What's New in Base SAS 9.0, 9.1, and 9.1.3 Procedures

Overview

Base SAS procedures in SAS 9.0 (and later) include the following features and enhancements:

improved ODS formatting
ability to import and export Microsoft Excel 2002 spreadsheets and Microsoft Access 2002 tables
ability to import and export SPSS files and Stata files
a new Excel spreadsheet data source specification that uses the translation engine to import and export Excel spreadsheets
support for long format and informat names
ability to list and compare SAS registries
support for parallel sorting operations
improved statistical processing
improved printer definitions.

A list of ODS table names is now provided for each procedure that supports ODS. You can use these names to reference the table when using the Output Delivery System (ODS) to select tables and create output data sets.

Note:

This section describes the features of Base SAS procedures that are new or enhanced since SAS 8.2.
z/OS is the successor to the OS/390 operating system. SAS 9.1 (and later) is supported on OS/390 and z/OS operating systems and, throughout this document, any reference to z/OS also applies to OS/390, unless otherwise stated.

Details

The CONTENTS Procedure

The new look for output from the CONTENTS procedure and the CONTENTS statement in PROC DATASETS provides a better format for the Output Delivery System (ODS). PROC CONTENTS output now displays the data representation of a file by reporting the native platform for each file, rather than just showing whether the data representation is native or foreign. Also, PROC CONTENTS output now provides the encoding value, whether a character variable is transcoded if required, and whether the data set is part of a generation group. A new example shows how to insert PROC CONTENTS output into an ODS output data set for processing.

The new ORDER= option in the CONTENTS statement enables you to print a list of variables in alphabetical order even if they include mixed-case names.

The COPY Procedure

The following options are new or enhanced in the COPY procedure and the COPY statement in PROC DATASETS:

The FORCE option enables you to use the MOVE option for a SAS data set that has an audit trail.
The CLONE option now copies the data representation and encoding data set attributes.

The CORR Procedure

The CORR procedure has the following new features:

The FISHER option in the PROC CORR statement requests confidence limits and p-values for Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients based on Fisher's z transformation. Using the FISHER option, you can specify an alpha value and a null hypothesis value. You can also specify the type of confidence limit (upper, lower, or two-sided) and whether the bias adjustment should be used for the confidence limits.
The PLOTS=MATRIX option in the PROC CORR statement uses ODS graphics to produce either a rectangular matrix plot (if you also specify a WITH statement) or a symmetric matrix plot (if you do not specify a WITH statement) for variables.
The PLOTS=SCATTER option in the PROC CORR statement uses ODS graphics to produce scatter plots for variables. By default, the scatter plot also includes a 95% prediction ellipse. You can use the ELLIPSE= option with the PLOTS=SCATTER option to include prediction ellipses for new observations, confidence ellipses for the mean, or no ellipses.

The DATASETS Procedure

Directory listings from the DATASETS procedure provide a new look for output, which improves the format for the Output Delivery System (ODS).

The following statements are enhanced in the DATASETS procedure:

The AUDIT_ALL= option in the AUDIT statement specifies whether logging can be suspended and whether audit settings can be changed. In addition, the LOG option in the AUDIT statement now enables you to control the logging of administrative events to the audit file by using the ADMIN_IMAGE= setting.
The ICCREATE statement now enables you to create overlapping constraints. This means that variables in a SAS data set are part of both a primary key definition and a foreign key definition.
The CORRECTENCODING= option in the MODIFY statement changes the encoding indicator (which is stamped in the file's descriptor information) in order to match the actual encoding of the file's data.

The DOCUMENT Procedure

The new DOCUMENT procedure enables you to customize or modify your output hierarchy, and replay your output to different destinations without re-running the PROC or DATA step. For complete information, see SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

The EXPORT Procedure

The EXPORT procedure now enables you to perform the following tasks:

export to Microsoft Excel 2002 spreadsheets and Microsoft Access 2002 tables. The new data sources are available for the Windows operating environment on 32-bit platforms if your site has a license for the SAS/ACCESS Interface for PC Files.
export to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (Version 5.0 and higher) by specifying DBMS=XLS. Specifying the new XLS data source uses the translation engine to export data to Excel files. It also enables you to access Excel spreadsheets on UNIX directly, without having to access the PC Files server.
export to SPSS files on Windows. All versions of SPSS on Windows are supported.
export to Stata files. All versions of Stata on Windows are supported.
specify SAS data set options in the DATA= argument when you are exporting to all data sources except for delimited, comma-separated, and tab-delimited external files. For example, if the data set that you are exporting has an assigned password, use the ALTER=, PW=, READ=, or WRITE= data set option. To export only data that meets a specified condition, use the WHERE= data set option.
identify a specific spreadsheet in a workbook by specifying the SHEET= option. Exporting to multiple sheets is available for Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, and 2002 spreadsheets for the Windows operating environment on 32-bit platforms if your site has a license for the SAS/ACCESS Interface for PC Files.

