What's New in SAS 9.0 and 9.1 National Language Support (NLS)

Overview

All information that is related to NLS has been consolidated into a single document for your convenience.
The LOCALE= option supports a new set of locale values in the form of Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) names.
The LOCALE= option supports new values that identify unique language and country combinations.
The LIBNAME statement for Base SAS supports three new options for NLS: CVPBYTES=, CVPENGINE=, and CVPMULTIPLIER=.
The LIBNAME statement for the XML engine supports three new options for NLS: ODSCHARSET=, ODSTRANTAB=, and XMLENCODING=.
The LIBNAME statement in SAS/SHARE supports the RENCODING= option for NLS.
Numerous NLS formats, informats, and functions are new. These new language elements are in the following categories: Bi-directional text handling, Date/Time, Monetary, and Unicode.

Note: z/OS is the successor to the OS/390 operating system. SAS 9.1 is supported on both OS/390 and z/OS operating systems and, throughout this document, any reference to z/OS also applies to OS/390, unless otherwise stated. [cautionend]

Details

New Document Consolidates Information about NLS

SAS 9.1 introduces the SAS National Language Support (NLS): User's Guide, which consolidates all information about NLS that was previously contained in multiple SAS documents. The SAS National Language Support (NLS): User's Guide provides comprehensive conceptual information and detailed syntax for all SAS language elements that contain NLS properties.

Expanded Values for the LOCALE= System Option

Locale can be specified by using Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) naming standards. For example, the en_US value is the POSIX equivalent for the SAS value English_UnitedStates.
Previous releases of SAS software specified some LOCALE= values in the form of language. The LOCALE= option supports new values that identify unique language and country combinations that are specified in the form language_country. Some single LOCALE= values have been replaced by more granular values. Some new values have been added, and some values have been deleted. Here is a summary of the changes to LOCALE= values:

Arabic

The single LOCALE= value for Arabic has been deleted. The following new values have been added: Arabic_Algeria, Arabic_Bahrain, Arabic_Egypt, Arabic_Jordan, Arabic_Kuwait, Arabic_Lebanon, Arabic_Morocco, Arabic_Oman, Arabic_Qatar, Arabic_SaudiArabia, Arabic_Tunisia, and Arabic_UnitedArabEmirates.

Chinese

The single LOCALE= value for Chinese has been deleted. The values Chinese_Simplified and Chinese_Traditional have also been deleted.

Dutch

The single LOCALE= value for Dutch has been deleted. The following new values have been added: Dutch_Belgium and Dutch_Netherlands.

English

The single LOCALE= value for English has been deleted. The following new values have been added: English_HongKong, English_India, and English_Singapore. The English_Britain value has been changed to English_UnitedKingdom.

Estonian_Estonia

The LOCALE= value for Estonian_Estonia is new.

French

The single LOCALE= value for French has been deleted. A new value, French_Luxembourg, has been added.

German

The single LOCALE= value for German has been deleted. The following new values have been added: German_Liechtenstein and German_Luxembourg.

Spanish

The LOCALE= values for Spain and Spanish_LatinAmerica have been deleted. The single LOCALE= value for Spanish_LatinAmerica has been replaced by the following new values: Spanish_Argentina, Spanish_Bolivia, Spanish_Chile, Spanish_Columbia, Spanish_CostaRica, Spanish_DominicanRepublic, Spanish_Ecuador, Spanish_ElSalvador, Spanish_Guatemala, Spanish_Honduras, Spanish_Mexico, Spanish_Nicaragua, Spanish_Panama, Spanish_Paraguay, Spanish_Peru, Spanish_PuertoRico, Spanish_UnitedStates, Spanish_Uruguay, and Spanish_Venezuela.

For a comprehensive list, see Values for the LOCALE= System Option.

New Options in LIBNAME Statements for NLS

The LIBNAME statement in Base SAS supports the following new options for NLS:

CVPBYTES=, CVPENGINE=, and CVPMULTIPLIER= Options

specify the attributes for character variables that are needed in order to process (or transcode) a SAS file.
The LIBNAME statement for the XML engine supports the following new options for NLS:

ODSCHARSET= Option

specifies the character set to be generated in the META declaration for the output.

