European Currency Conversion

SAS enables you to convert European currency from one country's currency to an equivalent amount in another country's currency. You can also convert a country's currency to euros, and you can convert euros to a specific country's currency.

SAS provides a group of formats, informats, and a function to use for currency conversion. The set of formats EURFRISO can be used to convert specific European currencies to an amount in euros. ISO represents an ISO standard 4214 currency code. For a complete list of the ISO standard 4217 currency codes, see www.bsi-global.com/Technical%2BInformation/Publications/_Publications/tig90x.doc.

Twenty-seven European countries comprise the EMU (European Monetary Union). The conversion rates for 17 countries are fixed, and are incorporated into the EURFRISO and EURTOISO formats and into the EUROCURR function. The following table lists the currency codes and conversion rates for the specific currencies whose rates are fixed.

For 13 countries in the EMU, currency conversion rates can fluctuate. The conversion rates for these countries are stored in an ASCII text file that you reference with the EURFRTBL fileref. For example you can store the variable rates in a file named variableRates.txt, and reference the file with the Filename EURFRTBL “variables.txt”; statement. The contents of variableRages.txt could be:

EURFRCHF=1.5260
EURFRPLZ=1.3650

You can convert Polish xloty to euros with the following code:

data _null;
x=12345;
put x eurfrplz15.2;
run;

output:
€2.939,29

The following example shows the conversion from Belgian francs to euros. The EURFRBEF format divides the country's currency amount by the exchange rate:

CurrencyAmount / ExchangeRate
12345 / 40.3399 

data _null_
x=12345 /*convert from Belgian francs to euros*/
put x eurfrbef15.2;
run;

Output:

e306,02

The following example shows the conversion of euros to Belgian francs. The EURTOBEF format multiplies euros by the target currency's exchange rate:

EurosAmount * ExchangeRate
12345 * 40.3399 

data _null_
x=12345; /*convert from euros to Belgian francs*/
put x eurtobef15.2;
run;

Output:

497996.07

The EUROCURR function uses the conversion rate tables to convert between currencies. For conversion between the currencies of two countries,

SourceCurrencyAmount → EurosAmount → TargetCurrencyAmount

BelgianFrancs → euros 
12345 / 40.3399 = 306.02456 euros

Euros → FrenchFrancs
306.02456 * 6.55957 = 2007.3895 French francs

data _null_;
x=eurocurr(12345,'bef','frf'); /*convert from Belgian francs to French francs*/
put x=;
run;

Output:

x=2007.389499

SAS converts Belgian francs to euros, and then euros to French francs.