The FCMP Procedure

The new FCMP procedure enables you to create, test, and store SAS functions and subroutines for use by other SAS procedures.

For more information about the FCMP procedure, see http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc. Select Base SAS from the Product-Specific Documentation list.

The FONTREG Procedure

The new FONTREG procedure enables you to add system fonts to the SAS registry.

The FORMAT Procedure

The maximum length for character format names is now 31. The maximum length for numeric format names is now 32.
The maximum length for character informat names is now 30. The maximum length for numeric informat names is now 31.

The FREQ Procedure

In the PROC FREQ statement, the new NLEVELS option displays a table that shows the number of levels for each variable that is named in the TABLES statement(s).

The new ZEROS option in the WEIGHT statement enables you to include observations that have 0 weight values. The frequency and crosstabulation tables will display any levels that correspond to observations that have 0 weights. PROC FREQ includes levels that have 0 weights in the chi-square goodness-of-fit test for one-way tables, in the binomial computations for one-way tables, and in the computation of kappa statistics for two-way tables.

The following new options are available in the TABLES statement:

The CONTENTS= option enables you to specify the text for the HTML contents file links to crosstabulation tables.
The BDT option enables you to request Tarone's adjustment in the Breslow-Day test for homogeneity of odds ratios when you use the CMH option to compute the Breslow-Day test for stratified 2×2 tables.
The NOWARN option suppresses the log warning message that indicates that the asymptotic chi-square test might not be valid when more than 20% of the table cells have expected frequencies that are less than 5.
The CROSSLIST option displays crosstabulation tables in ODS column format. This option creates a table that has a table definition that you can customize by using the TEMPLATE procedure.

Additionally, PROC FREQ now produces exact confidence limits for the common odds ratio and related tests.

The IMPORT Procedure

The IMPORT procedure now enables you to perform the following tasks:

import Microsoft Excel 2002 spreadsheets and Microsoft Access 2002 tables. The new data sources are available for the Windows operating environment on 32-bit platforms if your site has a license for the SAS/ACCESS Interface for PC Files.
import Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (Version 5.0 and higher) by specifying DBMS=XLS. Specifying the new XLS data source uses the translation engine to import data from Excel files. It also enables you to access Excel spreadsheets on UNIX directly, without having to access the PC Files server.
import SPSS files on Windows. All versions of SPSS on Windows are supported.
import Stata files. All versions of Stata on Windows are supported.
specify SAS data set options in the OUT= argument when you are importing from all data sources except for delimited, comma-separated, and tab-delimited external files. For example, in order to assign a password for a resulting SAS data set, use the ALTER=, PW=, READ=, or WRITE= data set option. To import only data that meets a specified condition, use the WHERE= data set option.

The INFOMAPS Procedure

The new INFOMAPS procedure enables you to create SAS Information Maps programmatically. For complete information, see the Base SAS Guide to Information Maps.

The MEANS and SUMMARY Procedures

The new THREADS|NOTHREADS option enables or prevents the activation of multi-threaded processing.

When you format class variables by using user-defined formats that are created with the MULTILABEL and NOTSORTED options, specifying the three options MLF, PRELOADFMT, and ORDER=DATA in a CLASS statement now orders the procedure output according to the label order in the format definition.

The MIGRATE Procedure

The new MIGRATE procedure is available specifically for migrating a SAS data library from a previous release to the most recent release. For migration, PROC MIGRATE offers benefits that PROC COPY does not. For PROC MIGRATE documentation, see the Migration Community at http://support.sas.com/rnd/migration.

The PROTO Procedure

The PROTO procedure, which has been available in SAS Risk Dimensions software, is now a Base SAS procedure. The PROTO procedure enables you to register, in batch, external functions that are written in the C or C++ programming languages for use in SAS programs and C-language structures and types. For PROC PROTO documentation, go to http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc. Select Base SAS from the Product-Specific Documentation list.