ODSTRANTAB = Option

specifies the translation table to use when transcoding an XML document for an output file.

XMLENCODING= Option

specifies the encoding to use when reading, writing, copying, or saving an external file.
The LIBNAME statement in SAS/SHARE supports the following new option for NLS:

RENCODING= Option

specifies that the ASCII-based or EBCDIC-based encoding be used when transcoding data for a SAS/SHARE server session that is using an ASCIIANY or an EBCDICANY session encoding.

Formats for NLS

The following formats for NLS are new:

$CPTDWw. Format: writes a character string in Hebrew text that is encoded in IBM-PC (cp862) to Windows Hebrew encoding (cp1255).
$CPTWDw. Format: writes a character string that is encoded in Windows (cp1255) to Hebrew DOS (cp862) encoding.
HDATEw. Format: writes date values in the form yyyy mmmmm dd where yyyy is the year, mmmmm represents the month's name in Hebrew, and dd is the day of month.
HEBDATEw. Format: writes date values according to the Jewish calendar.
$LOGVSw. Format: writes a character string that is in left-to-right logical order to visual order.
$LOGVSRw. Format: writes a character string that is in right-to-left logical order to visual order.
NLDATEw. Format: converts a SAS date value to the date value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the date value.
NLDATEMNw. Format: converts a SAS date value to the date value of the specified locale, and then writes the date value in the format of the name of the month.
NLDATEWw. Format: converts a SAS date value to the date value of the specified locale, and then writes the date value in the format of the date and the day of the week.
NLDATEWNw. Format: converts the SAS date value to the date value of the specified locale, and then writes the date value in the format of the name of the day of the week.
NLDATMw. Format: converts a SAS datetime value to the datetime value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the datetime.
NLDATMAPw. Format: converts a SAS datetime value to the datetime value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the datetime with a.m. or p.m.
NLDATMTMw. Format: converts the time portion of a SAS datetime value to the time-of-day value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the time of the day.
NLDATMWw. Format: converts a SAS date value to a datetime value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of day of the week and the datetime.
NLMNYw.d Format: writes the monetary format of the local expression in the specified locale using local currency.
NLMNYIw.d Format: writes the monetary format of the international expression in the specified locale.
NLNUMw.d Format: writes the numeric format of the local expression in the specified locale.
NLNUMIw.d Format: writes the numeric format of the international expression in the specified locale.
NLPCTw.d Format: writes percentage data of the local expression in the specified locale.
NLPCTIw.d Format: writes percentage data of the international expression in the specified locale.
NLTIMAPw. Format: converts a SAS time value to the time value of a specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the time with a.m. or p.m.
NLTIMEw. Format: converts a SAS time value to the time value of the specified locale, and then writes the value in the format of the time.
$UCS2Bw. Format: writes a character string in big-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS2BEw. Format: writes a big-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS2Lw. Format: writes data in little-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS2LEw. Format: writes a character string that is encoded in little-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS2Xw. Format: writes a character string in native-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS2XEw. Format: writes a native-endian, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4Bw. Format: writes a character string in big-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding.
$UCS4BEw. Format: writes a big-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4Lw. Format: writes a character string in little-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding.
$UCS4LEw. Format: writes a little-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4Xw. Format: writes a character string in native-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding.
$UCS4XEw. Format: writes a native-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UESCw. Format: writes a character string that is encoded in the current SAS session in Unicode escape (UESC) representation.
$UESCEw. Format: writes a Unicode escape (UESC) representation character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UNCRw. Format: writes a character string that is encoded in the current SAS session in numeric character representation (NCR).
$UNCREw. Format: writes the numeric character representation (NCR) character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UPARENw. Format: writes a character string that is encoded in the current SAS session in Unicode parenthesis (UPAREN) representation.
$UPARENEw. Format: writes a Unicode parenthesis (UPAREN) character string in the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UTF8Xw. Format: writes a character string in universal transformation format (UTF-8) encoding.
$VSLOGw. Format: writes a character string that is in visual order to left-to-right logical order.
$VSLOGRw. Format: writes a character string that is in visual order to right-to-left logical order.
WEEKUw. Format: writes a week number in decimal format by using the U algorithm.
WEEKVw. Format: writes a week number in decimal format by using the V algorithm.
WEEKWw. Format: writes a week number in decimal format by using the W algorithm.

