PACKAGE keyword <options>;
The PACKAGE statement is experimental in SAS/IML 14.1. For SAS/IML 14.1, packages are supported only on Linux and Windows operting systems.
The PACKAGE statement supports installing, uninstalling, and using packages. A package consists of SAS/IML source code, documentation, data sets, and sample programs. Packages are a convenient way for programmers to download and install functions that extend the functionality of SAS/IML software. For information about how to use packages, see Chapter 9: Packages.
The following statements are documented separately:
As described in the section Collections of Packages, packages are stored in one of three collections:
The PRIVATE collection contains packages that were installed by a user for personal use.
The PUBLIC collection contains packages that were installed by a system administrator in a public location and are intended to be used by multiple users at a site.
The SYSTEM collection is installed as part of SAS/IML software and is available to any user. These packages were written by SAS/IML developers and are supported by SAS Technical Support. The SYSTEM collection is similar to the IMLMLIB library of modules, except that a package in the SYSTEM collection must be loaded before the functions are available for use.
When any PACKAGE statement encounters the name of a package, it searches for the package first in the PRIVATE collection, then in the PUBLIC collection, and finally in the SYSTEM collection. When it finds a package with the specified name, it stops searching. If a version of a package exists in the PUBLIC collection, you can install a newer version of the same package in the PRIVATE collection. By default, the PACKAGE statement will find the newer version. You can explicitly specify the PUBLIC collection if you want to use the older version.