Specifying NLS Support for External Files

Problem

You want to specify the National Language Support (NLS) encoding for an external file. You must have the proper NLS encoding to view the contents of the selected file or automatically generate its column metadata.

Solution

Enter the appropriate encoding value into the Encoding options field in the Advanced File Parameters window of the external file wizard.

Tasks

Specify NLS Encoding Options

Perform the following steps to specify NLS encoding for the New Delimited External File wizard or the New Fixed Width External File wizard.
  1. Right-click the destination folder for the external file metadata. Then, open the appropriate external file wizard. Enter appropriate settings on the General and External File Location pages. In particular, specify the physical path for an external file for which NLS options must be set, such as a Unicode file. Normally, after you have specified the path to the external file, you can click Preview to display the raw contents of the file. However, the Preview button does not work yet, because the required NLS options have not been specified.
  2. Click Next to view either the Parameters page or the Parameters/Delimiters page, depending on the selected wizard.
  3. Click Advanced to display the Advanced File Parameters window.
  4. Enter the appropriate NLS encoding for the selected file in the Encoding options field. Then, click OK.
For detailed information about encoding values, see the section on "Encoding Values in SAS Language Elements" in SAS National Language Support (NLS): User's Guide.