Informats for NLS

The following informats for NLS are new:

$CPTDWw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Hebrew DOS (cp862) and then converts the character string to Windows (cp1255) encoding.
$CPTWDw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Windows (cp1255) and then converts the character string to Hebrew DOS (cp862) encoding.
$LOGVSw. Informat: reads a character string that is in left-to-right logical order and then converts the character string to visual order.
$LOGVSRw. Informat: reads a character string that is in right-to-left logical order and then converts the character string to visual order.
NLMNYw.d Informat: reads monetary data in the specified locale for the local expression, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
NLMNYIw.d Informat: reads monetary data in the specified locale for the international expression, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
NLNUMw.d Informat: reads numeric data in the specified locale for local expressions, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
NLNUMIw.d Informat: reads numeric data in the specified locale for international expressions, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
NLPCTw.d Informat: reads percentage data in the specified locale for local expressions, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
NLPCTIw.d Informat: reads percentage data in the specified locale for international expressions, and then converts the data to a numeric value.
$UCS2Bw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in big-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS2BEw. Informat: reads a character string that is in the encoding of the current SAS session and then converts the character string to big-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS2Lw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in little-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS2LEw. Informat: reads a character string that is in the encoding of the current SAS session and then converts the character string to little-endian, 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS2Xw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS2XEw. Informat: reads a character string that is in the encoding of the current SAS session and then converts the character string to 16-bit, universal character set code in 2 octets (UCS2), Unicode encoding.
$UCS4Bw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in big-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4Lw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in little-endian, 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4Xw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UCS4XEw. Informat: reads a character string that is in the encoding of the current SAS session and then converts the character string to 32-bit, universal character set code in 4 octets (UCS4), Unicode encoding.
$UESCw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Unicode escape (UESC) representation, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UESCEw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in the current SAS session, and then converts the character string to Unicode escape (UESC) representation.
$UNCRw. Informat: reads the numeric character representation (NCR) character string, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UNCREw. Informat: reads a character string in the encoding of the current SAS session, and then converts the character string to session-encoded numeric character representation (NCR).
$UPARENw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Unicode parenthesis (UPAREN) representation, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$UPARENEw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in the current SAS session, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the Unicode parenthesis (UPAREN) representation.
$UPARENPw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Unicode parenthesis (UPAREN) representation, and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session with national characters remaining in the encoding of the UPAREN representation.
$UTF8Xw. Informat: reads a character string that is encoded in Unicode transformation format (UTF-8), and then converts the character string to the encoding of the current SAS session.
$VSLOGw. Informat: reads a character string that is in visual order and then converts the character string to left-to-right logical order.
$VSLOGRw. Informat: reads a character string that is in visual order and then converts the character string to right-to-left logical order.
WEEKUw. Informat: reads the format of the number-of-week value within the year and returns a SAS date value by using the U algorithm.
WEEKVw. Informat: reads the format of the number-of-week value within the year and returns a SAS date value using the V algorithm.
WEEKWw. Informat: reads the format of the number-of-week value within the year and returns a SAS date value using the W algorithm.

Functions for NLS

The following functions for NLS are new:

NLDATE Function: converts the SAS date value to the date value of the specified locale by using the date-format modifiers.
NLDATM Function: converts the SAS datetime values to the time value of the specified locale using the datetime-format modifiers.
NLTIME Function: converts the SAS time or datetime value to the time value of the specified locale using the time-format modifiers.
TRANTAB Function: transcodes a data string by using a translation table.
VARTRANSCODE Function: returns the transcode attribute of a SAS data set variable.
VTRANSCODE Function: returns a value that indicates whether transcoding is enabled for the specified character variable.
VTRANSCODEX Function: returns a value that indicates whether transcoding is enabled for the specified argument.
WEEK Function: returns the week-number value.

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