The PRTDEF Procedure

There are 15 new variables to control the default printer settings.

The PRTEXP Procedure

The new PRTEXP procedure enables you to write attributes, which are used by PROC PRTDEF to define a printer, either to a SAS data set or to the SAS log. With this capability you can replicate and modify those attributes easily.

The PWENCODE Procedure

The new PWENCODE procedure enables you to encode a password. You can use the encoded password in place of plain-text passwords in SAS programs that access relational database management systems (RDBMS) and SAS servers (such as the SAS Metadata Server).

The REGISTRY Procedure

The REGISTRY procedure has three new options:

The LISTREG option lists the contents of the registry in the log.
The COMPAREREG1 and COMPAREREG2 options are used together to compare two registries. The results appear in the log.

The REPORT Procedure

The REPORT procedure has the following new features:

The new THREADS|NOTHREADS option enables or prevents the activation of multi-threaded processing.
Numeric class variables that do not have a format assigned to them are automatically formatted with the BEST12. format.
PROC REPORT now writes the value _PAGE_ for the _BREAK_ variable in the output data set for observations that are derived from a COMPUTE BEFORE _PAGE_ or COMPUTE AFTER _PAGE_ statement.

The SORT Procedure

The SORT procedure has the following new options:

The DATECOPY option copies to the output data set the SAS internal date and time when the input data set was created, and the SAS internal date and time when it was last modified prior to the sort.
The DUPOUT= option specifies an output data set that contains duplicate observations.
The OVERWRITE option deletes the input data set before the replacement output data set is populated with observations.
The THREADS|NOTHREADS option enables or prevents the activation of multi-threaded sorting.

The SQL Procedure

The SQL procedure has the following new features:

The PROC SQL statement now has a THREADS | NOTHREADS option. THREADS enables PROC SQL to take advantage of the new parallel processing capabilities in SAS when performing sorting operations.
The PROC SQL and RESET statements now contain the BUFFERSIZE option, which enables PROC SQL to specify a buffer page size for the output.
There are new DICTIONARY tables, new columns in existing DICTIONARY tables, and SASHELP views of the new tables. For DICTIONARY.TABLES and SASHELP.VTABLE, if a table is read-protected with a password, the only information that is listed for that table is the library name, member name, member type, and type of password protection; all other information is set to missing.
You can now reference a permanent SAS data set by its physical filename.
When using the INTO clause to assign values to a range of macro variables, you can now specify leading zeroes in the macro variable names.
PROC SQL now supports TRANSCODE=YES|NO as a column modifier.
The table limit for the PROC SQL statement has increased from 32 tables to 256 tables.

The SYLK Procedure (Experimental)

The new SYLK procedure enables you to read an external SYLK-formatted spreadsheet into SAS, including data, formulas, and formats. You can also use PROC SYLK as a batch spreadsheet, using programming statements to manipulate data, perform calculations, generate summaries, and format the output.

For more information about the SYLK procedure, see http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc. Select Base SAS from the Product-Specific Documentation list.

The TABULATE Procedure

The TABULATE procedure has the following new features:

The new THREADS|NOTHREADS option enables or prevents the activation of multi-threaded processing.
Available statistics include upper and lower confidence limits, skewness, and kurtosis. PROC TABULATE now supports the ALPHA= option, which enables you to specify a confidence level.
Numeric class variables that do not have a format assigned to them are automatically formatted with the BEST12. format.
The new FORMAT_PRECEDENCE and STYLE_PRECEDENCE options in the TABLE statement enable you to specify which formats and styles (defined for the column, row, or page dimensions) are applied.

Additionally, when you format class variables by using user-defined formats that are created with the MULTILABEL and NOTSORTED options, specifying the three options MLF, PRELOADFMT, and ORDER=DATA in a CLASS statement now orders the procedure output according to the label order in the format definition.

The TEMPLATE Procedure

The TEMPLATE procedure now enables you to customize or create your own markup language for your output. For complete information, see the SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

The TIMEPLOT Procedure

The TIMEPLOT procedure now supports the SPLIT= option, which enables you to specify a character which causes labels to be split into multiple lines.

The UNIVARIATE Procedure

The UNIVARIATE procedure has the following new features:

The LOWER= and NOUPPER= suboptions in the KERNEL option in the HISTOGRAM statement specify the lower and upper bounds for fitted kernel density curves.
The FRONTREF option in the HISTOGRAM statement draws reference lines in front of the histogram bars instead of behind them.

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