Using the Program Editor

Overview of Using the Program Editor
Switching from the Enhanced Editor to the Program Editor
Opening Files
Using Line Numbers
Moving the Insertion Point
Using Tabs
Understanding Line Breaks
Selecting Text
Deleting Text
Finding and Replacing Text
Dragging and Dropping Text
Drag Scrolling
Using Rich Text Format Text
Saving Files
Saving Program Editor Files Using Autosave
Understanding Unique Features of the Editor

Overview of Using the Program Editor

The SAS text editor windows, Program Editor, and NOTEPAD, work similarly to other Windows editors. Therefore, you can edit your SAS code without learning how to use a new text editor.

Switching from the Enhanced Editor to the Program Editor

Because the Enhanced Editor is the active editor by default when you start SAS, you must take one of the following actions to switch editors at start-up:
  • Start SAS using the NOENHANCEDEDITOR system option.
  • Instead of accessing the Enhanced Editor in the Preferences dialog box, use the menu to set the option:
    1. Select Toolsthen selectOptionsthen selectPreferencesthen selectView.
    2. Deselect the Use Enhanced Editor check box.
    3. Click OK.
For more information about the NOENHANCEDEDITOR system option, see ENHANCEDEDITOR System Option: Windows .
You can always access the Program Editor window from the View menu.

Opening Files

To open a file in the Program Editor:
  1. With the editor window active, do one of the following:
    • Click the Open toolbar button (the opened file folder)
    • Type dlgopen in the command bar
    • Select File and click Open
    SAS displays the Open dialog box.
  2. Use the Open dialog box to select the file that you want to include. By default, SAS looks for files with the .sas file extension (which contain SAS code, by convention). However, you can change the default by adjusting the Files of type field. (If you change the selected file type, SAS will remember that selection, and present it as the default the next time you open a file for that window during the SAS session.)
    Note: To change the default directory for the Open dialog box, either start SAS using the SASINITIALFOLDER system option or change the current working directory. For more information, see SASINITIALFOLDER System Option: Windows and Changing the SAS Current Folder .
  3. If the file that you are including contains SAS code that you want to submit, check the Submit box before clicking OK.
    Note: If you select Submit , it remains selected each time you use the Open dialog box to open a file. You must deselect it if you do not want to submit the contents of the file that you want to open.
You can also drag and drop a file into the Program Editor from the Windows Explorer or the My Favorite Folders window. To drag and drop a file:
  1. Open the source window.
  2. Position the source window and the Program Editor window so that both are visible.
  3. In the source window, find and select the file that you want to open; click and hold down the left mouse button
  4. Drag the file over the Program Editor window and release the left mouse button.
If you open a file with lines longer than 256 characters in the Program Editor window, the lines are truncated unless you use the INCLUDE command with an LRECL= value equal to the number of characters in the longest line, and you set either the AUTOWRAP or AUTOFLOW command to ON. If you want to use the Open dialog box to open a file with lines longer than 256 characters, use the FILENAME statement to set up a fileref with the appropriate options and then use the fileref, enclosed in double quotation marks, in the Filename field in the Open dialog box.
If you recall a SAS program that has more than 256 characters on a line into the Program Editor, the Program Editor wraps the line on to the next line. A line that is greater than 256 characters and wraps onto the next line is considered one line of code.

Using Line Numbers

Line numbers are turned off by default under Windows. You can enter numbers on in the command bar to display line numbers in the Program Editor window. You can also enter nums to turn line numbers on and off.
You can also control line numbers using the Editor Options dialog box when the Program Editor or NOTEPAD is the active window. To open the Editor Options dialog box:
  1. Type edop in the command bar or select Toolsthen selectOptionsthen selectProgram Editor
  2. Select the Editing tab.
  3. Select Display line numbers and click OK.

Moving the Insertion Point

The insertion point movement keys (arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, and so on) function the same way in SAS text windows as they do in other Windows applications.
Pressing the Ctrl key with the left arrow (word left) or right arrow (word right) causes the insertion point to move one word at a time. When advancing through text, the word-left and word-right commands stop at the end of the text on a line and at the beginning of the first word on a new line. You can move to the top of a file by pressing Ctrl+PgUp or to the bottom of a file by pressing Ctrl+PgDn.
Pressing the Home key causes the insertion point to go to the beginning of the current line unless the command line (not the command bar) is active in the active window. Pressing the Home key when the command line is active causes the insertion point to toggle between the current insertion point position in the text and the command line. The F11 key moves the insertion point to the command bar. You can toggle the command line on and off using the COMMAND command or by selecting Command line in the Preferences dialog box View tab.

