What's New in the SAS 9.3 National Language Support

Overview

In this release, SAS has expanded the scope and capabilities of National Language Support (NLS). NLS is a set of features that enable a software product to function properly in every global market for which the product is targeted. SAS contains NLS features to ensure that you can write SAS applications that conform to local language conventions. Typically, software that is written in the English language works well for users who use the English language and data that is formatted using the conventions that are observed in the United States. However, without NLS, these products might not work as well for users in other regions of the world. NLS in SAS enables users in regions such as Asia and Europe to process data successfully in their native languages and environments.

General Enhancements

The following enhancements are implemented for SAS 9.3:

The aliases were updated in the LOCALE= System Option table.
The European Currency Conversion section was updated with the new members that use the Euro.

Additional Encodings

The following encodings are new:

Open Edition Katakana

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Katakana

Open Edition Korean

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Korean

Open Edition Simplified Chinese

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Simplified Chinese

Open Edition Traditional Chinese

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Traditional Chinese

Open Edition Japanese

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Japanese

Open Edition Japanese-IBM-939E

specifies the encoding for Open Edition Japanese-IBM-939E

Formats

The following formats are new:

NLDATMTZ

converts the time portion of the SAS date time of the locale to the time of day and time zone

NLDATMWZ

converts SAS date values of the specified locale to the day of week, date time, and time zone

NLDATMZ

converts the SAS date time values to the locale sensitive date time string as the time zone and date time

The following format has been updated:

YEN

The default value has changed from 1 to 8.

Functions

The following functions are new:

ENCODCOMPAT

verifies the transcoding compatibility between two encodings

ENCODISVALID

specifies a valid encoding name

SASMSG

specifies a message from a data set. The returned message is based on the current locale and a specified key.

SASMSGL

specifies a message from a specified data set. The specified message is based on a specified locale value and a specified key value.

SETLOCALE

specifies the locale keys for the current SAS locale

System Options

The following system options are new:

URLENCODING

controls the percent encoding behavior of the URLENCODING and URLDECODE functions

VALIDMEMNAME

specifies the rules for naming SAS data sets, views, and item stores

VALIDVARNAME

specifies the rules for valid SAS variable names that can be created and processed during a SAS session

The following system option is enhanced:

DFLANG

The DFLANG system option supports the locale option.