Functions for NLS

Internationalization Compatibility for SAS String Functions

SAS provides string functions and CALL routines that allow you to easily manipulate your character data. Many of the original SAS string functions assume that the size of one character is always one byte. This process works well for data in a single-byte character set (SBCS). However, when some of these functions and CALL routines are used with data in a double-byte character set (DBCS) or multi-byte character set (MBCS), the data is often handled improperly and produce incorrect results.

DBCS encodings require a varying number of bytes to represent each character. MBCS is sometimes used as a synonym for DBCS.

To solve this problem SAS introduced a set of string functions and CALL routines, called K functions, for those string manipulations where DBCS and MBCS data must be handled carefully. This page shows the level of I18N compatibility for each SAS string function. I18N is the abbreviation for internationalization. Compatibility indicates whether a program using a particular string function can be adapted to different languages and locales without program changes.

The user needs to understand the difference between byte-based offset-length and character-based offset-length in order to use the K functions properly. Most K functions require the character-based offset or length. Under SBCS environments, the byte-based unit is identical to character-based unit; however, under DBCS or MBCS environment, there are significant differences, and programmers need to distinguish them. The users might need to change the programming logic in order to use the K functions. Most K functions require strings encoded in current SAS session encoding.

String functions are assigned I18N levels depending on whether the functions can process DBCS, MBCS, or SBCS. Here are descriptions of the levels:

I18N Level 0	This function is designed for SBCS data. Do not use this function to process DBCS or MBCS data.
I18N Level 1	This function should be avoided, if possible, if you are using a non-English language. The I18N Level 1 functions might not work correctly with DBCS or MBCS encodings under certain circumstances.
I18N Level 2	This function can be used for SBCS, DBCS, and MBCS (UTF-8) data.

