What's New in SAS 9.3 Functions and CALL Routines

Overview

The SAS functions and CALL routines are now published as a separate document. They are no longer part of the SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. For more information, see Changes to SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
The ability to call Web services in the DATA step is a new feature. For this feature, six new SOAPxxx functions were added. In addition, several other new functions are new, and enhancements to existing functions were added.

New Functions and CALL Routines

The following functions and CALL routines are new:
CALL RANCOMB
permutes the values of the arguments, and returns a random combination of k out of n values.
EFFRATE
returns the effective annual interest rate.
MVALID
checks the validity of a character string for use as a SAS member name.
NOMRATE
returns the nominal annual interest rate.
SAVINGS
returns the balance of periodic savings by using variable interest rates.
SOAPWEB
calls a Web service by using basic Web authentication; credentials are provided in the arguments.
SOAPWEBMETA
calls a Web service by using basic Web authentication; credentials for the authentication domain are retrieved from metadata.
SOAPWIPSERVICE
calls a SAS registered service by using WS-Security authentication; credentials are provided in the arguments.
SOAPWIPSRS
calls a SAS registered Web service by using WS-Security authentication; credentials are provided in the arguments. The Registry Service is called directly to determine how to locate the Security Token Service.
SOAPWS
calls a Web service by using WS-Security authentication; credentials are provided in the arguments.
SOAPWSMETA
calls a Web service by using WS-Security authentication; credentials for the provided authentication domain are retrieved from metadata.
SQUANTILE
returns the quantile from a distribution when you specify the right probability (SDF).
SYSEXIST
returns an indication of the existence of an operating environment variable.
TIMEVALUE
returns the equivalent of a reference amount at a base date by using variable interest rates.

Enhancements to Existing Functions

The following enhancements were made to existing functions:
  • The GENPOISSON and TWEEDIE distributions were added to the following functions:
    • CDF
    • PDF
    • SDF
    • LOGCDF
    • LOGPDF
    • LOGSDF
    • QUANTILE
  • A new argument, seasonality, was added to the INTCYCLE, INTINDEX, and INTSEAS functions. The seasonality argument enables you to have more flexibility in working with dates and time cycles.
  • A new option that computes age was added to the YRDIF function.
  • An explanation about SAS session encoding and UTF-8 encoding was added to the URLDECODE and URLENCODE functions.
  • In the GETOPTION function, you can use the following options:
    • The DEFAULTVALUE option obtains the default shipped value for a system option. The value can be used to reset a system option to its default.
    • The HEXVALUE option returns a system option value as a hexadecimal value.
    • The LOGNUMBERFORMAT option returns a system option numeric value. The punctuation that is used is dependent on the language locale.
    • The STARTUPVALUE option returns the system option value that was used to start SAS either on the command line or in a configuration file.

Documentation for Existing Functions and Concepts

The documentation for the following five functions was moved from the SAS/ETS User’s Guide to SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference:
CUMIPMT
returns the cumulative interest paid on a loan between the start and end period.
CUMPRINC
returns the cumulative principal paid on a loan between the start and end period.
IPMT
returns the interest payment for a given period for a constant payment loan or the periodic savings for a future balance.
PMT
returns the periodic payment for a constant payment loan or the periodic savings for a future balance.
PPMT
returns the principal payment for a given period for a constant payment loan or the periodic savings for a future balance.
In the second maintenance release for SAS 9.3, the following enhancements were made to the documentation:
  • The FINANCE function now includes documentation for ISPMT, which calculates the interest that is paid during a specific period of investment.
  • A section about using the DATA step with custom time intervals was added to the documentation. This section includes examples that use the INTNX and INTCK functions and the INTERVALDS system option.

Changes to SAS Language Reference: Dictionary

Prior to 9.3, this document was part of SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. Starting with 9.3, SAS Language Reference: Dictionary has been divided into seven documents:
  • SAS Data Set Options: Reference
  • SAS Formats and Informats: Reference
  • SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference
  • SAS Statements: Reference
  • SAS System Options: Reference
  • SAS Component Objects: Reference (contains the documentation for hash, hash iterator, and Java objects)
  • Base SAS Utilities: Reference (contains the documentation for the SAS DATA step debugger and the SAS Utility macro %DS2CSV)
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