its header that points to a specific metadata object. The pointer
creates a security binding between the physical table and the metadata object. The
binding ensures that SAS universally enforces metadata-layer access requirements
for the physical table—regardless of how a user requests access from SAS. For
more information, see SAS Guide to Metadata-Bound Libraries.
The AUTHLIB procedure is used to create, access, and modify metadata-bound
libraries. This procedure is intended for use by SAS administrators. Users who lack
sufficient privileges in either the metadata layer or the host layer cannot use this
procedure. For more information, see “AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide.

SAS System Libraries

Introduction to SAS System Libraries

Four special libraries supplied by SAS provide convenience, support, and
customization capability:
n Work

n User

n Sashelp

n Sasuser

Work Library

Definition of Work Library

The Work library is the temporary (scratch) library that is automatically defined by
SAS at the beginning of each SAS session. The Work library stores two types of
temporary files: those that you create and those that are created internally by SAS
as part of normal processing. Typically, the Work library is deleted at the end of
each SAS session if the session terminates normally.
 SAS System Libraries 633

Using the Work Library

To store or retrieve SAS files in the Work library, specify a one-level name in your
SAS program statements. The libref Work is automatically assigned to these files as
a system default unless you have assigned the User libref. The following examples
contain valid names for SAS data sets stored in the Work library:
data test2;

data work.test2;

proc contents data=testdata;

proc contents data=work.testdata;

Operating Environment Information: The Work library is implemented differently

in various operating environments. See the SAS documentation for your operating
environment for more information.

Relation to the User Library

While the Work library is designed to hold temporary files used during the current
SAS session, the User library is designed to hold files after the SAS session is over.
If you associate the libref User with a SAS library, use a one-level name to create
and access files that are not deleted at the end of your SAS session. When SAS
encounters a one-level filename, it looks first in the User library, if it has been
defined, and then it looks in Work. If you want to place a file in the User library, so
that it is not deleted after your SAS session is over, any single-level file goes there
by default. At that point, if you want to create a temporary file in Work, you must use
a two-level name, such as Work.Name.

User Library

Definition of User Library

The User library enables you to read, create, and write to files in a SAS library other
than Work without specifying a libref as part of the SAS filename. Once you
associate the libref User with a SAS library, SAS stores any file with a one-level
name in that library. Unlike the Work library, files stored in this library are not deleted
by SAS when the session terminates.

Ways to Assign the User Libref

You can assign the User libref using one of the following methods:
n LIBNAME statement

n LIBNAME function

n USER= system option

n operating environment command

In this example, the LIBNAME statement is used with a DATA step, which stores the
data set Region in a permanent SAS library.
 634 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

libname user 'SAS-library';

data region;
... more DATA step statements ...
run;

In this example, the LIBNAME function assigns the User libref:

data _null_;
x=libname ('user', 'SAS-library');
run;

When assigning a libref using the USER= system option, you must first assign a
libref to a SAS library, and then use the USER= system option to specify that library
as the default for one-level names. In this example, the DATA step stores the data
set Prochlor in the SAS library Testlib.
libname testlib 'SAS-library';
options user=testlib;
data prochlor;
... more DATA step statements ...
run;

Operating Environment Information: The methods and results of assigning the

User libref vary slightly from one operating environment to another. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more information.

Relation to Work Library

The User libref overrides the default libref Work for one-level names. When you
refer to a file by a one-level name, SAS looks first for the libref User. If User is
assigned to a SAS library, files with one-level names are stored there. If you have
not assigned the libref User to a library, the files with one-level names are stored in
the temporary library Work. To refer to SAS files in the Work library while the User
libref is assigned, you must specify a two-level name with Work as the libref. Data
files that SAS creates internally still go to the Work library.

Sashelp Library
Each SAS site receives the Sashelp library, which contains a group of catalogs and
other files containing information that is used to control various aspects of your SAS
session. The defaults stored in this library are for everyone using SAS at your
installation. Your personal settings are stored in the Sasuser library, which is
discussed later in this section.
If SAS products other than Base SAS are installed at your site, the Sashelp library
contains catalogs that are used by those products. In many instances, the defaults
in this library are customized for your site by your on-site SAS support personnel.
You can list the catalogs stored at your site by using one of the file management
utilities discussed later in this section.
 Sequential Data Libraries 635

Sasuser Library
The Sasuser library contains SAS catalogs that enable you to customize features of
SAS for your needs. If the defaults in the Sashelp library are not suitable for your
applications, you can modify them and store your personalized defaults in your
Sasuser library. For example, in Base SAS, you can store your own defaults for
function key settings or window attributes in a personal Profile catalog named
Sasuser.Profile.
SAS assigns the Sasuser library during system initialization, according to the
information supplied by the Sasuser system option.
A system option called RSASUSER enables the system administrator to control the
mode of access to the Sasuser library at installations that have one Sasuser library
for all users and that want to prevent users from modifying it.
Operating Environment Information: In most operating environments, the
Sasuser library is created if it does not already exist. However, the Sasuser library is
implemented differently in various operating environments. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more information.

Sequential Data Libraries

SAS provides a number of features and procedures for reading from and writing to
files that are stored on sequential format devices, either disk or tape. Before you
store SAS libraries in sequential format, you should consider the following:
n You cannot use random access methods with sequential SAS data sets.

n You can access only one of the SAS files in a sequential library, or only one of
the SAS files on a tape, at any point in a SAS job.
For example, you cannot read two or more SAS data sets in the same library or
on the same tape at the same time in a single DATA step. However, you can
access:
o two or more SAS files in different sequential libraries, or on different tapes at
the same time, if there are enough tape drives available
o a SAS file during one DATA or PROC step, and then access another SAS file
in the same sequential library or on the same tape during a later DATA or
PROC step
Also, when you have more than one SAS data set on a tape or in a sequential
library in the same DATA or PROC step, one SAS data set file might be opened
during the compilation phase. The additional SAS data sets are opened during
the execution phase. For more information, see the “SET Statement” in SAS
DATA Step Statements: Reference.
n For some operating environments, you can read from or write to SAS data sets
only during a DATA or PROC step. However, you can always use the COPY
procedure to transfer all members of a SAS library to tape for storage and
backup purposes.
 636 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

n Considerations specific to your site can affect your use of tape. For example, it
might be necessary to manually mount a tape before the SAS libraries become
available. Consult your operations staff if you are not familiar with using tape
storage at your location.
For information about sequential engines, see Chapter 37, “SAS Engines,” on page
803.
Operating Environment Information: The details for storing and accessing SAS
files in sequential format vary with the operating environment. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more information.

Tools for Managing Libraries

SAS Utilities
The SAS utilities that are available for SAS file management enable you to work
with more than one SAS file at a time, as long as the files belong to the same library.
The advantage of learning and using SAS Explorer, functions, options, and
procedures is that they automatically copy, rename, or delete any index files or
integrity constraints, audit trails, backups, and generation data sets that are
associated with your SAS data files. Another advantage is that SAS utility
procedures work on any operating environment at any level.
There are several SAS window options, functions, and procedures available for
performing file management tasks. You can use the following features alone or in
combination, depending on what works best for you. See “Choosing the Right
Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide for detailed information about SAS utility
procedures. The SAS windowing environment and how to use it for managing SAS
files is discussed in Chapter 16, “Introduction to the SAS Windowing Environment,”
on page 385 and Chapter 17, “Managing Your Data in the SAS Windowing
Environment,” on page 405 as well as in the online Help.
CATALOG procedure
provides catalog management utilities with the COPY, CONTENTS, and
APPEND procedures.
DATASETS procedure
provides all library management functions for all member types except catalogs.
If your site does not use the SAS Explorer, or if SAS executes in batch or
interactive line mode, using this procedure can save you time and resources.
SAS Explorer
includes windows that enable you to perform most file management tasks
without submitting SAS program statements. Type LIBNAME, CATALOG, or DIR
in the Toolbar window to use SAS Explorer, or select the Explorer icon from the
Toolbar menu.
DETAILS system option
Sets the default display for file information when using the CONTENTS or
DATASETS procedure. When enabled, DETAILS provides additional information
about files, depending on which procedure or window you use.
 Tools for Managing Libraries 637

Library Directories
SAS Explorer and SAS procedures enable you to obtain a list, or directory, of the
members in a SAS library. Each directory contains the name of each member and
its member type. For the member type DATA, the directory indicates whether an
index, audit trail, backup, or generation data set is associated with the data set. The
directory also describes some attributes of the library, but the amount and nature of
this information vary with the operating environment.
Note: SAS libraries can also contain various SAS utility files. These files are not
listed in the library directory and are for internal processing.

Accessing Permanent SAS Files without a Libref

SAS provides another method of accessing files in addition to assigning a libref with
the LIBNAME statement or using the New Library window. To use this method,
enclose the filename, or the filename and the SAS library, in single quotation marks.
For example, in a directory-based system, if you want to create a data set named
MyData in your default directory, that is, in the directory that you are running SAS in,
you can write the following line of code:
data 'mydata';

SAS creates the data set and remembers its location for the duration of the SAS
session.
If you omit the single quotation marks, SAS creates the data set MyData in the
temporary Work subdirectory, named Work.MyData:
data mydata;

If you want to create a data set named MyData in a library other than the directory in
which you are running SAS, enclose the entire pathname in quotation marks,
following the naming conventions of your operating environment. For example, the
following DATA step creates a data set named Foo in the directory C:\sasrun
\mydata
data 'c:\sasrun\mydata\foo';

This method of accessing files works on all operating environments and in most
contexts where a libref.data-set-name is accepted as a SAS data set. Most data set
options can be specified with a quoted name.
You cannot use quoted names for the following:
n SAS catalogs

n MDDB and FDB references

n contexts that do not accept a libref, such as the SELECT statement of PROC
COPY and most PROC DATASETS statements
n PROC SQL

n DATA step stored programs, or SAS views

n SAS Component Language (SCL) open function

 638 Chapter 26 / SAS Libraries

The following table shows some examples of DATA statements that access SAS
data files without using a libref.

Table 26.2 Example DATA Statements That Access SAS Files without Using a Libref

Operating
Environment Examples

DOS, Windows data 'c:\root\mystuff\sasstuff\work\myfile';

UNIX data '/u/root/mystuff/sastuff/work/myfile';

z/OS data 'user489.mystuff.saslib(member1)';

/* bound SAS library */

data '/mystuff/sasstuff/work/myfile';
/* UNIX file system library */

Operating Environment Commands

You can use operating environment commands to copy, rename, and delete the
operating environment file or files that make up a SAS library. However, to maintain
the integrity of your files, you must know how the SAS library model is implemented
in your operating environment. For example, in some operating environments, SAS
data sets and their associated indexes can be copied, deleted, or renamed as
separate files. If you rename the file that contains the SAS data set, but not its
index, the data set is marked as damaged.
CAUTION! Using operating environment commands can damage files. You can
avoid problems by always using SAS utilities to manage SAS files.
 639

27
SAS Data Sets

Definition of a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Descriptor Information for a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Where to Use Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
How and When SAS Data Set Names Are Assigned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Parts of a Data Set Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Two-level SAS Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
One-level SAS Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Data Set Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Special SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Null Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Default Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Automatic Naming Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Sorted Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
The Sort Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
How SAS Uses the Sort Indicator to Improve Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Validating That a Data Set Is Sorted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
Tools for Managing Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
Viewing and Editing SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Definition of a SAS Data Set

A SAS data set is a SAS file stored in a SAS library that SAS creates and
processes. A SAS data set contains data values that are organized as a table of
observations (rows) and variables (columns) that can be processed by SAS
software. A SAS data set also contains descriptor information such as the data
types and lengths of the variables, as well as which engine was used to create the
data.
A SAS data set can be one of the following:
SAS data file
contains both the data and the descriptor information. SAS data files have a
member type of DATA. For specific information, see Chapter 28, “SAS Data
Files,” on page 655.
 640 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

SAS view
is a virtual data set that points to data from other sources. SAS views have a
member type of VIEW. For specific information, see Chapter 29, “SAS Views,”
on page 721.
Note: The term SAS data set is used when a SAS view and a SAS data file can be
used in the same manner.

Descriptor Information for a SAS Data Set

The descriptor information for a SAS data set makes the file self-documenting. That
is, each data set can supply the attributes of the data set and of its variables. Once
the data is in the form of a SAS data set, you do not have to specify the attributes of
the data set or the variables in your program statements. SAS obtains the
information directly from the data set.
Descriptor information includes the number of observations, the observation length,
the date that the data set was last modified, and other facts. Descriptor information
for individual variables includes attributes such as name, type, length, format, label,
and whether the variable is indexed.
The following figure illustrates the logical components of a SAS data set:
 Descriptor Information for a SAS Data Set 641

Figure 27.1 Logical Components of a SAS Data Set

The following items correspond to the numbers in the figure above:

1 A SAS view (member type VIEW) contains descriptor information and uses data
values from one or more data sets.

2 A SAS data file (member type DATA) contains descriptor information and data
values. SAS data sets can be a member type DATA (SAS data file) or VIEW
(SAS view).

3 An index is a separate file that you can create for a SAS data file in order to
provide direct access to specific observations. The index file has the same name
as its data file and a member type of INDEX. Indexes can provide faster access
to specific observations, particularly when you have a large data set.

4 Extended attributes are metadata that is defined on a data set or on a variable

(column). Extended attributes are represented as name-value pairs and are
created using the DATASETS procedure.
 642 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

Data Set Names

Where to Use Data Set Names

You can use SAS data sets as input for DATA or PROC steps by specifying the
name of the data set in the following:
n a SET statement
n a MERGE statement

n an UPDATE statement

n a MODIFY statement

n the DATA= option of a SAS procedure

n the OPEN function

How and When SAS Data Set Names Are Assigned

You name SAS data sets when you create them. Output data sets that you create in
a DATA step are named in the DATA statement. SAS data sets that you create in a
procedure step are usually given a name in the procedure statement or an OUTPUT
statement. If you do not specify a name for an output data set, SAS assigns a
default name.
If you are creating SAS views, you assign the data set name using one of the
following:
n the SQL procedure

n the ACCESS procedure

n the VIEW= option in the DATA statement

Note: Because you can specify both SAS data files and SAS views in the same
program statements but cannot specify the member type, SAS cannot determine
from the program statement which one you want to process. This is why SAS
prevents you from giving the same name to SAS views and SAS data sets in the
same library.

Parts of a Data Set Name

The complete name of every SAS data set has three elements. You assign the first
two; SAS supplies the third. The form for SAS data set names is as follows:
libref.SAS-data-set.membertype
 Data Set Names 643

The elements of a SAS data set name include the following:

libref
is the logical name that is associated with the physical location of the SAS
library.
SAS-data-set
is the data set name, which can be up to 32 bytes long for the Base SAS engine
starting in Version 7. Earlier SAS versions are limited to 8-byte names.
membertype
is assigned by SAS. The member type is DATA for SAS data files and VIEW for
SAS views.
When you refer to SAS data sets in your program statements, use a one- or two-
level name. You can use a one-level name when the data set is in the temporary
library Work. In addition, if the reserved libref User is assigned, you can use a one-
level name when the data set is in the permanent library User. Use a two-level name
when the data set is in some other permanent library that you have established. A
two-level name consists of both the libref and the data set name. A one-level name
consists of just the data set name.

Two-level SAS Data Set Names

The form most commonly used to create, read, or write to SAS data sets in
permanent SAS libraries is the two-level name as shown here:
libref.SAS-data-set

When you create a new SAS data set, the libref indicates where it is to be stored.
When you reference an existing data set, the libref tells SAS where to find it. The
following examples show the use of two-level names in SAS statements:
data revenue.sales;

proc sort data=revenue.sales;

One-level SAS Data Set Names

You can omit the libref, and refer to data sets with a one-level name in the following
form:
SAS-data-set

Data sets with one-level names are automatically assigned to one of two SAS
libraries: Work or User. Most commonly, they are assigned to the temporary library
Work and are deleted at the end of a SAS job or session. If you have associated the
libref User with a SAS library or used the USER= system option to set the User
library, data sets with one-level names are stored in that library. See Chapter 26,
“SAS Libraries,” on page 623 for more information about using the User and Work
libraries. The following examples show how one-level names are used in SAS
statements.
/* create perm data set in location of USER=option*/
options user='c:\temp'
data test3;
 644 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

/* create perm data set in current directory */

data 'test3';

/* create a temp data set in WORK directory if USER= is not specified*/

data stratifiedsample1;

Data Set Lists

In the DATASETS procedure and the DATA step MERGE and SET statements, data
set lists provide a quick way to reference existing groups of data sets. These data
set lists can be numbered range lists or colon (name prefix) lists.
Numbered range lists
require a series of data sets with the same name, except for the last character or
characters, which are consecutive numbers. In a numbered range list, you can
begin with any number and end with any number. For example, the following two
lists refer to the same data sets:
sales1 sales2 sales3 sales4

sales1–sales4
If the numeric suffix of the first data set name contains leading zeros, the number of
digits in the last data set name must be greater than or equal to the number of digits
in the first data set name. Otherwise, an error occurs. For example, the data set lists
sales001–sales99 and sales01–sales9 cause an error to occur. The data set list
sales001–sales999 is valid. If the numeric suffix of the first data set name does not
contain leading zeros, then the number of digits in the numeric suffix of the first and
last data set names does not have to be equal. For example, the data set list
sales1–sales999 is valid.
Colon (name prefix) lists
require a series of data sets with the same starting character or characters. For
example, the following two lists refer to the same data sets:
abc:

abc1 abc2 abcr abcx

In the DATASETS procedure data set lists can be used with the following
statements:
n COPY SELECT

n COPY EXCLUDE

n DELETE

n REPAIR

n REBUILD

n the variables that are specified in MODIFY SORTEDBY

In the DATA step, data set lists can be used in the following SAS statements:
n MERGE statement

n SET statement.
 Special SAS Data Sets 645

Special SAS Data Sets

Null Data Sets

If you want to execute a DATA step but do not want to create a SAS data set, you
can specify the keyword _NULL_ as the data set name. The following statement
begins a DATA step that does not create a data set:
data _null_;

Using _NULL_ causes SAS to execute the DATA step as if it were creating a new
data set, but no observations or variables are written to an output data set. This
process can be a more efficient use of computer resources if you are using the
DATA step for some function, such as report writing, for which the output of the
DATA step does not need to be stored as a SAS data set.

Default Data Sets

SAS keeps track of the most recently created SAS data set through the reserved
name _LAST_. When you execute a DATA or PROC step without specifying an
input data set, by default, SAS uses the _LAST_ data set. Some functions use the
_LAST_ default as well.
The _LAST_= system option enables you to designate a data set as the _LAST_
data set. The name that you specify is used as the default data set until you create
a new data set. You can use the _LAST_= system option when you want to use an
existing permanent data set for a SAS job that contains a number of procedure
steps. Issuing the _LAST_= system option enables you to avoid specifying the SAS
data set name in each procedure statement. The following OPTIONS statement
specifies a default SAS data set:
options _last_=schedule.january;

Automatic Naming Convention

If you do not specify a SAS data set name or the reserved name _NULL_ in a DATA
statement, SAS automatically creates data sets with the names DATA1, DATA2, and
so on, to successive data sets in the Work or User library. This feature is referred to
as the DATAn naming convention. The following statement produces a SAS data set
using the DATAn naming convention:
data;
 646 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

Sorted Data Sets

The Sort Indicator

What Is a Sort Indicator?

After a data set is sorted, a sort indicator is added to the data set descriptor
information. The sort indicator is updated without a permanent sort of the data set
by using the SORTEDBY= data set option. The Sortedby and Validated sort
information is updated when the SORTEDBY= data set option is used.
The sort indicator contains some or all of the following sort information of a SAS
data set:
n how the data set is sorted by which variable or variables

n whether the order for a variable is descending or ascending

n the character set used for character variables

n the collating sequence used for ordering character data

n collation rules if the data set is sorted linguistically

n whether there is only one observation for any given BY group (use of
NODUPKEY option)
n whether there are no adjacent duplicate observations (use of NODUPREC
option)
n whether the data set is validated

The sort indicator is set when a data set is sorted by a SORT procedure, an SQL
procedure with an ORDER BY clause, a DATASETS procedure MODIFY statement,
or a SORTEDBY= data set option. If the SORT or SQL procedures were used to
sort the data set, which is being sorted by SAS, the CONTENTS procedure output
indicates that the Validated sort information is YES. If the SORTEDBY= data set
option was used to sort the data set, which is being sorted by the user, the
CONTENTS procedure output indicates the Validated sort information is set to NO
and the Sortedby sort information is updated with the variable or variables specified
by the data set option.
Data sets can be sorted outside of SAS. In that case, you might use the
SORTEDBY= data set option or the DATASETS procedure MODIFY statement to
add the sort order to the sort indicator. In this case, they are not validated. For more
information, see “Validating That a Data Set Is Sorted” on page 652.
To view the sort indicator information, use the CONTENTS procedure or the
CONTENTS statement in the DATASETS procedure. The following three examples
show the sort indicator information in the CONTENTS procedure output.
 Sorted Data Sets 647

Example 1: Using No Sorting

The first example is a data set created without any type of sort:
options yearcutoff=1920;
libname myfiles 'C:\My Documents';

data myfiles.sorttest1;
input priority 1. +1 indate date7.
+1 office $ code $;
format indate date7.;
datalines;
1 03may11 CH J8U
1 21mar11 LA M91
1 01dec11 FW L6R
1 27feb10 FW Q2A
2 15jan11 FW I9U
2 09jul11 CH P3Q
3 08apr10 CH H5T
3 31jan10 FW D2W
;
proc contents data=myfiles.sorttest1;
run;
Note that the CONTENTS procedure output indicates there was no sort. SAS did
not sort the data set, and the user did not specify that the data is sorted.

Output 27.1 Contents of Sorttest1 Data Set – No Sorting

648 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

Example 2: Using the SORTEDBY= Data Set Option

In the second example, the data set is created using the SORTEDBY= data set
option in the DATA statement.
options yearcutoff=1920;
libname myfiles 'C:\My Documents';

data myfiles.sorttest1 (sortedby=priority descending indate);

input priority 1. +1 indate date7.
+1 office $ code $;
format indate date7.;
datalines;
1 03may01 CH J8U
1 21mar01 LA M91
1 01dec00 FW L6R
1 27feb99 FW Q2A
2 15jan00 FW I9U
2 09jul99 CH P3Q
3 08apr99 CH H5T
3 31jan99 FW D2W
;
proc contents data=myfiles.sorttest1;
run;
Note that the CONTENTS procedure output shows that the data set is sorted.
Therefore, a Sort Information section containing sort indicator information is
created. In the Sort Information section, the Sortedby information indicates the
data set is sorted by the PRIORITY variable and is in descending order by the
INDATE variable. The data set is sorted using the SORTEDBY= data set option, so
the Validated information is NO. The Character Set information for the data set is
ANSI.
 Sorted Data Sets 649

Output 27.2 Contents of Sorttest1 Data Set – Sorted

Output 27.3 Contents of Sorttest1 Data Set – Sorted

Example 3: Using the SORT Procedure

In the third example, the data set is sorted using the SORT procedure.
options yearcutoff=1920;
libname myfiles 'C:\My Documents';
 650 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

data myfiles.sorttest1;
input priority 1. +1 indate date7.
+1 office $ code $;
format indate date7.;
datalines;
1 03may01 CH J8U
1 21mar01 LA M91
1 01dec00 FW L6R
1 27feb99 FW Q2A
2 15jan00 FW I9U
2 09jul99 CH P3Q
3 08apr99 CH H5T
3 31jan99 FW D2W
;
proc sort data=myfiles.sorttest1;
by priority descending
indate;
run;

proc contents data=myfiles.sorttest1;

run;
Note that the CONTENTS procedure output shows that the data set is sorted.
Therefore, a Sort Information section containing sort indicator information is
created. In the Sort Information section, the Sortedby information indicates the
data set is sorted by the PRIORITY variable and is in descending order by the
INDATE variable. The data set is sorted using the SORT procedure, so the
Validated information is YES. The Character Set information for the data set is
ANSI.

Output 27.4 Contents of Sorttest1 Data Set – Validated Sort

 Sorted Data Sets 651

Output 27.5 Contents of Sorttest1 Data Set – Validated Sort

How SAS Uses the Sort Indicator to Improve Performance

The sort information provided by the sort indicator is used internally for performance
improvements. There are several ways to improve performance using the sort
indicator:
n SAS uses the sort indicator to validate whether there was a previous sort. If
there was a previous sort from a SORT procedure or an SQL procedure with an
ORDER BY clause, then SAS does not perform another sort.
o The SORT procedure sets the sort indicator when a sort occurs. The SORT
procedure checks for the sort indicator before it sorts a data set so that data
is not re-sorted unnecessarily. For more information, see the SORT
Procedure in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.
o The SQL procedure uses the sort indicator to process queries more efficiently
and to determine whether an internal sort is necessary before performing a
join. For more information, see the SQL procedure in the Base SAS
Procedures Guide.
n When using the sort indicator during index creation, SAS determines whether the
data is already sorted by the key variable or variables in ascending order by
checking the sort indicator in the data file. If the values in the sort indicator are in
ascending order, SAS does not sort the values for the index file. For more
information, see “Understanding SAS Indexes” on page 692.
n When processing a WHERE expression without an index, SAS first checks the
sort indicator. If the Validated sort information is YES, SAS stops reading the file
once there are no more values that satisfy the WHERE expression.
n If an index is selected for WHERE expression processing, the sort indicator for
that data set is changed to reflect the order that is specified by the index.
 652 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets

n For BY-group processing, if the data set is already sorted by the BY variable,
SAS does not use the index, even if the data set is indexed on the BY variable.
n If the Validated sort information is set to YES, SAS does not need to perform
another sort.

Validating That a Data Set Is Sorted

Any SAS procedure that requires data to be sorted as part of the process checks
the sort indicator information. The sort indicator is set when a data set is sorted by a
SORT procedure, an SQL procedure with an ORDER BY clause, a DATASETS
procedure MODIFY statement, or a SORTEDBY= data set option. If the SORT or
SQL procedures were used to sort the data set, the CONTENTS procedure output
indicates the Validated sort information is YES. If the SORTEDBY= data set option
was used to sort the data set, the CONTENTS procedure output indicates the
Validated sort information is NO. For examples of the CONTENTS procedure
output, see “Example 1: Using No Sorting” on page 647, “Example 2: Using the
SORTEDBY= Data Set Option” on page 648, and “Example 3: Using the SORT
Procedure” on page 649.
You can use the SORTVALIDATE system option to specify whether the SORT
procedure validates that a data set is sorted correctly when the data set sort
indicator shows that a user has specified that the data set is sorted. The user can
specify a sort order by using the SORTEDBY= data set option in a DATA statement
or by using the SORTEDBY= option in the DATASETS procedure MODIFY
statement. When the sort indicator is set by a user, SAS cannot be absolutely
certain that a data set is sorted according to the variables in the BY statement.
If the SORTVALIDATE system option is set and the data set sort indicator was set
by a user, the SORT procedure performs a sequence check on each observation to
ensure that the data set is sorted according to the variables in the BY statement. If
the data set is not sorted correctly, SAS sorts the data set.
At the end of a successful sequence check or at the end of a sort, the SORT
procedure sets the sort indicator Validated sort information to YES. If a sort is
performed, the SORT procedure also updates the sort indicator Sortedby sort
information to the variables in the BY statement. If an output data set is specified,
the sort indicator Validated sort information in the output data set is set to YES. If
no sort is necessary, the data set is copied to the output data set. For more
information about validated data sets, see the “SORTVALIDATE System Option” in
SAS System Options: Reference.

Tools for Managing Data Sets

To copy, rename, delete, or obtain information about the contents of SAS data sets,
use the same windows, procedures, functions, and options that you do for SAS
libraries. For a list of those windows and procedures, see Chapter 26, “SAS
Libraries,” on page 623.
There are also functions available that enable you to work with your SAS data set.
See each individual function for more complete information.
 Viewing and Editing SAS Data Sets 653

Viewing and Editing SAS Data Sets

The VIEWTABLE window enables you to browse, edit, or create data sets. This
window provides two viewing modes:
Table View
uses a tabular format to display multiple observations in the data set.
Form View
displays data one observation at a time in a form layout.
You can customize your view of a data set (for example, by sorting your data,
changing the color and fonts of columns, displaying variable labels instead of
variable names, or removing or adding variables). You can also load an existing
DATAFORM catalog entry in order to apply a previously defined variable, data set,
and viewer attributes.
To view a data set, select the following: Tools ð Table Editor. This action brings up
VIEWTABLE or FSVIEW (z/OS). You can also double-click on the data set in the
Explorer window.
The following SAS files are supported within the VIEWTABLE window:
n SAS data files

n SAS views

n MDDB files

For more information, see the SAS System Help for the VIEWTABLE window in
Base SAS.
654 Chapter 27 / SAS Data Sets
 655

28
SAS Data Files

Definition of a SAS Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

Differences between Data Files and SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Definition of the Observation Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Backward Compatibility of the Extended Observation Count Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Interactions with the Extended Observation Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
Exceeding the Maximum Observation Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
Understanding an Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Definition of an Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Audit Trail Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Defining and Using User Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Operation in a Shared Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Performance Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Preservation by Other Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Programming Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Initiating an Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Controlling the Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Reading and Determining the Status of the Audit Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Audit Trails and CEDA Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
Examples of Using Audit Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
Understanding Generation Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Definition of Generation Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Terminology for Generation Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Invoking Generation Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Understanding How a Generation Group Is Maintained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Processing Specific Versions of a Generation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Managing Generation Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
Understanding Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Definition of Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
General and Referential Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Preservation of Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Indexes and Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Locking Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Encryption and Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Specifying Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Specifying Physical Location for Inter-Libref Referential Integrity
Constraints When Sharing Disk Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684
Listing Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Rejected Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
 656 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Integrity Constraints and CEDA Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
Understanding SAS Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Definition of SAS Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Benefits of an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
The Index File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Types of Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Deciding Whether to Create an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Guidelines for Creating Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Creating an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
Using an Index for WHERE Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Using an Index for BY Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709
Using an Index for Both WHERE and BY Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Specifying an Index with the KEY= Option for SET and MODIFY Statements . . . . 711
Taking Advantage of an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Procedures and SAS Operations That Maintain Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Extended Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Enabling and Manipulating Extended Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Compressing Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Definition of Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Requesting Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Disabling a Compression Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Definition of a SAS Data File

A SAS data file is a type of SAS data set that contains both the data values and the
descriptor information. SAS data files have the member type of DATA. There are
two general types of SAS data files:
native SAS data file
stores the data values and descriptor information in a file that is formatted by
SAS.
interface SAS data file
stores the data in a file that was formatted by software other than SAS. SAS
provides engines for reading and writing data from files that were formatted by
software such as ORACLE, DB2, Sybase, ODBC, BMDP, SPSS, and OSIRIS.
These files are interface SAS data files, and when their data values are
accessed through an engine, SAS recognizes them as SAS data sets.
Note: The availability of engines that can access different types of interface data
files is determined by your site licensing agreement. See your system
administrator to determine which engines are available. For more information
about SAS Multi Engine Architecture, see Chapter 37, “SAS Engines,” on page
803.
 Differences between Data Files and SAS Views 657

Differences between Data Files and SAS Views

While the terms SAS data files and SAS views can often be used interchangeably,
there are differences to consider:
The main difference is where the values are stored.
A SAS data file is a type of SAS data set that contains both descriptor
information about the data and the data values themselves. SAS views contain
only descriptor information and instructions for retrieving data that is stored
elsewhere. Once the data is retrieved by SAS, it can be manipulated in a DATA
step.
A data file is static. A SAS view is dynamic.
When you reference a data file in a later PROC step, you see the data values as
they were when the data file was created or last updated. When you reference a
SAS view in a PROC step, the view executes and provides an image of the data
values as they currently exist, not as they existed when the view was defined.
SAS data files can be created on tape or on any other storage medium.
SAS views cannot be stored on tape. Because of their dynamic nature, SAS
views must derive their information from data files on random-access storage
devices, such as disk drives. SAS views cannot derive their information from files
stored on sequentially accessed storage devices, such as tape drives.
SAS views are read only.
You cannot write to a SAS view, but some SQL views can be updated.
SAS data files can have an audit trail.
The audit trail is an optional SAS file that logs modifications to a SAS data file.
Each time an observation is added, deleted, or updated, information is written to
the audit trail about who made the modification, what was modified, and when.
SAS data files can have generations.
Generations provide the ability to keep multiple copies of a SAS data file. The
multiple copies represent versions of the same data file, which is archived each
time it is replaced.
SAS data files can have integrity constraints.
When you update a SAS data file, you can ensure that the data conforms to
certain standards by using integrity constraints. With SAS views, you can assign
integrity constraints to the data files that the views reference.
SAS data files can be indexed.
Indexing might enable SAS to find data in a SAS data file more quickly. SAS
views cannot be indexed.
SAS data files can be encrypted.
Encryption provides an extra layer of security to physical files. SAS views cannot
be encrypted.
SAS data files can be compressed.
Compression makes it possible to store physical files in less space. SAS views
cannot be compressed.
The following figure illustrates native and interface SAS data files and their
relationship to SAS views.
 658 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Figure 28.1 Types of SAS Data Sets

SAS Data Sets

SAS Data Files SAS Data Views

(contain data and (contain descriptor
descriptor information) information that points to
data stored elsewhere)

Interface Data Files Interface Data Views

Native Data Files Native Data Views
(formatted by other (formatted by other
(formatted by SAS) (formatted by SAS)
software) software)

PROC SQL Views DATA Step Views

Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS

Data File

Definition of the Observation Count

The observation count includes both observations (rows) and deleted observations.
The maximum number of observations that can be counted for a SAS data file is 2
63
–1 or approximately 9.2 quintillion observations. Exceeding that number is
extremely unlikely for most users.

Backward Compatibility of the Extended Observation Count

Attribute

Overview of the Extended Observation Count Attribute

In SAS 9.2 and earlier releases, the maximum observation count was much lower
under some operating environments. In SAS 9.3, an extended observation count
was offered to users with the option EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES. In SAS 9.4 and
later releases, the observation count is extended by default, and SAS has the same
maximum observation count under all environments.
 Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS Data File 659

The behavior depends on your operating environment:

n Under UNIX environments, by default the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= option is
not set. The extended observation count feature is not necessary under 64-bit
UNIX. However, if you specify the OUTREP= option, and the data representation
is not a 64-bit UNIX operating environment, then SAS automatically sets
EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES. SAS adds the extended observation count
feature for compatibility with environments other than UNIX where it might be
necessary. (Many customers specify OUTREP= when they create a data set for
use in a different environment. This practice can help you avoid the limitations of
CEDA processing.)
n Under Windows and z/OS, by default EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES. Files are
created with the enhanced file format and the extended observation count
attribute.

When to Use the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO Option

The extended observation count attribute can make data sets unusable in SAS 9.2
and earlier releases, under certain circumstances. Here is an example of the error
message:

ERROR: File MYFILES.EXTEND.Data not compatible with this SAS version.

The behavior depends on your operating environment:

n Under UNIX, if you specify OUTREP= and plan to use the file in SAS 9.2 or
earlier releases, specify EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO. If you do not specify
OUTREP=, then you do not need to specify EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO.
n Under Windows or z/OS, if you plan to use the file in SAS 9.2 or earlier releases,
specify EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO.

For more information, see the following:

n The EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= data set option is documented in SAS Data Set
Options: Reference.
n The EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= LIBNAME statement option is documented in
SAS Global Statements: Reference.
n The EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= system option is documented in SAS System
Options: Reference.

