Encoding for NLS

Difference between Encoding and Transcoding

Encoding establishes the default working environment for your SAS session. For example, the Windows Latin1 encoding is the default encoding for a SAS session under Windows in a Western European locale such as the de_DE locale for German in Germany. As an example, the Windows Latin1 code point for the uppercase letter Ä is C4 hexadecimal.

Note: The default encoding varies according to the operating environment and the locale. [cautionend]

However, if you are working in an international environment (for example, you access SAS data that is encoded in German EBCDIC), the German EBCDIC code point for the uppercase letter Ä is 4A hexadecimal. In order for a version of SAS that normally uses Windows Latin1 to properly interpret a data set that is encoded in German EBCDIC, the data must be transcoded. Transcoding is the process of converting data from one encoding to another. When SAS transcodes the Windows Latin1 uppercase letter Ä to the German EBCDIC uppercase letter Ä, the hexadecimal representation for the character is converted from the value C4 to a 4A. For conceptual information, see Transcoding for NLS.

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