$BASE64Xw. Format

Converts character data into ASCII text by using Base 64 encoding.

Category: Character
Alignment: Left

Syntax

$BASE64Xw.

Arguments

w

specifies the width of the output field.

Default The length of the output is the length of the input variable; if the input variable’s length is undefined, the default length is 1.
Range 1–32767

Details

Base 64 is an industry encoding method whose encoded characters are determined by using a positional scheme that uses only ASCII characters. Several Base 64 encoding schemes have been defined by the industry for specific uses, such as email or content masking. SAS maps positions 0–61 to the characters A–Z, a–z, and 0–9. Position 62 maps to the character +, and position 63 maps to the character /.
Here are some uses of Base 64 encoding:
  • embed binary data in an XML file
  • encode passwords
  • encode URLs
The '=' character in the encoded results indicates that the results have been padded with zero bits. In order for the encoded characters to be decoded, the '=' must be included in the value to be decoded.

Example

Statements
Results
select put ('FCA01A7993BC', $base64x64.);
RkNBMDFBNzk5M0JD
select put ('MyPassword', $base64x64.);
TXlQYXNzd29yZA==
select put ('www.mydomain.com/myhiddenURL', 
                  $base64x64.);
d3d3Lm15ZG9tYWluLmNvbi9teWhpZGRlblVSTA==
Last updated: February 23, 2017