Viewing the ExtendObsCounter Attribute in CONTENTS

Output
When you run PROC CONTENTS or the CONTENTS statement of PROC
DATASETS, you can see the ExtendObsCounter attribute in the output. If a SAS
data file does not contain the extended observation count file attribute, the
ExtendObsCounter field is not listed.
 660 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Output 28.1 CONTENTS Procedure Output Showing ExtendObsCounter Attribute

Interactions with the Extended Observation Count

Note the following details:
n SAS functionality that copies files (such as the APPEND procedure, COPY
procedure, MIGRATE procedure, and SET statement) does not copy the
extended observation count attribute.
n In a SAS/SHARE client session, the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= option in the
LIBNAME statement is ignored if it is specified in combination with the
SERVER= option.

Exceeding the Maximum Observation Count

SAS Processing When the Maximum Observation Count Is

Reached
The observation count includes both observations (rows) and deleted observations.
The maximum number of observations that can be counted for a SAS data file is 2
63
–1 or approximately 9.2 quintillion observations. When a SAS data file reaches the
maximum observation count, continued SAS processing depends on whether the
file has an index or an integrity constraint that uses an index.
n If the SAS data file has an index or an integrity constraint that uses an index
(unique key, primary key, and foreign key), an error message is issued when an
operation reaches the maximum observation count.
 Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS Data File 661

A SAS data file is not damaged when an operation attempts to exceed the
maximum observation count. However, you must take explicit action to continue
processing the file.
n If the SAS data file does not have an index or an integrity constraint that uses an
index, sequential processing continues and additional observations are
accepted. However, the file cannot store the observation count and does not
maintain the observation numbers. Any operation that requires an observation
number is not available. There are no messages to indicate that the file has
reached or exceeded the maximum observation count.
The following list describes some of the operations and features that are limited
for a SAS data file that exceeds the maximum observation count and does not
have an index or an integrity constraint that uses an index. For a complete list,
contact SAS Technical Support.
o SAS procedures that return an observation count (such as the PRINT
procedure or the CONTENTS procedure) return a missing value, which is
represented by a period (.), for the number of observations.
o SAS procedures that depend on the observation count (for example, the
SORT procedure or the COMPARE procedure) can return unpredictable
results.
o Operations that update the observation count cannot be submitted. You
cannot reset the observation count by deleting observations.
o When you request to compress a file for which the observation count is no
longer maintained, the compression percentage cannot be calculated.
o You cannot create an index or an integrity constraint.

Recovering from an Exceeded Maximum Observation

Count
If a SAS data file has reached or exceeded the maximum number of observations
that can be counted and the file has an index or an integrity constraint that uses an
index, then you must take explicit action to continue processing. You can delete the
index or the integrity constraint and continue processing. However, because the file
exceeds the maximum observation count, you have limited functionality. You can
use the DATASETS procedure or the SQL procedure to delete indexes and integrity
constraints. See the Base SAS Procedures Guide or the SAS SQL Procedure
User’s Guide.
If the file does not have an index or an integrity constraint that uses an index, there
are no messages to indicate that the file has reached or exceeded the maximum
observation count. However, the file has limited functionality.
Here are some ways to recover from an exceeded maximum observation count:
n If the file was created in SAS 9.2 or earlier, the observation count might have
been limited. Try re-creating the file in the current release to increase the
maximum observation count.
n Deleted observations are included in the total observation count. If the data file
has deleted observations, try re-creating it. Use a method that does not retain
deleted observations, such as the COPY procedure or the DATA step with a SET
statement. (The MIGRATE procedure retains deleted observations.)
 662 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Understanding an Audit Trail

Definition of an Audit Trail

The audit trail is an optional SAS file that you can create in order to log
modifications to a SAS data file. Each time an observation is added, deleted, or
updated, information is written to the audit trail about who made the modification,
what was modified, and when.
Many businesses and organizations require an audit trail for security reasons. The
audit trail maintains historical information about the data, which gives you the
opportunity to develop usage statistics and patterns. The historical information
enables you to track individual pieces of data from the moment that they enter the
data file to the time they leave.
The audit trail is also the only facility in SAS that stores observations from failed
Append operations and that were rejected by integrity constraints. (The integrity
constraints feature is described in “Understanding Integrity Constraints” on page
679.) The audit trail enables you to write a DATA step to extract the failed or
rejected observations, use information describing why the observations failed to
correct them, and then reapply the observations to the data file.

Audit Trail Description

The audit trail is created by the default Base SAS engine and has the same libref
and member name as the data file, but has a type of AUDIT. It replicates the
variables in the data file and also stores two types of audit variables:
n _AT*_ variables, which automatically store modification data

n user variables, which are optional variables that you can define to collect
modification data
The _AT*_ variables are described in the following table.

Table 28.1 _AT*_ Variables

_AT*_ Variable Description

_ATDATETIME_ Stores the date and time of a modification

_ATUSERID_ Stores the logon user ID that is associated with a

modification

_ATOBSNO_ Stores the observation number that is affected by the

modification, except when REUSE=YES (because the
observation number is always 0)
 Understanding an Audit Trail 663

_AT*_ Variable Description

_ATRETURNCODE_ Stores the event return code

_ATMESSAGE_ Stores the SAS log message at the time of the

modification

_ATOPCODE_ Stores a code that describes the type of modification

The _ATOPCODE_ values are listed in the following table.

Table 28.2 _ATOPCODE_ Values

Code Modification

AL Auditing is resumed

AS Auditing is suspended

DA Added data record image

DD Deleted data record image

DR Before-update record image

DW After-update record image

EA Observation add failed

ED Observation delete failed

EU Observation update failed

The type of entries stored in the audit trail, along with their corresponding
_ATOPCODE_ values, are determined by the options specified in the LOG
statement when the audit trail is initiated. Note that if the LOG statement is omitted
when the audit trail is initiated, the default behavior is to log all images.
n The A operation codes are controlled by the ADMIN_IMAGE option.

n The DR operation code is controlled by the BEFORE_IMAGE option.

n All other D operation codes are controlled with the DATA_IMAGE option.

n The E operation codes are controlled by the ERROR_IMAGE option.

The user variable is a variable that associates data values with the data file without
making them part of the data file. That is, the data values are stored in the audit file,
but you update them in the data file like any other variable. You might want to define
a user variable to enable end users to enter a reason for each update.
A data file can have one audit file, and the audit file must reside in the same SAS
library as the data file.
 664 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Defining and Using User Variables

User variables are defined at audit trail initiation with the USER_VAR statement. For
example, the following code initiates an audit trail and creates a user variable
Reason_Code for data file MyLib.Sales:
proc datasets lib=mylib;
audit sales;
initiate;
user_var reason_code $ 20;
run;

If you define user variables, you must store values in them in order for the variables
to be meaningful. Programmatically, you can enter data values for the user variables
as you would for any data variable. See “Example of a Data File Update” on page
669. The data values are saved to the audit trail as each observation is saved.
User variables cannot be displayed or updated in an interactive window except in
the FSEDIT window of SAS/FSP software. To view the audit variables, use the
TYPE=AUDIT data set option to print the audit file.
However, to rename a user variable or modify its attributes, you modify the data file,
not the audit file. The following example uses PROC DATASETS to rename the user
variable:
proc datasets lib=mylib;
modify sales;
rename reason_code = Reason;
run;
quit;

You must also define attributes such as format and informat in the data file with
PROC DATASETS.

Operation in a Shared Environment

The audit trail operates similarly in local and remote environments. The only
difference for applications and users networking with SAS/CONNECT and
SAS/SHARE is that the audit trail logs events when the observation is written to
permanent storage. That is, when the data is written to the remote SAS session or
server. Therefore, the time that the transaction is logged might be different from the
user's SAS session.

Performance Implications
Because each update to the data file is also written to the audit file, the audit trail
can negatively impact system performance. You might want to consider suspending
the audit trail for large, regularly scheduled batch updates. Note that the audit
variables are unavailable when the audit trail is suspended.
 Understanding an Audit Trail 665

Preservation by Other Operations

The audit trail is not recommended for data files that are copied, moved, sorted in
place, replaced, or transferred to another operating environment. Those operations
do not preserve the audit trail. In a Copy operation on the same host, you can
preserve the data file and audit trail by renaming them using the generation data
sets feature. However, logging stops because neither the auditing process nor the
generation data sets feature saves the source program that caused the
replacement. For more information about generation data sets, see “Understanding
Generation Data Sets” on page 672.

Programming Considerations
For data files whose audit file contains user variables, the variable list is different
when browsing and updating the data file. The user variables are selected for
update but not for browsing. You should be aware of this difference when you are
developing your own full-screen applications.

Other Considerations
Data values that are entered for user variables are not stored in the audit trail for
Delete operations.
If the audit file becomes damaged, you cannot process the data file until you
terminate the audit trail. Then you can initiate a new audit trail or process the data
file without one. To terminate the audit trail for a generation data set, use the
GENNUM= data set option in the AUDIT statement. You cannot initiate an audit trail
for a generation data set.
In indexed data sets, the fast-append feature can cause some observations to be
written to the audit trail twice, first with a DA operation code and then with an EA
operation code. The observations with EA represent the observations rejected by
index restrictions. For more information, see “Appending to an Indexed Data Set —
Fast-Append Method” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Initiating an Audit Trail

You initiate an audit trail in the DATASETS procedure with the AUDIT statement. For
syntax information, see “DATASETS Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
The audit file uses the SAS password assigned to its associated data file. Therefore,
it is recommended that the data file have an ALTER password. An ALTER-level
password restricts Read and Edit access to SAS files. If a password other than
ALTER is used, or no password is used, the software generates a warning message
that the files are not protected from accidental update or deletion.
Note: The initiation of an audit trail is only possible with the Base SAS engine.
 666 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Controlling the Audit Trail

Once active, you can suspend and resume logging, and terminate (delete) the audit
trail. The syntax for controlling the audit trail is described in the PROC DATASETS
AUDIT statement documentation. Note that replacing the associated data file also
deletes the audit trail.

Reading and Determining the Status of the Audit Trail

The audit trail is read-only. You can read the audit trail with any component of SAS
that reads a data set. To refer to the audit trail, use the TYPE= data set option. For
example, issue the following statement to view the contents of the audit trail. Note
that the parentheses around the TYPE= option are required.
proc contents data=mylib.sales (type=audit);
run;

The CONTENTS procedure output is shown below. Notice that the output contains
all of the variables from the corresponding data file, the _AT*_ variables, and the
user variable.
 Understanding an Audit Trail 667

Output 28.2 PROC CONTENTS Output for Data File MyLib.Sales

You can also use your favorite reporting tool, such as PROC REPORT or PROC
TABULATE, on the audit trail.
 668 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Audit Trails and CEDA Processing

When a SAS data file requires processing with CEDA, audit trails are not supported.
For example, CEDA translates the file for you if you transfer a SAS data file with an
initiated audit trail from one operating environment such as Windows to a different
operating environment such as UNIX. However, the audit trail is not available. For
information about CEDA processing, see Chapter 34, “Processing Data Using
Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA),” on page 765.
The MIGRATE procedure retains all deleted observations in migrated data sets.
Therefore, PROC MIGRATE preserves and migrates audit trails. For more
information, see “MIGRATE Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
In contrast, conversion procedures such as PROC CPORT and PROC CIMPORT
clean up data sets and restructure the data sets. For example, these procedures
remove deleted observations to recover disk space. The restructuring is
advantageous but results in a data set that is not historically accurate when trying to
track changes through an audit trail. Because these conversion procedures do not
keep deleted observations, the audit trails cannot be copied using these
procedures. For more information, see “CPORT Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide and “CIMPORT Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
CAUTION! If your data files contain audit trails, do not use your operating
environment commands to copy, move, or delete your data files.

Examples of Using Audit Trails

Example of Initiating an Audit Trail

The following example shows the data and code that are used to create and initiate
an audit trail for the data file MyLib.Sales that is used in earlier examples in this
section. MyLib.Sales stores fictional invoice and renewal figures for SAS products.
The audit trail records all events and stores one user variable, Reason_Code, for
users to enter a reason for the update.
Subsequent examples illustrate the effect of a data file update on the audit trail and
how to use audit variables to capture observations that are rejected by integrity
constraints.

libname mylib 'C:\My Documents';

/*------------------------------------*/
/* Create SALES data set. */
/*------------------------------------*/

data mylib.sales;
length product $9;
input product invoice renewal;
datalines;
FSP 1270.00 570
SAS 1650.00 850
 Understanding an Audit Trail 669

STAT 570.00 0
STAT 970.82 600
OR 239.36 0
SAS 7478.71 1100
SAS 800.00 800
;

/*----------------------------------*/
/* Create an audit trail with a */
/* user variable. */
/*----------------------------------*/

proc datasets lib=mylib nolist;

audit sales;
initiate;
user_var reason_code $ 20;
quit;

Example of a Data File Update

The following example inserts an observation into MyLib.Sales.Data and prints the
update data in the MyLib.Sales.Audit.
/*----------------------------------*/
/* Do an update. */
/*----------------------------------*/
proc sql;
insert into mylib.sales
set product = 'AUDIT',
invoice = 2000,
renewal = 970,
reason_code = "Add new product";
quit;

/*----------------------------------------*/
/* Print the audit trail. */
/*----------------------------------------*/
proc sql;
select product,
reason_code,
_atopcode_,
_atdatetime_
from mylib.sales(type=audit);
quit;

Output 28.3 Updated Data in MyLib.Sales.Audit

670 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Example of Using the Audit Trail to Capture Rejected

Observations
The following example adds integrity constraints to MyLib.Sales.Data and records
observations that are rejected as a result of the integrity constraints in
MyLib.Sales.Audit. For more information about integrity constraints, see
“Understanding Integrity Constraints” on page 679.

/*----------------------------------*/
/* Create integrity constraints. */
/*----------------------------------*/
proc datasets lib=mylib;
modify sales;
ic create null_renewal = not null (invoice)
message = "Invoice must have a value.";
ic create invoice_amt = check (where=((invoice > 0) and
(renewal <= invoice)))
message = "Invoice and/or renewal are invalid.";
run;

/*----------------------------------*/
/* Do some updates. */
/*----------------------------------*/
proc sql; /* this update works */
update mylib.sales
set invoice = invoice * .9,
reason_code = "10% price cut"
where renewal > 800;

proc sql; /* this update fails */

insert into mylib.sales
set product = 'AUDIT',
renewal = 970,
reason_code = "Add new product";

proc sql; /* this update works */

insert into mylib.sales
set product = 'AUDIT',
invoice = 10000,
renewal = 970,
reason_code = "Add new product";

proc sql; /* this update fails */

insert into mylib.sales
set product = 'AUDIT',
invoice = 100,
renewal = 970,
reason_code = "Add new product";
quit;

/*----------------------------------------*/
/* Print the audit trail. */
/*----------------------------------------*/
proc print data=mylib.sales(type=audit);
 Understanding an Audit Trail 671

format _atuserid_ $6.;

var product reason_code _atopcode_ _atdatetime_;
title 'Contents of the Audit Trail';
run;

/*----------------------------------------*/
/* Print the rejected records. */
/*----------------------------------------*/
proc print data=mylib.sales(type=audit);
where _atopcode_ eq "EA";
format _atmessage_ $250.;
var product invoice renewal _atmessage_ ;
title 'Rejected Records';
run;

The following output shows the contents of MyLib.Sales.Audit after several updates
of MyLib.Sales.Data were attempted. Integrity constraints were added to the file,
and then updates were attempted.

Output 28.4 Contents of MyLib.Sales.Audit after an Update with Integrity Constraints

This output prints information about the rejected observations on the audit trail.
 672 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Output 28.5 Rejected Records on the Audit Trail

Understanding Generation Data Sets

Definition of Generation Data Set

A generation data set is an archived version of a SAS data set that is stored as part
of a generation group. A generation data set is created each time the file is
replaced. Each generation data set in a generation group has the same root
member name, but each has a different version number. The most recent version of
the generation data set is called the base version.
You can request generations for a SAS data file only. You cannot request
generations for a SAS view.
Note: Generation data sets provide historical versions of a data set; they do not
track observation updates for an individual data set. To log each time an observation
is added, deleted, or updated, see “Understanding an Audit Trail” on page 662.
CAUTION! Do not use operating system tools when managing generation data
sets. This can cause limited access to the generation group files.

Terminology for Generation Data Sets

The following terms are relevant to generation data sets:
base version
is the most recently created version of a data set. Its name does not have the
four-character suffix for the generation number.
generation group
is a group of data sets that represent a series of replacements to the original
data set. The generation group consists of the base version and a set of
historical versions.
generation number
is a monotonically increasing number that identifies one of the historical versions
in a generation group. For example, the data set named Air#272 has a
generation number of 272.
 Understanding Generation Data Sets 673

GENMAX=
is an output data set option that requests generations for a data set and
specifies the maximum number of versions (including the base version and all
historical versions) to keep for a given data set. The default is GENMAX=0,
which means that the generation data sets feature is not in effect.
GENNUM=
is an input data set option that references a specific version from a generation
group. Positive numbers are absolute references to a historical version by its
generation number. Negative numbers are a relative reference to historical
versions. For example, GENNUM=-1 refers to the youngest version.
historical versions
are the older copies of the base version of a data set. Names for historical
versions have a four-character suffix for the generation number, such as #003.
oldest version
is the oldest version in a generation group.
rolling over
specifies the process of the version number moving from 999 to 000. When the
generation number reaches 999, its next value is 000.
youngest version
is the version that is chronologically closest to the base version.

Invoking Generation Data Sets

To invoke generation data sets and to specify the maximum number of versions to
maintain, include the output data set option GENMAX= when creating or replacing a
data set. For example, the following DATA step creates a new data set and requests
that up to four copies be kept (one base version and three historical versions):
data (genmax=4);
x=1;
output;
run;

Once the GENMAX= data set option is in effect, the data set member name is
limited to 28 characters (rather than 32).This happens because the last four
characters are reserved for a version number. When the GENMAX= data set option
is not in effect, the member name can be up to 32 characters. See the GENMAX=
data set option in SAS Data Set Options: Reference.

Understanding How a Generation Group Is Maintained

The first time a data set with generations in effect is replaced, SAS keeps the
replaced data set, and appends a four-character version number to its member
name, which includes # and a three-digit number. That is, for a data set named A,
the replaced data set becomes A#001. When the data set is replaced for the second
time, the replaced data set becomes A#002. That is, A#002 is the version that is
chronologically closest to the base version. After three replacements, the result is:
A
base (current) version
674 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

A#003
most recent (youngest) historical version
A#002
second most recent historical version
A#001
oldest historical version
With GENMAX=4, a fourth replacement deletes the oldest version, which is A#001.
As replacements occur, SAS always keeps four copies. For example, after ten
replacements, the result is:
A
base (current) version
A#010
most recent (youngest) historical version
A#009
2nd most recent historical version
A#008
oldest historical version
The limit for version numbers that SAS can append is #999. After 999 replacements,
the youngest version is #999. After 1,000 replacements, SAS rolls over the
youngest version number to #000. After 1,001 replacements, the youngest version
number is #001. For example, using data set A with GENNUM=4, the results would
be:
999 replacements
n A (current)

n A#999 (most recent)

n A#998 (2nd most recent)

n A#997 (oldest)

1,000 replacements
n A (current)

n A#000 (most recent)

n A#999 (2nd most recent)

n A#998 (oldest)

1,001 replacements
n A (current)
n A#001 (most recent)

n A#000 (2nd most recent)

n A#999 (oldest)

The following table shows how names are assigned to a generation group:
 Understanding Generation Data Sets 675

Table 28.3 Naming Generation Group Data Sets

GENNUM= GENNUM=
Tim Data Set Absolute Relative
e SAS Code Names Reference Reference Explanation

1 data air Air 1 0 The Air data set is created, and

(genmax=3); three generations are requested.

2 data air; Air 2 0 Air is replaced. Air from time 1 is

renamed Air#001.
Air#001 1 -1

3 data air; Air 3 0 Air is replaced. Air from time 2 is

renamed Air#002.
Air#002 2 -1
Air#001 1 -2

4 data air; Air 4 0 Air is replaced. Air from time 3 is

renamed Air#003. Air#001 from
Air#003 3 -1
time 1, which is the oldest, is
Air#002 2 -2 deleted.

5 data air Air 5 0 Air is replaced, and the number of

(genmax=2); generations is changed to two. Air
Air#004 4 -1
from time 4 is renamed Air#004.
The two oldest versions are
deleted.

Processing Specific Versions of a Generation Group

When a generation group exists, SAS processes the base version by default. For
example, the following PRINT procedure prints the base version:
proc print data=a;
run;

To request a specific version from a generation group, use the GENNUM= input
data set option. There are two methods that you can use:
n A positive integer (excluding zero) references a specific historical version
number. For example, the following statement prints the historical version #003:
proc print data=a(gennum=3);
run;

Note: After 1,000 replacements, if you want historical version #000, specify
GENNUM=1000.
n A negative integer is a relative reference to a version in relation to the base
version, from the youngest predecessor to the oldest. For example,
GENNUM=-1 refers to the youngest version. The following statement prints the
data set that is three versions previous to the base version:
proc print data=a(gennum=-3);
run;
 676 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Table 28.4 Requesting Specific Generation Data Sets

SAS Statement Result

proc print data=air (gennum=0); Prints the current (base) version of the Air data
set.
proc print data=air;

proc print data=air (gennum=-2); Prints the version two generations back from the
current version.

proc print data=air (gennum=3); Prints the file Air#003.

proc print data=air (gennum=1000); After 1,000 replacements, prints the file Air#000,
which is the file that is created after Air#999.

Managing Generation Groups

Introduction
The DATASETS procedure provides a variety of statements for managing
generation groups. Note that for the DATASETS procedure, GENNUM= has the
following additional functionality:
n For the PROC DATASETS and DELETE statements, GENNUM= supports the
additional values ALL, HIST, and REVERT.
n For the CHANGE statement, GENNUM= supports the additional value ALL.

n For the CHANGE statement, specifying GENNUM=0 refers to all versions rather
than just the base version.
CAUTION! Do not use operating system tools when managing generation data
sets. This can cause limited access to the generation group files. Instead, use SAS tools
such as the DATASETS or COPY procedure.

Displaying Data Set Information

A variety of statements in the DATASETS procedure can process a specific
historical version. For example, you can display data set version numbers for
historical copies using the CONTENTS statement in PROC DATASETS:
proc datasets library=myfiles;
contents data=test (gennum=2);
run;

Copying Generation Groups

You can use the COPY statement in the DATASETS procedure or the COPY
procedure to copy a generation group. However, you cannot copy an individual
version.
 Understanding Generation Data Sets 677

For example, the following DATASETS procedure uses the COPY statement to copy
a generation group for data set MyGen1 from library MyLib1 to library MyLib2.
libname mylib1 'SAS-library-1';
libname mylib2 'SAS-library-2';

proc datasets;
copy in=mylib1 out=mylib2;
select mygen1;
run;

Appending Generation Groups

You can use the GENNUM= data set option to append a specific historical version.
For example, the following DATASETS procedure uses the APPEND statement to
append a historical version of data set B to data set A. Note that by default, SAS
uses the base version for the BASE= data set.
proc datasets;
append base=a data=b(gennum=2);
run;

Modifying the Number of Versions

When you modify the attributes of a data set, you can increase or decrease the
number of versions for an existing generation group.
For example, the following MODIFY statement in the DATASETS procedure
changes the number of generations for data set MyLib.Air to 4:
libname mylib 'SAS-library';

proc datasets library=mylib;

modify air(genmax=4);
run;

CAUTION! If you decrease the number of versions, SAS deletes the oldest
version or versions so as not to exceed the new maximum. For example, the
following MODIFY statement decreases the number of versions for MyLib.Air from 4 to
0. This decrease causes SAS to automatically delete the three historical versions:
proc datasets library=mylib;
modify air (genmax=0);
run;

Deleting Versions in a Generation Group

When you delete data sets, you can specify a specific version or an entire
generation group to delete. The following table shows the types of Delete operations
and their effects when you delete versions of a generation group.
The following examples assume that the base version of Air and two historical
versions (Air#001 and Air#002) exist for each command.
678 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Table 28.5 Deleting Generation Data Sets

SAS Statement in PROC

DATASETS Results

delete air; Deletes the base version and shifts up historical

versions. Air#002 is renamed to Air and becomes the
delete air(gennum=0);
new base version.

delete air(gennum=2); Deletes historical version Air#002.

delete air(gennum=-2); Deletes the second youngest historical version

(Air#001).

delete air(gennum=all); Deletes all data sets in the generation group, including
the base version.

delete air(gennum=hist); Deletes all data sets in the generation group, except
the base version.

Note: Both an absolute reference and a relative reference refer to a specific

version. A relative reference does not skip deleted versions. Therefore, when you
are working with a generation group that includes one or more deleted versions,
using a relative reference results in an error if the referenced version has been
deleted. For example, if you have the base version Air and three historical versions
(Air#001, Air#002, and Air#003) and you delete Air#002, the following statements
return an error, because Air#002 does not exist. SAS does not assume that you
mean Air#003:
proc print data=air (gennum= -2);
run;

Renaming Versions in a Generation Group

When you rename a data set, you can rename an entire generation group:
proc datasets;
change a=newa;
run;

You can also rename a single version by including GENNUM=:

proc datasets;
change a(gennum=2)=newa;

Note: For the CHANGE statement in PROC DATASETS, specifying GENNUM=0

refers to the entire generation group.

Using Passwords in a Generation Group

Passwords for versions in a generation group are maintained as follows:
n If you assign a password to the base version, the password is maintained in
subsequent historical versions. However, the password is not applied to any
existing historical versions.
n If you assign a password to a historical version, the password applies to that
individual data set only.
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 679

Understanding Integrity Constraints

Definition of Integrity Constraints

Integrity constraints are a set of data validation rules that you can specify in order to
restrict the data values that can be stored for a variable in a SAS data file. Integrity
constraints help you preserve the validity and consistency of your data. SAS
enforces the integrity constraints when the values associated with a variable are
added, updated, or deleted.
There are two categories of integrity constraints: general and referential.
CAUTION! Do not use operating system tools when managing integrity
constraints. This can cause your data set to become damaged. Instead, use SAS tools
such as the DATASETS procedure or the SQL procedure.

General and Referential Integrity Constraints

General Integrity Constraints

General integrity constraints enable you to restrict the values of variables within a
single file. There are four types of general constraints:
check
limits the data values of variables to a specific set, range, or list of values. Check
constraints can also be used to ensure that the data values in one variable within
an observation are contingent on the data values of another variable in the same
observation.
not null
requires that a variable contain a data value. Null (missing) values are not
allowed.
unique
requires that the specified variable or variables contain unique data values. A
null data value is allowed but is limited to a single instance.
primary key
requires that the specified variable or variables contain unique data values and
that null data values are not allowed. Only one primary key can exist in a data
file.
Note: A primary key is a general integrity constraint if it does not have any
foreign key constraints referencing it.
680 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Referential Integrity Constraints

A referential integrity constraint is created when a primary key integrity constraint in
one data file is referenced by a foreign key integrity constraint in another data file.
The foreign key constraint links the data values of one or more variables in the
foreign key data file, to corresponding variables and values in the primary key data
file. Data values in the foreign key data file must have a matching value in the
primary key data file, or they must be null. When data is updated or deleted in the
primary key data file, the modifications are controlled by a referential action that is
defined as part of the foreign key constraint.
Separate referential actions can be defined for the Update and Delete operations.
There are three types of referential actions:
restrict
prevents the data values of the primary key variables from being updated or
deleted if there is a matching value in one of the foreign key data file's
corresponding foreign key variables. The restrict type of action is the default
action if one is not specified.
set null
enables the data values of the primary key variables to be updated or deleted,
but matching data values in the foreign key data files are changed to null
(missing) values.
cascade
enables the data values in the primary key variables to be updated, and also
updates matching data values in the foreign key data files to the same value.
The cascade type of action is supported only for Update operations.
The requirements for establishing a referential relationship are as follows:
n The primary key and foreign key must reference the same number of variables,
and the variables must be in the same order.
n The variables must be of the same type (character or numeric) and length.

n If the foreign key is being added to a data file that already contains data, the
data values in the foreign key data file must either match existing values in the
primary key data file, or the values must be null.
The foreign key data file can exist in the same SAS library as the referenced primary
key data file (intra-libref), or in a different SAS library (inter-libref). However, if the
library that contains the foreign key data file is temporary, the library that contains
the primary key data file must be temporary as well. In addition, referential integrity
constraints cannot be assigned to data files in concatenated libraries.
There is no limit to the number of foreign keys that can reference a primary key.
However, additional foreign keys can adversely impact the performance of Update
and Delete operations.
When a referential constraint exists, a primary key integrity constraint is not deleted
until all foreign keys that reference it are deleted. There are no restrictions on
deleting foreign keys.

Overlapping Primary Key and Foreign Key Constraints

Variables in a SAS data file can be part of both a primary key (general integrity
constraint) and a foreign key (referential integrity constraint). However, there are
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 681

restrictions when you define a primary key and a foreign key constraint that use the
same variables:
n The foreign key's update and delete referential actions must both be RESTRICT.

n When the same variables are used in a primary key and foreign key definition,
the variables must be defined in a different order.
For an example, see “Defining Overlapping Primary Key and Foreign Key
Constraints” on page 691.

Preservation of Integrity Constraints

These procedures preserve integrity constraints when their operation results in a
copy of the original data file:
n in Base SAS software, the APPEND, COPY, CPORT, CIMPORT, MIGRATE, and
SORT procedures
n in SAS/CONNECT software, the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD procedures

n PROC APPEND
o for an existing BASE= data file, integrity constraints in the BASE= file are
preserved, but integrity constraints in the DATA= file that is being appended
to the BASE= file are not preserved.
o for a non-existent BASE= data file, general integrity constraints in the DATA=
file that is being appended to the new BASE= file are preserved. Referential
constraints in the DATA= file are not preserved.
n PROC SORT, PROC UPLOAD, and PROC DOWNLOAD, when an OUT= data
file is not specified
n the SAS Explorer window

You can also use the CONSTRAINT= option to control whether integrity constraints
are preserved for the COPY, CPORT, CIMPORT, UPLOAD, and DOWNLOAD
procedures.
General integrity constraints are preserved in an active state. The state in which
referential constraints are preserved depends on whether the procedure causes the
primary key and foreign key data files to be written to the same or different SAS
libraries (intra-libref versus inter-libref integrity constraints). Intra-libref constraints
are preserved in an active state. Inter-libref constraints are preserved in an inactive
state. That is, the primary key portion of the integrity constraint is enforced as a
general integrity constraint but the foreign key portion is inactive. You must use the
DATASETS procedure statement IC REACTIVATE to reactivate the inactive foreign
keys.
The following table summarizes the circumstances under which integrity constraints
are preserved.
 682 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Table 28.6 Circumstances That Cause Integrity Constraints to Be Preserved

Constraints That Are

Procedure Condition Preserved

APPEND DATA= data set does not General constraints

exist
Referential constraints are not
affected

COPY CONSTRAINT=yes General constraints

Intra-libref constraints are
referential in an active state
Inter-libref constraints are
referential in an inactive state

CPORT/CIMPORT CONSTRAINT=yes General constraints

Intra-libref constraints are
referential in an active state
Inter-libref constraints are
referential in an inactive state

SORT OUT= data set is not General constraints

specified
Referential constraints are not
affected

UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD CONSTRAINT=yes and General constraints

OUT= data set is not
Intra-libref constraints are
specified
referential in an active state
Inter-libref constraints are
referential in an inactive state

SAS Explorer window General constraints

CAUTION! Do not use operating system tools when managing integrity

constraints. This can cause your data set to become damaged. Instead, use SAS tools
such as the DATASETS procedure or the SQL procedure.

Indexes and Integrity Constraints

The unique, primary key, and foreign key integrity constraints store data values in an
index file. If an index file already exists, it is used. Otherwise, one is created.
Consider the following points when you create or delete an integrity constraint:
n When a user-defined index exists, the index's attributes must be compatible with
the integrity constraint in order for the integrity constraint to be created. For
example, when you add a primary key integrity constraint, the existing index
must have the UNIQUE attribute. When you add a foreign key integrity
constraint, the index must not have the UNIQUE attribute.
n The unique integrity constraint has the same effect as the UNIQUE index
attribute. Therefore, when one is used, the other is not necessary.
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 683

n The NOMISS index attribute and the not-null integrity constraint have different
effects. The integrity constraint prevents missing values from being written to the
SAS data file and cannot be added to an existing data file that contains missing
values. The index attribute allows missing data values in the data file but
excludes them from the index.
n When any index is created, it is marked as being “owned” by the user, the
integrity constraint, or both. A user cannot delete an index that is also owned by
an integrity constraint and vice versa. If an index is owned by both, the index is
deleted only after both the integrity constraint and the user have requested the
index's deletion. A note in the log indicates when an index cannot be deleted.

Locking Integrity Constraints

Integrity constraints support both member-level and record-level locking. You can
override the default locking level with the CNTLLEV= data set option. For more
information, see the “CNTLLEV= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set Options:
Reference.

Encryption and Integrity Constraints

There are two types of algorithms that SAS uses for encrypting:
n SAS Proprietary encryption is implemented with the ENCRYPT=YES data set
option.
n AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption is implemented with the
ENCRYPT=AES data set option.
SAS Proprietary encryption has no restrictions when using integrity constraints.
AES encryption requires that all primary key and foreign key data files must use the
same encryption key that opens all referencing foreign key and primary key data
files. You must specify the ENCRYPTKEY= data set option when using
ENCRYPT=AES. For more information, see “ENCRYPT= Data Set Option” in SAS
Data Set Options: Reference and “ENCRYPTKEY= Data Set Option” in SAS Data
Set Options: Reference.
If an encryption key was not recorded for the metadata-bound library, then the
encryption key must be the same for the primary key data file and the referencing
encrypted foreign key data file. For more information about metadata-bound
libraries, see “Metadata-Bound Library” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Specifying Integrity Constraints

You can create integrity constraints in the SQL procedure, the DATASETS
procedure, or in SCL (SAS Component Language). The constraints can be specified
when the data file is created or can be added to an existing data file. When you add
integrity constraints to an existing file, SAS verifies that the existing data values
conform to the constraints that are being added.
 684 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

When you specify integrity constraints, you must specify a separate statement for
each constraint. In addition, you must specify a separate statement for each variable
to which you want to assign the not-null integrity constraint. When multiple variables
are included in the specification for a primary key, foreign key, or a unique integrity
constraint, a composite index is created and the integrity constraint enforces the
combination of variable values. The relationship between SAS indexes and integrity
constraints is described in “Indexes and Integrity Constraints” on page 715. For
more information, see “Understanding SAS Indexes” on page 692.
When you add an integrity constraint in SCL, open the data set in utility mode. See
“Creating Integrity Constraints By Using SCL” on page 687 for an example.
Integrity constraints must be deleted in utility open mode. For detailed syntax
information, see SAS Component Language: Reference.
When generation data sets are used, you must create the integrity constraints in
each data set generation that includes protected variables.
CAUTION! CHECK constraints in SAS 9.2 are not compatible with earlier releases
of SAS. If you add a CHECK constraint to an existing SAS data set or create a SAS
data set that includes a CHECK constraint, the data set cannot be accessed by a
release prior to SAS 9.2.