SAS String Functions
Function	Description	I18N Level 0	I18N Level 1	I18N Level 2
ANYALNUM	Searches a character string for an alphanumeric character, and returns the first position at which the character is found.			X
ANYALPHA	Searches a character string for an alphabetic character, and returns the first position at which the character is found.			X
ANYCNTRL	Searches a character string for a control character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYDIGIT	Searches a character string for a digit, and returns the first position at which the digit is found.			X
ANYFIRST	Searches a character string for a character that is valid as the first character in a SAS variable name under VALIDVARNAME=V7, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYGRAPH	Searches a character string for a graphical character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYLOWER	Searches a character string for a lowercase letter, and returns the first position at which the letter is found.			X
ANYNAME	Searches a character string for a character that is valid in a SAS variable name under VALIDVARNAME=V7, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYPRINT	Searches a character string for a printable character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYPUNCT	searches a character string for a punctuation character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYSPACE	Searches a character string for a white-space character (blank, horizontal and vertical tab, carriage return, line feed, and form feed). Returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
ANYUPPER	Searches a character string for an uppercase letter, and returns the first position at which the letter is found.			X
ANYXDIGIT	Searches a character string for a hexadecimal character that represents a digit, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
BYTE	Returns one character in the ASCII or the EBCDIC collating sequence.	X
CAT	Does not remove leading or trailing blanks, and returns a concatenated character string.			X
CATS	Removes leading and trailing blanks, and returns a concatenated character string.	X
CATT	Removes trailing blanks, and returns a concatenated character string.	X
CATX	Removes leading and trailing blanks, inserts delimiters, and returns a character string.	X
CHOOSEC	Returns a character value that represents the results of choosing from a list of arguments.			X
CHOOSEN	Returns a numeric value that represents the results of choosing from a list of arguments.			X
COALESCEC	Returns the first non-missing value from a list of numeric arguments.			X
COLLATE	Returns a character string in ASCII or EBCDIC collating sequence.	X
COMPARE	Returns the position of the leftmost character by which two strings differ, or returns 0 if there is no difference.	X
COMPBL	Removes multiple blanks from a character string.	X
COMPGED	Returns the generalized edit distance between two strings.	X
COMPLEV	Returns the Levenshtein edit distance between two strings.	X
COMPRESS	Returns a character string with specified characters removed from the original string.	X
COUNT	Counts the number of times that a specified substring appears within a character string.		X
COUNTC	Counts the number of characters in a string that appear or do not appear in a list of characters.		X
DEQUOTE	Removes matching quotation marks from a character string that begins with a quotation mark, and deletes all characters to the right of the closing quotation mark.			X
FIND	Searches for a specific substring of characters within a character string.		X
FINDC	Searches a string for any character in a list of characters.		X
HTMLDECODE	Decodes a string that contains HTML numeric character references or HTML character entity references, and returns the decoded string.			X
HTMLENCODE	Encodes characters using HTML character entity references, and returns the encoded string.			X
IFC	Returns a character value based on whether an expression is true, false, or missing.			X
IFN	Returns a numeric value based on whether an expression is true, false, or missing.			X
INDEX	Searches a character expression for a string of characters, and returns the position of the string's first character for the first occurrence of the string.	X
INDEXC	Searches a character expression for any of the specified characters, and returns the position of that character.	X
INDEXW	Searches a character expression for a string that is specified as a word, and returns the position of the first character in the word.	X
KCOMPARE Function	Returns the result of a comparison of character expressions.			X
KCOMPRESS Function	Removes specified characters from a character expression.			X
KCOUNT Function	Returns the number of double-byte characters in an expression.			X
KCVT Function	Converts data from one type of encoding data to another encoding data.			X
KINDEX Function	Searches a character expression for a string of characters.			X
KINDEXC Function	Searches a character expression for specified characters.			X
KLEFT Function	Left-aligns a character expression by removing unnecessary leading DBCS blanks and SO-SI.			X
KLENGTH Function	Returns the length of an argument.			X
KLOWCASE Function	Converts all letters in an argument to lowercase.			X
KREVERSE Function	Reverses a character expression.			X
KRIGHT Function	Right-aligns a character expression by trimming trailing DBCS blanks and SO-SI.			X
KSCAN Function	Selects a specified word from a character expression.			X
KSTRCAT Function	Concatenates two or more character expressions.			X
KSUBSTR Function	Extracts a substring from an argument.			X
KSUBSTRB Function	Extracts a substring from an argument according to the byte position of the substring in the argument.			X
KTRANSLATE Function	Replaces specific characters in a character expression.			X
KTRIM Function	Removes trailing DBCS blanks and SO-SI from character expressions.			X
KTRUNCATE Function	Truncates a numeric value to a specified length.			X
KUPCASE Function	Converts all letters in an argument to uppercase.			X
KUPDATE Function	Inserts, deletes, and replaces character value contents.			X
KUPDATEB Function	Inserts, deletes, and replaces the contents of the character value according to the byte position of the character value in the argument.			X
KVERIFY Function	Returns the position of the first character that is unique to an expression.			X
LEFT	Left-aligns a character string.	X
LENGTH	Returns the length of a non-blank character string, excluding trailing blanks, and returns 1 for a blank character string.	X
LENGTHC	Returns the length of a character string, including trailing blanks.			X
LENGTHM	Returns the amount of memory (in bytes) that is allocated for a character string.			X
LENGTHN	Returns the length of a character string, excluding trailing blanks.	X
LOWCASE	Converts all letters in an argument to lowercase.			X
MISSING	Returns a numeric result that indicates whether the argument contains a missing value.			X
NLITERAL	Converts a character string that you specify to a SAS name literal.			X
NOTALNUM	Searches a character string for a non-alphanumeric character, and returns the first position at which the character is found.			X
NOTALPHA	Searches a character string for a nonalphabetic character, and returns the first position at which the character is found.			X
NOTCNTRL	Searches a character string for a character that is not a control character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTDIGIT	Searches a character string for any character that is not a digit, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTFIRST	Searches a character string for an invalid first character in a SAS variable name under VALIDVARNAME=V7, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTGRAPH	Searches a character string for a non-graphical character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTLOWER	Searches a character string for a character that is not a lowercase letter, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTNAME	Searches a character string for an invalid character in a SAS variable name under VALIDVARNAME=V7, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTPRINT	Searches a character string for a nonprintable character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.	X
NOTPUNCT	Searches a character string for a character that is not a punctuation character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.	X
NOTSPACE	Searches a character string for a character that is not a white-space character (blank, horizontal and vertical tab, carriage return, line feed, and form feed), and returns the first position at which that character is found.	X
NOTUPPER	Searches a character string for a character that is not an uppercase letter, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NOTXDIGIT	Searches a character string for a character that is not a hexadecimal character, and returns the first position at which that character is found.			X
NVALID	Checks the validity of a character string for use as a SAS variable name.	X
PROPCASE	Converts all words in an argument to proper case.			X
QUOTE	Adds double quotation marks to a character value.			X
RANK	Returns the position of a character in the ASCII or EBCDIC collating sequence.	X
REPEAT	Returns a character value that consists of the first argument repeated n+1 times.		X
REVERSE	Reverses a character string.	X
RIGHT	Right-aligns a character expression.	X
SCAN	Returns the nth word from a character string.	X
SOUNDEX	Encodes a string to facilitate searching.	X
SPEDIS	Determines the likelihood of two words matching, expressed as the asymmetric spelling distance between the two words.	X
STRIP	Returns a character string with all leading and trailing blanks removed.	X
SUBPAD	Returns a substring that has a length you specify, using blank padding if necessary.		X
SUBSTR	Extracts a substring from an argument.	X
SUBSTRN	Returns a substring, allowing a result with a length of zero.		X
TRANSLATE	Replaces specific characters in a character string.	X
TRANTAB	Transcodes data by using the specified translation table.	X
TRANWRD	Replaces or removes all occurrences of a substring in a character string.			X
TRIM	Removes trailing blanks from a character string, and returns one blank if the string is missing.	X
TRIMN	Removes trailing blanks from character expressions, and returns a string with a length of zero if the expression is missing.	X
UPCASE	Converts all letters in an argument to uppercase.			X
URLDECODE	Returns a string that was decoded using the URL escape syntax.			X
URLENCODE	Returns a string that was encoded using the URL escape syntax.			X
VERIFY	Returns the position of the first character in a string that is not in any of several other strings.	X

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