National Language Support (NLS)

National Language Support (NLS) is a set of features that enable a software product to function properly in every global market in which the product is sold. Typically, software that is written in the English language works well for users who use English and use data that is formatted using the conventions that are observed in the United States. However, without NLS, these products might not work well for users in other regions of the world. NLS in SAS enables users in regions such as Asia and Europe to process data successfully in their native languages and environments.

SAS IT Resource Management uses NLS formats for dates and numbers in template table columns, staged table columns, and aggregation table columns. If a column uses NLS formatting, the value in the Format column of the table begins with “NL” such as NLNUM16.0. These NLS values in the Format column of the tables use the following naming convention:

NLNUM indicates that the data value is numeric.
NLDATE indicates that the data value is a date (without the time component).
NLDATM indicates that the data value is a date (with the time component).
The number before the period indicates the maximum number of characters (including numerals, commas, and dots) that the data value can have.
The number following the period indicates the number of decimal places that the data value can have.

For example, if a table column has the value NLNUM16.2 in the Format column of the table, then you know that the data value is numeric, it has a maximum of 16 characters (including numerals, commas, and dots), and it has two decimal places. In this case, NLS enables the same data value to be presented in different ways (such as 1,000,000,123.75 in the United States or 1.000.000.123,75 in some European regions) based on the system locale.

Dates and times have many representations also, depending on the conventions that are accepted in a culture. The month might be represented as a number or as a name. The name might be fully spelled or abbreviated. The order of the month, day, and year might differ according to locale. Likewise, time can be represented in one English-speaking country or region by using the 12-hour notation, while other English speakers expect time values to be formatted using the 24-hour notation.

In order to have NLS present data in the format that represents the traditional form that your users might expect, you can specify the locale setting when invoking SAS. A locale reflects the language, local conventions such as data formatting, and culture for a geographical region. Local conventions might include specific formatting rules for dates, times, and numbers, and a currency symbol for the country or region. You can use the LOCALE= system option to specify the locale of the SAS session at SAS invocation.