Specifying Physical Location for Inter-Libref Referential

Integrity Constraints When Sharing Disk Space
When you share disk space over a network and access referential integrity
constraints in which the foreign key and primary key data files are in different SAS
libraries, a standard should be established for the physical location of the shared
files. A standard is required when you create the shared files so that network
machines use the same physical name in order to access the files. If the physical
names do not match, SAS cannot open the referenced foreign key or primary key
SAS data file.
For example, a standard might be established that all shared files are placed on disk
T: so that network machines use the same pathname in order to access the files.
Here is an example of a problem regarding files that were created without a
standard. Suppose a primary key and a foreign key SAS data file were created on
machine D4064 in different directories C:\Public\pkey_directory and C:\Public
\fkey_directory. The pathnames are stored in the descriptor information of the
SAS data files.
To access the primary key data file from a different machine such as F2760, the
following LIBNAME statement would be executed:
libname pkds '\\D4064\Public\pkey_directory';

When the primary key data file is opened for update processing, SAS automatically
tries to open the foreign key data file by using the foreign key data file's physical
name that is stored in the primary key data file, which is C:\Public
\fkey_directory. However, that directory does not exist on machine F2760.
Therefore, opening the foreign key data file fails.
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 685

Listing Integrity Constraints

PROC CONTENTS and PROC DATASETS report integrity constraint information
without special options. In addition, you can print information about integrity
constraints and indexes to a data set by using the OUT2= option. In PROC SQL, the
DESCRIBE TABLE and DESCRIBE TABLE CONSTRAINTS statements report
integrity constraint characteristics as part of the data file definition or alone,
respectively. SCL provides the ICTYPE, ICVALUE, and ICDESCRIBE functions for
getting information about integrity constraints. For more information see Base SAS
Procedures Guide and SAS Component Language: Reference for more information.

Rejected Observations
You can customize the error message that is associated with an integrity constraint
when you create the constraint by using the MESSAGE= and MSGTYPE= options.
The MESSAGE= option enables you to prepend a user-defined message to the
SAS error message associated with an integrity constraint. The MSGTYPE= option
enables you to suppress the SAS portion of the message. For more information, see
the PROC DATASETS, PROC SQL, and SCL documentation.
Rejected observations can be collected in a special file by using an audit trail.

Integrity Constraints and CEDA Processing

When a SAS data file requires processing with CEDA, integrity constraints are not
supported. For example, if you transfer a SAS data file with defined integrity
constraints from one operating environment such as Windows to a different
operating environment such as UNIX, CEDA translates the file for you, but the
integrity constraints are not available. For information about CEDA processing, see
Chapter 34, “Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA),” on
page 765.
The MIGRATE procedure preserves integrity constraints when migrating data files.
For more information, see the “MIGRATE Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures
Guide. The CPORT and CIMPORT procedures preserve integrity constraints when
transporting SAS data files from one operating environment to another operating
environment. The CPORT procedure makes a copy of the data file in a
transportable format. The CIMPORT procedure reads the transport file and creates
a new host-specific copy of the data file. For more information, see the “CPORT
Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide and “CIMPORT Procedure” in Base
SAS Procedures Guide.
 686 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Examples

Creating Integrity Constraints with the DATASETS

Procedure
The following sample code creates integrity constraints by means of the DATASETS
procedure. The data file TV_Survey checks the percentage of viewing time spent on
networks, PBS, and other channels, with the following integrity constraints:
n The viewership percentage cannot exceed 100%.

n Only adults can participate in the survey.

n Gender can be male or female.
data tv_survey(label='Validity checking');
length idnum age 4 gender $1;
input idnum gender age network pbs other;
datalines;
1 M 55 80 . 20
2 F 36 50 40 10
3 M 42 20 5 75
4 F 18 30 0 70
5 F 84 0 100 0
;

proc datasets nolist;

modify tv_survey;
ic create val_gender = check(where=(gender in ('M','F')))
message = "Valid values for variable GENDER are
either 'M' or 'F'.";
ic create val_age = check(where=(age >= 18 and age = 120))
message = "An invalid AGE has been provided.";
ic create val_new = check(where=(network = 100));
ic create val_pbs = check(where=(pbs = 100));
ic create val_ot = check(where=(other = 100));
ic create val_max = check(where=((network+pbs+other)= 100));
quit;

Creating Integrity Constraints with the SQL Procedure

The following sample program creates integrity constraints by means of the SQL
procedure. The data file People lists employees and contains employment
information. The data file Salary contains salary and bonus information. The integrity
constraints are as follows:
n The names of employees receiving bonuses must be found in the People data
file.
n The names identified in the primary key must be unique.

n Gender can be male or female.

n Job status can be permanent, temporary, or terminated.

 Understanding Integrity Constraints 687

proc sql;
create table people
(
name char(14),
gender char(6),
hired num,
jobtype char(1) not null,
status char(10),

constraint prim_key primary key(name),

constraint gender check(gender in ('male' 'female')),
constraint status check(status in ('permanent'
'temporary' 'terminated'))
);

create table salary

(
name char(14),
salary num not null,
bonus num,

constraint for_key foreign key(name) references people

on delete restrict on update set null
);
quit;

Creating Integrity Constraints By Using SCL

To add integrity constraints to a data file by using SCL, you must create and build an
SCL catalog entry. The following sample program creates and compiles catalog
entry Example.Ic_Cat_Allics.SCL.
INIT:
put "Test SCL integrity constraint functions start.";
return;

MAIN:
put "Opening WORK.ONE in utility mode.";
dsid = open('work.one', 'V');/* Utility mode.*/
if (dsid = 0) then
do;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
if (dsid > 0) then
put "Successfully opened WORK.ONE in"
"UTILITY mode.";
end;

put "Create a check integrity constraint named teen.";

rc = iccreate(dsid, 'teen', 'check',
'(age > 12) && (age < 20)');

if (rc > 0) then

do;
688 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
put "Successfully created a check"
"integrity constraint.";
end;

put "Create a not-null integrity constraint named nn.";

rc = iccreate(dsid, 'nn', 'not-null', 'age');

if (rc > 0) then

do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
put "Successfully created a not-null"
"integrity constraint.";
end;

put "Create a unique integrity constraint named uq.";

rc = iccreate(dsid, 'uq', 'unique', 'age');

if (rc > 0) then

do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
put "Successfully created a unique"
"integrity constraint.";
end;

put "Create a primary key integrity constraint named pk.";

rc = iccreate(dsid, 'pk', 'Primary', 'name');

if (rc > 0) then

do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
put "Successfully created a primary key"
"integrity constraint.";
end;

put "Closing WORK.ONE.";

rc = close(dsid);
if (rc > 0) then
do;
put rc=;
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 689

_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;

put "Opening WORK.TWO in utility mode.";

dsid2 = open('work.two', 'V');
/*Utility mode */
if (dsid2 = 0) then
do;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
if (dsid2 > 0) then
put "Successfully opened WORK.TWO in"
"UTILITY mode.";
end;

put "Create a foreign key integrity constraint named fk.";

rc = iccreate(dsid2, 'fk', 'foreign', 'name',
'work.one','null', 'restrict');

if (rc > 0) then

do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
put "Successfully created a foreign key"
"integrity constraint.";
end;

put "Closing WORK.TWO.";

rc = close(dsid2);
if (rc > 0) then
do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
return;

TERM:
put "End of test SCL integrity constraint"
"functions.";
return;

The previous code creates the SCL catalog entry. The following code creates two
data files, One and Two, and executes the SCL entry Example.Ic_Cat_Allics.SCL:
/* Submit to create data files. */

data one two;

input name $ age;
datalines;
Morris 13
690 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Elaine 14
Tina 15
;

/* after compiling, run the SCL program */

proc display catalog= example.ic_cat.allics.scl;

run;

Removing Integrity Constraints

The following sample program segments remove integrity constraints. In the code
that deletes a primary key integrity constraint, note that the foreign key integrity
constraint is deleted first.
This program segment deletes integrity constraints using PROC SQL.
proc sql;
alter table salary
DROP CONSTRAINT for_key;
alter table people
DROP CONSTRAINT gender
DROP CONSTRAINT _nm0001_
DROP CONSTRAINT status
DROP CONSTRAINT prim_key
;
quit;

This program segment removes integrity constraints using PROC DATASETS.

proc datasets nolist;
modify tv_survey;
ic delete val_max;
ic delete val_gender;
ic delete val_age;
run;
quit;

This program segment removes integrity constraints using SCL.

TERM:
put "Opening WORK.TWO in utility mode.";
dsid2 = open( 'work.two' , 'V' ); /* Utility mode. */
if (dsid2 = 0) then
do;
_msg_=sysmsg();
put _msg_=;
end;
else do;
if (dsid2 > 0) then
put "Successfully opened WORK.TWO in Utility mode.";
end;

rc = icdelete(dsid2, 'fk');
if (rc > 0) then
do;
put rc=;
_msg_=sysmsg();
end;
 Understanding Integrity Constraints 691

else
do;
put "Successfully deleted a foreign key integrity constraint.";
end;
rc = close(dsid2);
return;

Reactivating an Inactive Integrity Constraint

The following program segment reactivates a foreign key integrity constraint that
has been inactivated as a result of a COPY, CPORT, CIMPORT, UPLOAD, or
DOWNLOAD procedure.
proc datasets;
modify SAS-data-set;
ic reactivate fkname references
libref;
run;
quit;

Defining Overlapping Primary Key and Foreign Key

Constraints
The following code illustrates defining overlapping primary key and foreign key
constraints:
data Singers1;
input FirstName $ LastName $ Age;
datalines;
Tom Jones 62
Kris Kristofferson 66
Willie Nelson 69
Barbra Streisand 60
Paul McCartney 60
Randy Travis 43
;
data Singers2;
input FirstName $ LastName $ Style $;
datalines;
Tom Jones Rock
Kris Kristofferson Country
Willie Nelson Country
Barbra Streisand Contemporary
Paul McCartney Rock
Randy Travis Country
;
proc datasets library=work nolist;
modify Singers1;
ic create primary key (FirstName LastName); 1
run;
modify Singers2;
ic create foreign key (FirstName LastName) references Singers1
on delete restrict on update restrict; 2
run;
modify Singers2;
 692 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

ic create primary key (LastName FirstName); 3

run;
modify Singers1;
ic create foreign key (LastName FirstName) references Singers2
on delete restrict on update restrict; 4
run;

quit;

1 Defines a primary key constraint for data set Singers1, for variables FirstName
and LastName.
2 Defines a foreign key constraint for data set Singers2 for variables FirstName
and LastName that references the primary key defined in Step 1. Because the
intention is to define a primary key using the same variables, the foreign key
update and delete referential actions must both be RESTRICT.
3 Defines a primary key constraint for data set Singers2 for variables LastName
and FirstName. Because those exact same variables are already defined as a
foreign key, the order must be different.
4 Defines a foreign key constraint for data set Singers1 for variables LastName
and FirstName that references the primary key defined in Step 3. Because those
exact same variables are already defined as a primary key, the order must be
different. Because a primary key is already defined using the same variables, the
foreign key's update and delete referential actions must both be RESTRICT.

Understanding SAS Indexes

Definition of SAS Indexes

An index is an optional file that you can create for a SAS data file in order to provide
direct access to specific observations. The index stores values in ascending value
order for a specific variable or variables and includes information as to the location
of those values within observations in the data file. In other words, an index enables
you to locate an observation by value.
For example, suppose that you want the observation with SSN (Social Security
number) equal to 123-45-6789:
n Without an index, SAS accesses observations sequentially in the order in which
they are stored in the data file. SAS reads each observation, looking for
SSN=123-45-6789 until all observations are read.
n With an index on variable SSN, SAS accesses the observation directly. SAS
satisfies the condition using the index and goes straight to the observation that
contains the value without having to read each observation.
You can either create an index when you create a data file or create an index for an
existing data file. The data file can be either compressed or uncompressed. For
each data file, you can create one or multiple indexes. Once an index exists, SAS
treats it as part of the data file. That is, if you add or delete observations or modify
values, the index is automatically updated.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 693

Benefits of an Index
In general, SAS can use an index to improve performance in the following
situations:
n For WHERE processing, an index can provide faster and more efficient access
to a subset of data. To process a WHERE expression, SAS by default decides
whether to use an index or to read the data file sequentially.
n For BY processing, an index returns observations in the index order, which is in
ascending value order, without using the SORT procedure even when the data
file is not stored in that order.
Note: If you use the SORT procedure, the index is not used.
n For the SET and MODIFY statements, the KEY= option enables you to specify
an index in a DATA step to retrieve particular observations in a data file.
In addition, an index can benefit other areas of SAS. In SCL (SAS Component
Language), an index improves the performance of table lookup operations. For the
SQL procedure, an index enables the software to process certain classes of queries
more efficiently (for example, join queries). For the SAS/IML software, you can
explicitly specify that an index be used for read, delete, list, or Append operations.
Even though an index can reduce the time required to locate a set of observations,
especially for a large data file, there are costs associated with creating, storing, and
maintaining the index. When deciding whether to create an index, you must
consider increased resource usage, along with the performance improvement.
Note: An index is never used for the subsetting IF statement in a DATA step, or for
the FIND and SEARCH commands in the FSEDIT procedure.

The Index File

The index file is a SAS file that has the same name as its associated data file, and
that has a member type of INDEX. There is only one index file per data file. That is,
all indexes for a data file are stored in a single file.
The index file might be a separate file, or be part of the data file, depending on the
operating environment. In any case, the index file is stored in the same SAS library
as its data file.
The index file consists of entries that are organized hierarchically and connected by
pointers, all of which are maintained by SAS. The lowest level in the index file
hierarchy consists of entries that represent each distinct value for an indexed
variable, in ascending value order. Each entry contains this information:
n a distinct value

n one or more unique record identifiers (referred to as a RID) that identifies each
observation containing the value. (Think of the RID as an internal observation
number.)
That is, in an index file, each value is followed by one or more RIDs, which identify
the observations in the data file that contains the value. (Multiple RIDs result from
 694 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

multiple occurrences of the same value.) For example, the following represents
index file entries for the variable LastName:

Table 28.7 Index File Entries

Value Record Identifier

Avery 10

Brown 6, 22, 43

Craig 5, 50

Dunn 1

When an index is used to process a request, such as a WHERE expression, SAS

performs a binary search on the index file and positions the index to the first entry
that contains a qualified value. SAS then uses the value's RID to read the
observation that contains the value. If a value has more than one RID (such as in
the value for Brown in the previous example), SAS reads the observation that is
pointed to by the next RID in the list. The result is that SAS can quickly locate the
observations that are associated with a value or range of values.
For example, using an index to process the WHERE expression, SAS positions the
index to the index entry for the first value greater than 20 and uses the value's RID
or RIDs to read the observation or observations where age > 20 and age < 35;.
SAS then moves sequentially through the index entries reading observations until it
reaches the index entry for the value that is equal to or greater than 35.
SAS automatically keeps the index file balanced as updates are made, which
means that it ensures a uniform cost to access any index entry, and all space that is
occupied by deleted values is recovered and reused.

Types of Indexes

Simple and Composite Indexes

When you create an index, you designate which variable or variables to index. An
indexed variable is called a key variable. You can create two types of indexes:
n a simple index, which consists of the values of one variable

n a composite index, which consists of the values of more than one variable, with
the values concatenated to form a single value
In addition to deciding whether you want a simple index or a composite index, you
can also limit an index (and its data file) to unique values and exclude from the
index missing values.

Simple Index
The most common index is a simple index, which is an index of values for one key
variable. The variable can be numeric or character. When you create a simple index,
SAS assigns to the index the name of the key variable.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 695

The following example shows the DATASETS procedure statements that are used
to create two simple indexes for variables Class and Major in data file
College.Survey:
proc datasets library=college;
modify survey;
index create class;
index create major;
run;

To process a WHERE expression using an index, SAS uses only one index. When
the WHERE expression has multiple conditions using multiple key variables, SAS
determines which condition qualifies the smallest subset. For example, suppose that
College.Survey contains the following data:
n 42,000 observations contain class=12

n 6,000 observations contain major='Biology'

n 350 observations contain both class=12 and major='Biology'

With simple indexes on Class and Major, SAS would select Major to process the
following WHERE expression.
where class=12 and major='Biology';

Composite Index
A composite index is an index of two or more key variables with their values
concatenated to form a single value. The variables can be numeric, character, or a
combination. An example is a composite index for the variables LastName and
FirstName. A value for this index consists of the value for LastName immediately
followed by the value for FirstName from the same observation. When you create a
composite index, you must specify a unique index name.
The following example shows the DATASETS procedure statements that are used
to create a composite index for the data file College.MailList, specifying two key
variables: ZipCode and SchoolId.
proc datasets library=college;
modify maillist;
index create zipid=(zipcode schoolid);
run;

Often, only the first variable of a composite index is used. For example, for a
composite index on ZipCode and SchoolId, the following WHERE expression can
use the composite index for the variable ZipCode because it is the first key variable
in the composite index:
where zipcode = 78753;

However, you can take advantage of all key variables in a composite index by how
you construct the WHERE expression, which is referred to as compound
optimization. Compound optimization is the process of optimizing multiple WHERE
expression conditions using a single composite index. If you issue the following
WHERE expression, the composite index is used to find all occurrences where the
ZIP code is 78753 and the school identification number is 55. In this way, all of the
conditions are satisfied with a single search of the index:
where zipcode = 78753 and schoolid = 55;
696 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

When you are deciding whether to create a simple index or a composite index,
consider how you will access the data. If you often access data for a single variable,
a simple index will do. But if you frequently access data for multiple variables, a
composite index could be beneficial.

Unique Values
Often it is important to require that values for a variable be unique, like Social
Security number and employee number. You can declare unique values for a
variable by creating an index for the variable and including the UNIQUE option. A
unique index guarantees that values for one variable or the combination of a
composite group of variables remain unique for every observation in the data file. If
an update tries to add a duplicate value to that variable, the update is rejected.
The following example creates a simple index for the variable IdNum and requires
that all values for IdNum be unique:
proc datasets library=college;
modify student;
index create idnum / unique;
run;

Missing Values
If a variable has a large number of missing values, it might be desirable to keep
them from using space in the index. Therefore, when you create an index, you can
include the NOMISS option to specify that missing values are not maintained by the
index.
The following example creates a simple index for the variable Religion and specifies
that the index does not maintain missing values for the variable:
proc datasets library=college;
modify student;
index create religion / nomiss;
run;

In contrast to the UNIQUE option, observations with missing values for the key
variable can be added to the data file, even though the missing values are not
added to the index.
SAS does not use an index that was created with the NOMISS option to process a
BY statement or to process a WHERE expression that qualifies observations that
contain missing values. If no missing values are present, SAS considers using the
index in processing the BY statement or WHERE expression.
In the following example, the index Age was created with the NOMISS option and
observations exist that contain missing values for the variable Age. In this case,
SAS does not use the index:
proc print data=mydata.employee;
where age < 35;
run;
 Understanding SAS Indexes 697

Deciding Whether to Create an Index

Costs of an Index
An index exists to improve performance. However, an index conserves some
resources at the expense of others. Therefore, you must consider costs associated
with creating, using, and maintaining an index. The following topics provide
information about resource usage and give you some guidelines for creating
indexes.

CPU Cost
Additional CPU time is necessary to create an index as well as to maintain the index
when the data file is modified. That is, for an indexed data file, when a value is
added, deleted, or modified, it must also be added, deleted, or modified in the
appropriate index(es).
When SAS uses an index to read an observation from a data file, there is also
increased CPU usage. The increased usage results from SAS using a more
complicated process than is used when SAS retrieves data sequentially. Although
CPU usage is greater, you benefit from SAS reading only those observations that
meet the conditions. Note that increased CPU usage is why using an index is more
expensive when there is a larger number of observations that meet the conditions.
Note: To compare CPU usage with and without an index, for some operating
environments, you can issue the STIMER or FULLSTIMER system options in order
to write performance statistics to the SAS log.

I/O Cost
Using an index to read observations from a data file can increase the number of I/O
(input/output) requests compared to reading the data file sequentially. For example,
processing a BY statement with an index might increase I/O count, but you save in
not having to issue the SORT procedure. For WHERE processing, SAS considers
I/O count when deciding whether to use an index.

1 SAS does a binary search on the index file and positions the index to the first
entry that contains a qualified value.

2 SAS uses the value's RID (identifier) to directly access the observation
containing the value. SAS transfers the observation between external storage to
a buffer, which is the memory into which data is read or from which data is
written. The data is transferred in pages, which is the amount of data (the
number of observations) that can be transferred for one I/O request; each data
file has a specified page size.

3 SAS then continues the process until the WHERE expression is satisfied. Each
time SAS accesses an observation, the data file page containing the observation
must be read into memory if it is not already there. Therefore, if the observations
are on multiple data file pages, an I/O operation is performed for each
observation.
698 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

The result is that the more random the data, the more I/Os are required to use the
index. If the data is ordered more like the index, which is in ascending value order, a
smaller number of I/Os are required to access the data.
The number of buffers determines how many pages of data can simultaneously be
in memory. Frequently, the larger the number of buffers, the smaller the number of
I/Os that are required. For example, if the page size is 4096 bytes and one buffer is
allocated, then one I/O transfers 4096 bytes of data (or one page). To reduce I/Os,
you can increase the page size but you need a larger buffer. To reduce the buffer
size, you can decrease the page size but you use more I/Os.
For information about data file characteristics like the data file page size and the
number of data file pages, issue the CONTENTS procedure (or use the CONTENTS
statement in the DATASETS procedure). With this information, you can determine
the data file page size and experiment with different sizes. Note that the information
that is available from PROC CONTENTS depends on the operating environment.
The BUFSIZE= data set option (or system option) sets the permanent page size for
a data file when it is created. The page size is the amount of data that can be
transferred for an I/O operation to one buffer. The BUFNO= data set option (or
system option) specifies how many buffers to allocate for a data file and for the
overall system for a given execution of SAS. That is, BUFNO= is not stored as a
data set attribute.

Buffer Requirements
In addition to the resources that are used to create and maintain an index, SAS also
requires additional memory for buffers when an index is actually used. Opening the
data file opens the index file but none of the indexes. The buffers are not required
unless SAS uses the index but they must be allocated in preparation for the index
that is being used.
The number of buffers that are allocated depends on the number of levels in the
index tree and in the data file open mode. If the data file is open for input, the
maximum number of buffers is three; for update, the maximum number is four. (Note
that these buffers are available for other uses; they are not dedicated to indexes.)
The IBUFSIZE= system option specifies the page size on disk for an index file when
it is created. The default setting causes SAS to use the minimum optimal page size
for the operating environment. Typically, you do not need to specify an index page
size. However, there are situations that could require a different page size. For more
information, see the “IBUFSIZE= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
The IBUFNO= system option specifies an optional number of extra buffers to be
allocated when navigating an index file. SAS automatically allocates a minimal
number of buffers. Typically, you do not need to specify extra buffers. However,
using IBUFNO= to specify extra buffers could improve execution time by limiting the
number of input/output operations that are required for a particular index file. The
improvement in execution time, however, comes at the expense of increased
memory consumption. For more information, see the “IBUFNO= System Option” in
SAS System Options: Reference.

Disk Space Requirements

Additional disk space is required to store the index file. This file might show up as a
separate file or appear to be part of the data file, depending on the operating
environment.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 699

For information about the index file size, issue the CONTENTS procedure (or the
CONTENTS statement in the DATASETS procedure). Note that the available
information from PROC CONTENTS depends on the operating environment.

Guidelines for Creating Indexes

Data File Considerations

n For a small data file, sequential processing is often just as efficient as index
processing. Do not create an index if the data file page count is less than three
pages. It would be faster to access the data sequentially. To see how many
pages are in a data file, use the CONTENTS procedure (or use the CONTENTS
statement in the DATASETS procedure). Note that the information that is
available from PROC CONTENTS depends on the operating environment.
n Consider the cost of an index for a data file that is frequently changed. If you
have a data file that changes often, the overhead associated with updating the
index after each change can outweigh the processing advantages you gain from
accessing the data with an index.
n Create an index when you intend to retrieve a small subset of observations from
a large data file (for example, less than 25% of all observations). When this
occurs, the cost of processing data file pages is lower than the overhead of
sequentially reading the entire data file. The smaller the subset, the larger the
performance gains.
n To reduce the number of I/Os performed when you create an index, first sort the
data by the key variable. Then to improve performance, maintain the data file in
sorted order by the key variable. This technique reduces the I/Os by grouping
like values together. That is, the more ordered the data file is with respect to the
key variable, the more efficient the use of the index. If the data file has more than
one index, sort the data by the most frequently used key variable.
n An index might not be necessary to optimize a WHERE expression if the data is
sorted appropriately in order to satisfy the condition. To process a WHERE
expression without an index, SAS first checks for the sort indicator that is stored
with the file from a previous SORT procedure. If the sort indicator is appropriate,
SAS stops reading the file once there are no more values that satisfy the
WHERE expression. For example, consider a file that is sorted by Age, without
an index. To process the expression where age le 25, SAS stops reading
observations after it finds an observation that is greater than 25. Note that while
SAS can determine when to stop reading observations, if there is no index, there
is no indication where to begin. Without an index, SAS always begins with the
first observation, which can require reading a lot of observations.

Index Use Considerations

n Keep the number of indexes per data file to a minimum to reduce disk storage
and to reduce update costs.
n Consider how often your applications use an index. An index must be used often
in order to make up for the resources that are used in creating and maintaining it.
That is, do not rely solely on resource savings from processing a WHERE
 700 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

expression. Take into consideration the resources that it takes to actually create
the index and to maintain it every time the data file is changed.
n When you create an index to process a WHERE expression, do not try to create
one index that is used to satisfy all queries. If there are several variables that
appear in queries, those queries might be best satisfied with simple indexes on
the most discriminating of those variables.

Key Variable Candidates

In most cases, multiple variables are used to query a data file. However, it probably
would be a mistake to index all variables in a data file, as certain variables are better
candidates than others:
n The variables to be indexed should be variables that are used in queries. That is,
your application should require selecting small subsets from a large file, and the
most common selection variables should be considered as candidate key
variables.
n A variable is a good candidate for indexing when the variable can be used to
precisely identify the observations that satisfy a WHERE expression. That is, the
variable should be discriminating, which means that the index should select the
fewest possible observations. For example, variables such as Age, FirstName,
and Gender are not discriminating because it is possible for a large
representation of the data to have the same age, first name, and gender.
However, a variable such as LastName is a good choice because it is less likely
that many employees share the same last name.
For example, consider a data file with variables LastName and Gender.
o If many queries against the data file include LastName, then indexing
LastName could prove to be beneficial because the values are usually
discriminating. However, the same reasoning would not apply if you issued a
large number of queries that included Gender. The Gender variable is not
discriminating (because perhaps half the population is male and half is
female).
o However, if queries against the data file most often include both LastName
and Gender as shown in the following WHERE expression, then creating a
composite index on LastName and Gender could improve performance.
where lastname='LeVoux' and gender='F';

Note that when you create a composite index, the first key variable should be
the most discriminating.

Creating an Index

Overview of Creating Indexes

You can create one index for a data file, which can be either a simple index or a
composite index, and you can create multiple indexes, which can be multiple simple
indexes, multiple composite indexes, or a combination of both simple and
composite.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 701

1 You request to create an index for one or multiple variables using a method such
as the INDEX CREATE statement in the DATASETS procedure.

2 SAS reads the data file one observation at a time, extracts values and RIDs for
each key variable, and places them in the index file.

SAS ensures that the values that are placed in the index are successively the same
or increasing. SAS determines whether the data is already sorted by the key
variables in ascending order. It determines this by checking the sort indicator in the
data file, which is an attribute of the file that indicates how the data is sorted. The
sort indicator is stored with the SAS data file descriptor information and is set from a
previous SORT procedure or SORTEDBY= data set option.
If the values in the sort indicator are in ascending order, SAS does not sort the
values for the index file and avoids the resource. Note that SAS always validates
that the data is sorted as indicated. If not, the index is not created. For example, if
the sort indicator was set from a SORTEDBY= data set option and the data is not
sorted as indicated, an error occurs. A message is written to the SAS log stating that
the index was not created because values are not sorted in ascending order.
If the values in the sort indicator are not in ascending order, SAS sorts the data that
is included in the index file in ascending value order. To sort the data, SAS follows
this procedure:

1 SAS first attempts to sort the data using the thread-enabled sort. By dividing the
sorting into separately executable processes, the time to sort the data can be
reduced. To use the thread-enabled sort, the index must be sufficiently large
(which is determined by SAS), the SAS system option CPUCOUNT= must be set
to more than one processor, and the THREADS system option must be enabled.
Adequate memory must be available for the thread-enabled sort. If not enough
memory is available, SAS reduces the number of threads to one and begins the
sort process again, which increases the time to create the index.

2 If the thread-enabled sort cannot be done, SAS uses the unthreaded sort.

Note: To display messages regarding what type of sort is used, memory and
resource information, and the status of the index being created, set the SAS system
option MSGLEVEL=I; that is:
options msglevel=i;

Using the DATASETS Procedure

The DATASETS procedure provides statements that enable you to create and
delete indexes. In the following example, the MODIFY statement identifies the data
file, the INDEX DELETE statement deletes two indexes, and the two INDEX
CREATE statements specify the variables to index, with the first INDEX CREATE
statement specifying the options UNIQUE and NOMISS:
proc datasets library=mylib;
modify employee;
index delete salary age;
index create empnum / unique nomiss;
index create names=(lastname firstname);

Note: If you delete and create indexes in the same step, place the INDEX DELETE
statement before the INDEX CREATE statement so that space occupied by deleted
indexes can be reused during index creation.
 702 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Using the INDEX= Data Set Option

To create indexes in a DATA step when you create the data file, use the INDEX=
data set option. The INDEX= data set option also enables you to include the
NOMISS and UNIQUE options. The following example creates a simple index on
the variable Stock and specifies UNIQUE:
data finances(index=(stock /unique));

The next example uses the variables SSN, City, and State to create a simple index
named SSN and a composite index named CitySt:
data employee(index=(ssn cityst=(city state)));

Using the SQL Procedure

The SQL procedure supports index creation and deletion and the UNIQUE option.
Note that the variable list requires that variable names be separated by commas
(which is an SQL convention) instead of blanks (which is a SAS convention).
The DROP INDEX statement deletes indexes. The CREATE INDEX statement
specifies the UNIQUE option, the name of the index, the target data file, and the
variable or variables to be indexed. For example:
drop index salary from employee;
create unique index empnum on employee (empnum);
create index names on employee (lastname, firstname);

Using Other SAS Products

You can also create and delete indexes using other SAS utilities and products, such
as SAS/CONNECT software, SAS/IML software, SAS Component Language, and
SAS/Warehouse Administrator.

Using an Index for WHERE Processing

Overview of Using an Index for WHERE Processing

WHERE processing conditionally selects observations for processing when you
issue a WHERE expression. Using an index to process a WHERE expression
improves performance and is referred to as optimizing the WHERE expression.
To process a WHERE expression, by default SAS decides whether to use an index
or read all the observations in the data file sequentially. To make this decision, SAS
does the following:

1 Identifies an available index or indexes.

2 Estimates the number of observations that would be qualified. If multiple indexes

are available, SAS selects the index that returns the smallest subset of
observations.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 703

3 Compares resource usage to decide whether it is more efficient to satisfy the

WHERE expression by using the index or by reading all the observations
sequentially.
Note: SAS considers several factors when deciding whether to use an index.
Therefore, experimentation is the best way to determine the optimal
performance. If you have a WHERE expression that is used repeatedly, compare
the results using an index and without an index in order to determine which
method provides the best performance. You can control index usage with the
IDXWHERE= and IDXNAME= data set options. See “Controlling WHERE
Processing Index Usage with Data Set Options” on page 708.

Identifying an Available Index or Indexes

The first step for SAS in deciding whether to use an index to process a WHERE
expression is to identify if the variable or variables included in the WHERE
expression are key variables (that is, have an index). Even though a WHERE
expression can consist of multiple conditions that specify different variables, SAS
uses only one index to process the WHERE expression. SAS selects the index that
satisfies the most conditions and qualifies the fewest observations:
n Usually, SAS selects one condition. The variable specified in the condition has
either a simple index or is the first key variable in a composite index.
n However, you can take advantage of multiple key variables in a composite index
by constructing an appropriate WHERE expression, referred to as compound
optimization. See “Compound Optimization” on page 705.
SAS attempts to use an index for the following types of conditions:

Table 28.8 WHERE Conditions That Can Be Optimized

Valid for Compound

Condition Optimization Examples

comparison operators, yes where empnum eq 3374;

which include the EQ
where empnum < 2000;
operator; directional
comparisons like less than where state in ('NC','TX');
or greater than; and the IN
operator

comparison operators with yes where empnum ^= 3374;

NOT
where x not in (5,10);

comparison operators with yes where lastname gt: 'Sm';

the colon modifier

CONTAINS operator no where lastname contains 'Sm';

fully bounded range yes where 1 < x < 10;

conditions specifying both
where empnum between 500
an upper and lower limit,
and 1000;
which includes the
BETWEEN-AND operator
704 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Valid for Compound

Condition Optimization Examples

pattern-matching no where firstname like '%Rob_%'

operators LIKE and NOT
LIKE

IS NULL or IS MISSING no where name is null;

operator
where idnum is missing;

TRIM function no where trim(state)='Texas';

SUBSTR (left of =) no where substr

function in the form of: (month,4,5)='ember' and
(city='Charleston' or
WHERE SUBSTR
city='Atlanta');
(variable, position
<,length>)='string';
when the following
conditions are met:
position specifies a
numeric constant for the
beginning character
position that is less than or
equal to the variable
length.
length specifies a numeric
constant for the length of
string. The length plus
position cannot be larger
than the variable length
plus 1.

