System Options for NLS

TRANTAB= System Option

Specifies the translation tables that are used by various parts of SAS.

Valid in:	configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SAS System Options window
Category:	Environment control: Language control
PROC OPTIONS GROUP:	LANGUAGECONTROL
Interaction:	The TRANTAB= system option specifies a translation table to use for the SAS session, including file transfers. The TRANTAB statement specifies a customized translation table (for example, to map an EBCDIC character to an ASCII character) to apply to the character set in the SAS file that is being exported or transferred.

Syntax
Syntax Description
Details
See Also

Syntax

TRANTAB=(catalog-entries)

Note: TRANTAB= was introduced in SAS 6 to support the requirements of national languages. SAS 8.2 introduced the LOCALE= system option as an improvement on the features of TRANTAB=. SAS 9.2 supports TRANTAB= for backward compatibility. However, using the LOCALE= system option is preferred in later SAS releases. [cautionend]

Syntax Description

catalog-entries: specifies SAS catalog entries that contain translation tables. If you specify entry-name.type, SAS searches SASUSER.PROFILE first and then SASUSER.HOST.

Details

Translation tables are specified in a list that is enclosed in parentheses and has ten positions. The position in which a table appears in the list determines the type of translation table that is specified. Individual entries in the list are separated by commas. See the list of positions and types that follows:

Position	Type of Translation Table
1st	local-to-transport-format
2nd	transport-to-local-format
3rd	lowercase-to-uppercase
4th	uppercase-to-lowercase
5th	character classification
6th	scanner translation
7th	delta characters
8th	scanner character classification
9th	not used
10th	DBCS user table

CAUTION:: Do not change a translation table unless you are familiar with its purpose.
Translation tables are used internally by the SAS supervisor to implement NLS. If you are unfamiliar with the purpose of translation tables, do not change the specifications without proper technical advice.

To change one table, specify null entries for the other tables. For example, to change the lowercase-to-uppercase table, which is third in the list, specify uppercase as follows:

options trantab = ( , , new-uppercase-table);

The other tables remain unchanged. The output from the OPTIONS procedure reflects the last specification for the TRANTAB= option and not the composite specification. Here is an example:

options trantab = ( , , new-uppercase-table);
options trantab = ( , , , new-lowercase-table);

PROC OPTIONS shows that the value for TRANTAB= is

( , , , new-lowercase-table), but both the new-uppercase and new-lowercase tables are in effect.