Using Tabs

Many text editors retain tab characters. Other editors expand tabs into space characters. The SAS Program Editor window expands tabs into space characters. Pressing the Tab key inserts spaces and moves any text to the right of the insertion point.

Understanding Line Breaks

Conceptually, line breaks are at the end of the line rather than at the beginning. Pressing the Enter key creates a line break. To delete a line break, press the Backspace key at the beginning of a line or press the Delete key at the end of the line.

Selecting Text

You can use the mouse or the Shift key in combination with the insertion point movement keys to select text. The marking of an area of text continues until you release the mouse button or release the Shift key. To select all of the text in the active window, select the Edit menu and then select Select All. Here are some advanced text selection methods:
  • Double-click a single word to select it. To select an entire line, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on the line that you want.
  • Use the Alt key as you hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse to select a rectangular block (or column) of text (as illustrated below.)
    Selecting a rectangular block of text using the Alt key
  • Use the Shift key in combination with the mouse button to select the text between the current text insertion point and the position in the text where you click. You can also use this technique to extend a text selection. (You can use this feature only within the current page.)
If characters are selected and you start entering text, the marked area is replaced with the new text. This action occurs even if you have moved the mouse pointer away from the marked area. For information about marking and copying text with a mouse, see Using the Clipboard .
To unmark text, click the left mouse button in the window. Alternatively, you can unmark text by selecting Deselect from the Edit menu or you can press the Esc key. Entering the WNAVKEYUNMARK ON in the command bar also enables unmarking with the arrow navigational keys.

Deleting Text

The Delete key deletes the currently selected text, if there is any. Otherwise, it deletes the character to the right of the insertion point. To delete from the insertion point to the end of the current line, press Alt+Delete. To delete from the insertion point to the end of the current word, press Ctrl+Delete. To delete from the insertion point to the start of the current word, press Ctrl+Backspace.
You can also use the Edit menu to delete text. To delete all text in the window, click Clear All. To delete only selected text, click Clear. To delete selected text and copy that text to the Windows clipboard, click Cut.

Finding and Replacing Text

To find text
  1. Open the Find dialog box by selecting Editthen selectFind
  2. Supply the following information:
    Find text
    Enter a text string to find. The initial value of this field is the last text string that was used in a search.
    Direction
    Select the Up or Down check box. Up specifies to search from the insertion point position toward the beginning of the file. Down specifies to search from the insertion point position toward the bottom of the file.
    Match whole word only
    Select the check box to specify that a match of the text must be a whole word and not part of a word.
    Match case
    Select the check box to specify that upper- and lowercase characters must match exactly.
  3. Click Find Next.
To find and replace text
  1. Open the Replace dialog box by selecting Editthen selectReplace
  2. Supply the following information:
    Find text
    Enter a text string to find and replace. The initial value of this field is the last text string that was used in a search.
    Replace with
    Enter the replacement string.
    Direction
    Select either the Up or Down check box. Up specifies to search from the insertion point position toward the beginning of the file. Down specifies to search from the insertion point position toward the bottom of the file.
    Match whole word only
    Select this check box to specify that any match of the text must be a whole word and not part of a word.
    Match case
    Select this check box to specify that upper- and lowercase characters must match exactly.
  3. Click Find Next.
  4. If the text is found, click one of the following:
    • Replace to replace this single occurrence of the text with the replacement string.
    • Replace All to replace all occurrences of the text in the file with the replacement string.