Note: Conditions are not optimized with an index for arithmetic operators, a
variable-to-variable condition, the sounds-like operator, and any function other than
the TRIM and SUBSTR function as listed above.
The following examples illustrate optimizing a single condition:
n The following WHERE expressions could use a simple index on the variable
Major:
where major in ('Biology', 'Chemistry', 'Agriculture');
where class=11 and major in ('Biology', 'Agriculture');

n With a composite index on variables ZipCode and SchoolId, SAS could use the
composite index to satisfy the following conditions because ZipCode is the first
key variable in the composite index:
where zipcode = 78753;

However, the following condition cannot use the composite index because the
variable SchoolId is not the first key variable in the composite index:
where schoolid gt 1000;
 Understanding SAS Indexes 705

Compound Optimization
Compound optimization is the process of optimizing multiple WHERE expression
conditions using a single composite index. Using a single index to optimize the
conditions can greatly improve performance.
For example, suppose there is a composite index for LastName and FirstName. If
you execute the following WHERE expression, SAS uses the concatenated values
for the first two variables, then SAS further evaluates each qualified observation for
the EmpId value:
where lastname eq 'Smith' and firstname eq 'John' and empid=3374;

For compound optimization to occur, all of the following must be true.

n At least the first two key variables in the composite index must be used in valid
WHERE expression conditions. For a list of conditions that are valid for
compound optimization, see Table 28.8 on page 703.
n At least one condition must use the EQ or IN operator. For example, you cannot
have all range conditions.
n The conditions must be connected with the AND or the OR logical operator:
o When conditions are connected with AND, the conditions can occur in any
order. For example:
where lastname eq 'Smith'and firstname eq 'John';

o When conditions are connected with OR, the conditions must specify the
same variable. For example:
where firstname eq 'John' and
(lastname eq 'Smith' or lastname eq 'Jones');

Note: SAS transforms the OR conditions that specify the same variable into
a single condition that uses the IN operator. For the above WHERE
expression, SAS converts the two OR conditions into lastname IN
('Smith','Jones'), and then uses the composite index for the variables
FirstName and LastName in order to select the observations where
FirstName is John and LastName is Smith or Jones.
For the following examples, assume there is a composite index for variables I, J,
and CH:
n The following WHERE expression conditions are compound optimized because
every condition specifies a variable that is in the composite index, and each
condition uses one of the supported operators. SAS positions the composite
index to the first entry that meets all three conditions and retrieves only
observations that satisfy all three conditions.
where I = 1 and J not in (3,4) and 'abc' < CH;

n For the following WHERE expression, the first two conditions are compound
optimized. After retrieving a subset of observations that satisfy the first two
conditions, SAS examines the subset and eliminates any observations that fail to
match the third condition.
where I in (1,4) and J = 5 and K like '%c';

n This WHERE expression can be compound optimized for variables I and J. After
retrieving observations that satisfy the second and third conditions, SAS
706 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

examines the subset and eliminates those observations that do not satisfy the
first condition.
where X < 5 and I = 1 and J = 2;

n The following WHERE expression can be compound optimized on I and J:

where X < Z and I = 1 and J = 2;

n The following WHERE expression cannot be compound optimized neither J or K

is the left-most variable in the composite index:
where J = 1 and K = 2;

n The following WHERE expression cannot be optimized because the comparison

condition on the variable I is variable-to-variable, which is not supported for index
processing:
where I < K and J in (3,4) and CH = 'abc';

Compound optimization can occur for a NOMISS composite index as long as at

least one condition does not qualify missing values. That is, compound optimization
cannot occur on a NOMISS index, which is an index that does not maintain missing
values, if every condition could result in a missing value. The following examples
illustrate compound optimization with a NOMISS composite index for variables I, J,
and K.
n The following WHERE expression can be compound optimized, because the
condition K = 1 cannot result in a missing value:
where I in (.,5) and J < 4 and K = 1;

n This WHERE expression cannot be compound optimized, because each

condition could result in a missing value:
where I in (.,5) and J < 4 and K <= 1;

n The following WHERE expression cannot be compound optimized, because

each condition could result in a missing value. The condition J < 4 qualifies
observations as J = ., and those observations are not represented in the
NOMISS composite index:
where I = . and J < 4 and .A < K < .D;

Estimating the Number of Qualified Observations

Once SAS identifies the index or indexes that can satisfy the WHERE expression,
the software estimates the number of observations that will be qualified by an
available index. When multiple indexes exist, SAS selects the one that seems to
produce the fewest qualified observations.
SAS estimates the number of observations that will be qualified by using stored
statistics called cumulative percentiles (or centiles for short). Centiles information
represents the distribution of values in an index so that SAS does not have to
assume a uniform distribution. To print centiles information for an indexed data file,
include the CENTILES option in PROC CONTENTS (or in the CONTENTS
statement in the DATASETS procedure).
Note that, by default, SAS does not update centiles information after every data file
change. When you create an index, you can include the UPDATECENTILES option
to specify when centiles information is updated. That is, you can specify that centiles
information be updated every time the data file is closed, when a certain percentage
of values for the key variable have been changed, or never. In addition, you can
 Understanding SAS Indexes 707

also request that centiles information is updated immediately, regardless of the

value of UPDATECENTILES, by issuing the INDEX CENTILES statement in PROC
DATASETS.
As a general rule, SAS uses an index if it estimates that the WHERE expression will
select approximately one-third or less of the total number of observations in the data
file.
Note: For performance purposes, the following can occur when SAS estimates the
number of qualified observations:
n If the number of qualified observations is less than 3% of the data file (or if no
observations are qualified), SAS automatically uses the index, and does not
bother comparing resource usage.
n If all of the observations are qualified, by default SAS does not use the index
unless the IDXNAME= or IDXWHERE= data set option is specified.

Comparing Resource Usage

Once SAS estimates the number of qualified observations and selects the index that
qualifies the fewest observations, SAS must then decide whether it is faster
(cheaper) to satisfy the WHERE expression by using the index or by reading all of
the observations sequentially. SAS makes this determination as follows:
n If only a few observations are qualified, it is more efficient to use the index than
to do a sequential search of the entire data file.
n If most or all of the observations qualify, then it is more efficient to simply
sequentially search the data file than to use the index.
This decision is much like a reader deciding whether to use an index at the back of
a document. A document's index is designed to enable a reader to locate a topic
along with the specific page number. Using the index, the reader would go to a
specific page number and read only about a specific topic. If the document covers
42 topics and the reader is interested in only a couple of topics, then the index
saves time by preventing the reader from reading other topics. However, if the
reader is interested in 39 topics, searching the index for each topic would take more
time than simply reading the entire document.
To compare resource usage, SAS does the following:

1 SAS predicts the number of I/Os that it takes to satisfy the WHERE expression
using the index. To do so, SAS positions the index to the first entry that contains
a qualified value. In a buffer management simulation that takes into account the
current number of available buffers, the RIDs (identifiers) on that index page are
processed, indicating how many I/Os it takes to read the observations in the data
file.
If the observations are randomly distributed throughout the data file, the
observations are located on multiple data file pages. This means that an I/O is
needed for each page. Therefore, the more random the data in the data file, the
more I/Os it takes to use the index. If the data in the data file is ordered more like
the index, which is in ascending value order, a smaller number of I/Os are
needed to use the index.

2 SAS calculates the I/O cost of a sequential pass of the entire data file and
compares the two resource costs.
708 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Factors that affect the comparison include the size of the subset relative to the size
of the data file, data file value order, data file page size, the number of allocated
buffers, and the cost to uncompress a compressed data file for a sequential read.
Note: If comparing resource costs results in a tie, SAS chooses the index.

Controlling WHERE Processing Index Usage with Data Set

Options
You can control index usage for WHERE processing with the IDXWHERE= and
IDXNAME= data set options.
The IDXWHERE= data set option overrides the software's decision regarding
whether to use an index to satisfy the conditions of a WHERE expression as follows:
n IDXWHERE=YES tells SAS to decide which index is the best for optimizing a
WHERE expression, disregarding the possibility that a sequential search of the
data file might be more resource efficient.
n IDXWHERE=NO tells SAS to ignore all indexes and satisfy the conditions of a
WHERE expression by sequentially searching the data file.
n Using an index to process a BY statement cannot be overridden with
IDXWHERE=.
The following example tells SAS to decide which index is the best for optimizing the
WHERE expression. SAS disregards the possibility that a sequential search of the
data file might be more resource efficient.
data mydata.empnew;
set mydata.employee (idxwhere=yes);
where empnum < 2000;

For details, see the IDXWHERE data set option in SAS Data Set Options:
Reference.
The IDXNAME= data set option directs SAS to use a specific index in order to
satisfy the conditions of a WHERE expression.
By specifying IDXNAME=index-name, you are specifying the name of a simple or
composite index for the data file.
The following example uses the IDXNAME= data set option to direct SAS to use a
specific index to optimize the WHERE expression. SAS disregards the possibility
that a sequential search of the data file might be more resource efficient. SAS does
not attempt to determine whether the specified index is the best one. (Note that the
EMPNUM index was not created with the NOMISS option.)
data mydata.empnew;
set mydata.employee (idxname=empnum);
where empnum < 2000;

For details, see the IDXNAME data set option in SAS Data Set Options: Reference.
Note: IDXWHERE= and IDXNAME= are mutually exclusive. Using both options
results in an error.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 709

Displaying Index Usage Information in the SAS Log

To display information in the SAS log regarding index usage, change the value of
the MSGLEVEL= system option from its default value of N to I. When you issue
options msglevel=i;, the following occurs:
n If an index is used, a message displays the name of the index.

n If an index is not used but one exists that could optimize at least one condition in
the WHERE expression, messages provide suggestions as to what you can do
to influence SAS to use the index. For example, a message could suggest
sorting the data file into index order or specifying more buffers.
n A message displays the IDXWHERE= or IDXNAME= data set option value if the
setting can affect index processing.

Using an Index with SAS Views

A SAS view is a type of SAS data set that retrieves data values from other files.
There are two types of SAS views: a DATA step view and a PROC view. For more
information about SAS views, see “SAS Views” on page 721.
You cannot create an index for a SAS view; it must be a data file. However, if a SAS
view is created from an indexed data file, index usage is available. That is, if the
view definition includes a WHERE expression using a key variable, then SAS
attempts to use the index. There are other ways to take advantage of a key variable
when using a SAS view.
In this example, you create an SQL view named Stat from data file Crime, which has
the key variable State. In addition, the view definition includes a WHERE
expression:
proc sql;
create view stat as
select * from crime
where murder > 7;
quit;

If you issue PROC SQL with an SQL WHERE clause that specifies the key variable
State, then the SQL view can join the two conditions, which enables SAS to use the
index State:
proc sql;
select * from stat where state > 42;
quit;

Using an Index for BY Processing

BY processing enables you to process observations in a specific order according to
the values of one or more variables that are specified in a BY statement. Indexing a
data file enables you to use a BY statement without sorting the data file. By creating
an index based on one or more variables, you ensure that observations are
processed in ascending numeric or character order. Specify in the BY statement the
variable or list of variables that are indexed.
 710 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

For example, if an index exists for LastName, the following BY statement would use
the index to order the values by last names:
proc print;
by lastname;

When you specify a BY statement, SAS looks for an appropriate index. If one exists,
the software automatically retrieves the observations from the data file in indexed
order.
A BY statement uses an index in the following situations:
n The BY statement consists of one variable that is the key variable for a simple
index or the first key variable in a composite index.
n The BY statement consists of two or more variables and the first variable is the
key variable for a simple index or the first key variable in a composite index.
For example, if the variable Major has a simple index, the following BY statements
use the index to order the values by Major:
by major;
by major state;

If a composite index named ZipId exists consisting of the variables ZipCode and
SchoolId, the following BY statements use the index:
by zipcode;
by zipcode schoolid;
by zipcode schoolid name;

However, the composite index ZipId is not used for these BY statements:
by schoolid;
by schoolid zipcode;

In addition, a BY statement does not use an index in these situations:

n The BY statement includes the DESCENDING or NOTSORTED option.

n The index was created with the NOMISS option.

n The data file is physically stored in sorted order based on the variables specified
in the BY statement.
Note: Using an index to process a BY statement might not always be more efficient
than simply sorting the data file, particularly if the data file has a high blocking factor
of observations per page. Therefore, using an index for a BY statement is generally
for convenience, not performance.

Using an Index for Both WHERE and BY Processing

If both a WHERE expression and a BY statement are specified, SAS looks for one
index that satisfies requirements for both. If such an index is not found, the BY
statement takes precedence.
With a BY statement, SAS cannot use an index to optimize a WHERE expression if
the optimization would invalidate the BY order. For example, the following
statements could use an index on the variable LastName to optimize the WHERE
expression because the order of the observations returned by the index does not
conflict with the order required by the BY statement:
 Understanding SAS Indexes 711

proc print;
by lastname;
where lastname >= 'Smith';
run;

However, the following statements cannot use an index on LastName to optimize

the WHERE expression because the BY statement requires that the observations
be returned in EmpId order:
proc print;
by empid;
where lastname = 'Smith';
run;

Specifying an Index with the KEY= Option for SET and

MODIFY Statements
The SET and MODIFY statements provide the KEY= option, which enables you to
specify an index in a DATA step to retrieve particular observations in a data file.
The following MODIFY statement shows how to use the KEY= option to take
advantage of the fact that the data file Invty.Stock has an index on the variable
Partno. Using the KEY= option tells SAS to use the index to directly access the
correct observations to modify.
modify invty.stock key=partno;

Note: A BY statement is not allowed in the same DATA step with the KEY= option,
and WHERE processing is not allowed for a data file with the KEY= option.

Taking Advantage of an Index

Applications that typically do not use indexes can be rewritten to take advantage of
an index. For example:
n Consider replacing a subsetting IF statement (which never uses an index) with a
WHERE statement.
CAUTION! However, be careful because IF and WHERE statements are
processed differently and might produce different results in DATA steps that
use the SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statements. This is because the WHERE
statement selects observations before they are brought into the Program Data Vector
(PDV), whereas the subsetting IF statement selects observations after they are read
into the PDV.
n Consider using the WHERE command in the FSEDIT procedure in place of the
SEARCH and FIND commands.
 712 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Procedures and SAS Operations That Maintain Indexes

Displaying Data File Information

The CONTENTS procedure (or the CONTENTS statement in PROC DATASETS)
reports the following types of information.
n number and names of indexes for a data file

n the names of key variables

n the options in effect for each key variable

n data file page size

n number of data file pages

n centiles information (using the CENTILES option)

n amount of disk space used by the index file

Note: The available information depends on the operating environment.

 Understanding SAS Indexes 713

Output 28.6 Output of PROC CONTENTS

714 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Copying an Indexed Data File

When you copy an indexed data file with the COPY procedure (or the COPY
statement of the DATASETS procedure), you can specify whether the procedure
also re-creates the index file for the new data file with the INDEX=YES|NO option;
the default is YES, which re-creates the index. However, re-creating the index does
increase the processing time for the PROC COPY step.
If you copy from disk to disk, the index is re-created. If you copy from disk to tape,
the index is not re-created on tape. However, after copying from disk to tape, if you
then copy back from tape to disk, the index can be re-created. Note that if you move
a data file with the MOVE option in PROC COPY, the index file is deleted from IN=
library and re-created in OUT= library.
The CPORT procedure also has INDEX=YES|NO to specify whether to export
indexes with indexed data files. By default, PROC CPORT exports indexes with
indexed data files. The CIMPORT procedure, however, does not handle the index
file at all, and the index(es) must be re-created.

Updating an Indexed Data File

Each time that values in an indexed data file are added, modified, or deleted, SAS
automatically updates the index. The following activities affect an index as indicated:

Table 28.9 Maintenance Tasks and Index Results

Task Result

delete a data set index file is deleted

rename a data set index file is renamed

rename key variable simple index is renamed

delete key variable simple index is deleted

add observation index entries are added

delete observations index entries are deleted and space is recovered for
reuse

update observations index entries are deleted and new ones are inserted

Note: Use SAS to perform additions, modifications, and deletions to your data sets.
Using operating environment commands to perform these operations makes your
files unusable.

Sorting an Indexed Data File

You can sort an indexed data file only if you direct the output of the SORT
procedure to a new data file so that the original data file remains unchanged.
However, the new data file is not automatically indexed.
 Understanding SAS Indexes 715

Note: If you sort an indexed data file with the FORCE option, the index file is
deleted.

Adding Observations to an Indexed Data File

Adding observations to an indexed data file requires additional processing. SAS
automatically keeps the values in the index consistent with the values in the data
file.

Multiple Occurrences of Values

An index that is created without the UNIQUE option can result in multiple
occurrences of the same value, which results in multiple RIDs for one value. For
large data files with many multiple occurrences, the list of RIDs for a given value
might require several pages in the index file. Because the RIDs are stored in
physical order, any new observation added to the data file with the given value is
stored at the end of the list of RIDs. Navigating through the index to find the end of
the RID list can cause many I/O operations.
SAS remembers the previous position in the index so that when inserting more
occurrences of the same value, the end of the RID list is found quickly.

Appending Data to an Indexed Data File

SAS provides performance improvements when appending a data file to an indexed
data file. SAS suspends index updates until all observations are added, and then
updates the index with data from the newly added observations. See the APPEND
statement in the DATASETS procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Recovering a Damaged Index

An index can become damaged for many of the same reasons that a data file or
catalog can become damaged. If a data file becomes damaged, use the REPAIR
statement in PROC DATASETS to repair the data file or re-create any missing
indexes. For example:
proc datasets library=mylib;
repair mydata;
run;

Indexes and Integrity Constraints

Integrity constraints can also use indexes. When an integrity constraint that uses an
index is created, if a suitable index already exists, it is used. Otherwise, a new index
is created. When an index is created, it is marked as being “owned” by the creator,
which can be either the user or an integrity constraint.
If either the user or an integrity constraint requests creation of an index that already
exists and is owned by the other, the requestor is also marked as an “owner” of the
index. If an index is owned by both, then a request by either to delete the index
results in removing only the requestor as owner. The index is deleted only after both
the integrity constraint and the user have requested the index's deletion. A note in
the log indicates when an index cannot be deleted.
 716 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

Indexes and CEDA Processing

When processing a SAS data file with CEDA, indexes are not supported. For
example, if you move a SAS data file with a defined index from one operating
environment like Windows to a different operating environment like UNIX, CEDA
translates the file for you, but the index is not available. Therefore, WHERE
optimization for the file is not supported.
For information about CEDA, see Chapter 34, “Processing Data Using Cross-
Environment Data Access (CEDA),” on page 765.

Extended Attributes

Definition
You can think of extended attributes as customized metadata for your SAS files.
Whereas common SAS attributes such as Labels for data sets, or Length and Label
for variables are predefined SAS system attributes, extended attributes are
attributes that you define yourself. They are organized into name-value pairs and
are associated with either a variable within a SAS data set or a SAS data set in
general. Extended attributes are organized into (name, value) pairs and for the
BASE engine, their data is stored in a separate SAS data file with file extension
sas7bxat.

Enabling and Manipulating Extended Attributes

You can create, add, delete, update, remove, and specify options for extended
attributes using various XATTR statements in the DATASETS procedure. You can
also use PROC CONTENTS to display data set and variable extended attributes.
Only the V9 engine supports extended attributes. Under engines that do not support
extended attributes, if you copy a data set with the DATA step, the COPY
procedure, or the COPY statement of the DATASETS procedure, extended
attributes are dropped and a warning is written to the log. For more information
about extended attributes, see “Extended Attributes” in Base SAS Procedures
Guide.
The following output shows the results of running PROC CONTENTS on a SAS
data set with extended attributes.
 Compressing Data Files 717

Output 28.7 PROC CONTENTS Output Showing List of Extended Attributes

The CONTENTS procedure and the DATASETS procedure produce the following
error when the .sas7bxat (extended attributes) file is absent from the directory and
extended attributes were defined:

ERROR: File libref.dsname_EXT.EXTATTR does not exist.

Compressing Data Files

Definition of Compression
Compressing a file is a process that reduces the number of bytes required to
represent each observation. In a compressed file, each observation is a variable-
length record, while in an uncompressed file, each observation is a fixed-length
record.
Advantages of compressing a file include the following:
n reduced storage requirements for the file

n less I/O operations necessary to read from or write to the data during processing
 718 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files

There are disadvantages to compressing a file. For example:

n More CPU resources are required to read a compressed file because of the
overhead of uncompressing each observation.
n There are situations when the resulting file size can increase rather than
decrease.

Requesting Compression
By default, a SAS data file is not compressed. To compress, you can use these
options:
n COMPRESS= system option to compress all data files that are created during a
SAS session
n COMPRESS= option in the LIBNAME statement to compress all data files for a
particular SAS library
n COMPRESS= data set option to compress an individual data file

To compress a data file, you can specify one of the following:

n COMPRESS=CHAR to use the RLE (Run Length Encoding) compression
algorithm
n COMPRESS=BINARY to use the RDC (Ross Data Compression) algorithm

When you create a compressed data file, SAS writes a note to the log indicating the
percentage of reduction that is obtained by compressing the file. SAS obtains the
compression percentage by comparing the size of the compressed file with the size
of an uncompressed file of the same page size and record count.
After a file is compressed, the setting is a permanent attribute of the file. This means
that you must re-create the file to change the setting. That is, to uncompress a file,
specify COMPRESS=NO for a DATA step that copies the compressed data file.
For more information about the COMPRESS= data set option, see SAS Data Set
Options: Reference. For more information about the COMPRESS= option in the
LIBNAME statement, see SAS Global Statements: Reference. For more information
about the COMPRESS= system option, see SAS System Options: Reference.

Disabling a Compression Request

The V9 engine compresses one observation at a time, and adds a fixed-length block
of data to each observation. Because of the additional block of data, some data sets
would result in a larger file size if compressed. For example, a data set with an
extremely short observation length would not benefit from compression.
When a request is made to compress a data set, SAS attempts to determine
whether compression would increase the size of the file. SAS examines the lengths
of the variables. If the additional data that is needed for compression would increase
the file size, then compression is disabled and a message is written to the SAS log.
The size of the additional data depends on the operating environment. For example,
on Windows the additional data is 12 bytes per observation for 32-bit and 64-bit
SAS. On 64-bit UNIX, the additional data is 24 bytes.
 Compressing Data Files 719

For example, here is a simple data set for which SAS determines that it is not
possible for the compressed file to be smaller than an uncompressed one:
data one (compress=char);
length x y $2;
input x y;
datalines;
ab cd
;
The following output is written to the SAS log:
Example Code 28.1 SAS Log Output When Compression Request Is Disabled

NOTE: Compression was disabled for data set WORK.ONE because compression
overhead would increase the size of the data set.
NOTE: The data set WORK.ONE has 1 observations and 2 variables.
720 Chapter 28 / SAS Data Files
 721

29
SAS Views

SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Definition of SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Benefits of Using SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
When to Use SAS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
Definition of a DATA Step View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
Creating DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
What Can You Do with a DATA Step View? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Differences between DATA Step Views and Stored Compiled
DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Restrictions and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Performance Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726
Example 1: Merging Data to Produce Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726
Example 2: Producing Additional Output Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
PROC SQL Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Comparing DATA Step and PROC SQL Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
SAS/ACCESS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

SAS Views

Definition of SAS Views

A SAS view is a type of SAS data set that retrieves data values from other files. A
SAS view contains only descriptor information such as the data types and lengths of
the variables (columns). A SAS view also contains information that is required for
retrieving data values from other SAS data sets or from files that are stored in other
software vendors' file formats. SAS views are of member type VIEW. In most cases,
you can use a SAS view as if it were a SAS data file.
There are two general types of SAS views:
native view
is a SAS view that is created either with a DATA step or with PROC SQL.
 722 Chapter 29 / SAS Views

interface view
is a SAS view that is created with SAS/ACCESS software. An interface view can
read data from or write data to a database management system (DBMS) such as
DB2 or ORACLE. Interface views are also referred to as SAS/ACCESS views. In
order to use SAS/ACCESS views, you must have a license for SAS/ACCESS
software.
Note: You can create native views that access certain DBMS data by using a
SAS/ACCESS dynamic LIBNAME engine. See “SAS/ACCESS Views” on page
730, or the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS for more information.

Benefits of Using SAS Views

SAS views provide the following benefits:
n Instead of using multiple DATA steps to merge SAS data sets by common
variables, you can construct a SAS view that performs a multi-table join.
n You can save disk space by storing a SAS view definition. The view definition
stores only the instructions for where to find the data and how it is formatted, not
the actual data.
n SAS views can ensure that the input data sets are always current because data
is derived from SAS views at execution time.
n Since SAS views can select data from many sources, once a SAS view is
created, it can provide prepackaged information to the information community
without the need for additional programming.
n SAS views can reduce the impact of data design changes on users. For
example, you can change a query that is stored in a SAS view without changing
the characteristics of the view's result.
n With SAS/CONNECT software, a SAS view can join SAS data sets that reside
on different host computers, presenting you with an integrated view of distributed
company data.
The following figure shows native and interface SAS views and their relationship to
SAS data files:
 When to Use SAS Views 723

Figure 29.1 Native and Interface SAS Views

SAS Data Sets

SAS Data Files SAS Data Views

(Data) (View)

DATA Step View

(DATA Step)

Native Interface
(PROC SQL) (SAS/ACCESS)

You can use SAS views in the following ways:

n as input to other DATA steps or PROC steps

n to migrate data to SAS data files or to database management systems that are
supported by SAS
n in combination with other data sources using PROC SQL

n as pre-assembled sets of data for users of SAS/ASSIST software, enabling them

to perform data management, analysis, and reporting tasks regardless of how
the data is stored

When to Use SAS Views

Consider the following in order to determine whether a SAS data file or a SAS view
is better for your purposes:
n Data files use additional disk space; SAS views use additional processing time.

n Data file variables can be sorted and indexed before using; SAS views must
process data in its existing form during execution.
 724 Chapter 29 / SAS Views

DATA Step Views

Definition of a DATA Step View

A DATA step view is a native view that has the broadest scope of any SAS view. It
contains a stored DATA step program that can read data from a variety of sources,
including:
n raw data files
n SAS data files

n PROC SQL views

n SAS/ACCESS views

n DB2, ORACLE, or other DBMS data

Creating DATA Step Views

In order to create a DATA step view, specify the VIEW= option after the final data set
name in the DATA statement. The VIEW= option tells SAS to compile, but not to
execute, the source program and to store the compiled code in the input DATA step
view that is named in the option.
For example, the following statements create a DATA step view named Dept.A:
libname dept 'SAS-library';

data dept.a / view=dept.a;

… more SAS statements …
run;

If the SAS view exists in a SAS library and if you use the same member name to
create a new view definition, then the old SAS view is overwritten.
Beginning with SAS 8, DATA step views retain source statements. You can retrieve
these statements using the DESCRIBE statement. The following example uses the
DESCRIBE statement in a DATA step view in order to write a copy of the source
code to the SAS log:
data view=inventory;
describe;
run;

For more information about how to create SAS views and use the DESCRIBE
statement, see the DATA statement in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
 DATA Step Views 725

What Can You Do with a DATA Step View?

Using a DATA step view, you can do the following:
n directly process any file that can be read with an INPUT statement

n read other SAS data sets

n generate data without using any external data sources and without creating an
intermediate SAS data file
Because DATA step views are generated by the DATA step, they can manipulate
and manage input data from a variety of sources including data from external files
and data from existing SAS data sets. The scope of what you can do with a DATA
step view, therefore, is much broader than that of other types of SAS views.

Differences between DATA Step Views and Stored

Compiled DATA Step Programs
DATA step views and stored compiled DATA step programs differ in the following
ways:
n a DATA step view is implicitly executed when it is referenced as an input data set
by another DATA or PROC step. Its main purpose is to provide data, one record
at a time, to the invoking procedure or DATA step.
n a stored compiled DATA step program is explicitly executed when it is specified
by the PGM= option in a DATA statement. Its purpose is usually a more specific
task, such as creating SAS data files, or originating a report.
For more information about stored compiled DATA step programs, see Chapter 30,
“Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs,” on page 731.

Restrictions and Requirements

Global statements do not apply to a DATA step view. Global statements such as the
FILENAME, FOOTNOTE, LIBNAME, OPTIONS, and TITLE statements, even if
included in the DATA step that created the SAS view, have no effect on the SAS
view. If you do include global statements in your source program statements, SAS
stores the DATA step view but not the global statements. When the view is
referenced, actual execution can differ from the intended execution.
When a view is created, the labels for the variable that it returns are also created. If
a DATA step view reads a data set that contains variable labels and a label is
changed after the view is created, any procedure output will show the original labels.
The view must be recompiled in order for the procedure output to reflect the new
variable labels.
 726 Chapter 29 / SAS Views

Performance Considerations
n DATA step code executes each time you use a DATA step view, which might add
considerable system overhead. In addition, you run the risk of having your data
change between steps. However, this also means that you get the most recent
data available—that is, data when the view is executed compared to data when
the view was compiled.
n Depending on how many reads or passes on the data are required, processing
overhead increases.
o When one sequential pass is requested, no data set is created. Compared to
traditional methods of processing, making one pass improves performance
by decreasing the number of input/output operations and elapsed time.
o When random access or multiple passes are requested, the SAS view must
build a spill file that contains all generated observations so that subsequent
passes can read the same data that was read by previous passes. In some
instances, the view SPILL= data set option can reduce the size of a spill file.
n The VBUFSIZE= system option and the OBSBUF= data set option can be used
to speed up execution time when processing DATA step views. For information
about optimizing performance with SAS views, see “Setting VBUFSIZE= and
OBSBUF= for SAS DATA Step Views” on page 225.
For more information about the VBUFSIZE= system option, see “VBUFSIZE=
System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference. For more information about
the OBSBUF data set option, see “OBSBUF= Data Set Option” in SAS Data Set
Options: Reference.

Example 1: Merging Data to Produce Reports

If you want to merge data from multiple files but you do not need to create a file that
contains the combined data, you can create a DATA step view of the combination
for use in subsequent applications.
For example, the following statements define DATA step view MyV9Lib.QTR1,
which merges the sales figures in the data file V9lr.Clothes with the sales figures in
the data file V9lr.Equip. The data files are merged by date, and the value of the
variable Total is computed for each date.
libname myv9lib 'SAS-library';
libname v9lr 'SAS-library';

data myv9lib.qtr1 / view=myv9lib.qtr1;

merge v9lr.clothes v9lr.equip;
by date;
total = cl_v9lr + eq_v9lr;
run;

The following PRINT procedure executes the view:

proc print data=myv9lib.qtr1;
run;
 DATA Step Views 727

Example 2: Producing Additional Output Files

In this example, the DATA step reads an external file named Student, which
contains student data, and then writes observations that contain known problems to
data set MyV9Lib.Problems. The DATA step also defines the DATA step view
MyV9Lib.Class. The DATA step does not create a SAS data file named
MyV9Lib.Class.
The FILENAME and the LIBNAME statements are both global statements and must
exist outside of the code that defines the SAS view, because SAS views cannot
contain global statements.
Here are the contents of the external file Student:
dutterono MAT 3
lyndenall MAT
frisbee MAT 94
SCI 95
zymeco ART 96
dimette 94
mesipho SCI 55
merlbeest ART 97
scafernia 91
gilhoolie ART 303
misqualle ART 44
xylotone SCI 96

Here is the DATA step that produces the output files:

libname myv9lib 'SAS-library';
filename student 'external-file-specification'; 1

data myv9lib.class(keep=name major credits)

myv9lib.problems(keep=code date) / view=myv9lib.class; 2
infile student;
input name $ 1-10 major $ 12-14 credits 16-18; 3

select;
when (name=' ' or major=' ' or credits=.)
do code=01;
date=datetime();
output myv9lib.problems;
end; 4
when (0<credits<90)
do code=02;
date=datetime();
output myv9lib.problems;
end; 5
otherwise
output myv9lib.class;
end;
run; 6
The following example shows how to print the files created previously. The
MyV9Lib.Class contains the observations from Student that were processed without
728 Chapter 29 / SAS Views

errors. The data file MyV9Lib.Problems contains the observations that contain
errors.
If the data frequently changes in the source data file Student, there would be
different effects on the returned values in the SAS view and the SAS data file:
n New records, if error free, that are added to the source data file Student between
the time you run the DATA step in the previous example and the time you
execute PROC PRINT in the following example, appear in the SAS view
MyV9Lib.Class.
n On the other hand, if any new records, failing the error tests, were added to
Student, the new records would not show up in the SAS data file
MyV9Lib.Problems, until you run the DATA step again.
A SAS view dynamically updates from its source files each time it is used. A SAS
data file, each time it is used, remains the same, unless new data is written directly
to the file.
filename student 'external-file-specification';
libname myv9lib 'SAS–library'; 7

proc print data=myv9lib.class;

run; 8

proc print data=myv9lib.problems;

format date datetime18.;
run; 9

1 Reference a library called MyV9Lib. Tell SAS where a file that associated with
the fileref Student is stored.
2 Create a data file called Problems and a SAS view called Class and specify the
column names for both data sets.
3 Select the file that is referenced by the fileref Student and select the data in
character format that resides in the specified positions in the file. Assign column
names.
4 When data in the column Name, Major, or Credits is blank or missing, assign a
code of 01 to the observation where the missing value occurred. Also assign a
SAS datetime code to the error and place the information in a file called
Problems.
5 When the number of credits is greater than zero, but less than ninety, list the
observations as code 02 in the file called Problems and assign a SAS datetime
code to the observation.
6 Place all other observations, which have none of the specified errors, in the SAS
view called MyV9Lib.Class.
7 The FILENAME statement assigns the fileref Student to an external file. The
LIBNAME statement assigns the libref MyV9Lib to a SAS library.
8 The first PROC PRINT calls the SAS view MyV9Lib.Class. The SAS view
extracts data on the fly from the file referenced as Student.
9 This PROC PRINT prints the contents of the data file MyV9Lib.Problems.
 Comparing DATA Step and PROC SQL Views 729

PROC SQL Views

A PROC SQL view is a PROC SQL query expression that is given a name and
stored for later use. When you use a PROC SQL view in a SAS program, the view
derives its data from the data sets (often referred to as tables) or SAS views listed in
its FROM clause. The data that is accessed by the view is a subset or superset of
the data in its underlying data sets or SAS views.
A PROC SQL view can read or write data from:
n DATA step views
n SAS data files

n other PROC SQL views

n SAS/ACCESS views

n DB2, ORACLE, or other DBMS data

For complete documentation on how to create and use PROC SQL views, see “SQL
Procedure” in SAS SQL Procedure User’s Guide.
For information about using PROC SQL views created in an earlier release, see
Chapter 35, “Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration,” on page 779.

Comparing DATA Step and PROC SQL Views

To help you decide between a DATA step view and a PROC SQL view, consider the
characteristics of each type of SAS view:
n DATA step views
o DATA step views are versatile because they use DATA step processing,
including DO loops and IF-THEN/ELSE statements.
o DATA step views do not have Update capability. That is, they cannot directly
change the data that they access.
o There is no way to qualify the data in a DATA step view before using it.
Therefore, even if you need only part of the data in your SAS view, you must
load into memory the entire DATA step view and discard everything that you
do not need.
o When a WHERE clause is applied to a DATA step view, the WHERE clause
is evaluated by the DATA step view engine.
n PROC SQL views
o PROC SQL views can combine data from many different file formats.
o PROC SQL views can both read and update the data that they reference.
o PROC SQL supports more types of WHERE clauses than are available in
DATA step processing and has a CONNECT TO component that enables you
 730 Chapter 29 / SAS Views

to easily send SQL statements and pass data to a DBMS by using the pass-
through facility.
o You can also use the SQL language to subset your data before processing it.
This capability saves memory when you have a large SAS view, but need to
select only a small portion of the data contained in the view.
o PROC SQL views do not use DATA step programming.
o When a WHERE clause is applied to a PROC SQL view, the WHERE clause
might be evaluated by the PROC SQL view engine, or the WHERE clause
might be evaluated by the underlying library's engine.

SAS/ACCESS Views
A SAS/ACCESS view is an interface view, also called a view descriptor, which
accesses DBMS data that is defined in a corresponding access descriptor.
Using SAS/ACCESS software, you can create an access descriptor and one or
more view descriptors in order to define and access some or all of the data
described by one DBMS table or DBMS view. You can also use view descriptors in
order to update DBMS data, with certain restrictions.
In addition, some SAS/ACCESS products provide a dynamic LIBNAME engine
interface. If available, it is recommended that you use SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME
statement to assign a SAS libref to your DBMS data because it is more efficient and
easier to use than access descriptors and view descriptors. The SAS/ACCESS
dynamic LIBNAME engine enables you to treat DBMS data as if it were SAS data by
assigning a SAS libref to DBMS objects. Using a SAS/ACCESS dynamic LIBNAME
engine means that you can use both native DATA step views and native PROC SQL
views to access DBMS data instead of view descriptors.
See Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS Software,” on page 757 or the
SAS/ACCESS documentation for your database for more information about
SAS/ACCESS features.
For information about using SAS/ACCESS view descriptors created in an earlier
release, see Chapter 35, “Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration,” on page
779.
Note: Starting in SAS 9, PROC SQL views are the preferred way to access
relational DBMS data. You can convert existing SAS/ACCESS view descriptors into
PROC SQL views by using the CV2VIEW procedure. This enables you to use the
LIBNAME statement to access your data. See the CV2VIEW Procedure in
SAS/ACCESS for Relational Databases: Reference.
 731

30
Stored Compiled DATA Step
Programs

Definition of a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Uses for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Restrictions and Requirements for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . 732
How SAS Processes Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Syntax for Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Process to Compile and Store a DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Example: Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Syntax for Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Process to Execute a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Using Global Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Redirecting Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Printing the Source Code of a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Example: Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Differences between Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs and
DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Example of DATA Step Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Quality Control Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Definition of a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program
A stored compiled DATA step program is a SAS file that contains a DATA step
program that has been compiled and then stored in a SAS library. You can execute
stored compiled programs as needed, without having to recompile them. Stored
compiled DATA step programs are of member type PROGRAM.
Note: Stored compiled programs are available for DATA step applications only.
Your stored programs can contain all SAS language elements except global
statements. If you do include global statements in your source program, SAS stores
 732 Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

the compiled program. However, SAS does not store the global statements, and it
does not display a warning message in the SAS log.

