Glossary: Glossary

Glossary

encoding: 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, wcyrillic, and shift-jis.
fileref (file reference): a short name (or alias) for the full physical name of an external file. A SAS FILENAME statement maps the fileref to the full physical name.
libref (library reference): a valid SAS name that serves as a shortcut name to associate with the physical location of an XML document.
markup language: a set of codes that are embedded in text in order to define layout and certain content.
metadata: a description or definition of data or information.
observation: a row in a SAS data set. All of the data values in an observation are associated with a single entity such as a customer or a state. Each observation contains either one data value or a missing-value indicator for each variable.
SAS data file: a type of SAS data set that contains data values as well as descriptor information that is associated with the data. The descriptor information includes information such as the data types and lengths of the variables, as well as the name of the engine that was used to create the data. See also SAS data set and SAS data view.
SAS data set: a file whose contents are in one of the native SAS file formats. There are two types of SAS data sets: SAS data files and SAS data views. SAS data files contain data values in addition to descriptor information that is associated with the data. SAS data views contain only the descriptor information plus other 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 data view: a type of SAS data set that retrieves data values from other files. A SAS data view contains only descriptor information such as the data types and lengths of the variables (columns) plus other 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 data views can be created by the SAS DATA step and by the SAS SQL procedure.
SAS library: a collection of one or more files that are recognized by SAS and that are referenced and stored as a unit. Each file is a member of the library.
SAS XML LIBNAME engine: the SAS engine that processes XML documents. The engine exports an XML document from a SAS data set by translating the proprietary SAS file format to XML markup. The engine also imports an external XML document by translating XML markup to a SAS data set.
SAS XML Mapper: a graphical interface that you can use to create and modify XMLMaps for use by the SAS XML LIBNAME engine. The SAS XML Mapper analyzes the structure of an XML document and generates basic XML markup for the XMLMap.
variable: a column in a SAS data set or in a SAS data view. The data values for each variable describe a single characteristic for all observations.
XML (Extensible Markup Language): a markup language that structures information by tagging it for content, meaning, or use. Structured information contains both content (for example, words or numbers) and an indication of what role the content plays. For example, content in a section heading has a different meaning from content in a database table.
XML engine: See SAS XML LIBNAME engine.
XMLMap: a file that contains XML tags that tell the SAS XML LIBNAME engine how to interpret an XML document.

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