Dragging and Dropping Text

The following table lists the places from which you can drag text and to which you can drop the selected text.
Summary of Text Drag and Drop Possibilities
Text Source
Text Destination
any SAS text window
another SAS window that supports text editing (such as the Program Editor window)
any SAS text window
another Windows application that supports text drag and drop
a Windows application that supports text drag and drop
any SAS window that supports editing
Windows Explorer (text file item)
any SAS window that supports editing
To drag and drop text from one window to another:
  1. Arrange your windows, if necessary, so that both the source and target windows are visible on the display.
    Note: Instead of arranging your windows so that the target window is visible, the target window becomes the active window when you drag the selected text to the target window's button on the window bar.
  2. Select the desired text from the source window.
  3. Click and hold the left mouse button with the pointer on the selected text.
  4. With the mouse button still pressed, drag the text to the target window.
  5. Move the insertion point to the position where you want to insert the text. (If you plan to just submit the text as SAS code for processing, position the insertion point anywhere in the window).
  6. Release the mouse button. The text is either included at the point where you positioned the insertion point, or it is submitted to SAS for processing. (The default action depends on the type of the target window.)
You can override the default action of the drag and drop by initiating the drag and drop using the right mouse button. This action is called nondefault drag and drop. When you drag the selection to the target SAS window and release the mouse button, SAS displays a pop-up menu to let you choose which action to perform.
Summary of Drag-and-Drop Actions is a summary of drag-and-drop actions available for the possible target windows in SAS.
Summary of Drag-and-Drop Actions
Data
Target
Default
Action
Nondefault
Actions
text
SAS text editor
move
move, copy, cancel
text
PROGRAM
EDITOR
copy
copy, submit, cancel
file
SAS text editor
not valid
not valid
file
PROGRAM
EDITOR
move
copy, submit, cancel
file
LOG, OUTPUT
submit
submit, cancel
The actions that occur when you drag text out of a SAS window into another Windows application depend on the target application. In most cases, dragging and dropping text between SAS and other applications actually moves the text from one window to another (that is, the text is cut from one window and placed in the other).
You can change that behavior by applying a drag-modifier—a key that you press while you drag and drop. To copy text from one window to another (instead of moving it), press and hold the Ctrl key before and during the drag and drop. When you release the mouse button to drop the text, release the Ctrl key as well.

Drag Scrolling

While dragging text to a SAS text editor window, you can cause the target window to scroll vertically or horizontally. This action lets you drop text in a window area that is not currently visible.
Once you have selected the text and drag it to the SAS text editor window, pause near the border of the SAS text editor window. The window scrolls in the direction of that border. For example, to cause the target window to scroll down, drag the mouse pointer just above the bottom border of the window and pause.
Drag scrolling happens only when you pause near the drop area border; it does not occur if you drag quickly past the border.

Using Rich Text Format Text

When you copy text out of a SAS window to the clipboard and paste it into the window of another application, the text retains all of the format information that it had in SAS (except for color) if the target window accepts RTF formatting. For example, the Windows Notepad application does not preserve formatting, but Microsoft WordPad and many word processors do. The same is true when you drag text out of SAS and drop it in another application window.
If the display font is Sasfont, any text that you copy out of SAS is formatted with the SAS Monospace TrueType font. If your text has other highlighting attributes, such as underline, those attributes are also transferred to the target window in the other application (provided the target window supports rich text format (RTF)).

Saving Files

To save the contents of the Program Editor window, click the Save toolbar button (the drive icon). If the file is to be saved for the first time, the Save As dialog box appears for you to name the file.
To save a file with a new name:
  1. Select Filethen selectSave As
  2. Select a folder in the Save in field.
  3. Enter a filename in the Filename field.
  4. Select a file type from the Save as type field.
  5. Click OK.
Note: To change the default directory for the Save dialog box, either start SAS using the SASINITIALFOLDER system option or change the current working directory. For more information, see SASINITIALFOLDER System Option: Windows and Changing the SAS Current Folder .

Saving Program Editor Files Using Autosave

To ensure that you do not lose any of your work in the Program Editor, SAS can automatically save your files at an interval that you specify. The interval can range from 0 (Autosave off) to 480 minutes. The default interval is 10 minutes.
The autosave file is saved as pgm.asv in the current folder or in the location specified by the AUTOSAVELOC system option.
To enable or disable autosave and set the interval:
  1. Select Toolsthen selectOptionsthen selectPreferencesthen selectEdit tab
  2. Select or deselect Autosave every.
  3. Set the interval by entering a number between 1 and 480 in the minutes box.
You can also use the WAUTOSAVE command to enable, disable, and set the interval. WAUTOSAVE INTERVAL=minutes turns on autosave using minutes as the interval.
For more information about the Autosave feature, see Edit Preferences , WAUTOSAVE Command: Windows , and AUTOSAVELOC= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference.

Understanding Unique Features of the Editor

The following features of a SAS text editor window are different from the standard features of other editors commonly used in the Windows environment:
  • A SAS text editor window enables you to move the insertion point past the last character entered on a line or past the last line of text entered.
  • You can mark an area of text, move the mouse pointer away from the marked area, and the marked text remains marked.
  • You can unmark text by pressing the Esc key.
  • You can use Shift + Tab to delete blank space characters back to the last tab stop.
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