Uses for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

The primary use of stored compiled DATA step programs is for executing production
jobs. The advantage of using these DATA step programs is that you can execute
them as needed without investing the resources required for repeated compilation.
The savings are especially significant if the DATA step contains many statements. If
you install a new version of SAS, you do not need to recompile your source code.

Restrictions and Requirements for Stored

Compiled DATA Step Programs
The following restrictions and requirements apply for using stored compiled DATA
step programs:
n Stored compiled DATA step programs are available for DATA step applications
only.
n Stored compiled DATA step program cannot contain global statements. If you do
include global statements such as FILENAME, FOOTNOTE, LIBNAME,
OPTIONS, and TITLE in your source program, SAS stores the compiled program
but not the global statements. SAS does not display a warning message in the
SAS log.
n SAS does not store raw data in the compiled program.

Operating Environment Information: You cannot move a compiled program to an

operating environment that has an incompatible computer architecture. You must,
instead, recompile your source code and store your new compiled program.
You can, however, move your compiled program to a different host computer that
has a compatible architecture.

How SAS Processes Stored Compiled DATA

Step Programs
You first compile the SAS source program and store the compiled code. Then,
execute the compiled code, redirecting the input and output as necessary.
SAS processes the DATA step through the compilation phase and then stores an
intermediate code representation of the program and associated data tables in a
SAS file. SAS processes the intermediate code when it executes the stored
 Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program 733

program. The following figure shows the process for creating a stored compiled
DATA step program.

Figure 30.1 Creating a Stored Compiled Program

Stored Compiled
DATA Step DATA Step
DATA Step
Source Code Compiler
Program

When SAS executes the stored program, it resolves the intermediate code produced
by the compiler and generates the executable machine code for that operating
environment. The following figure shows the process for executing a stored
compiled DATA step program.

Figure 30.2 Executing a Stored Compiled Program

Stored Compiled
DATA Step Executable DATA
DATA Step
Code Generator Step Program
Program

To move, copy, rename, or delete stored programs, use the DATASETS procedure
or the utility windows in your windowing environment.

Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program

Syntax for Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program

The syntax for creating a stored compiled DATA step program is as follows:
DATA data-set-name(s) / PGM=stored-program-name
<(<password-option><SOURCE=source-option>)>;
where
data-set-name
specifies a valid SAS name for the output data set created by the source
program. The name can be a one-level name or a two-level name. You can
specify more than one data set name in the DATA statement.
stored-program-name
specifies a valid SAS name for the SAS file containing the stored program. The
name can be a one-level name, but it is usually a two-level name. Stored
programs are assigned the member type PROGRAM in the SAS library.
password-option
assigns a password to a stored compiled DATA step program.
 734 Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

source-option
enables you to save or encrypt the source code.
For complete information about the DATA statement, see SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

Process to Compile and Store a DATA Step Program

To compile and store a DATA step program, do the following:

1 Write, test, and debug the DATA step program that you want to store.

If you are reading external raw data files or if you write raw data to an external
file, use a fileref rather than the actual filename in your INFILE and FILE
statements so that you can redirect your input and output when the stored
program executes.

2 When the program runs correctly, submit it using the PGM= option in the DATA
statement.
The PGM= option tells SAS to compile, but not execute, the program and to
store the compiled code in the SAS file named in the option. SAS sends a
message to the log when the program is stored.

Note: The default SOURCE=SAVE or SOURCE=ENCRYPT options automatically

save your source code.
Note: If you move your application to another operating environment, you need to
recompile your source code and store your new compiled program.

Example: Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program

The following example uses the information in the input SAS data set In.Sample to
assign a plant type based on a plant code. Note that the global LIBNAME
statements are necessary to identify the storage location for your files, but are not
part of Stored.Sample, the DATA step that SAS stores.
libname in 'SAS-library';
libname stored 'SAS-library';
data out.sample / pgm=stored.sample;
set in.sample;
if code = 1 then
do;
Type='Perennial';
number+4;
end;
else
if code = 2 then
do;
Type='Annual';
number+10;
end;
else
do;
 Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program 735

Type='ERROR';
Number=0;
end;
run;
Example Code 30.1 Partial SAS Log Identifying the Stored DATA Step Program

.
.
.
NOTE: DATA STEP program saved on file Stored.Sample.
NOTE: A stored DATA STEP program cannot run under a different operating
system.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.17 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program

Syntax for Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program
The syntax for executing a stored compiled DATA step program, retrieving source
code, and redirecting input or output, is as follows:
…global SAS statements…
DATA PGM=stored-program-name <(password-option)>;
<DESCRIBE;>
<REDIRECT INPUT | OUTPUT old-name-1 = new-name-1<. . . old-name-n =
new-name-n>;>
<EXECUTE;>
where
global SAS statements
specifies any global SAS statements that are needed by the program when it
executes, such as a FILENAME or a LIBNAME statement that points to input
files or routes output.
stored-program-name
specifies a valid SAS name for the SAS file containing the stored program. The
name can be a one-level name or a two-level name.
password-option
specifies a password that you use to access the stored compiled DATA step
program.
 736 Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

DESCRIBE
is a SAS statement that retrieves source code from a stored compiled DATA step
program or a DATA step view.
Note: To DESCRIBE a password-protected DATA step program, you must
specify its password. If the program has more than one password, you must
specify the most restrictive password (with ALTER being the most restrictive and
READ the least restrictive). For more information, see “DESCRIBE Statement” in
SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
INPUT | OUTPUT
specifies whether you are redirecting input or output data sets. When you specify
INPUT, the REDIRECT statement associates the name of the input data set in
the source program with the name of another SAS data set. When you specify
OUTPUT, the REDIRECT statement associates the name of the output data set
with the name of another SAS data set.
old-name
specifies the name of the input or output data set in the source program.
new-name
specifies the name of the input or output data set that you want SAS to process
for the current execution.
EXECUTE
is a SAS statement that executes a stored compiled DATA step program.
For complete information about the DATA statement, see “DATA Statement” in SAS
DATA Step Statements: Reference.

Process to Execute a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program

To execute a stored compiled DATA step program, follow these steps:

1 Write a DATA step for each execution of the stored program. In this DATA step,
specify the name of the stored program in the PGM= option of the DATA
statement and include an optional password. You can do any of the following
tasks:
n Submit this DATA step as a separate program.

n Include it as part of a larger SAS program that can include other DATA and
procedure (PROC) steps.
n Point to different input and output SAS data sets each time you execute the
stored program by using the REDIRECT statement.

2 Submit the DATA steps. Be sure to end each one with a RUN statement or other
step boundary.

Using Global Statements

You can use global SAS statements such as FILENAME or LIBNAME when you
store or execute a stored compiled DATA step program. However, the global
statements that you use to compile and store a DATA step program are not stored
with the DATA step code.
 Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program 737

Redirecting Output
You can redirect external files using filerefs. You can use the REDIRECT statement
for renaming input and output SAS data sets.
You can use the REDIRECT statement to redirect input and output data to data sets
you specify. Note that the REDIRECT statement is available only for use with stored
compiled DATA step programs.
Note: To redirect input and output stored in external files, include a FILENAME
statement at execution time to associate the fileref in the source program with
different external files.
CAUTION! Use caution when you redirect input data sets. The number and
attributes of variables in the input SAS data sets that you read with the REDIRECT
statement should match those of the input data sets in the SET, MERGE, MODIFY, or
UPDATE statements of the source code. If they do not match, the following occurs:
n If the variable length attributes differ, the length of the variable in the source code
data set determines the length of the variable in the redirected data set.
n If extra variables are present in the redirected data sets, the stored program
stops processing, and an error message is sent to the SAS log.
n If the variable type attributes are different, the stored program stops processing,
and an error message is sent to the SAS log.

Printing the Source Code of a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program
If you use both the DESCRIBE and the EXECUTE statements when you execute a
stored compiled DATA step program, SAS writes the source code to the log. The
following example executes a stored compiled DATA step program. The DESCRIBE
statement in the program writes the source code to the SAS log.
data pgm=stored.sample;
describe;
execute;
run;
 738 Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

Example Code 30.2 Partial SAS Log Showing the Source Code Generated by the
DESCRIBE Statement

190 data pgm=stored.sample;

191 describe;
192 execute;
193 run;
NOTE: DATA step stored program Stored.Sample is defined as:

data out.sample / pgm=stored.sample;

set in.sample;
if code = 1 then
do;
Type='Perennial';
number+4;
end;
else
if code = 2 then
do;
Type='Annual';
number+10;
end;
else
do;
Type='ERROR';
Number=0;
end;
run;

NOTE: DATA STEP program loaded from file Stored.Sample.

NOTE: There were 7 observations read from the data set In.Sample.
NOTE: The data set OUT.SAMPLE has 7 observations and 4 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

For more information about the DESCRIBE statement, see SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference.

Example: Executing a Stored Compiled DATA Step

Program
The following DATA step executes the stored program Stored.Sample created in
“Example: Creating a Stored Compiled DATA Step Program” on page 734. The
REDIRECT statement specifies the source of the input data as BASE.SAMPLE. The
output from this execution of the program is redirected and stored in a data set
named Totals.Sample. “Partial SAS Log Identifying the Redirected Output File” on
page 739 shows part of the SAS log.
libname in 'SAS-library';
libname base 'SAS-library';
libname totals 'SAS-library';
libname stored 'SAS-library';
data pgm=stored.sample;
redirect input in.sample=base.sample;
redirect output out.sample=totals.sample;
 Example of DATA Step Program 739

run;
Example Code 30.3 Partial SAS Log Identifying the Redirected Output File

224 data pgm=stored.sample;

225 redirect input in.sample=base.sample;
226 redirect output out.sample=totals.sample;
227 run;
NOTE: DATA STEP program loaded from file Stored.Sample.
NOTE: There were 7 observations read from the data set BASE.SAMPLE.
NOTE: The data set Totals.Sample has 7 observations and 4 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.12 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

228 proc printto; run;

Differences between Stored Compiled DATA

Step Programs and DATA Step Views
Stored compiled DATA step programs and DATA step views are similar in function.
They both store DATA step programs that can retrieve and process data stored in
other files. Both have the same restrictions and requirements (see “Restrictions and
Requirements for Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs” on page 732). For
information about DATA step views, see “DATA Step Views” on page 724.
Stored compiled DATA step programs and DATA step views differ in the following
ways:
n A stored compiled DATA step program is explicitly executed when it is specified
by the PGM= option in a DATA statement. The stored compiled DATA step is
used primarily in production jobs.
n A DATA step view is implicitly executed when the view is referenced as an input
data set by another DATA or procedure (PROC) step. Its main purpose is to
provide data one record at a time to the invoking procedure or DATA step.
n You can use the REDIRECT statement when you execute a stored compiled
DATA step. You cannot use this statement with DATA step views.

Example of DATA Step Program

Quality Control Application

This example illustrates how to use a stored compiled DATA step program for a
simple quality control application. This application processes several raw data files.
The source program uses the fileref Daily in the INFILE statement. Each DATA step
740 Chapter 30 / Stored Compiled DATA Step Programs

that is used to execute the stored program can include a FILENAME statement to
associate the fileref Daily with a different external file.
The following statements compile and store the program:

libname stored 'SAS-library-1';

data flaws / pgm=stored.flaws;

length Station $ 15;
infile daily;
input Station $ Shift $ Employee $ Flaws;
Total + Flaws;
run;

The following statements execute the stored compiled program, redirect the output,
and print the results:

libname stored 'SAS-library-1';

libname testlib 'SAS-library-2';

data pgm=stored.flaws;
redirect output flaws=testlib.daily;
run;

proc print data=testlib.daily;

title 'Quality Control Report';
run;

Output 30.1 Quality Control Application Output

Note that you can use the TITLE statement when you execute a stored compiled
DATA step program or when you print the results.
 741

31
DICTIONARY Tables

Definition of a DICTIONARY Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

How to View DICTIONARY Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
About Dictionary Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
How to View a DICTIONARY Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
How to View a Summary of a DICTIONARY Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
How to View a Subset of a DICTIONARY Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
DICTIONARY Tables and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Definition of a DICTIONARY Table

A DICTIONARY table is a read-only SAS view that contains information about SAS
libraries, SAS data sets, SAS macros, and external files that are in use or available
in the current SAS session. A DICTIONARY table also contains the settings for SAS
system options that are currently in effect.
When you access a DICTIONARY table, SAS determines the current state of the
SAS session and returns the desired information accordingly. This process is
performed each time a DICTIONARY table is accessed, so that you always have
current information.
DICTIONARY tables can be accessed by a SAS program by using either of these
methods:
n run a PROC SQL query against the table, using the DICTIONARY libref

n use any SAS procedure or the DATA step, referring to the PROC SQL view of
the table in the Sashelp library
For more information about DICTIONARY tables, including a list of available
DICTIONARY tables and their associated Sashelp views, see SAS SQL Procedure
User’s Guide.
 742 Chapter 31 / DICTIONARY Tables

How to View DICTIONARY Tables

About Dictionary Tables

You might want to view the contents of DICTIONARY tables in order to see
information about your current SAS session, before actually using the table in a
DATA step or a SAS procedure.
Some DICTIONARY tables can become quite large. In this case, you might want to
view a part of a DICTIONARY table that contains only the data that you are
interested in. The best way to view part of a DICTIONARY table is to subset the
table using a PROC SQL WHERE clause.

How to View a DICTIONARY Table

Each DICTIONARY table has an associated PROC SQL view in the Sashelp library.
You can see the entire contents of a DICTIONARY table by opening its Sashelp
view with the VIEWTABLE or FSVIEW utilities. This method provides more detail
than you receive in the output of the DESCRIBE TABLE statement, as shown in
“How to View a Summary of a DICTIONARY Table” on page 742.
The following steps describe how to use the VIEWTABLE or FSVIEW utilities to
view a DICTIONARY table in a windowing environment.

1 Invoke the Explorer window in your SAS session.

2 Select the Sashelp library. A list of members in the Sashelp library appears.

3 Select a SAS view with a name that starts with V (for example, VMEMBER).
A VIEWTABLE window appears that contains its contents. (For z/OS, type the
letter 'O' in the command field for the desired member and press Enter. The
FSVIEW window appears with the contents of the view.)

In the VIEWTABLE window the column headings are labels. To see the column
names, select View ð Column Names.

How to View a Summary of a DICTIONARY Table

The DESCRIBE TABLE statement in PROC SQL produces a summary of the
contents of a DICTIONARY table. The following example uses the DESCRIBE
TABLE statement in order to generate a summary for the table
DICTIONARY.INDEXES. (The Sashelp view for this table is Sashelp.VINDEX).
proc sql;
describe table dictionary.indexes;
 How to View DICTIONARY Tables 743

The result of the DESCRIBE TABLE statement appears in the SAS log:
NOTE: SQL table DICTIONARY.INDEXES was created like:

create table DICTIONARY.INDEXES

(
libname char(8) label='Library Name',
memname char(32) label='Member Name',
memtype char(8) label='Member Type',
name char(32) label='Column Name',
idxusage char(9) label='Column Index Type',
indxname char(32) label='Index Name',
indxpos num label='Position of Column in Concatenated Key',
nomiss char(3) label='Nomiss Option',
unique char(3) label='Unique Option
);

n The first word on each line is the column (or variable) name. You need to use
this name when you write a SAS statement that refers to the column (or
variable).
n Following the column name is the specification for the type of variable and the
width of the column.
n The name that follows label= is the column (or variable) label.

After you know how a table is defined, you can use the processing ability of the
PROC SQL WHERE clause in a PROC SQL step to extract a portion of a SAS view.

How to View a Subset of a DICTIONARY Table

When you know that you are accessing a large DICTIONARY and you need to use
only a portion of it, use a PROC SQL WHERE clause in order to extract a subset of
the original. The following PROC SQL statement demonstrates the use of a PROC
SQL WHERE clause in order to extract lines from DICTIONARY.INDEXES.
proc sql;
title 'Subset of the DICTIONARY.INDEX View';
title2 'Rows with Column Name equal to STATE';
select libname, memname, name
from dictionary.indexes
where name = 'STATE';
quit;
The results are shown in the following output:
 744 Chapter 31 / DICTIONARY Tables

Output 31.1 Result of the PROC SQL Subsetting WHERE Statement

Note that many character values in the DICTIONARY tables are stored as all-
uppercase characters; you should design your queries accordingly.
CAUTION! Do not confuse the GENNUM variable value in CONTENTS OUT= data
set with the GEN variable value from DICTIONARY tables. GENNUM from a
CONTENTS procedure or statement refers to a specific generation of a data set. GEN
from DICTIONARY tables refers to the total number of generations for a data set.

DICTIONARY Tables and Performance

When you query a DICTIONARY table, SAS gathers information that is pertinent to
that table. Depending on the DICTIONARY table that is being queried, this process
can include searching libraries, opening tables, and executing SAS views. Unlike
other SAS procedures and the DATA step, PROC SQL can improve this process by
optimizing the query before the select process is launched. Therefore, although it is
possible to access DICTIONARY table information with SAS procedures or using
the DATA step to access Sashelp views, it is often more efficient to use PROC SQL.
For example, the following programs both produce the same result, but the PROC
SQL step runs much faster because the WHERE clause is processed before
opening the tables used by Sashelp.VCOLUMN view:
data mytable;
set sashelp.vcolumn;
where libname='WORK' and memname='SALES';
run;

proc sql;
create table mytable as
select * from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname='WORK' and memname='SALES';
quit;
 How to View DICTIONARY Tables 745

Note: SAS does not maintain DICTIONARY table information between queries.
Each query of a DICTIONARY table launches a new discovery process.
If you are querying the same DICTIONARY table several times in a row, you can get
even faster performance by creating a temporary SAS data set and running your
query against that data set. You can create the temporary data set by using the
DATA step SET statement or PROC SQL CREATE TABLE AS statement.
746 Chapter 31 / DICTIONARY Tables
 747

32
SAS Catalogs

Definition of a SAS Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

SAS Catalog Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Parts of a Catalog Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Accessing Information in Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Tools for Managing SAS Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Profile Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Definition of a Profile Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
How the Information Is Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
How Sasuser.Profile Is Created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
How to Recover Locked or Corrupt Profile Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
Catalog Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Example 1: LIBNAME Catalog Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Example 2: CATNAME Catalog Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Rules for Catalog Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Definition of a SAS Catalog

SAS catalogs are special SAS files that store many different types of information in
smaller units called catalog entries. Each entry has an entry type that identifies its
purpose to SAS. A single SAS catalog can contain several types of catalog entries.
Some catalog entries contain system information such as key definitions. Other
catalog entries contain application information such as window definitions, help
windows, formats, informats, macros, or graphics output. You can list the contents of
a catalog using various SAS features, such as SAS Explorer and PROC CATALOG.
 748 Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs

SAS Catalog Names

Parts of a Catalog Name

SAS catalog entries are fully identified by a four-level name in the following form:
libref.catalog.entry-name.entry-type

You commonly specify the two-level name for an entire catalog, as follows:
libref.catalog

libref
is the logical name of the SAS library to which the catalog belongs.
catalog
is a valid SAS name for the file.
The entry name and entry type are required by some SAS procedures. If the entry
type has been specified elsewhere or if it can be determined from context, you can
use the entry name alone. To specify entry names and entry types, use this form:
entry-name.entry-type

entry-name
is a valid SAS name for the catalog entry.
entry-type
is assigned by SAS when the entry is created.

Accessing Information in Catalogs

In Base SAS software, SAS catalog entries are generally accessed automatically by
SAS when the information stored in them is required for processing. In other SAS
software products, you must specify the catalog entry in various procedures.
Because the requirements differ with the SAS procedure or software product, see
the appropriate procedure or product documentation for details.

Tools for Managing SAS Catalogs

There are several SAS features to help you manage the entries in catalogs. The
CATALOG procedure and the CEXIST function are two features of Base SAS
software. Another tool is SAS Explorer, which enables you to view the contents of
SAS catalogs. Many interactive windowing procedures contain a catalog directory
window for managing entries. The following list summarizes the tools that are
available for managing catalogs:
 Profile Catalog 749

CATALOG procedure
is similar to the DATASETS procedure. Use the CATALOG procedure to copy,
delete, list, and rename entries in catalogs.
CEXIST function
enables you to verify the existence of a SAS catalog or catalog entry. See the
CEXIST function in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference for more
information.
CATALOG window
is a window that you can access at any time in an interactive windowing
environment. It displays the name, type, description, and date of last update for
each entry in the specified catalog. CATALOG window commands enable you to
edit catalog entries. You can also view and edit catalog entries after double-
clicking on a catalog file in SAS Explorer.
catalog directory windows
are available in some procedures in SAS/AF, SAS/FSP, and SAS/GRAPH
software. A catalog directory window lists the same type of information that the
CATALOG window provides: entry name, type, description, and date of last
update. See the description of each interactive windowing procedure for details
about the catalog directory window for that procedure.

Profile Catalog

Definition of a Profile Catalog

The Profile catalog (Sasuser.Profile) is a catalog that is available for customizing
how you work with SAS. SAS uses this catalog to store function key definitions,
fonts for graphics applications, window attributes, and other information from
interactive windowing procedures.

How the Information Is Used

The information in the Sasuser.Profile catalog is accessed automatically by SAS
when you need it for processing. For example, each time you enter the KEYS
window and change the settings, SAS stores the new settings with the KEYS entry
type. Similarly, if you change and save the attributes for interactive window
procedures, the changes are stored under the appropriate entry name and type.
When you use the window or procedure, SAS then looks for information in the
Profile catalog.

How Sasuser.Profile Is Created

SAS creates the Profile catalog the first time it tries to refer to it and discovers that it
does not exist. If you are using an interactive windowing environment, this occurs
 750 Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs

during system initialization in your first SAS session. If you use one of the other
modes of execution, the Profile catalog is created the first time you execute a SAS
procedure that requires it.
At SAS start-up, SAS checks for an existing uncorrupted Sasuser.Profile catalog. If
this catalog is found, then SAS copies the Sasuser.Profile catalog to
Sasuser.Profbak. The backup is used if the Sasuser.Profile catalog becomes
corrupted. For more information, see “How to Recover Locked or Corrupt Profile
Catalogs” on page 750.
Operating Environment Information: The Sasuser library is implemented
differently in various operating environments. See the SAS documentation for your
host system for more information about how the Sasuser library is created.

Default Settings
The default settings for your SAS session are stored in several catalogs in the
Sashelp installation library. If you do not make any changes to key settings or other
options, SAS uses the default settings. If you make changes, the new information is
stored in your Sasuser.Profile catalog. To restore the original default settings, use
the CATALOG procedure or the CATALOG window to delete the appropriate entries
from your Profile catalog. By default, SAS then uses the corresponding entry from
the Sashelp library.
During SAS sessions, you can make customizations, such as window resizing and
positioning, and save them to Sasuser.Profile.

How to Recover Locked or Corrupt Profile Catalogs

Occasionally, a Sasuser.Profile catalog becomes locked or corrupted. SAS uses
Sashelp.Profile and Sasuser.Profbak to replace the locked or corrupted catalog.
If your Sasuser.Profile catalog is locked, SAS checks for Sashelp.Profile. If
Sashelp.Profile exists, SAS copies it to Work.Profile and then saves the
customizations in Work.Profile instead of in Sasuser.Profile. The following notes
appear in the SAS log:
ERROR: Expecting page 1, got page -1 instead.
ERROR: Page validation error while reading SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG.
NOTE: Unable to open SASUSER.PROFILE. WORK.PROFILE will be opened instead.
NOTE: SASHELP.PROFILE has been copied to WORK.PROFILE.
NOTE: All profile changes will be lost at the end of the session.

If your Sasuser.Profile catalog is corrupted, SAS copies the corrupted catalog to

Sasuser.Badpro. SAS then checks for Sasuser.Profbak. If Sasuser.Profbak exists,
SAS copies it to Sasuser.Profile. Any changes made to the Sasuser.Profile catalog
during the previous session is lost. The following notes appear in the SAS log:
ERROR: Expecting page 1, got page -1 instead.
ERROR: Page validation error while reading SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG.
NOTE: A corrupt SASUSER.PROFILE has been detected. A PROFILE catalog can
become corrupt when a SAS session is prematurely terminated.
NOTE: SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG has been renamed to SASUSER.BADPRO.CATALOG.
NOTE: SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG has been restored from SASUSER.PROFBAK.CATALOG.
 Catalog Concatenation 751

NOTE: Changes made to SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG during the previous SAS session

have been lost. The type of data stored in the PROFILE catalog is
typically related to SAS session customizations such as key
definitions, fonts for graphics, and window attributes.

If your Sasuser.Profile catalog is corrupted and there is no Sasuser.Profbak, SAS

checks for Sashelp.Profile. If Sashelp.Profile exists, SAS copies it to Work.Profile
and then saves the customizations in Work.Profile instead of in Sasuser.Profile. The
following notes appear in the SAS log:
ERROR: Expecting page 1, got page -1 instead.
ERROR: Page validation error while reading SASUSER.PROFILE.CATALOG.
NOTE: Unable to open SASUSER.PROFILE. WORK.PROFILE will be opened instead.
NOTE: SASHELP.PROFILE has been copied to WORK.PROFILE.
NOTE: All profile changes will be lost at the end of the session.

Catalog Concatenation

Definitions
You can logically combine two or more SAS catalogs by concatenating them. This
enables you to access the contents of several catalogs, using one catalog name.
There are two ways to concatenate catalogs, using the LIBNAME statement and
CATNAME statement.
LIBNAME catalog concatenation
results from a concatenation of libraries through a LIBNAME statement. When
two or more libraries are logically combined through concatenation, any catalogs
with the same name in each library become logically combined as well.
CATNAME catalog concatenation
is a concatenation that is specified by the global CATNAME statement in which
the catalogs to be concatenated are specifically named. During CATNAME
catalog concatenation, a logical catalog is set up in memory.

Example 1: LIBNAME Catalog Concatenation

This LIBNAME statement concatenates the two SAS libraries:
libname both ('SAS-library-1' 'SAS-library-2');

Members of Library 1 Members of Library 2

MyCat.CATALOG MyCat.CATALOG

Table1.DATA MyCat2.CATALOG

Table3.DATA Table1.DATA
752 Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs

Members of Library 1 Members of Library 2

Table1.INDEX

Table2.DATA

Table2.INDEX

The concatenated libref Both would have the following:

Concatenated Libref Both

MyCat.CATALOG (from library 1 and 2)

MyCat2.CATALOG (from library 2)

Table1.DATA (from library 1)

Table2.DATA (from library 2)

Table2.INDEX (from library 2)

Table3.DATA (from library 1)

Notice that Table1.INDEX does not appear in the concatenation but Table2.INDEX
does appear. SAS suppresses listing the index when its associated data file is not
part of the concatenation.
So what happened to the catalogs when the libraries were concatenated? A
resulting catalog now exists logically in memory, with the full name
Both.MyCat.CATALOG. This catalog combines each of the two physical catalogs
residing in SAS-library-1 and SAS-library-2, called MyCat.CATALOG.
To understand the contents of the concatenation Both.MyCat, first look at the
contents of both parts of the concatenation. Assume that the two original
MyCat.CATALOG files contain the following:

Contents of MyCat.CATALOG in
Contents of MyCat.CATALOG in Library 1 Library 2

A.FRAME A.GRSEG

C.FRAME B.FRAME

C.FRAME

Then the combined catalog Both.MyCat contains the following:

Both.MyCat

A.GRSEG (from library 2)

A.FRAME (from library 1)

 Catalog Concatenation 753

Both.MyCat

B.FRAME (from library 2)

C.FRAME (from library 1)

Example 2: CATNAME Catalog Concatenation

The syntax of the CATNAME statement is:
CATNAME libref.catref
(libref-1.catalog-1 (ACCESS=READONLY)
libref-n.catalog-n (ACCESS=READONLY));

To disassociate a concatenated catalog the syntax is:

CATNAME libref.catref | _ALL_ CLEAR;

In the following example, there must be a libref that is defined and named CatDog.
The libref CatDog establishes the scope for the CATNAME concatenation definition.
Note: If a file in CatDog named Combined.CATALOG already exists, it becomes
inaccessible until the CATNAME concatenation CatDog.Combined is cleared.

Members of Library 1 Members of Library 2

MyCat.CATALOG MyDog.CATALOG

Table1.DATA MyCat2.CATALOG

Table3.DATA Table1.DATA

Table1.INDEX

Table2.DATA

Table2.INDEX

If you issue the following statement,

catname catdog.combined
(library1.mycat (access=readonly)
library2.mydog (access=readonly));

then the concatenated catalog CatDog.Combined combines the following catalogs:

Concatenated catalog CatDog.Combined

MyCat.CATALOG (from library1)

MyDog.CATALOG (from library2)

 754 Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs

Note: In CATNAME concatenation only the named catalogs are combined. In

LIBNAME concatenation, any catalogs that have the same name in their respective
libraries are concatenated when those libraries are concatenated.
The previous CATNAME statement creates a catalog that exists logically in memory.
This catalog, named CatDog.Combined.CATALOG, combines the two physical
catalogs residing in library1 and library2, called MyCat.CATALOG and
MyDog.CATALOG respectively.
To understand the contents of the concatenation Combined.CATALOG, first look at
the contents of both parts of the concatenation. The two original catalog files contain
the following entries:

MyCat.CATALOG MyDog.CATALOG
Library 1 Library 2

A.FRAME A.GRSEG

C.FRAME B.FRAME

C.FRAME

The concatenated catalog Combined contains:

Combined.CATALOG contents

A.GRSEG (from MyDog)

A.FRAME (from MyCat)

B.FRAME (from MyDog)

C.FRAME (from MyCat)

Rules for Catalog Concatenation

The rules for catalog concatenation are the same, whether the catalogs are
concatenated using the LIBNAME statement or the CATNAME statement.
n When a catalog entry is open for input or update, the parts are searched and the
first occurrence of the specified entry is used.
n When an item is open for output, it is created in the catalog that is listed first in
the concatenation.
Note: A new catalog entry is created in the first catalog even if there is an item
with the same name in another part of the concatenation.
Note: If the first catalog in a concatenation that is opened for update does not
exist, the item is written to the next catalog that exists in the concatenation.
n When you want to delete or rename a catalog entry, only the first occurrence of
the entry is affected.
 Catalog Concatenation 755

n Any time a list of catalog entries is displayed, only one occurrence of the catalog
entry is shown.
Note: Even if a catalog entry occurs multiple times in the concatenation, only
the first occurrence is shown.
756 Chapter 32 / SAS Catalogs
 757

33
About SAS/ACCESS Software

Definition of SAS/ACCESS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Dynamic LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Using Data Set Options with SAS/ACCESS Librefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Embedding a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME Statement in a PROC SQL View . . . . . . . . 759
SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759
ACCESS Procedure and Interface View Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760
DBLOAD Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Interface DATA Step Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762

Definition of SAS/ACCESS Software

SAS/ACCESS software
enables you to read and write data to and from other vendors' database
management systems (DBMS), as well as from some PC file formats. Depending
on your DBMS, a SAS/ACCESS product might provide one or more of the
following:
n a dynamic LIBNAME engine

n the SQL pass-through facility

n the ACCESS procedure and interface view engine

n the DBLOAD procedure

n an interface DATA step engine

These interfaces are described in this section. Each SAS/ACCESS product

provides one or more of these interfaces for each supported DBMS. See
Chapter 37, “SAS Engines,” on page 803 for more information about SAS
engines.
Note: To use the SAS/ACCESS features described in this section, you must license
SAS/ACCESS software. See the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS for
full documentation of the features described in this section.
 758 Chapter 33 / About SAS/ACCESS Software

Dynamic LIBNAME Engine

SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME Statement

Beginning in SAS 7, you can associate a SAS libref directly with a database,
schema, server, or group of tables and SAS views, depending on your DBMS. To
assign a libref to DBMS data, you must use the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement,
which has syntax and options that are different from the Base SAS LIBNAME
statement. For example, to connect to an ORACLE database, you might use the
following SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement:
libname mydblib oracle user=smith password=secret path='myoracleserver';

This LIBNAME statement connects to ORACLE by specifying the ORACLE

connection options: USER=, PASSWORD=, and PATH=. In addition to the
connection options, you can specify SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME options that control
the type of database connection that is made. You can use additional options to
control how your data is processed.
You can use a DATA step, SAS procedures, or the Explorer window to view and
update the DBMS data associated with the libref, or use the DATASETS and
CONTENTS procedures to view information about the DBMS objects.
See your SAS/ACCESS documentation for a full listing of the SAS/ACCESS
LIBNAME options that can be used with librefs that refer to DBMS data.

Using Data Set Options with SAS/ACCESS Librefs

After you have assigned a libref to your DBMS data, you can use SAS/ACCESS
data set options, and some of the Base SAS data set options, on the data. The
following example associates a libref with DB2 data and uses the SQL procedure to
query the data:
libname mydb2lib db2;

proc sql;
select *
from mydb2lib.employees(drop=salary)
where dept='Accounting';
quit;

The LIBNAME statement connects to DB2. You can reference a DBMS object, in
this case, a DB2 table, by specifying a two-level name that consists of the libref and
the DBMS object name. The DROP= data set option causes the SALARY column of
the EMPLOYEES table on DB2 to be excluded from the data that is returned by the
query.
See your SAS/ACCESS documentation for a full listing of the SAS/ACCESS data
set options and the Base SAS data set options that can be used on data sets that
refer to DBMS data.
 SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility 759

Embedding a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME Statement in a

PROC SQL View
You can issue a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement by itself, as shown in the
previous examples, or as part of a CREATE VIEW statement in PROC SQL. The
USING clause of the CREATE VIEW statement enables you to store DBMS
connection information in a SAS view by embedding a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME
statement inside the SAS view. The following example uses an embedded
SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement:
libname viewlib 'SAS-library';

proc sql;
create view viewlib.emp_view as
select *
from mydblib.employees
using libname mydblib oracle user=smith password=secret
path='myoraclepath';
quit;

When PROC SQL executes the SAS view, the SELECT statement assigns the libref
and establishes the connection to the DBMS. The scope of the libref is local to the
SAS view and does not conflict with identically named librefs that might exist in the
SAS session. When the query finishes, the connection is terminated and the libref is
deassigned.
Note: You can also embed a Base SAS LIBNAME statement in a PROC SQL view.

SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility

The SQL Procedure pass-through facility is an extension of the SQL procedure that
enables you to send DBMS-specific statements to a DBMS and to retrieve DBMS
data. You specify DBMS SQL syntax instead of SAS SQL syntax when you use the
pass-through facility. You can use pass-through facility statements in a PROC SQL
query or store them in a PROC SQL view.
The pass-through facility consists of three statements and one component:
n The CONNECT statement establishes a connection to the DBMS.

n The EXECUTE statement sends dynamic, non-query DBMS-specific SQL

statements to the DBMS.
n The CONNECTION TO component in the FROM clause of a PROC SQL
SELECT statement retrieves data directly from a DBMS.
n The DISCONNECT statement terminates the connection to the DBMS.

The following pass-through facility example sends a query to an ORACLE database

for processing:
proc sql;
 760 Chapter 33 / About SAS/ACCESS Software

connect to oracle as myconn (user=smith password=secret

path='myoracleserver');

select *
from connection to myconn
(select empid, lastname, firstname, salary
from employees
where salary>75000);

disconnect from myconn;

quit;

The example uses the pass-through CONNECT statement to establish a connection

with an ORACLE database with the specified values for the USER=, PASSWORD=,
and PATH= arguments. The CONNECTION TO component in the FROM clause of
the SELECT statement enables data to be retrieved from the database. The DBMS-
specific statement that is sent to ORACLE is enclosed in parentheses. The
DISCONNECT statement terminates the connection to ORACLE.
To store the same query in a PROC SQL, use the CREATE VIEW statement:
libname viewlib
'SAS-library';

proc sql;
connect to oracle as myconn (user=smith password=secret
path='myoracleserver');

create view viewlib.salary as

select *
from connection to myconn
(select empid, lastname, firstname, salary
from employees
where salary>75000);

disconnect from myconn;

quit;

ACCESS Procedure and Interface View Engine

The ACCESS procedure enables you to create access descriptors, which are SAS
files of member type ACCESS. They describe data that is stored in a DBMS in a
format that SAS can understand. Access descriptors enable you to create
SAS/ACCESS views, called view descriptors. View descriptors are files of member
type VIEW that function in the same way as SAS views that are created with PROC
SQL, as described in “Embedding a SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME Statement in a PROC
SQL View” on page 759 and “SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility” on page 759.
Note: If a dynamic LIBNAME engine is available for your DBMS, it is recommended
that you use the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement to access your DBMS data
instead of access descriptors and view descriptors. However, descriptors continue
to work in SAS software if they were available for your DBMS in SAS 6. Some new
SAS features, such as long variable names, are not supported when you use
descriptors.
 DBLOAD Procedure 761

The following example creates an access descriptor and a view descriptor in the
same PROC step to retrieve data from a DB2 table:
libname adlib 'SAS-library';
libname vlib 'SAS -library';

proc access dbms=db2;

create adlib.order.access;
table=sasdemo.orders;
assign=no;
list all;

create vlib.custord.view;
select ordernum stocknum shipto;
format ordernum 5.
stocknum 4.;
run;

proc print data=vlib.custord;

run;

When you want to use access descriptors and view descriptors, both types of
descriptors must be created before you can retrieve your DBMS data. The first step,
creating the access descriptor, enables SAS to store information about the specific
DBMS table that you want to query.
After you have created the access descriptor, the second step is to create one or
more view descriptors to retrieve some or all of the DBMS data described by the
access descriptor. In the view descriptor, you select variables and apply formats to
manipulate the data for viewing, printing, or storing in SAS. You use only the view
descriptors, and not the access descriptors, in your SAS programs.
The interface view engine enables you to reference your SAS view with a two-level
SAS name in a DATA or PROC step, such as the PROC PRINT step in the
example.
See Chapter 29, “SAS Views,” on page 721 for more information about SAS views.
See the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS for more detailed information
about creating and using access descriptors and SAS/ACCESS views.

DBLOAD Procedure
The DBLOAD procedure enables you to create and load data into a DBMS table
from a SAS data set, data file, SAS view, or another DBMS table, or to append rows
to an existing table. It also enables you to submit non-query DBMS-specific SQL
statements to the DBMS from your SAS session.
Note: If a dynamic LIBNAME engine is available for your DBMS, it is recommended
that you use the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement to create your DBMS data
instead of the DBLOAD procedure. However, DBLOAD continues to work in SAS
software if it was available for your DBMS in SAS 6. Some new SAS features, such
as long variable names, are not supported when you use the DBLOAD procedure.
The following example appends data from a previously created SAS data set named
INVDATA into a table in an ORACLE database named INVOICE:
 762 Chapter 33 / About SAS/ACCESS Software

proc dbload dbms=oracle data=invdata append;

user=smith;
password=secret;
path='myoracleserver';
table=invoice;
load;
run;

See the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS for more detailed information
about the DBLOAD procedure.

Interface DATA Step Engine

Some SAS/ACCESS software products support a DATA step interface. This support
enables you to read data from your DBMS by using DATA step programs. Some
products support both reading and writing in the DATA step interface.
The DATA step interface consists of four statements:
n The INFILE statement identifies the database or message queue to be
accessed.
n The INPUT statement is used with the INFILE statement to issue a GET call to
retrieve DBMS data.
n The FILE statement identifies the database or message queue to be updated, if
writing to the DBMS is supported.
n The PUT statement is used with the FILE statement to issue an UPDATE call, if
writing to the DBMS is supported.
The following example updates data in an IMS database by using the FILE and
INFILE statements in a DATA step. The statements generate calls to the database
in the IMS native language, DL/I. The DATA step reads Bank.Customer, an existing
SAS data set that contains information about new customers, and then it updates
the ACCOUNT database with the data in the SAS data set.
data _null_;
set bank.customer;
length ssa1 $9;
infile accupdt dli call=func dbname=db ssa=ssa1;
file accupdt dli;
func = 'isrt';
db = 'account';
ssa1 = 'customer';
put @1 ssnumber $char11.
@12 custname $char40.
@52 addr1 $char30.
@82 addr2 $char30.
@112 custcity $char28.
@140 custstat $char2.
@142 custland $char20.
@162 custzip $char10.
@172 h_phone $char12.
@184 o_phone $char12.;
if _error_ = 1 then
 Interface DATA Step Engine 763

abort abend 888;

run;

In SAS/ACCESS products that provide a DATA step interface, the INFILE statement
has special DBMS-specific options that enable you to specify DBMS variable values
and to format calls to the DBMS appropriately. See the SAS/ACCESS
documentation for your DBMS for a full listing of the DBMS-specific INFILE
statement options and the Base SAS INFILE statement options that can be used
with your DBMS.
764 Chapter 33 / About SAS/ACCESS Software
 765

34
Processing Data Using Cross-
Environment Data Access (CEDA)

Definition of Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Advantages of CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
SAS File Processing with CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
What Types of Processing Does CEDA Support? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Behavioral Differences for Output Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
Restrictions for CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
Understanding When CEDA Is Used to Process a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Determining Whether Update Processing Is Allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
Alternatives to Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772
Creating Files in a Different Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Examples of Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Example 1: Automatically Processing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
Example 2: Creating a New File in a Different Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
Example 3: Changing the Data Representation of an Existing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
Example 4: Specifying UTF-8 Encoding When You Change Data
Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Definition of Cross-Environment Data Access

(CEDA)
Cross-environment data access (CEDA) is a Base SAS feature. CEDA enables a
SAS file that was created in a directory-based operating environment (for example,
UNIX or Windows) to be processed in an incompatible environment or under an
incompatible session encoding. With CEDA, the processing is automatic and
transparent. You do not need to create a transport file, use SAS procedures that
convert the file, or change your SAS program. CEDA supports files that were
created with SAS 7 and later releases. This documentation explains the restrictions,
benefits, and behavior of CEDA processing.
Here are a few concepts to help you understand CEDA:
 766 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

data representation
is the form in which data is stored in a particular operating environment. Different
operating environments use different standards or conventions for storing data in
memory. (See Table 34.2 on page 770.)
n Floating-point numbers can be represented in IEEE floating-point format or
IBM floating-point format.
n Data alignment can be on a 1-byte, 4-byte, or 8-byte boundary, depending on
data type requirements for the operating environment.
n Data type lengths can be 8 bits or more for a character data type, 16 bit, 32
bit, or 64 bit for an integer data type, 32 bit for a single-precision floating-point
data type, and 64 bit for a double-precision floating-point data type.
n The ordering of bytes in memory can be big Endian or little Endian.

encoding
is a set of characters (letters, logograms, digits, punctuation, symbols, control
characters, and so on) that have been mapped to numeric values (called code
points) that can be used by computers. The code points are assigned to the
characters in the character set by applying an encoding method. Some
examples of encodings are Wlatin1 and Danish EBCDIC. (See “Encoding
Combinations That Do Not Need CEDA Processing for Transcoding” in SAS
National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.)
incompatible
describes a file that has a different data representation or encoding than the
current SAS session. CEDA enables access to many types of incompatible files.

Advantages of CEDA
CEDA offers these advantages:
n You can transparently process a supported SAS file with no knowledge of the
file's data representation or character encoding.
n No transport files are created. CEDA requires a single translation to the current
session's data representation, rather than multiple translations from the source
representation to transport file to target representation.
n CEDA eliminates the need to perform multiple steps in order to process the file.
n CEDA does not require a sign-on as is needed in SAS/CONNECT or a dedicated
server as is needed in SAS/SHARE.
 SAS File Processing with CEDA 767

SAS File Processing with CEDA

What Types of Processing Does CEDA Support?

CEDA supports SAS 7 and later SAS files that are created in directory-based
operating environments like UNIX, Windows, and OpenVMS. CEDA provides the
following SAS file processing for these SAS engines:
BASE
default Base SAS engine for SAS 9 (V9), SAS 8 (V8), and SAS 7 (V7).
SASESOCK
TCP/IP port engine for SAS/CONNECT software.
SPDE
SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine, with some exceptions. For more
information, see “Accessing SPD Engine Files on Another Host” in SAS Scalable
Performance Data Engine: Reference. (Support was added in SAS 9.4M5.)
TAPE
sequential engine for SAS 9 (V9TAPE), SAS 8 (V8TAPE), and SAS 7 (V7TAPE).

Table 34.1 SAS File Processing Provided by CEDA

SAS File Type Engine Supported Processing

SAS data file BASE, SASESOCK, SPDE, input and output*

TAPE

PROC SQL view BASE input

SAS/ACCESS view for BASE input

Oracle or SAP

MDDB file** BASE input

* For output processing that replaces an existing SAS data file, there are behavioral differences. For
more information, see “Behavioral Differences for Output Processing” on page 767.
** CEDA supports SAS 8 and later MDDB files.

Behavioral Differences for Output Processing

For output processing that replaces an existing SAS data file, the engines behave
differently regarding the following attributes:
encoding
n The BASE engine uses the encoding of the file from the source library. That
is, the encoding is cloned.
 768 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

n The TAPE engine uses the current SAS session encoding, except with PROC
COPY.
n For both the BASE and TAPE engines, by default PROC COPY uses the
encoding of the file from the source library. If, instead, you want to use the
encoding of the current SAS session, specify the NOCLONE option. If you
want to use a different encoding, specify the NOCLONE option and the
ENCODING= option. When you use PROC COPY with SAS/SHARE or
SAS/CONNECT, the default behavior is to use the encoding of the current
SAS session.
n The SPD Engine uses the current SAS session encoding. The CLONE option
of PROC COPY is not supported.
data representation
n The BASE and TAPE engines use the data representation of the current SAS
session, except with PROC COPY.
n For both the BASE and TAPE engines, by default PROC COPY uses the
data representation of the file from the source library. If, instead, you want to
use the data representation of the current SAS session, specify the
NOCLONE option. If you want to use a different data representation, specify
the NOCLONE option and the OUTREP= option. When you use PROC
COPY with SAS/SHARE or SAS/CONNECT, the default behavior is to use
the data representation of the current SAS session.
n The SPD Engine uses the data representation of the current SAS session.
The CLONE option of PROC COPY is not supported.

Restrictions for CEDA

CEDA has the following restrictions:
n SAS catalogs are not supported. Catalog entries could include formats, stored
compiled macros, SAS/AF applications, SAS/GRAPH output, SAS code, SCL
code, data, and other entry types that are specific to various SAS procedures.
n Update processing is not supported.

n Integrity constraints cannot be read or updated.

n An audit trail file cannot be updated, but it can be read.

n Indexes are not supported. Therefore, WHERE optimization with an index is not
supported.
n Extended attributes cannot be updated, but they can be read.

n Other files that are not supported include DATA step views, SAS/ACCESS views
that are not for SAS/ACCESS for Oracle or SAP, stored compiled DATA step
programs, item stores, DMDB files, FDB files, or any SAS file that was created
prior to SAS 7.
n On z/OS, members of UNIX file system libraries can be created using any SAS
data representation. However, when bound libraries are created, they are
assigned the data representation of the SAS session that creates the library.
SAS does not allow the creation of bound library members with a data
representation that differs (except for the character encoding) from the data
representation of the library. For example, if you create a bound library with 31-
bit SAS on z/OS, the library has a data representation of MVS_32 for the
 SAS File Processing with CEDA 769

duration of its existence, and you cannot use the OUTREP option of the
LIBNAME statement to create a member in the library with a data representation
other than MVS_32. For more information about library implementation types for
BASE and sequential engines on z/OS, see SAS Companion for z/OS.
n Because the BASE engine translates the data as the data is read, multiple
procedures require SAS to read and translate the data multiple times. In this
way, the translation could affect system performance.
n If a data set is damaged, CEDA cannot process the file in order to repair it.
CEDA does not support update processing, which is required in order to repair a
damaged data set. To repair the file, you must move it back to the environment
where it was created or a compatible environment that does not invoke CEDA
processing. For information about how to repair a damaged data set, see the
REPAIR statement in the DATASETS procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
n Transcoding could result in character data loss when encodings are
incompatible. For information about encoding and transcoding, see the SAS
National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.
n Loss of precision can occur in numeric variables when you move data between
operating environments. If a numeric variable is defined with a short length, you
can try increasing the length of the variable. Full-size numeric variables are less
likely to encounter a loss of precision with CEDA. For more information, see
“Numerical Accuracy in SAS Software” on page 72.
n Numeric variables have a minimum length of either 2 or 3 bytes, depending on
the operating environment. In an operating environment that supports a
minimum of 3 bytes (such as Windows or UNIX), CEDA cannot process a
numeric variable that was created with a length of 2 bytes (for example, in z/OS).
If you encounter this restriction, then use the XPORT engine or the CPORT and
CIMPORT procedures instead of CEDA.
Note: If you encounter these restrictions because your files were created under a
previous version of SAS, consider using the MIGRATE procedure, which is
documented in the Base SAS Procedures Guide. PROC MIGRATE retains many
features, such as integrity constraints, indexes, and audit trails.

Understanding When CEDA Is Used to Process a File

Because CEDA translation is transparent, you might not be aware when CEDA is
being used. Knowing when CEDA is used could be helpful (for example, CEDA
translation might require additional resources).
By default, SAS writes a message to the log when CEDA is used. Here is an
example:
Example Code 34.1 Log Output from Processing a File from a Different Operating
Environment

NOTE: Data file HEALTH.OXYGEN.DATA is in a format that is native to another

host, or the file encoding does not match the session encoding. Cross
Environment Data Access will be used, which might require additional
CPU resources and might reduce performance.

CEDA is used in these situations:

770 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

n when the encoding of character values for the SAS file is incompatible with the
currently executing SAS session encoding.
n when the data representation of the SAS file is incompatible with the data
representation of the currently executing SAS session. For example, an
incompatibility can occur if you move a file from an operating environment like
Windows to an operating environment like UNIX, or if you have upgraded to 64-
bit UNIX from 32-bit UNIX.
In the following table, each row contains a group of operating environments that
are compatible with each other. CEDA is used only when you create a file with a
data representation in one row and process the file under a data representation
of another row. (The current release of SAS does not run on some of these
environments, but they are included here for completeness.)

Table 34.2 Compatibility across Environments

Data Representation
Value Environment

ALPHA_TRU64 Tru64 UNIX *

LINUX_IA64 Linux for Itanium-based systems*
LINUX_X86_64 Linux for x64 *
SOLARIS_X86_64 Solaris for x64 *
LINUX_POWER_64 Linux on the Power Architecture*

ALPHA_VMS_32 OpenVMS Alpha **

ALPHA_VMS_64 OpenVMS Alpha **

VMS_IA64 OpenVMS on HP Integrity**

HP_IA64 HP-UX for the Itanium Processor Family Architecture

HP_UX_64 HP-UX for PA-RISC, 64-bit
RS_6000_AIX_64 AIX
SOLARIS_64 Solaris for SPARC

HP_UX_32 HP-UX for PA-RISC

MIPS_ABI MIPS ABI
RS_6000_AIX_32 AIX
SOLARIS_32 Solaris for SPARC

LINUX_32 Linux for Intel architecture

INTEL_ABI ABI for Intel architecture

MVS_32 31-bit SAS on z/OS

 SAS File Processing with CEDA 771

Data Representation
Value Environment

MVS_64_BFP 64-bit SAS on z/OS

OS2 OS/2 for Intel

VAX_VMS OpenVMS VAX

WINDOWS_32 32-bit SAS on Microsoft Windows***

WINDOWS_64 64-bit SAS on Microsoft Windows (for both Itanium-based
systems and x64)***

* Although all of the environments in this group are compatible, catalogs are an exception. Catalogs
are compatible between Tru64 UNIX and Linux for Itanium. Catalogs are compatible between Linux
for x64, Solaris for x64, and Linux on the Power Architecture. Linux on the Power Architecture is
added in SAS Viya 3.5 and is not supported in SAS 9.
** Although these OpenVMS environments have different data representations for some compiler types,
SAS data sets that are created by the BASE engine do not store the data types that are different.
Therefore, if the encoding is compatible, CEDA is not used between these environments. However,
note that SAS 9 does not support SAS 8 catalogs from OpenVMS. You can migrate the catalogs with
the MIGRATE procedure. For more information, see the Base SAS Procedures Guide.
*** Although these Windows environments are compatible, catalogs are an exception. Catalogs are not
compatible between 32-bit and 64-bit SAS for Windows.

Determining Whether Update Processing Is Allowed

If a file's data representation is the same as the data representation of the
processing environment, and if the encoding is compatible with the currently
executing SAS session encoding, then you can manually update the file, because
CEDA is not needed in order to translate the file. For example, if a file was created
in a 64-bit Solaris environment or if the OUTREP= option was used to designate the
file with that data representation, then you can update the file in a 64-bit SAS
session on Solaris for SPARC, HP-UX, or AIX.
Otherwise, if CEDA is used to translate the file, you cannot update the file. If you
attempt to update the file, then you receive an error message stating that updating
is not allowed. For example:

ERROR: File HEALTH.OXYGEN cannot be updated because its encoding does not
match the session encoding or the file is in a format native to another host,
such as HP_UX_64, RS_6000_AIX_64, SOLARIS_64, HP_IA64.

To determine the data representation and the encoding of a file, you can use the
CONTENTS procedure (or the CONTENTS statement in PROC DATASETS). For
example, the data set HEALTH.OXYGEN was created in a UNIX environment in
SAS 9. The file was moved to a SAS 9 Windows environment, in which the following
CONTENTS output was requested:
 772 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

Output 34.1 CONTENTS Output Showing Data Representation

Alternatives to Using CEDA

Because of the restrictions, it might not be feasible to use CEDA. You can use the
following methods in order to move files across operating environments:
XPORT engine with the DATA step or PROC COPY
In the source environment, the LIBNAME statement with the XPORT engine and
either the DATA step or PROC COPY creates a transport file from a SAS data
set. In the target environment, the same method translates the transport file into
the target environment's format. Note that the XPORT engine does not support
SAS 7 and later features, such as long file and variable names.
XML engine with the DATA step or PROC COPY
In the source environment, the LIBNAME statement with the XML engine and
either the DATA step or PROC COPY creates an XML document from a SAS
data set. In the target environment, the same method translates the XML
document into the target environment's format.
CPORT and CIMPORT procedures
In the source environment, PROC CPORT writes data sets or catalogs to
transport format. In the target environment, PROC CIMPORT translates the
transport file into the target environment's format.
 Examples of Using CEDA 773

Data transfer services in SAS/CONNECT software

Data transfer services is a bulk data transfer mechanism that transfers a disk
copy of the data and performs the necessary conversion of the data from one
environment's representation to another's, as well as any necessary conversion
between SAS releases. You must establish a connection between the two SAS
sessions by using the SIGNON command and then executing either PROC
UPLOAD or PROC DOWNLOAD to move the data.
Remote library services in both SAS/CONNECT software and SAS/SHARE software
Remote library services gives you transparent access to remote data through the
use of the LIBNAME statement.

Creating Files in a Different Data

Representation
By default, when you create a new file, SAS uses the data representation of the
CPU that is running SAS. You can specify the OUTREP= option to override this
default.
The OUTREP= option is both a SAS data set option and a LIBNAME statement
option. The data set option applies to an individual file. The LIBNAME statement
option applies to an entire library. This option uses CEDA to create a file that has a
different data representation.
For example, in a UNIX environment, you can create a data set with the data
representation of WINDOWS_32. If you move that data set to a Windows
environment and process the data set with 32-bit SAS for Windows, you do not
invoke CEDA.
See “Example 2: Creating a New File in a Different Data Representation” on page
774 and “Example 3: Changing the Data Representation of an Existing File” on
page 774.
See the OUTREP= option for the LIBNAME statement in SAS DATA Step
Statements: Reference or see the OUTREP= data set option in SAS Data Set
Options: Reference.

Examples of Using CEDA

Example 1: Automatically Processing a File

This example shows how simple it is to process a SAS data set in a different
operating environment without any conversion steps.
The data set was originally created on a UNIX environment and later moved to a
Windows PC with a tool like FTP or operating system commands.
 774 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

Using CEDA, SAS automatically recognizes the file's UNIX data representation and
translates it to the data representation for the Windows environment. The log output
displays a message that the file is being processed using CEDA.
libname Health 'c:\MyFiles';

proc print data=Health.Oxygen;

run;

Example Code 34.2 Log Output from Processing a File from a Different Operating
Environment

NOTE: Data file HEALTH.OXYGEN.DATA is in a format that is native to another

host, or the file encoding does not match the session encoding. Cross
Environment Data Access will be used, which might require additional
CPU resources and might reduce performance.

Example 2: Creating a New File in a Different Data

Representation
In this example, an administrator who works in a z/OS operating environment wants
to create a SAS file in a UNIX file system directory that can be processed in a 64-bit
Linux environment. Specifying OUTREP=LINUX_X86_64 as a data set option
forces the data representation to match the data representation of the Linux
operating environment that later processes the file. This method of creating the file
can enhance system performance because the file does not require data conversion
later when it is processed on the Linux computer.
libname MyLib v9 'HFS-file-spec';

data MyLib.a (outrep=linux_x86_64);

infile file-specifications;
input student $ test1 test2 test3 final;
total = test1+test2+test3+final;
grade = total/4.0;
run;

Example 3: Changing the Data Representation of an

Existing File
To change an existing file's data representation, you can use PROC COPY with the
NOCLONE option and specify OUTREP= in the LIBNAME statement. The following
example copies a source library of Windows data sets to a target library of Solaris
data sets. Note that if you move a data set to another platform (for example, with
FTP), you must move it as a binary file.
libname Target 'target-pathname' outrep=solaris_x86_64;
libname Source 'source-pathname';
proc copy in=Source out=Target noclone memtype=data;
run;
 Examples of Using CEDA 775

For more information, see the OUTREP= option for the LIBNAME statement in SAS
DATA Step Statements: Reference or see the OUTREP= data set option in SAS
Data Set Options: Reference.

Example 4: Specifying UTF-8 Encoding When You Change

Data Representation
SAS has a default session encoding that is based on two parameters of the current
session: the operating environment and the locale. For a list of default encodings by
locale and operating environment, see “Default Values for DFLANG, DATESTYLE,
and PAPERSIZE System Options Based on the LOCALE= System Option” in SAS
National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.
If you do not want the default encoding, you can use language elements to specify
an encoding for the session, or a library, or a data set. For example, many users
choose UTF-8 encoding.
When you want to use a nondefault encoding such as UTF-8, be aware of an
interaction with the OUTREP= data set option or LIBNAME statement option. When
you use the OUTREP= option to specify a data representation, the current SAS
session encoding is ignored and a default encoding is assigned instead. This default
encoding is based on the operating environment that is represented by the
OUTREP= option and the locale of the current session, not the encoding of the
current session. This example demonstrates the interaction.
In this example, the user is running SAS for Windows. The user’s locale is EN_US.
Normally, those two parameters would result in a default session encoding of
wlatin1. However, the user’s encoding is set to UTF-8 in their SAS configuration file.
The following code checks the encoding and the locale:
proc options option=(encoding locale) define value;
run;
The code returns the following information in the SAS log:

Option Value Information For SAS Option ENCODING

Value: UTF-8
.
.
.
Option Value Information For SAS Option LOCALE
Value: EN_US

The user wants to share data with another office. The other office is running SAS on
64-bit Linux. Their locale is EN_US. Normally, that combination would result in a
default session encoding of latin1. However, the user has been told that the other
office has set their session encoding to UTF-8.
The user creates a data set. Because the data set will later be processed in the
other office’s Linux environment, the user assigns the appropriate data
representation. The user wants to avoid CEDA processing in the target
environment, so the encoding and data representation must match the target. The
user assumes that because their own environment and the Linux environment are
both set to UTF-8 session encoding, an encoding specification is not required. The
user sets the OUTREP= value only. This is not the correct syntax for this situation.
libname mylib 'C:\test';
776 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

data mylib.testdata (outrep=linux_x86_64);

x=1;
run;
The code generates a CEDA message in the log. The user expects this message,
because the data representation LINUX_X86_64 does not match the current
Windows environment.

NOTE: Data file MYLIB.TESTDATA.DATA is in a format that is native to another

host, or the file encoding does not match the session encoding. Cross
Environment Data Access will be used, which might require additional
CPU resources and might reduce performance.
NOTE: The data set MYLIB.TESTDATA has 1 observations and 1 variables.

The user checks their assumptions against the attributes of the data set:
proc contents data=mylib.testdata;
run;
The user is surprised. The data set does not have the session encoding of UTF-8.
Instead, the encoding is latin1, which is the default for OUTREP=LINUX_X86_64
together with the LOCALE value of the current session, EN_US.

The correct way to prevent this issue is as follows. If you want a nondefault
encoding value, then when you specify the OUTREP= option, you must also specify
the ENCODING= option:
data mylib.test2 (outrep=linux_x86_64 encoding=utf8);
x=1;
run;
proc contents data=mylib.test2;
run;
Now the encoding and data representation both match the target environment:
 Examples of Using CEDA 777

The default behavior also occurs with the OVERRIDE=(OUTREP=data-rep-value)

syntax in the COPY procedure or COPY statement of the DATASETS procedure. If
you want a nondefault encoding value, then specify OVERRIDE=(OUTREP= data-
rep-value ENCODING=encoding-value)).
778 Chapter 34 / Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)
 779

35
Cross-Release Compatibility and
Migration

Introduction to Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

Accessing a File That Was Created in a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Using SAS Files in a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
Circumstances Where File Features Are Not Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
File Features Not Supported in Previous Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
Regressing a File to a Previous Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782
SAS Library Engines and the SAS File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Introduction to Cross-Release Compatibility and

Migration
In many cases, you can process SAS files that were created in a different release
without first converting the files. Compatibility is generally handled automatically by
SAS. However, there are some limitations.
Compatibility between versions varies depending on the type of SAS file, the SAS
release that you are running, the operating environment in which the file was
created, and the type of processing you need to do.

Accessing a File That Was Created in a

Previous Release
SAS files that are created with SAS 7 and SAS 8 are generally compatible with SAS
9. However, if you change to a different operating environment or a different
character encoding, you might encounter some processing restrictions. See Chapter
34, “Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA),” on page
765.
For specific processing information and guidelines for migration issues, see the
Migration Focus Area at support.sas.com/migration. The Migration Focus Area is
 780 Chapter 35 / Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration

your guide to migrating files from previous versions of SAS. Refer to this focus area
for planning and cost analysis information, known compatibility issues and their
resolutions, and step-by-step instructions. The MIGRATE procedure, which provides
a simple way to migrate a library of SAS files from previous releases of SAS, is
documented in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Using SAS Files in a Previous Release

Circumstances Where File Features Are Not Supported

SAS files that are created with SAS 9 are generally compatible with earlier releases.
However, new file features can be an important issue, such as in the following
examples:
n You upgrade to a new release of SAS, but you cannot modify legacy data sets.
You want to be aware of any SAS features that are not supported by the earlier
file format.
n You exchange data with a SAS user who has not upgraded. You cannot use file
features that are not supported by that version of SAS.
A few SAS file features can result in the following error message when the data is
used under an earlier SAS release. These features are explained in the next topic.

ERROR: File MYLIB.TABLENAME.DATA not compatible with this SAS version.

File Features Not Supported in Previous Releases

PROC SQL view that contains a USING clause
In SAS 9.4M6 and later releases, if you use the V9 engine to create a PROC
SQL view that contains a USING clause, the view is not accessible in SAS
9.4M5 or prior releases. A USING clause stores DBMS connection information in
the view by embedding the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement inside the view.
AES and AES2 encryption
If you specify ENCRYPT=AES2 to encrypt a data set, the data set cannot be
accessed by any release prior to SAS 9.4M5.
If you specify ENCRYPT=AES to encrypt a data set, the data set cannot be
accessed by any release prior to SAS 9.4.
See “AES Encryption” on page 796.
Extended attributes
If you add extended attributes to a data set or to a variable in a data set, the data
set cannot be accessed by any release prior to SAS 9.4. See “Extended
Attributes” on page 716.
 Using SAS Files in a Previous Release 781

Metadata-bound libraries
Metadata-bound data sets cannot be accessed by any release prior to SAS
9.3M2. See “Metadata-Bound Libraries” on page 801.
Data sets created with EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES
In SAS 9.4, extended observation count is the default. In SAS 9.3 it is optional. If
a data set has EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES, then it is not accessible by any
release prior to SAS 9.3. The behavior depends on your operating environment.
See “Backward Compatibility of the Extended Observation Count Attribute” on
page 658.

TIP Set the system option EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO for compatibility with

releases prior to SAS 9.3.

Greater than 2 billion observations

In SAS 9.2 and earlier releases, a data set with more than 2 billion observations
is unusable in 32-bit SAS. See the information about
EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=YES on page 781.
Extended naming for data sets, views, and item stores
SAS 9.3 and later releases support extended naming rules for data sets, views,
and item stores. See “Rules for SAS Data Set Names, View Names, and Item
Store Names” on page 28.

TIP Set the system option VALIDMEMNAME=COMPATIBLE to enforce

naming that is compatible with releases prior to SAS 9.3. Messages are
printed in the log when names cannot be transcoded.

CHECK integrity constraints

If you add the constraint to an existing SAS data set or create a SAS data set
that includes the constraint, the data set cannot be used in any release prior to
SAS 9.2.
Encoded passwords from the PWENCODE procedure
If you use PROC PWENCODE to encode a password, and you protect a data
set with that password, then the data set might not be accessible by prior
releases. For example, the SAS005 method is added in SAS 9.4M5. A data set
that is protected with a SAS005-encoded password cannot be opened in any
release prior to SAS 9.4M5. Protecting a data set with an encoded password is
not supported prior to SAS 9.2.
Linguistic collation with the SORT procedure
When you use SORTSEQ=LINGUISTIC with PROC SORT in SAS 9.2 and later,
metadata is stored in the data set header to indicate that the data set was
sorted. Previous releases do not support linguistic collation. If you use the sorted
data set in previous releases, the data set is not shown to be sorted, and the
COMPARE procedure might show differences due to the sort indicator. The data
set can be accessed.
Greater than 32,767 variables
A data set with greater than 32,767 variables is unusable in SAS 9.0 and earlier
releases. See “SAS Variable Attributes” on page 38.
Suppressed transcoding of a specified variable
Setting TRANSCODE=NO causes a data set to be unusable in SAS 9.0 and
earlier releases. See SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.
 782 Chapter 35 / Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration

Format or informat names longer than 8 bytes

A data set that uses format or informat names longer than 8 bytes is unusable in
SAS 8 and earlier releases. For more compatibility information, see the
VALIDFMTNAME system option in SAS System Options: Reference.

TIP Set VALIDFMTNAME=FAIL to get an error message for names that

exceed the limit. If you specify the V7 or V8 engine, such as in a LIBNAME
statement, SAS automatically uses the VALIDFMTNAME=FAIL behavior.
Under SAS 6, use of long format names automatically causes a failure.

Encoding attribute
The encoding attribute is not supported in SAS 6. SAS 7 and 8 data sets must
be updated or output in a SAS 9 session to be stamped with an encoding
attribute. (The encoding attribute was supported prior to SAS 9 in China, Korea,
and Japan.)

TIP If you replace or update a data set that does not have an encoding
attribute, then be aware that the session encoding is stamped on the data set
by default. If that behavior is not desired, you can override the data set's
encoding by using the DATA step option ENCODING= or the LIBNAME
options INENCODING= or OUTENCODING=. If a session encoding is
stamped on a data set incorrectly, and you are certain of the correct encoding,
then you can set it with the CORRECTENCODING= option in the MODIFY
statement of the DATASETS procedure. For the correct use of encoding
language elements, see SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference
Guide.

Variable names longer than 32 bytes

Longer variable names are not supported in SAS 6. See “Rules for SAS Variable
Names” on page 26.

TIP Set VALIDVARNAME=V6 to get an error message.

