General Differences

Existing IML programs that were developed for PROC IML may require modification to run properly under IMLPlus. You should be aware of the following items when porting a program from PROC IML to IMLPlus:

• The mechanism for mixing IML with DATA steps and other PROC steps is different in IMLPlus. Please refer to the topic Accessing SAS Functionality.
• Many SAS global statements, which are not part of the IML language, must be submitted to SAS. Please refer to the topic The SUBMIT Statement.

  Note: As of IML Studio 12.3, IMLPlus fully supports the following SAS global statements as native IMLPlus statements: FILENAME, FOOTNOTE, LIBNAME, ODS, OPTIONS, TITLE.

• IMLPlus programs do not require the statements PROC IML or QUIT.
• The following low-level graphics routines are not supported: DISPLAY, GBLKVP, GBLKVPD, GCLOSE, GDELETE, GDRAW, GDRAWL, GGRID, GINCLUDE, GOPEN, GPIE, GPIEXY, GPOINT, GPOLY, GPORT, GPORTPOP, GPORTSTK, GSCRIPT, GSET, GSHOW, GSTART, GSTOP, GSTRLEN, GTEXT, GVTEXT, GWINDOW, GXAXIS, GYAXIS, and WINDOW. In their place IMLPlus provides high-level statistical graphics.
• Some uses of the LOAD, STORE, and REMOVE statements are not supported. Please refer to the topics Summary of Matrix Storage Statements and Summary of Module Storage Statements.
• The FREE statement is not supported for modules.
• The EXECUTEFILE subroutine does not support filerefs.
• The PACKAGE INSTALL statement does not support filerefs.
• The following statements are not supported: LINK, PUSH, QUEUE.
• IMLPlus does not allow a character matrix definition to contain an entry that is not enclosed in quotation marks and can be interpreted as a number. For example, PROC IML will accept the character matrix definition

  x = { ONE TWO 3 };
  

  while IMLPlus requires you to write

  x = { ONE TWO "3" };
  

  or preferably

  x = { "ONE" "TWO" "3" };
  

• If a module is defined multiple times within a program, PROC IML uses the most recently encountered definition when calling the module. In contrast, IMLPlus uses the last definition in the program for all calls to the module. You can simulate the PROC IML behavior in an IMLPlus program by using the ALIAS statement. For example:

  start Test1;
      print "Test1";
  finish;
  
  alias Test() "Test1";
  run Test;
  
  start Test2;
      print "Test2";
  finish;
  
  alias Test() "Test2";
  run Test;
  

• IMLPlus does not require or support the %WAVINIT macro that initializes the wavelet package in PROC IML. Also, the technique used to specify the predefined constants for the wavelet functions and modules is different in IMLPlus. Please refer to the topic Constants for Wavelet Functions and Modules.