SAS recognizes that SAS 9 customers often have existing data and programs.
You want to seamlessly process your existing files, and possibly to
simultaneously operate both SAS 9 and an earlier release of SAS. In
many cases, you can use SAS 9 to process SAS files that were created
in SAS 8, SAS 7, and SAS 6 without first converting the files. However,
there are some limitations.
Compatibility between
versions varies depending on the type of SAS file, the SAS release
that you are running, the operating environment in which the file
was created, and the type of processing you need to do. Compatibility
issues are generally handled automatically by SAS. However, there
are situations that require you to specify an engine name or to migrate
the file.
The additional information
in this topic provides general, overview information about compatibility.
For specific processing
information and guidelines for migration issues, see the Migration
Focus Area at
support.sas.com.
The Migration
Focus Area is your guide to migrating files from previous versions
of SAS to SAS 9. Refer to this focus area for planning and cost analysis
information, known compatibility issues and their resolutions, and
step-by-step instructions. The MIGRATE procedure, which provides a
simple way to migrate a library of SAS files from previous releases
of SAS, is documented in
Base SAS Procedures Guide.