Regressing a File to a Previous Release

Regression is not necessary among SAS 9 releases. If you use a SAS 9 file in a
SAS 8 session, regression is probably not necessary, due to cross-release
compatibility.
If you need to regress a SAS 9 file to SAS 8 file format, you have some choices.
You can use the COPY procedure with the NOCLONE option or the DATA step. The
code must be run in a SAS 8 session. For details about regression, see the
Migration Focus Area at support.sas.com/migration.
 SAS Library Engines and the SAS File Format 783

SAS Library Engines and the SAS File Format

The SAS 9 file format is very similar to that of SAS 8 and SAS 7. Therefore, the file
extensions have not changed. For example, in SAS 9, SAS 8, and SAS 7, sas7bdat
is the file extension for a data set in most operating environments.
The file format changed significantly from the SAS 6 file format, so SAS 6 file
extensions are different from SAS 9, and they vary depending on the operating
environment.
Operating Environment Information: For a complete list of SAS member types
and extensions, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
You might not be in the habit of specifying the engine name when you assign a SAS
library. SAS can usually assign one automatically, based on the default or on the
SAS files that exist in the library location. (For details about engine assignment, see
Chapter 37, “SAS Engines,” on page 803.)
SAS can differentiate between a SAS 6 library and a SAS 9 library. However,
because the file format for SAS 9, SAS 8, and SAS 7 files are very similar, SAS
does not differentiate between them. For example, in a SAS 9 session, if you issue
the following LIBNAME statement to assign a libref to a SAS library containing SAS
8 files, SAS automatically uses the V9 engine. If that library contains only SAS 6
files, then SAS automatically uses the V6 compatibility engine.
libname mylib 'SAS-library';

Table 35.1 Default Library Engine Assignment in SAS 9

Default Engine
SAS Library Contents Assignment

No SAS files; the library is empty V9

Only SAS 9 SAS files V9

Only SAS 8 SAS files V9

Only SAS 7 SAS files V9

Only SAS 6 SAS files V6

Both SAS 9 SAS files and SAS files from earlier releases V9
784 Chapter 35 / Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration
 785

36
File Protection

Definition of a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786

Assigning Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
Assigning a Password with a DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
Assigning a Password to an Existing Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Assigning a Password with a Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Assigning a Password with the SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
Assigning a Password outside of SAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
Removing or Changing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
Using Password-Protected SAS Files in DATA and PROC Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789
How SAS Handles Incorrect Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Assigning Complete Protection with the PW= Data Set Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Encoded Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791
Using Passwords with Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
Levels of Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
PROC SQL Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
SAS/ACCESS Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
DATA Step Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
SAS Data File Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
About Encryption on SAS Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
SAS Proprietary Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
AES Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
AES Encryption and Referential Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Passwords and Encryption with Generation Data Sets, Audit
Trails, Indexes, and Copies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Blotting Passwords and Encryption Key Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Check the SAS Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Examples of Passwords and Encryption Keys That Are Not Blotted . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799
Using Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
Length of Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
Metadata-Bound Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
 786 Chapter 36 / File Protection

Definition of a Password
SAS software enables you to restrict access to members of SAS libraries by
assigning passwords to the members. You can assign passwords to all member
types except catalogs. You can specify three levels of protection: Read, Write, and
Alter. When a password is assigned, it appears as uppercase Xs in the log.
Note: This document uses the terms SAS data file and SAS view to distinguish
between the two types of SAS data sets. Passwords work differently for type VIEW
than they do for type DATA. The term “SAS data set” is used when the distinction is
not necessary.
read
protects against reading the file.
write
protects against changing the data in the file. For SAS data files, write protection
prevents adding, modifying, or deleting observations.
alter
protects against deleting or replacing the entire file. For SAS data files, alter
protection also prevents modifying variable attributes and creating or deleting
indexes.
Alter protection does not require a password for Read or Write access; write
protection does not require a password for Read access. For example, you can read
an alter-protected or write-protected SAS data file without knowing the Alter or Write
password. Conversely, read and write protection do not prevent any operation that
requires alter protection. For example, you can delete a SAS data set that is read-
or write-protected only without knowing the Read or Write password.
To protect a file from being read, written to, deleted, or replaced by anyone who
does not have the proper authority, assign read, write, and alter protection. To allow
others to read the file without knowing the password, but not change its data or
delete it, assign just write and alter protection. To completely protect a file with one
password, use the PW= data set option. For more information, see “Assigning
Complete Protection with the PW= Data Set Option” on page 790.
Note: Because of how SAS opens files, you must specify the Read password to
update a SAS data set that is only read-protected.
Note: The levels of protection differ somewhat for the member type VIEW. See
“Using Passwords with Views” on page 792.
 Assigning Passwords 787

Assigning Passwords

Syntax
To set a password, first specify a SAS data set in one of the following:
n a DATA statement

n the MODIFY statement of the DATASETS procedure

n an OUT= option in some procedures

n the CREATE VIEW statement in PROC SQL

n the ToolBox

Then assign one or more password types to the data set. The data set might
already exist, or the data set might be one that you create. The following is an
example of syntax:
(password-type=password ... password-type=password>)
where password is a valid eight-character SAS name and password-type can be
one of the following SAS data set options:
n ALTER=

n PW=

n READ=

n WRITE=

TIP Each password option must be coded on a separate line to ensure that they
are properly blotted in the SAS log.

CAUTION! Keep a record of any passwords that you assign! If you forget or do not
know the password, you cannot get the password from SAS.

Assigning a Password with a DATA Step

You can use data set options to assign passwords to unprotected members in the
DATA step when you create a new SAS data file.
This example prevents deletion or modification of the data set without a password.
/* assign a write and an alter password to MYLIB.STUDENTS */
data mylib.students(write=yellow alter=red);
input name $ sex $ age;
datalines;
Amy f 25
… more data lines …
 788 Chapter 36 / File Protection

This example prevents reading or deleting a stored program without a password and
also prevents changing the source program.
/* assign a read and an alter password to the SAS view ROSTER */
data mylib.roster(read=green alter=red) / view=mylib.roster;
set mylib.students;
run;

libname stored 'SAS-library-2';

/* assign a read and alter password to the program file SOURCE */

data mylib.schedule / pgm=stored.source(read=green alter=red);
… DATA step statements …
run;

Note: When you replace a SAS data set that is alter-protected, the new data set
inherits the Alter password. To change the Alter password for the new data set, use
the MODIFY statement in the DATASETS procedure.

Assigning a Password to an Existing Data Set

You can use the MODIFY statement in the DATASETS procedure to assign
passwords to unprotected members if the SAS data file already exists.
/* assign an alter password to STUDENTS */
proc datasets library=mylib;
modify students(alter=red);
run;

Assigning a Password with a Procedure

You can assign a password after an OUT= data set specification in some
procedures.
/* assign a write and an alter password to SCORE */
proc sort data=mylib.math
out=mylib.score(write=yellow alter=red);
by number;
run;

You can assign a password in a CREATE TABLE or a CREATE VIEW statement in

PROC SQL.
/* assign an alter password to the SAS view BDAY */
proc sql;
create view mylib.bday(alter=red) as
query-expression;
 Using Password-Protected SAS Files in DATA and PROC Steps 789

Assigning a Password with the SAS Windowing

Environment
You can create or change passwords for any data file using the Password Window
in the SAS windowing environment. To invoke the Password Window from the
ToolBox, use the global command SETPASSWORD followed by the filename. This
opens the password window for the specified data file.

Assigning a Password outside of SAS

A SAS password does not control access to a SAS file beyond the SAS system. You
should use the operating system-supplied utilities and file-system security controls
in order to control access to SAS files outside of SAS.

Removing or Changing Passwords

To remove or change a password, use the MODIFY statement in the DATASETS
procedure. For more information, see “DATASETS Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide.

Using Password-Protected SAS Files in DATA

and PROC Steps
To access password-protected files, use the same data set options that you use to
assign protection.
n /* Assign a read and alter password to the stored program file*/
/*STORED.SOURCE */
data mylib.schedule / pgm=stored.source
(read=green alter=red);
<… more DATA step statements …>
run;

/*Access password-protected file*/

proc sort data=mylib.score(write=yellow alter=red);
by number;
run;

n /* Print read-protected data set MYLIB.AUTOS */

proc print data=mylib.autos(read=green);
run;
 790 Chapter 36 / File Protection

n /* Append ANIMALS to the write-protected data set ZOO */

proc append base=mylib.zoo(write=yellow) data=mylib.animals;
run;

n /* Delete alter-protected data set MYLIB.BOTANY */

proc datasets library=mylib;
delete botany(alter=red);
run;

Passwords are hierarchical in terms of gaining access. For example, specifying the
ALTER password gives you Read and Write access. The following example creates
the data set States, with three different passwords, and then reads the data set to
produce a plot:
data mylib.states(read=green write=yellow alter=red);
input density crime name $;
datalines;
151.4 6451.3 Colorado
… more data lines …
;

proc plot data=mylib.states(alter=red);

plot crime*density;
run;

How SAS Handles Incorrect Passwords

If you are using the SAS windowing environment and you try to access a password-
protected member without specifying the correct password, you receive a dialog box
that prompts you for the appropriate password. The text that you enter in this
window is not displayed. You can use the PWREQ= data set option to control
whether a dialog box appears after a user enters a missing or incorrect password.
PWREQ= is most useful in SCL applications.
If you are using batch or noninteractive mode, you receive an error message in the
SAS log if you try to access a password-protected member without specifying the
correct password.
If you are using interactive line mode, you are also prompted for the password if you
do not specify the correct password. When you enter the password and press the
Enter key, processing continues. If you cannot give the correct password, you
receive an error message in the SAS log.

Assigning Complete Protection with the PW=

Data Set Option
The PW= data set option assigns the same password for each level of protection.
This data set option is convenient for thoroughly protecting a member with just one
 Encoded Passwords 791

password. If you use the PW= data set option, those who have access need to
remember only one password for total access.
n To access a member whose password is assigned using the PW= data set
option, use the PW= data set option. You can also use the data set option that
equates to the specific level of access that you need:
/* create a data set using PW=, then use READ= to print the data set */
data mylib.states(pw=orange);
input density crime name $;
datalines;
151.4 6451.3 Colorado
… more data lines …
;

proc print data=mylib.states(read=orange);

run;

n PW= can be an alias for other password options:

/* Use PW= as an alias for ALTER=. */
data mylib.college(alter=red);
input name $ 1-10 location $ 12-25;
datalines;
Vanderbilt Nashville
Rice Houston
Duke Durham
Tulane New Orleans
… more data lines …
;

proc datasets library=mylib;

delete college(pw=red);
run;

Encoded Passwords
Encoding a password enables you to write SAS programs without having to specify
a password in plain text. The PWENCODE procedure uses encoding to disguise
passwords. With encoding, one character set is translated to another character set
through some form of table lookup. An encoded password is intended to prevent
casual, non-malicious viewing of passwords. You should not depend on encoded
passwords for all your data security needs; a determined and knowledgeable
attacker can decode the encoded passwords.
When an encoded password is used, the syntax parser decodes the password and
accesses the file. The encoded password is never written in plain text to the SAS
log. SAS does not accept passwords longer than eight characters. If an encoded
password is decoded and is longer than eight characters, SAS reads it as an
incorrect password and sends an error message to the SAS log. For more
information, see “PWENCODE Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
 792 Chapter 36 / File Protection

Using Passwords with Views

Levels of Protection
The levels of protection for SAS views and stored programs are similar to the levels
of protection for other types of SAS files. However, with SAS views, passwords
affect not only the underlying data, but also the view’s definition (or source
statements).
You can specify three levels of protection for SAS views: Read, Write, and Alter. The
following section describes how these data set options affect the underlying data as
well as the view’s descriptor information. Unless otherwise noted, the term “view”
refers to any type of SAS view and the term “underlying data” refers to the data that
is accessed by the SAS view:
Read
n protects against reading of the SAS view's underlying data

n prevents the display of source statements in the SAS log when using
DESCRIBE
n allows replacement of the SAS view

Write
n protects the underlying data associated with a SAS view by insisting that a
Write password is given
n prevents the display of source statements in the SAS log when using
DESCRIBE
n allows replacement of the SAS view

Alter
n prevents the display of source statements in the SAS log when using
DESCRIBE
n protects against replacement of the SAS view

For example, to DESCRIBE a view that has both Read and Write protection, you
must specify its Write password. Similarly, to DESCRIBE a view that has both Read
and Alter protection, you must specify its Alter password (since Alter is the more
restrictive of the two).
The following program shows how to use the DESCRIBE statement to view the
descriptor information for a Read-protected and Alter-protected view:
/*create a view with read and alter protection*/
data exam / view=exam(read=read alter=alter);
set grades;
run;
/*describe the view by specifying the most restrictive password */
data view=exam(alter=alter);
describe;
run;
 Using Passwords with Views 793

Example Code 36.1 Password-protected View

NOTE: DATA step view WORK.EXAM is defined as:

data exam / view=exam(read=XXX alter=XXXXX);

set grades;
run;

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

For more information, see “DESCRIBE Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements:
Reference and “DATA Statement” in SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
In most DATA and PROC steps, the way you use password-protected views is
consistent with how you use other types of password-protected SAS files. For
example, the following PROC PRINT prints a Read-protected view:
proc print data=mylib.grade(read=green);
run;

Note: You might experience unexpected results when you place protection on a
SAS view if some type of protection is already placed on the underlying data set.

PROC SQL Views

Typically, when you create a PROC SQL view from a password-protected SAS data
set, you specify the password in the FROM clause in the CREATE VIEW statement
using a data set option. In this way, you can access the underlying data without re-
specifying the password when you use the view later. For example, the following
statements create a PROC SQL view from a Read-protected SAS data set, and
drop a sensitive variable:
proc sql;
create view mylib.emp as
select * from mylib.employee(pw=orange drop=salary);
quit;

Note: You can create a PROC SQL view from password-protected SAS data sets
without specifying their passwords. Use the view that you are prompted for the
passwords of the SAS data sets named in the FROM clause. If you are running SAS
in batch or noninteractive mode, you receive an error message.

SAS/ACCESS Views
SAS/ACCESS software enables you to edit View descriptors and, in some
interfaces, the underlying data. To prevent someone from editing or reading
(browsing) the View descriptor, assign Alter protection to the view. To prevent
someone from updating the underlying data, assign Write protection to the view. For
more information, see the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.
 794 Chapter 36 / File Protection

DATA Step Views

When you create a DATA step view using a password-protected SAS data set,
specify the password in the View definition. In this way, when you use the view, you
can access the underlying data without respecifying the password.
The following statements create a DATA step view using a password-protected SAS
data set, and drop a sensitive variable:
data mylib.emp / view=mylib.emp;
set mylib.employee(pw=orange drop=salary);
run;

Note that you can use the SAS view without a password, but access to the
underlying data requires a password. This is one way to protect a particular column
of data. In the above example, proc print data=mylib.emp; executes, but proc
print data=mylib.employee; fails without the password.

SAS Data File Encryption

About Encryption on SAS Data Files

SAS passwords and metadata-bound data sets restrict access to SAS data sets
within SAS. But neither can prevent SAS data sets from being viewed at the
operating environment system level or from being read by an external program.
Encryption provides security of your SAS data outside of SAS by writing to disk the
encrypted data that represents the SAS data. The data is decrypted by the SAS
system as it is read from the disk, but is not decrypted when read at the operating
system level or by external programs.
Encryption does not affect file access. However, SAS recognizes all host security
mechanisms that control file access and can extend host security mechanisms by
binding the data sets to metadata. You can use encryption and those security
mechanisms together.
There are three types of algorithms that SAS uses for encrypting data files:
n SAS Proprietary Encryption on page 795 is implemented with the
ENCRYPT=YES data set option.
n AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption on page 796 is implemented
with the ENCRYPT=AES or ENCRYPT=AES2 data set option.
Beginning in SAS 9.4M1, a metadata-bound library administrator can require that all
data files in the bound library be encrypted with one of the three algorithms. For
more information, see “Requiring Encryption for Metadata-Bound Data Sets” in Base
SAS Procedures Guide and SAS Guide to Metadata-Bound Libraries.
 SAS Data File Encryption 795

Table 36.1 Encryption Features

Features ENCRYPT=YES ENCRYPT=AES ENCRYPT=AES2

License required No No No

Encryption level Medium High Highest

Algorithm supported SAS Proprietary AES AES2

(within Base SAS
software)

Installation required No (part of Base No SAS/SECURE No SAS/SECURE

SAS software) (delivered with (delivered with
Base SAS Base SAS
software) software)

Operating environments UNIX UNIX UNIX

supported
Windows Windows Windows
z/OS z/OS z/OS

SAS version support 8 and later 9.4 and later 9.4m5 and later

See Also
“AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide

SAS Proprietary Encryption

SAS Proprietary Encryption is licensed with Base SAS software and is available in
all deployments. There are two types of SAS Proprietary Encryption.
n A 32-bit rolling-key encryption technique that is used for SAS data set encryption
with passwords.
This encryption technique for SAS data sets uses parts of the passwords that
are stored in the SAS data set as part of the 32-bit rolling key encoding of the
data. This encryption provides a medium level of security. Users must supply the
appropriate passwords to authorize their access to the data, but with the speed
of today’s computers, it could be subjected to a brute force attack on the
2,563,160,682,591 possible combinations of valid password values. Many of
which must produce the same 32-bit key. SAS/SECURE and data set support of
AES, which is also shipped with Base SAS software, provides a higher level of
security.
n A 32-bit fixed-key encryption routine used for communications, such as
passwords for login objects, passwords in configuration files, login passwords,
internal account passwords, and so on.
SAS Proprietary Encryption for SAS data sets is implemented with the ENCRYPT=
data set option. You can use the ENCRYPT= data set option only when you are
creating a SAS data file. You must also assign a password when encrypting a data
file with SAS Proprietary Encryption. At a minimum, you must specify the READ=
data set option or the PW= data set option at the same time you specify
ENCRYPT=YES. Because passwords are used in this encryption technique, you
 796 Chapter 36 / File Protection

cannot change any password on an encrypted data set without re-creating the data
set.
The following rules apply to data file encryption:
n To copy an encrypted SAS data file, the output engine must support encryption.
Otherwise, the data file is not copied.
n Encrypted files work only in Release 6.11 or in later releases of SAS.

n You cannot encrypt SAS data views, because they contain no data.

n If the data file is encrypted, all associated indexes are also encrypted.
n Encryption requires approximately the same amount of CPU resources as
compression.
n You cannot use PROC CPORT on encrypted SAS data files.

The following example creates an SAS data set with SAS Proprietary Encryption:
data salary(encrypt=yes read=green);
input name $ yrsal bonuspct;
datalines;
Muriel 34567 3.2
Bjorn 74644 2.5
Freda 38755 4.1
Benny 29855 3.5
Agnetha 70998 4.1
;

To print this data set, specify the Read password:

proc print data=salary(read=green);
run;
quit;

TIP Each password option must be coded on a separate line to ensure that they
are properly blotted in the SAS log.

See Also
“AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide

AES Encryption
In SAS 9.4 release, AES encryption of data sets is available. You specify
ENCRYPT=AES when creating a data set. AES produces a strong encryption by
using a key value that can be up to 64 characters long. Beginning in SAS 9.4M5
release, a stronger AES key generation algorithm is available. You use
ENCRYPT=AES2 data set option. Instead of passwords that are stored in the data
set (SAS Proprietary encryption), AES and AES2 uses a key value that is not stored
in the data set. The key value is created using the ENCRYPTKEY= data set option
when the data set is created. You cannot change the ENCRYPTKEY= key value on
an AES encrypted data set without re-creating the data set or using PROC
AUTHLIB MODIFY to change the recorded key of a metadata-bound library. For
more information, see “AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
The following rules apply to AES and AES2 encryption of data sets:
 SAS Data File Encryption 797

n You use SAS/SECURE software, which is licensed with Base SAS software and
is available in all deployments.
n You must use the ENCRYPTKEY= data set option when creating or accessing
an AES encrypted data set unless the metadata-bound library administrator has
securely recorded the encryption key in metadata to which the data set is bound.
For more information, see “AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide
and SAS Guide to Metadata-Bound Libraries.
n To copy an AES-encrypted data file, the output engine must support AES
encryption. Otherwise, the data file is not copied.
n Releases before SAS 9.4 cannot use an AES-encrypted data file.

n Releases before SAS 9.4M5 cannot use an AES encrypted file that uses AES2
key generation algorithm.
n SAS Viya cannot access data sets created with ENCRYPT=AES2.
n You cannot encrypt SAS views, because they contain no data.

n If two or more data files are referentially related and any of them are AES
encrypted, then all must be AES encrypted. The encryption key for all of the files
must be the same unless the files are bound to metadata with the key securely
recorded in the metadata. For more information about metadata-bound libraries,
see “Metadata-Bound Library” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
n If the data file has AES encryption, all associated indexes have AES encryption.

n You cannot use PROC CPORT on AES encrypted data files.

The ENCRYPTKEY= data set option does not protect the AES encrypted file from
deletion or replacement. AES encrypted data sets can be deleted by using either of
the following scenarios without having to specify an encrypt key value:
n the KILL option in PROC DATASETS

n the DROP statement in PROC SQL

The encrypt key only prevents access to the contents of the file. To protect the file
from unauthorized deletion or replacement with the SAS system, the file must also
contain an ALTER= password or be bound to metadata.
The following example creates an encrypted data set using AES encryption:
data salary(encrypt=aes encryptkey=green);
input name $ yrsal bonuspct;
datalines;
Muriel 34567 3.2
Bjorn 74644 2.5
Freda 38755 4.1
Benny 29855 3.5
Agnetha 70998 4.1
;

To print this data set, specify the ENCRYPTKEY= key value:

proc print data=salary(encryptkey=green);
run;
quit;

TIP Each password and encryption key option must be coded on a separate line
to ensure that they are properly blotted in the SAS log.
 798 Chapter 36 / File Protection

If you omit the ENCRYPTKEY= key value when accessing an AES secured data
set, a dialog box appears and prompts you to add the ENCRYPTKEY= key value. If
the data set is metadata-bound and the key has been stored in the metadata for the
library, the dialog box does not appear.

Figure 36.1 Dialog Box for ENCRYPTKEY=

See Also
“AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide

AES Encryption and Referential Integrity Constraints

Data files with referential integrity constraints can use AES encryption. All primary
key and foreign key data files must use the same encryption key that opens all
referencing foreign key and primary key data files.

Passwords and Encryption with Generation Data Sets,

Audit Trails, Indexes, and Copies
SAS extends password protection, SAS Proprietary encryption, and AES encryption
to other files associated with the original protected file. This includes generation
data sets, indexes, audit trails, and copies. You can access protected or encrypted
generation data sets, indexes, audit trails, and copies of the original file. The same
rules, syntax, and behavior for invoking the original password protected or
encrypted files apply. SAS views cannot have generation data sets, indexes, or
audit trails. For more information about encryption, see “SAS Proprietary
Encryption” on page 795 and “AES Encryption” on page 796.

Blotting Passwords and Encryption Key Values

Check the SAS Log

You need to check the SAS log to ensure that any password value or encryption key
value is blotted out. This applies to the READ=, WRITE=, ALTER=, PW=, and
ENCRYPTKEY= options.
 Blotting Passwords and Encryption Key Values 799

In most cases, placing the password=value pair on a separate line blots the value:

data &ds(
read=secret
encrypt=aes
encryptkey=evenmoreso
);
x=1;
run;

Examples of Passwords and Encryption Keys That Are Not

Blotted
The following examples are password values and encryption-key values that are not
blotted in the SAS log:
n Do not use a macro variable for the libref or data set in a DATA statement:
%let ds=dataset;

data &ds(read=secret);
x=1
;
run;

The following is written to the SAS log:

111 %let ds=dataset;
112 data &ds(alter=secret);
113 x=1;
114 run;

NOTE: The data set WORK.DATASET has 1 observations and 1 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

n Using an incorrect password for a data set in certain procedures causes

passwords in the log:
proc append base=here(PW=XXXXXXX) data=more(READ=secret2);
run;

n Typing errors cause the following passwords to show in the SAS log:
proc print data=lubrary.abc(READ=secret);
run;

or
proc print data=library.abc(ERAD=secret);
run;

n If the code causes an ERROR message, the password is not blotted. For
example, in the following code the libref is misspelled causing SAS to issue the
 800 Chapter 36 / File Protection

message: "ERROR: Libref MYLUB is not assigned." and the password is not
blotted.
libname mylib 'c:\';
data mylub.abc(
read=secret
);
x=1;
run;

The following output is written to the SAS log:

636 libname mylib 'c:\';
NOTE: Libref MYLIB was successfully assigned as follows:
Engine: V9
Physical Name: c:\
637 data mylub.abc(
638 read=secret
639 );
ERROR: Libref MYLUB is not assigned.
640 x=1;
641 run;

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

Using Macros
When a password is assigned within a macro, the password is not blotted in the
SAS log when the macro executes. To prevent the password from being revealed in
the SAS log, you can redirect the SAS log to a file. For more information, see
“PRINTTO Procedure” in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Length of Passwords
In some cases, the length of the displayed password is fixed at eight blotted
characters. In other cases, the number of blotted characters is the length of the
password. Output from the OPTIONS procedure, VERBOSE option, and OPLIST
option have a fixed length of eight.
When a password value is being reported, its length is fixed at eight. But when a
password value is simply being echoed from an input statement, it retains its input
length. This example shows the length of the passwords:
options pdfpassword=(open=a owner=b );
proc options option=pdfpassword;
run;

The following is written to the SAS log:

 Metadata-Bound Libraries 801

634 options pdfpassword=XXXXXXX XXXXXXX X;

635 proc options option=pdfpassword;run;

SAS (r) Proprietary Software Release 9.4 TS1M0

PDFPASSWORD=XXXXXXXX
Specifies the password to use to open a PDF document and the
password used by a PDF document owner.
NOTE: PROCEDURE OPTIONS used (Total process time):
real time 0.04 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

Metadata-Bound Libraries
A metadata-bound library is a physical library that is tied to a corresponding
metadata secured table object. Each physical table within a metadata-bound library
has information in its header that points to a specific metadata object. The pointer
creates a security binding between the physical table and the metadata object. The
binding ensures that SAS universally enforces metadata-layer access requirements
for the physical table—regardless of how a user requests access from SAS. For
more information, see SAS Guide to Metadata-Bound Libraries.
The AUTHLIB procedure is used to create, access, and modify metadata-bound
libraries. This procedure is intended for use by SAS administrators. Users who lack
sufficient privileges in either the metadata layer or the host layer cannot use this
procedure. For more information, see “AUTHLIB Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide.
802 Chapter 36 / File Protection
 803

37
SAS Engines

Definition of a SAS Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Specifying an Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
How Engines Work with SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804
Engine Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
About Engine Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Read/Write Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Access Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Levels of Locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
Indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
About Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Definition of a Library Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Native Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Interface Library Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
Special-Purpose Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Character Variable Padding (CVP) Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
SAS Information Maps LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
SAS JMP LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
SAS Metadata LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
SAS XML LIBNAME Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812

Definition of a SAS Engine

An engine is a component of SAS software that reads from or writes to a file. Each
engine enables SAS to access files that are in a particular format. There are several
types of engines.

Specifying an Engine
Usually, you do not have to specify an engine. If you do not specify an engine, SAS
automatically assigns one based on the contents of the SAS library.
Even though SAS automatically assigns an engine based on the library contents, it
is more efficient for you to specify the engine. In some operating environments, in
 804 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines

order to determine the contents of a library, SAS must perform extra processing
steps by looking at all of the files in the directory until it has enough information to
determine which engine to use.
For example, if you explicitly specify the engine name as in the following LIBNAME
statement, SAS does not need to determine which engine to use:
libname mylib v9 'SAS-library';

In order to use some engines, you must specify the engine name. For example, in
order to use engines like the XML engine or the metadata engine, specify the
engine name and specify specific arguments and options for that engine. For
example, the following LIBNAME statement specifies the XML engine to import or
export an XML document:
libname myxml xml 'C:\MyFiles\XML\MyXmlFile.xml' xmltype=generic;

You can specify an engine name in the LIBNAME statement, the ENGINE= system
option, and in the New Library window.

How Engines Work with SAS Files

The following figure shows how SAS data sets are accessed through an engine.

Figure 37.1 How SAS Data Sets Are Accessed

Data

SAS Files

Other Files
Oracle, DBMS

Engine A Engine B
Engine C Engine D

SAS Data
Set

DATA Step PROC Step

n Your data is stored in files for which SAS provides an engine. When you specify
a SAS data set name, the engine locates the appropriate file or files.
 Engine Characteristics 805

n The engine opens the file and obtains the descriptive information that is required
by SAS (for example, which variables are available and what attributes they
have, whether the file has special processing characteristics such as indexes or
compressed observations, and whether other engines are required for
processing). The engine uses this information to organize the data in the
standard logical form for SAS processing.
n This standard form is called the SAS data file, which consists of the descriptor
information and the data values organized into columns (variables) and rows
(observations).
n SAS procedures and DATA step statements access and process the data only in
its logical form. During processing, the engine executes whatever instructions
are necessary to open and close physical files and to read and write data in
appropriate formats.
Data that is accessed by an engine is organized into the SAS data set model, and in
the same way, groups of files that are accessed by an engine are organized in the
correct logical form for SAS processing. Once files are accessed as a SAS library,
you can use SAS utility windows and procedures to list their contents and to
manage them. See Chapter 26, “SAS Libraries,” on page 623 for more information
about SAS libraries. The following figure shows the relationship of engines to SAS
libraries.

Figure 37.2 Relationship of Engines to SAS Libraries

files

engine

SAS data library model

SAS utility
windows and procedures

Engine Characteristics

About Engine Characteristics

The engine that is used to access a SAS data set determines its processing
characteristics. Different statements and procedures require different processing
characteristics. For example, the FSEDIT procedure requires the ability to update
selected data values. And, the POINT= option in the SET statement requires
random access to observations as well as the ability to calculate observation
numbers from record identifiers within the file.
The following figure describes the types of activities that engines regulate.
 806 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines

Figure 37.3 Activities That Engines Regulate

Engine

READ/WRITE LOCKING INTEGRITY COMPRESSION/REUSE

ACTIVITY LEVELS CONSTRAINTS

ACCESS INDEXING DATA COMPATIBILITY GENERATIONS

PATTERNS Cross Platform
Cross Release

Read/Write Activity
An engine can perform one or more of the following tasks:
n limit read/write activity for a SAS data set to read-only

n fully support updating, deleting, renaming, or redefining the attributes of the data
set and its variables
n support only some of these functions

For example, the engines that process BMDP, OSIRIS, or SPSS files support read-
only processing. Some engines that process SAS views permit SAS procedures to
modify existing observations while others do not.

Access Patterns
SAS procedures and statements can read observations in SAS data sets in one of
four general patterns:
sequential access
processes observations one after the other, starting at the beginning of the file
and continuing in sequence to the end of the file.
random access
processes observations according to the value of some indicator variable without
processing previous observations.
BY-group access
groups and processes observations in order of the values of the variables that
are specified in a BY statement.
multiple-pass
performs two or more passes on data when required by SAS statements or
procedures.
If a SAS statement or procedure tries to access a SAS data set whose engine does
not support the required access pattern, SAS prints an appropriate error message in
the SAS log.
 Engine Characteristics 807

Levels of Locking
Some features of SAS require that data sets support different levels at which
Update access is used. When a SAS data set can be opened concurrently by more
than one SAS session or by more than one statement or procedure within a single
session, the level of locking determines how many sessions, procedures, or
statements can read and write to the file at the same time. For example, with the
FSEDIT procedure, you can request two windows on the same SAS data set in one
session. Some engines support this capability; others do not.
The levels that are supported are record level and member (data set) level.
Member-level locking enables Read access to many sessions, statements, or
procedures. This locking restricts all other access to the SAS data set when a
session, statement, or procedure acquires update or output access. Record-level
locking enables concurrent Read access and Update access to the SAS data set by
more than one session, statement, or procedure. This locking prevents concurrent
Update access to the same observation. Not all engines support both levels.
By default, SAS provides the greatest possible level of concurrent access, while
guaranteeing the integrity of the data. In some cases, you might want to guarantee
the integrity of your data by controlling the levels of Update access yourself. Use the
CNTLLEV= data set option to control levels of locking. CNTLLEV= enables locking
at three levels:
n library

n data set

n observation

Here are situations in which you should consider using the CNTLLEV= data set
option:
n Your application controls access to the data, such as in SAS Component
Language (SCL), SAS/IML software, or DATA step programming.
n You access data through an interface engine that does not provide member-level
control of the data.
For more information about the CNTLLEV= data set option, see SAS Data Set
Options: Reference.
You can also acquire an exclusive lock on an existing SAS file by issuing the LOCK
global statement. After an exclusive lock is obtained, no other SAS session can read
or write to the file until the lock is released. For more information about the LOCK
statement, see SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference.
Note: SAS products, such as SAS/ACCESS and SAS/SHARE, contain engines that
support enhanced session management services and file locking capabilities.

Indexing
A major processing feature of SAS is the ability to access observations by the
values of key variables with indexes. See “Understanding SAS Indexes” on page
 808 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines

692 for more information about using indexes for SAS data files. Note that not all
engines support indexing.

About Library Engines

Definition of a Library Engine

A library engine is an engine that accesses groups of files and puts them into a
logical form for processing by SAS utility procedures and windows. A library engine
also determines the fundamental processing characteristics of the library and
presents lists of files for the library directory. Library engines can be classified as
native or interface.

Native Library Engines

Definition of Native Library Engine

A native library engine is an engine that accesses forms of SAS files that are
created and processed only by SAS.
Operating Environment Information: Engine availability is host dependent. See
the SAS documentation for your operating environment. Also, specific products
provide additional engines.

Default Base SAS Engine

The default Base SAS engine writes SAS libraries in disk format. The engine
processes SAS 7, SAS 8, and SAS 9 files. If you do not specify an engine name
when you are creating a new SAS library, the Base SAS engine, which for SAS 9 is
named V9, is automatically selected.
When accessing existing SAS data sets on disk, SAS assigns an engine based on
the contents of the library. The Base SAS engine has the following characteristics:
n It is the only engine that supports the full functionality of the SAS data set and
the SAS library.
n It supports view engines.

n It meets all the processing characteristics required by SAS statements and

procedures.
n It creates, maintains, and uses indexes.

n It reads and writes compressed (variable-length) observations. SAS data sets

created by other engines have fixed-length observations.
n It assigns a permanent page size to data sets and temporarily assigns the
number of buffers to be used when processing them.
 About Library Engines 809

n It repairs damaged SAS data sets, indexes, and catalogs.

n It enforces integrity constraints, creates backup files, and creates audit trails.

Note: SAS files created in SAS 7, 8, and 9 have the same file format.

Remote Engine
The REMOTE engine is a SAS library engine for SAS/SHARE software. Using it
enables a SAS session to access shared data by communicating with a SAS server.
For more information, see the SAS/SHARE User’s Guide.

SASESOCK Engine
The SASESOCK engine processes input to and output from TCP/IP ports instead of
physical disk devices. The SASESOCK engine is required for SAS/CONNECT
applications that implement MP CONNECT processing with the piping mechanisms.
For more information, see the SAS/CONNECT User’s Guide.

SAS Scalable Performance Data (SPD) Engine

The SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine (SPD Engine) provides parallel I/O,
using multiple CPUs to read SAS data and deliver it rapidly to applications. The
SPD Engine can process very large data sets because the data can span volumes
but can be referenced as a single data set. The data in these data sets is also
partitioned, enabling the data to be read in multiple threads per CPU. The SPD
Engine is not intended to replace the default Base SAS engine for processing data
sets that do not span volumes.
See SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine: Reference for details about this
engine's capabilities.

Sequential Engines
A sequential engine processes SAS files on storage media that do not provide
random access methods (for example, tape or sequential format on disk). A
sequential engine requires less overhead than the default Base SAS engine
because sequential access is simpler than random access. However, a sequential
engine does not support some Base SAS features such as audit trails, generation
data sets, integrity constraints, and indexing.
The sequential engine supports some file types for backup and restore purposes
only, such as CATALOG, VIEW, and MDDB. ITEMSTOR is the only file type that the
sequential engine does not support. DATA is the only file type that is useful for
purposes other than backup and restore.
The following sequential engines are available:
V9TAPE (TAPE)
processes SAS 7, SAS 8, and SAS 9 files.
V6TAPE
processes SAS 6 files without requiring you to convert the file to the SAS 9
format.
For more information, see “Sequential Data Libraries” on page 635.
 810 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines

Transport Engine
The XPORT engine processes transport files. The engine transforms a SAS file
from its operating environment-specific internal representation to a transport file. A
transport file is a machine-independent format that can be used for all hosts. In
order to create a transport file, explicitly specify the XPORT engine in the LIBNAME
statement, and then use the DATA step or COPY procedure.
For information about using the XPORT engine, see Moving and Accessing SAS
Files.

V6 Compatibility Engine
The SAS 6 compatibility engine can automatically support some processing of SAS
6 files in SAS 9 without requiring you to convert the file to the SAS 9 format.
For more information, see Chapter 35, “Cross-Release Compatibility and Migration,”
on page 779, or see the Migration Focus Area at support.sas.com.

