What's New

What's New in the Base SAS 9.2 Language


Overview

The SAS 9.2 Base new features, language elements, and enhancements to the language elements continue to expand the capabilities of SAS:

A section that describes how SAS syntax is written has been added. This section contains examples of how to interpret the syntax.


SAS System Features


Checkpoint Mode and Restart Mode

If a batch program terminates before it completes and it was started in checkpoint mode, the program can be resubmitted in restart mode, resuming with the DATA or PROC step that was executing when the program terminated. DATA and PROC steps that have already completed do not need to be rerun. See "Checkpoint Mode and Restart Mode" in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.


Support for ISO 8601 Basic and Extended Time Notations

In SAS 9.1.3, the formats and informats that support the ISO 8601 basic and extended time notations were documented in the SAS 9.1.3 XML LIBNAME: User's Guide. These formats and informats have been renamed and are now documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

The new names clearly distinguish the basic and extended formats and informats. You can see the renamed formats and informats in their respective sections in the topics that follow. In addition, a new CALL routine, IS8601_CONVERT, converts ISO 8601 intervals to datetime and duration values, and datetime and duration values to an ISO 8601 interval.


Support for IPv6

SAS 9.2 introduces support for the "next generation" of Internet Protocol, IPv6, which is the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4. Rather than replacing IPv4 with IPv6, SAS 9.2 supports both protocols. A primary reason for the new protocol is that the limited supply of 32-bit IPv4 address spaces is being depleted. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address scheme, which provides more IP addresses than IPv4 did.

For more information, see Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPV6) in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.


Universal Printing and New TrueType Fonts

In SAS 9.2, all Universal Printers and many SAS/GRAPH devices use the FreeType engine to render TrueType fonts for output in all of the operating environments that SAS software supports. In addition, by default, many SAS/GRAPH device drivers and all Universal Printers generate output using ODS styles, and these ODS styles use TrueType fonts.

In addition to SAS Monospace and SAS Monospace Bold, 40 additional fonts (TrueType) are available when you install SAS:

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2, the MingLiU_HKSCS TruType font is new. In addition, the HeiT, MingLiU, MingLiU_HKSCS, and PMingLiu fonts support the HKSCS2004 (Hong Kong Supplemental Character Set) characters.

New Universal printers include the following:

PDFA

produces an archivable PDF compliant with PDF/A-1b .

PNG

produces Portable Network Graphics, which is a raster image format that is designed to replace the older simple GIF and the more complex TIFF format.

PNGt

produces transparent Portable Network Graphics.

SVG

produces Scalable Vector Graphics, which is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML.

SVGt

produces transparent Scalable Vector Graphics.

SVGnotip

produces Scalable Vector Graphics without tooltips.

SVGView

produces Scalable Vector Graphics with controls to navigate through multi-page SVG documents.

SVGZ

produces compressed Scalable Vector Graphics.

For more information, see Printing with SAS in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.


SAS Logging Facility Language Elements

The SAS logging facility is a flexible, configurable logging subsystem that you can use to collect, categorize, and filter log events and write them to a variety of output devices. The SAS language now includes autocall macros, functions, and DATA step component objects for creating logging facility components that categorize log events. The logging facility and the SAS log are two separate logging systems. For more information, including the reference documentation for the logging facility language elements, see The SAS Logging Facility in SAS Logging: Configuration and Programming Reference. This feature is new for SAS 9.2 Phase 2.


WHERE-Expression Processing

In a WHERE expression, the LIKE operator now supports an escape character. The escape character enables you to search for the percent sign (%) and the underscore (_) characters in values. For more information, see Syntax of WHERE Expression in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.


DATA Step Java Object

The DATA step component Java object enables you to instantiate Java classes and access fields and methods on the resultant objects. Although the documentation for the DATA step component Java object for SAS 9.2 Phase 1 has been available on http://support.sas.com, the documentation is available in SAS Help and Documentation for SAS 9.2 Phase 2.


Viewing Help and ODS Output in the Remote Browser

The remote browser has been used in some operating environments in prior releases of SAS to view SAS Help and ODS HTML output. You can now view SAS Help and ODS HTML output, and PDF and RTF output under z/OS, OpenVMS, UNIX, and Windows 64-bit environments. Windows 32-bit environments use the SAS browser to view Help and ODS output.

You enable remote browsing by configuring these system options:

HELPBROWSER=

specifies whether you want to use the remote browser or the SAS browser.

HELPHOST=

specifies the name of the computer where the remote browser sends Help and ODS output.

HELPPORT=

specifies the port number for the remote browser client.

For more information about remote browsing, see the Help documentation for your operating environment: OpenVMS, UNIX, Windows, z/OS


SAS Language Elements


Data Set Options

The DLDMGACTION=NOINDEX data set option has a new argument.

The NOINDEX argument automatically repairs the data set without the indexes and integrity constraints, deletes the index file, updates the data file to reflect the disabled indexes and integrity constraints, and limits the data file to be opened only in INPUT mode.


Formats


Functions and CALL Routines


Informats


Statements


System Options


DATA Step Object Attributes, Operators, and Methods