What's New in the SAS 9.0, 9.1, and 9.1.3 XML LIBNAME Engine

The SAS 9.1 (and later) XML engine imports and exports a broader variety of XML documents. The XMLMAP= option specifies a separate XML document that contains specific XMLMap syntax. The XMLMap syntax tells the XML engine how to interpret the XML markup in order to successfully import an XML document.

Note:   This section describes the features of the XML LIBNAME engine in SAS that are new or enhanced since SAS 8.2.  

• The LIBNAME Statement Syntax contains the following new options:

  • The ODSRECSEP= option controls the generation of a record separator that marks the end of a line in the output XML document.

  • The XMLCONCATENATE= option enables you to import an XML document that contains multiple XML documents, which are concatenated into one file.

  • The XMLFILEREF= option enables you to specify a fileref for the XML document that is different from the libref. If the fileref and the libref are the same, you do not need to specify the XMLFILEREF= option or the name of the XML document.

  • Beginning in SAS 9.1, the option name XMLSCHEMA= specifies an external file that contains separate schema output.

  • The XMLPROCESS= option determines how the XML engine processes character data that does not conform to W3C specifications.

• The LIBNAME Statement Syntax contains the following enhancements:

  • The XMLTYPE= option now supports the MSACCESS format type. MSACCESS is the XML format for the markup standards that are supported for a Microsoft Access database.

  • In SAS 9.1, you can store and access XMLMaps as metadata objects in a SAS Metadata Repository. The following new metadata options enable you to access a particular XMLMap in a specific repository: METAPASS=, METAPORT=, METAREPOSITORY=, METASERVER=, and METAXMLMAP=.

  • Beginning in SAS 9.1.3, the XMLTYPE= option supports the CDISCODM format type. CDISCODM is the XML format for the markup standards that are defined in the Operational Data Model (ODM) that is created by the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), which conforms to the 1.2 schema specification. The new options FORMATACTIVE=, FORMATNOREPLACE=, and FORMATLIBRARY= are used with the CDISCODM format type to specify transcoding preferences.

  • The XMLMETA= option specifies whether to include metadata-related information in the exported markup. In SAS 9.1, the values for the XMLMETA= option are changed to DATA, SCHEMADATA, and SCHEMA.

    Note:   Prior to SAS 9.0, the functionality of the XMLMETA= option was performed by using the keyword XMLSCHEMA=. In SAS 9.0 (and later), the name of the XMLSCHEMA= option is changed to XMLMETA=.  

• In the XMLMap Syntax Version 1.2, the content for the DATATYPE element (which specifies the type of data being read from the XML document for the variable) is changed to conform directly to the XML Schema data types specification. For example, in earlier versions of the DATATYPE element, the form <DATATYPE>DT-8601</DATATYPE> was accepted. In version 1.2, the form <DATATYPE>dateTime</DATATYPE> is accepted.

• Several ISO 8601 SAS formats and informats now support the international standard for the representation of dates and times.

• Using the LABEL= data set option no longer results in a warning message. However, the XML engine does not persist the information.

• SAS XML Mapper (previously named XML Atlas) is a graphical interface that generates or modifies the XML markup for an XMLMap.

• The new XMLMap Manager (a plug-in used with SAS Management Console) provides centralized management of XMLMaps as metadata objects in a SAS Metadata Repository.

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