Interface Library Engines

An interface library engine is a SAS engine that accesses files formatted by other
software. Interface library engines are not transparent to the user and must be
explicitly specified (for example, in the LIBNAME statement).
The following are interface library engines:
SPSS
reads SPSS portable file format. This file format is analogous to the transport
format for SAS data sets. The SPSS portable files (also called an export file)
must be created by using the SPSS EXPORT command. Under z/OS, the SPSS
engine also reads SPSS Release 9 files and SPSS-X files in either compressed
or uncompressed format.
OSIRIS
reads OSIRIS data and dictionary files in EBCDIC format.
BMDP
reads BMDP save files.
In addition, a view engine is an interface library engine that is used by
SAS/ACCESS software in order to retrieve data from files formatted by another
vendor's software. These engines enable you to read and write data directly to and
from files formatted by a database management system (DBMS), such as DB2 and
ORACLE.
View engines enable you to use SAS procedures and statements in order to
process data values stored in these files without the cost of converting and storing
them in files formatted by SAS. Contact your on-site SAS support personnel for a list
of the SAS/ACCESS interfaces available at your site. For more information about
SAS/ACCESS features, see Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS Software,” on page
757 and the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.
Operating Environment Information: The capabilities and support of these
engines vary depending on your operating environment. See the SAS
documentation for your operating environment for more complete information.
 Special-Purpose Engines 811

Special-Purpose Engines

Character Variable Padding (CVP) Engine

The character variable padding (CVP) engine expands character variable lengths,
using a specified expansion amount, so that character data truncation does not
occur when a file requires transcoding. Character data truncation can occur when
the number of bytes for a character in one encoding is different from the number of
bytes for the same character in another encoding, such as when a single-byte
character set (SBCS) is transcoded to a double-byte character set (DBCS) or a
multi-byte character set (MBCS).
The CVP engine is a read-only engine for SAS data files only. You can request
character variable expansion by either of the following methods:
n You can explicitly specify the CVP engine (for example, with the LIBNAME
statement, and using the default expansion of 1.5 times the variable lengths).
n You can implicitly specify the CVP engine with the LIBNAME statement options
CVPBYTES= or CVPMULTIPLIER=. The options specify the expansion amount.
In addition, you can use the CVPENGINE= option to specify the primary engine
to use for processing the SAS file; the default is the default Base SAS engine.
For more information about using the CVP engine to avoid character data truncation
and for details about the CVP engine options in the LIBNAME statement, see SAS
National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

SAS Information Maps LIBNAME Engine

The new SAS Information Maps LIBNAME engine provides a read-only way to
access data generated from a SAS Information Map and to bring it into a SAS
session. Once you retrieve the data, you can run almost any SAS procedure against
it.
To use the Information Maps engine, specify INFOMAPS as the engine name, along
with specific arguments and options in the LIBNAME statement.
For information about how to use the Information Maps engine, see Base SAS
Guide to Information Maps.

SAS JMP LIBNAME Engine

The SAS JMP LIBNAME engine enables you to read and write JMP files in a Base
SAS session. A JMP file is a file format that the JMP software program creates. JMP
is an interactive statistics package that is available for Microsoft Windows and
Macintosh. For more information about a JMP concept or term, see the JMP
documentation that is packaged with your system.
 812 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines

To use the JMP engine, specify JMP as the engine name, along with the location of
a SAS library in the LIBNAME statement. For example, the following code reads and
prints five observations from the JMP file Baseball.jmp:

libname b jmp 'C:\JMP\SampleData';

proc print data=b.baseball (obs=5);

run;

For information about how to use the JMP engine, “LIBNAME Statement: JMP
Engine” in SAS Global Statements: Reference

SAS Metadata LIBNAME Engine

The metadata engine accesses metadata that is stored on the SAS Metadata
Server within a specific SAS Metadata Repository. The metadata is information
about the structure and content of data, and about the applications that process and
manipulate that data. The metadata contains details such as the location of the data
and the SAS engine that is used to process the data.
The metadata engine works in a similar way to other SAS engines. That is, you
execute a LIBNAME statement to assign a libref and specify an engine. You then
use that libref throughout the SAS session where a libref is valid. However, instead
of the libref being associated with the physical location of a SAS library, the
metadata libref is associated with specific metadata objects that are stored in a
specific repository on the metadata server. The metadata objects define the SAS
engine and options that are necessary to process a SAS library and its members.
When you execute the LIBNAME statement for the metadata engine, the metadata
engine retrieves information about the target SAS library from the metadata. The
metadata engine uses this information in order to construct a LIBNAME statement
for the underlying engine and assigns it with the appropriate options. Then, when
the metadata engine needs to access your data, the metadata engine uses the
underlying engine to process the data.
You invoke the metadata engine by explicitly specifying the engine name META,
along with specific arguments and options for the metadata engine (for example, in
the LIBNAME statement or in the New Library window).
For information about how to use the metadata engine, see SAS Language
Interfaces to Metadata.

SAS XML LIBNAME Engine

The SAS XML LIBNAME engine imports an XML document as one or more SAS
data sets and exports a SAS data set as an XML document.
n The engine imports (reads from an input file) an external XML document by
translating the XML markup into SAS proprietary format.
n The engine exports (writes to an output file) an XML document from a SAS data
set by translating SAS proprietary format to XML markup.
 Special-Purpose Engines 813

To use the XML engine, specify either the XML or XMLV2 engine nickname, along with
specific arguments and options (for example, in the LIBNAME statement or in the
New Library window).
For information about how to use the XML engine, see the SAS XMLV2 and XML
LIBNAME Engines: User’s Guide.
814 Chapter 37 / SAS Engines
 815

38
SAS File Management

Improving Performance of SAS Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Moving SAS Files between Operating Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
Repairing Damaged SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Detecting Damage to SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Recovering SAS Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Recovering Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Recovering Disabled Indexes and Integrity Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Recovering Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Improving Performance of SAS Applications

SAS offers tools to control the use of memory and other computer resources. Most
SAS applications run efficiently in your operating environment without using these
features. However, if you develop applications under the following circumstances,
you might want to experiment with tuning performance:
n You work with large data sets.

n You create production jobs that run repeatedly.

n You are responsible for establishing performance guidelines for a data center.

n You do interactive queries on large SAS data sets using SAS/FSP software.

For information about improving performance, see Chapter 12, “Optimizing System
Performance,” on page 217.

Moving SAS Files between Operating

Environments
The procedures for moving SAS files from one operating environment to another
vary according to your operating environment, the member type and version of the
SAS files that you want to move, and the methods that you have available for
moving the files.
For details about this subject, see Moving and Accessing SAS Files.
 816 Chapter 38 / SAS File Management

Repairing Damaged SAS Files

Detecting Damage to SAS Files

The Base SAS engine detects possible damage to SAS data files (including
indexes, integrity constraints, and the audit file) and SAS catalogs and provides a
means for repairing some of the damage. If one of the following events occurs while
you are updating a SAS file, SAS can recover the file and repair some of the
damage:
n A system failure occurs while the data file or catalog is being updated.

n The disk where the data file (including the index file and audit file) or catalog is
stored becomes full before the file is completely written to it.
n An input/output error occurs while writing to the data file, index file, audit file, or
catalog.
When the failure occurs, the observations or records that were not written to the
data file or catalog are lost and some of the information about where values are
stored is inconsistent. The next time SAS reads the file, it recognizes that the file's
contents are damaged and repairs it to the extent possible in accordance with the
setting for the DLDMGACTION= data set option or system option, unless the data
set is truncated. In this case, use the REPAIR statement to restore the data set.
If damage occurs to the storage device where a data file resides, you can restore
the damaged data file, the index, and the audit file from a backup device.
Note: SAS is unable to repair or recover a SAS view (a DATA step view, an SQL
view, or a SAS/ACCESS view) or a stored compiled DATA step program. If a SAS
file of type VIEW or PROGRAM is damaged, you must re-create it.
Note: If the audit file for a SAS data file becomes damaged, you cannot process the
data file until you terminate the audit trail. Then, you can initiate a new audit file or
process the data file without one.

Recovering SAS Data Files

To determine the type of action SAS takes when it tries to open a SAS data file that
is damaged, set the DLDMGACTION= data set option or system option. That is,
when a data file is detected as damaged, SAS automatically responds based on
your specification as follows:
DLDMGACTION=FAIL
tells SAS to stop the step without a prompt and issue an error message to the
SAS log indicating that the requested file is damaged. This specification gives
the application control over the repair decision and provides awareness that a
problem occurred.
 Repairing Damaged SAS Files 817

To recover the damaged data file, you can issue the REPAIR statement in PROC
DATASETS, which is documented in Base SAS Procedures Guide.
DLDMGACTION=ABORT
tells SAS to terminate the step, issue an error message to the SAS log indicating
that the request file is damaged, and end the SAS session.
DLDMGACTION=REPAIR
tells SAS to automatically repair the file and rebuild indexes, integrity constraints,
and the audit file as well. If the repair is successful, a message is issued to the
SAS log indicating that the open and repair steps were successful. If the repair is
unsuccessful, processing stops without a prompt and an error message is issued
to the SAS log indicating the requested file is damaged.
Note: If the data file is large, the time needed to repair it can be long.
DLDMGACTION=NOINDEX
tells SAS to automatically repair the data file, disable the indexes and integrity
constraints, delete the index file, update the data file to reflect the disabled
indexes and integrity constraints, and limit the data file to be opened only in
INPUT mode. A warning is written to the SAS log instructing you to execute the
PROC DATASETS REBUILD statement to correct the disabled indexes and
integrity constraints and rebuild the index file. For more information, see
“Recovering Disabled Indexes and Integrity Constraints” on page 819.
DLDMGACTION=PROMPT
tells SAS to provide the same behavior that exists in Version 6 for both
interactive mode and batch mode. For interactive mode, SAS displays a dialog
box that asks you to select the FAIL, ABORT, or REPAIR action. For batch
mode, the files fail to open.
For a data file, the date and time of the last repair and a count of the total number of
repairs is automatically maintained. To display the damage log, use PROC
CONTENTS as shown below:
proc contents data="c:\temp\testuser\large";
run;
 818 Chapter 38 / SAS File Management

Output 38.1 CONTENTS Procedure Output

 Repairing Damaged SAS Files 819

Recovering Indexes
In addition to the failures listed earlier, you can damage the indexes for SAS data
files by using an operating environment command to delete, copy, or rename a SAS
data file, but not its associated index file. The index is repaired similarly to the
DLDMGACTION= option as described for SAS data files, or you can use the
REPAIR statement in PROC DATASETS to rebuild composite and simple indexes
that were damaged.
You cannot use the REPAIR statement to recover indexes that were deleted by one
of the following actions:
n copying a SAS data file by some means other than PROC COPY or PROC
DATASETS, for example, using a DATA step
n using the FORCE option in the SORT procedure to write over the original data
file
In the above cases, the index must be rebuilt using the PROC DATASETS INDEX
CREATE statement.

Recovering Disabled Indexes and Integrity Constraints

When the DLDMGACTION=NOINDEX data set or system option is used and SAS
encounters a damaged data file, SAS does the following:
n automatically repairs the data file without the indexes and integrity constraints

n disables the indexes and integrity constraints

n deletes the index file

n updates the data file to reflect the disabled indexes and integrity constraints

n limits the data file to be opened only in INPUT mode

n writes the following warning to the SAS log:

WARNING: SAS data file MYLIB.MYFILE.DATA was damaged and has been
partially repaired. To complete the repair, execute the DATASETS
procedure REBUILD statement.

The data file stays in INPUT mode until the PROC DATASETS REBUILD statement
is executed. You use this statement to specify whether you want to restore the
indexes and integrity constraints and rebuild the index file or delete the disabled
integrity constraints and indexes. For more information, see the REBUILD statement
in PROC DATASETS, which is documented in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Recovering Catalogs
To determine the type of action that SAS takes when it tries to open a SAS catalog
that is damaged, set the DLDMGACTION= data set option or system option. Then
820 Chapter 38 / SAS File Management

when a catalog is detected as damaged, SAS automatically responds based on

your specification.
Note: There are two types of catalog damage:
n localized damage is caused by a disk condition. This damage results in some
data in memory not being flushed to disk. The catalog entries that are currently
open for update are marked as damaged. Each damaged entry is checked to
determine whether all the records can be read without error.
n severe damage is caused by a severe I/O error. The entire catalog is marked as
damaged.
DLDMGACTION=FAIL
tells SAS to stop the step without a prompt and issue an error message to the
log indicating that the requested file is damaged. This specification gives the
application control over the repair decision and provides awareness that a
problem occurred.
To recover the damaged catalog, you can issue the REPAIR statement in PROC
DATASETS, which is documented in the Base SAS Procedures Guide. Note that
when you use the REPAIR statement to restore a catalog, you receive a warning
for entries that have possible damage. Entries that have been restored might not
include updates that were not written to disk before the damage occurred.
DLDMGACTION=ABORT
tells SAS to terminate the step, issue an error message to the log indicating that
the requested file is damaged, and end the SAS session.
DLDMGACTION=REPAIR
for localized damage, tells SAS to automatically check the catalog to see which
entries are damaged. If there is an error reading an entry, the entry is copied. If
an error occurs during the copy process, then the entry is automatically deleted.
For severe damage, the entire catalog is copied to a new catalog.
DLDMGACTION=PROMPT
for localized damage, tells SAS to provide the same behavior that exists in SAS
6 for both interactive mode and batch mode. For interactive mode, SAS displays
a dialog box that asks you to select the FAIL, ABORT, or REPAIR action. For
batch mode, the files fail to open. For severe damage, the entire catalog is
copied to a new catalog.
Unlike data files, a damage log is not maintained for a catalog.
 821

39
External Files

Definition of External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Referencing External Files Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Referencing External Files Indirectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Referencing Many External Files Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
Referencing External Files with Other Access Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
Working with External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826
Reading External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826
Writing to External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826
Processing External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

Definition of External Files

external files
are files that are managed and maintained by your operating system, not by
SAS. They contain data or text or are files in which you want to store data or
text. They can also be SAS catalogs or output devices. Every SAS job creates at
least one external file, the SAS log. Most SAS jobs create external files in the
form of procedure output or output created by a DATA step.
External files used in a SAS session can store input for your SAS job as:
n records of raw data that you want to use as input to a DATA step

n SAS programming statements that you want to submit to the system for
execution
External files can also store output from your SAS job as:
n a SAS log (a record of your SAS job).

n a report written by a DATA step.

n procedure output created by SAS procedures, including regular list output,

and, beginning in Version 7, HTML and PostScript output from the Output
Delivery System (ODS).
The PRINTTO procedure also enables you to direct procedure output to an
external file. For more information, see “PRINTTO Procedure” in Base SAS
Procedures Guide. See Chapter 9, “SAS Output,” on page 175 for more
information about ODS.
 822 Chapter 39 / External Files

Note: Database management system (DBMS) files are a special category of

files that can be read with SAS/ACCESS software. For more information about
DBMS files, see Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS Software,” on page 757 and
the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.
Operating Environment Information: Using external files with your SAS jobs
entails significant operating-environment-specific information. For more information,
see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.

Referencing External Files Directly

To reference a file directly in a SAS statement or command, specify in quotation
marks its physical name. This is the name by which the operating environment
recognizes it, as shown in the following table:

Table 39.1 Referencing External Files Directly

External File Task Tool Example

Specify the file that INFILE data weight;

contains input data. infile 'input-file';
input idno $ week1 week16;
loss=week1-week16;

Identify the file that the FILE file 'output-file ';

PUT statement writes to. if loss ge 5 and loss le 9 then
put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=3';
else if loss ge 10 and loss le 14 then
put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=2';
else if loss ge 15 then
put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=1';
run;

Bring statements or raw %INCLUDE %include 'source-file';

data from another file into
your SAS job and execute
them.

Referencing External Files Indirectly

If you want to reference a file in only one place in a program so that you can easily
change it for another job or a later run, you can reference a filename indirectly. Use
a FILENAME statement, the FILENAME function, or an appropriate operating
system command to assign a fileref or nickname, to a file.1 Note that you can assign

1. In some operating environments, you can also use the command '&' to assign a fileref.
 Referencing Many External Files Efficiently 823

a fileref to a SAS catalog that is an external file, or to an output device, as shown in

the following table.

Table 39.2 Referencing External Files Indirectly

External File
Task Tool Example

Assign a fileref FILENAME filename mydata 'input-file';

to a file that
contains input
data.

Assign a fileref FILENAME filename myreport 'output-file';

to a file for
output data.

Assign a fileref FILENAME filename mypgm 'source-file';

to a file that
contains
program
statements.

Assign a fileref FILENAME filename myprinter <device-type>

to an output <host-options>;
device.

Specify the file INFILE data weight;

that contains infile mydata;
input data. input idno $ week1 week16;
loss=week1-week16;

Specify the file FILE file myreport;

that the PUT if loss ge 5 and loss le 9 then
statement writes put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=3';
to. else if loss ge 10 and loss le 14 then
put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=2';
else if loss ge 15 then
put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=1';
run;

Bring %INCLUDE %include mypgm;

statements or
raw data from
another file into
your SAS job
and execute
them.

Referencing Many External Files Efficiently

When you use many files from a single aggregate storage location, such as a
directory or partitioned data set (PDS or MACLIB), you can use a single fileref,
 824 Chapter 39 / External Files

followed by a filename enclosed in parentheses, to access the individual files. This

saves time by eliminating the need to enter a long file storage location name
repeatedly. It also makes changing the program easier later if you change the file
storage location. The following table shows an example of assigning a fileref to an
aggregate storage location:

Table 39.3 Referencing Many Files Efficiently

External File Task Tool Example

Assign a fileref to aggregate FILENAME filename mydir 'directory-or-PDS-name';

storage location.

Specify the file that contains INFILE data weight;

input data. infile mydir(qrt1.data);
input idno $ week1 week16;
loss=week1-week16;

Specify the file that the PUT FILE file mydir(awards);

statement writes to. * if loss ge 5 then put idno loss
'AWARD STATUS=3';
else if loss ge 10
then put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=2';
else if loss ge 15
then put idno loss 'AWARD STATUS=1';
run;

Bring statements or raw data %INCLUDE %include mydir(whole.program);

from another file into your
SAS job and execute them.

* SAS creates a file that is named with the appropriate extension for your operating environment.

Referencing External Files with Other Access

Methods
You can assign filerefs to external files that you access with the following
FILENAME access methods:
n CATALOG

n DATAURL

n FTP

n Hadoop

n SFTP

n TCP/IP SOCKET

n URL

n WebDAV
 Referencing External Files with Other Access Methods 825

n ZIP

Examples of how to use each method are shown in the following table:

Table 39.4 Referencing External Files with Other Access Methods

External File
Task Tool Example

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename mycat catalog 'catalog'

to a SAS CATALOG <catalog-options>;
catalog that is specifier
an aggregate
storage
location.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile dataurl 'external-file'

to an external DATAURL <dataurl-options>;
file accessed specifier
by a data URL.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile FTP 'external-file'

to an external FTP specifier <ftp-options>;
file accessed
with FTP.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile hadoop 'external-file'

to an external Hadoop specifier <hadoop-options>;
file accessed
on a Hadoop
Distributed File
System.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile SFTP 'external-file'

to an external SFTP specifier <sftp-options>;
file accessed
with SFTP.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile SOCKET 'hostname: portno'

to an external SOCKET <tcpip-options>;
file accessed specifier
by TCP/IP or
SOCKET in filename myfile SOCKET ':portno' SERVER
either client or <tcpip-options>;
server mode.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile URL 'external-file'

to an external URL specifier <url-options>;
file accessed
by URL.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile WEBDAV 'external-file'

to an external WEBDAV <webdav-options>;
file accessed specifier
on a WebDAV
server.

Assign a fileref FILENAME with filename myfile ZIP 'external-file'

to a ZIP file ZIP specifier <zip-options>;
accessed by
using Zlib
services.
 826 Chapter 39 / External Files

See SAS DATA Step Statements: Reference for detailed information about each of
these statements.

Working with External Files

Reading External Files

The primary reason for reading an external file in a SAS job is to create a SAS data
set from raw data. This topic is covered in Chapter 21, “Reading Raw Data,” on
page 471.

Writing to External Files

You can write to an external file by using:
n a SAS DATA step

n the External File Interface (EFI)

n the Export Wizard.

When you use a DATA step to write a customized report, you write it to an external
file. In its simplest form, a DATA step that writes a report looks like this:
data _null_;
set budget;
file 'your-file-name';
put variables-and-text;
run;

For examples of writing reports with a DATA step, see Chapter 20, “DATA Step
Processing,” on page 441.
If your operating environment supports a graphical user interface, you can use the
EFI or the Export Wizard to write to an external file. The EFI is a point-and-click
graphical interface that you can use to read and write data that is not in SAS internal
format. By using the EFI, you can read data from a SAS data set and write it to an
external file, and you can read data from an external file and write it to a SAS data
set. See SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files: Reference for more information about
the EFI.
Note: If the data file you are passing to EFI is password protected, you are
prompted multiple times for your login ID and password.
The Export Wizard guides you through the steps to read data from a SAS data set
and write it to an external file. As a wizard, it is a series of windows that present
simple choices to guide you through the process. See SAS/ACCESS Interface to
PC Files: Reference for more information about the wizard.
 Working with External Files 827

Processing External Files

When reading data from or to a file, you can also use a DATA step to:
n copy only parts of each record to another file

n copy a file and add fields to each record

n process multiple files in the same way in a single DATA step

n create a subset of a file

n update an external file in place

n write data to a file that can be read in different computer environments

n correct errors in a file at the bit level.

For examples of using a DATA step to process external files, see Chapter 21,
“Reading Raw Data,” on page 471.
828 Chapter 39 / External Files
 829

PART 6

Industry Protocols Used in SAS

Chapter 40
The SMTP E-Mail Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

Chapter 41
Universal Unique Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Chapter 42
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
830
 831

40
The SMTP E-Mail Interface

Sending E-Mail through SMTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

System Options That Control SMTP E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Statements That Control SMTP E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
FILENAME Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
FILE and PUT Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833

Sending E-Mail through SMTP

You can send electronic mail programmatically from SAS using the SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol) e-mail interface. SMTP is available for all operating
environments in which SAS runs. To send SMTP e-mail with SAS e-mail support,
you must have an intranet or Internet connection that supports SMTP.
Some SMTP servers require just the user identification as the login ID while others
require the full e-mail address. The SAS SMTP e-mail interface authenticates the
user identification in the following order.

1 If the user ID is specified by the USERID= option in the EMAILHOST= system

option, the SAS SMTP e-mail interface attempts to authenticate by using this
user ID.

2 If the user ID is not specified by the USERID= option, the SAS SMTP e-mail
interface attempts to authenticate by using the user ID specified by the FROM=
option of the FILENAME= statement.

3 If the user ID is not specified in the FROM= option in the FILENAME= statement,
the SAS SMTP e-mail interface attempts to authenticate by using the user ID
specified by the EMAILID= system option.

4 If the user ID is not specified by the EMAILID= system option, the SAS SMTP e-
mail interface looks up the user ID from the operating system and attempts to
authenticate that user ID.

For more information about sending e-mail from SAS, see the SAS documentation
for your operating environment.
 832 Chapter 40 / The SMTP E-Mail Interface

System Options That Control SMTP E-Mail

Several SAS system options control SMTP e-mail. Depending on your operating
environment and whether the SMTP e-mail interface is supported at your site, you
might need to specify these options at start-up or in your SAS configuration file.
Operating Environment Information: To determine the default e-mail interface for
your operating environment and to determine the correct syntax for setting system
options, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
The EMAILSYS system option specifies which e-mail system to use for sending
electronic mail from within SAS. For more information about the EMAILSYS system
option, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
The following system options are specified only when the SMTP e-mail interface is
supported at your site:
EMAILACKWAIT=
specifies the number of seconds that SAS will wait to receive an
acknowledgment from an SMTP server. For more information, see
“EMAILACKWAIT= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
EMAILAUTHPROTOCOL=
specifies the authentication protocol for SMTP E-mail. For more information, see
the “EMAILAUTHPROTOCOL= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
EMAILFROM
specifies whether the FROM e-mail option is required when sending e-mail by
using either the FILE or FILENAME statements. For more information, see the
“EMAILFROM System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
EMAILHOST
specifies the SMTP server that supports e-mail access for your site. For more
information, see the “EMAILHOST= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
EMAILPORT
specifies the port to which the SMTP server is attached. For more information,
see the “EMAILPORT System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
EMAILUTCOFFSET
specifies a UTC offset that is used in the Date: header field of the e-mail
message. For more information, see the “EMAILUTCOFFSET= System Option”
in SAS System Options: Reference.
The following system options are specified with other e-mail systems, as well as
SMTP:
EMAILID=
specifies the identity of the individual sending e-mail from within SAS. For more
information, see the “EMAILID= System Option” in SAS System Options:
Reference.
EMAILPW=
specifies your e-mail login password. For more information, see the “EMAILPW=
System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
 Statements That Control SMTP E-mail 833

Statements That Control SMTP E-mail

FILENAME Statement
In the FILENAME statement, the EMAIL (SMTP) access method enables you to
send e-mail programmatically from SAS using the SMTP e-mail interface. For more
information, see the “FILENAME Statement” in SAS Global Statements: Reference.

FILE and PUT Statements

You can specify e-mail options in the FILE statement. E-mail options that you
specify in the FILE statement override any corresponding e-mail options that you
specified in the FILENAME statement.
In the DATA step, after using the FILE statement to define your e-mail fileref as the
output destination, use PUT statements to define the body of the message. The
PUT statement directives override any other e-mail options in the FILE and
FILENAME statements.
834 Chapter 40 / The SMTP E-Mail Interface
 835

41
Universal Unique Identifiers

Universally Unique Identifiers and the Object Spawner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

What Is a Universally Unique Identifier? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
What Is the Object Spawner? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
Defining the UUID Generator Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
Installing the UUID Generator Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837
Using SAS Language Elements to Assign UUIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
Overview of Using SAS Language Elements to Assign UUIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
UUIDGEN Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
UUIDCOUNT= System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
UUIDGENDHOST System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

Universally Unique Identifiers and the Object

Spawner

What Is a Universally Unique Identifier?

A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit identifier that consists of date and
time information, and the IEEE node address of a host. UUIDs are useful when
objects such as rows or other components of a SAS application must be uniquely
identified. For example, if SAS is running as a server and is distributing objects to
several clients concurrently, you can associate a UUID with each object. This
ensures that a particular client and SAS are referencing the same object.

What Is the Object Spawner?

The object spawner is a program that runs on the server and listens for requests.
When a request is received, the object spawner accepts the connection and
performs the action that is associated with the port or service on which the
connection was made. The object spawner can be configured to be a UUID
Generator Daemon (UUIDGEND), which creates UUIDs for the requesting SAS
session.
 836 Chapter 41 / Universal Unique Identifiers

The UUIDGEND utility is required for non-Windows hosts that are running versions
of SAS prior to SAS 9.4M2.
The UUID Generator Daemon is not required for the following:
n SAS applications that execute on Windows

n SAS applications that execute in UNIX environments that are running SAS
version 9.4M2 (or later)

Defining the UUID Generator Daemon

The definition of UUIDGEND is contained in a setup configuration file that you
specify when you invoke the object spawner. This configuration file identifies the
port that listens for UUID requests, and (in operating environments other than
Windows) the configuration file also identifies the UUID node.
If you install UUIDGEND in an operating environment other than Windows, contact
SAS Technical Support http://support.sas.com/techsup/contact/() to obtain a UUID
node. The UUID node must be unique for each UUIDGEND installation in order for
UUIDGEND to guarantee truly unique UUIDs.
Here is an example of a UUIDGEND setup configuration file for an operating
environment other than Windows:
#
## Define our UUID Generator Daemon. Since this UUIDGEND is
## executing on a UNIX host, we contacted SAS Technical
## Support to get the specified sasUUIDNode.
#
dn: sasSpawnercn=UUIDGEND,sascomponent=sasServer,cn=SAS,o=ABC Inc,c=US
objectClass: sasSpawner
sasSpawnercn: UUIDGEND
sasDomainName: unx.abc.com
sasMachineDNSName: medium.unx.abc.com
sasOperatorPassword: myPassword
sasOperatorPort: 6340
sasUUIDNode: 0123456789ab
sasUUIDPort: 6341
description: SAS Session UUID Generator Daemon on UNIX

Here is an example of a UUIDGEND setup configuration file for Windows:

#
## Define our UUID Generator Daemon. Since this UUIDGEND is
## executing in a Windows operating environment, we do not need to specify
## the sasUUIDNode.
#
dn: sasSpawnercn=UUIDGEND,sascomponent=sasServer,cn=SAS,o=ABC Inc,
c=US
objectClass: sasSpawner
sasSpawnercn: UUIDGEND
sasDomainName: wnt.abc.com
sasMachineDNSName: little.wnt.abc.com
sasOperatorPassword: myPassword
sasOperatorPort: 6340
sasUUIDPort: 6341
 Universally Unique Identifiers and the Object Spawner 837

description: SAS Session UUID Generator Daemon on XP

Installing the UUID Generator Daemon

When you have created the setup configuration file, you can install UUIDGEND by
starting the object spawner program (objspawn) and specifying the setup
configuration file with the following syntax:
objspawn -configFile filename
The configFile option can be abbreviated as -cf.
filename specifies a fully qualified path to the UUIDGEND setup configuration
file. Enclose pathnames that contain embedded blanks in single or double
quotation marks. On Windows, enclose pathnames that contain embedded
blanks in double quotation marks. On z/OS, specify the configuration file as
follows:
//dsn:myid.objspawn.log for MVS files
//hfs:filename.ext for OpenEdition files
On Windows, the objspawn.exe file is installed in the SAS-installation-
directory\SASFoundation\SAS-version\ directory. For example, in a typical
Windows installation, the objspawn.exe file might be installed in the following
directory:
C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4

On UNIX, the objspawn file is installed in the utilities/bin directory in your

installed SAS directory.
In the VMS operating environment, the OBJSPAWN_STARTUP.COM file executes the
OBJSPAWN.COM file as a detached process. The OBJSPAWN.COM file runs the
object spawner. The OBJSPAWN.COM file also includes the following commands
that your site might need to perform before the object spawner is started:
n command to set the display node

n command to run the appropriate version of the spawner

n command to define a process level logical name that points to a template DCL
file (OBJSPAWN_TEMPLATE.COM)
The OBJSPAWN_TEMPLATE.COM file performs setup that is needed in order for the
client process to execute. The object spawner first checks to see whether the logical
name SAS$OBJSPAWN_TEMPLATE is defined. If it is, the commands in the
template file are executed as part of the command sequence used when starting the
client session. You do not have to define the logical name.
 838 Chapter 41 / Universal Unique Identifiers

Using SAS Language Elements to Assign

UUIDs

Overview of Using SAS Language Elements to Assign

UUIDs
If your SAS application executes on a platform other than Windows and you have
installed UUIDGEND, you can use the following to assign UUIDs:
n UUIDGEN function

n UUIDCOUNT= system option

n UUIDGENDHOST systems option

UUIDGEN Function
The UUIDGEN function returns a UUID for each cell. For more information, see
“UUIDGEN Function” in SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.

UUIDCOUNT= System Option

The UUIDCOUNT= system option specifies the number of UUIDs to acquire each
time the UUID Generator Daemon is used. For more information, see
“UUIDCOUNT= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.

UUIDGENDHOST System Option

The UUIDGENDHOST system option identifies the operating environment and the
port of the UUID Generator Daemon. For more information, see
“UUIDGENDHOST= System Option” in SAS System Options: Reference.
 839

42
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

Overview of IPv6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

IPv6 Address Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Examples of IPv6 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Example of Full and Collapsed IPv6 Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Example of an IPv6 Address That Includes a Port Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
Example of an IPv6 Address That Includes a URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

Overview of IPv6
SAS 9.2 introduced support for the next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6, which
is the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4. Rather than replacing IPv4
with IPv6, SAS supports both protocols. There is a lengthy transition period during
which the two protocols coexist.
A primary reason for the new protocol is that the limited supply of 32-bit IPv4
address spaces was being depleted. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address scheme. This
scheme provides more IP addresses than did IPv4.
IPv6 includes these benefits over IPv4:
n larger address space (128 bits rather than 32 bits)

n simplified header format

n automatic configuration

n more efficient routing

n improved quality of service and security

n compliance with regulatory requirements

n widespread use in global markets

 840 Chapter 42 / Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

IPv6 Address Format

IPv6 and IPv4 use different address formats. The following table compares the
features of the protocols.

Table 42.1 Comparison of Features of the IPv6 and IPv4 Address Formats

Feature IPv6 IPv4

Address Space 128-bit 32-bit

Representation string integer

Length (including Field 39 15

Separators)

Field Separator colon (:) period (.)

Notation hexadecimal decimal

Example of IP Address db8:0:0:1 10.23.2.3

Examples of IPv6 Addresses

Example of Full and Collapsed IPv6 Address

Here is an example of a full IPv6 address:
FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329
It shows a 128-bit address in eight 16-bit blocks in the format
global:subnet:interface.
Here is an example of a collapsed IPv6 address:
FE80::0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329

The :: (consecutive colons) notation can be used to represent four successive 16-bit
blocks that contain zeros. When SAS software encounters a collapsed IP address, it
reconstitutes the address to the required 128-bit address in eight 16-bit blocks.
 Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) 841

Example of an IPv6 Address That Includes a Port Number

Here is an example of an IP address that contains a port number:
[2001:db8:0::1]:80

The brackets are necessary only if also specifying a port number. Brackets are used
to separate the address from the port number. If no port number is used, the
brackets can be omitted.
As an alternative, the block that contains the zero can be collapsed. Here is an
example:
[2001:db8::1]:80

Example of an IPv6 Address That Includes a URL

Here is an example of an IP address that contains a URL:
http://[2001:db8:0::1]:80

The http:// prefix specifies a URL. The brackets are necessary only if also
specifying a port number. Brackets are used to separate the address from the port
number. If no port number is used, the brackets can be omitted.

Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN)

Because IP addresses can change easily, SAS applications that contain hardcoded
IP addresses are prone to maintenance problems.
To avoid such problems, use of an FQDN is preferred over an IP address. The
name-resolution system that is part of the TCP/IP protocol is responsible for locating
the IP address that is associated with the FQDN.
The following example restores client activity in the paused repository:
PROC METAOPERATE
SERVER="d6292.us.company.com"
PORT=2222
USERID="myuserid"
PASSWORD="mypassword"
PROTOCOL=BRIDGE

ACTION=RESUME
OPTIONS=""
NOAUTOPAUSE;

If an IP address had been used and if the IP address that was associated with the
computer node name had changed, the code would be inaccurate.
 842 Chapter 42 / Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

An FQDN can remain intact in the code while the underlying IP address can change
without causing unpredictable results. The TCP/IP name-resolution system
automatically resolves the FQDN to its associated IP address.
Here is an example of an FQDN that is specified in a SAS GUI application.

Figure 42.1 Example of an FQDN in a SAS Management Console Window

The full FQDN, d11076.na.apex.com, is specified in the Remote Host field of the
Connect Server Properties window in SAS Management Console.
Some SAS products impose limits on the length for computer names.
The following code is an example of an FQDN that is assigned to a SAS menu
variable:
%let sashost=hrmach1.dorg.com;
rsubmit sashost.sasport;

Because the FQDN is longer than eight characters, the FQDN must be assigned to
a SAS macro variable, which is used in the RSUBMIT statement.