SAS Companion for the CMS Environment |
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EBCDIC and Character Data |
The following
character informats produce different results on different computing platforms,
depending on which character-encoding system the platform uses. Because CMS
uses the EBCDIC character-encoding system, all of the following informats
convert data to EBCDIC.
These informats are not discussed in detail in this
section because the EBCDIC character-encoding system is their only host-specific
aspect.
-
$ASCIIw.
- converts ASCII character data to EBCDIC
character data.
-
$BINARYw.
- converts binary values to EBCDIC character
data.
-
$CHARw.
- reads character data with blanks.
-
$CHARZBw.
- reads character data and converts any byte
that contains a binary zero to a blank.
-
$EBCDICw.
- converts character data to EBCDIC. Under
CMS, $EBCDIC and $CHAR are equivalent.
-
$HEXw.
- converts hexadecimal data to EBCDIC character
data.
-
$OCTALw.
- converts octal data to EBCDIC character
data.
-
$PHEXw.
- converts packed hexadecimal data to EBCDIC
character data.
-
$VARYINGw.
- reads character data with blanks.
-
$w.
- reads standard character data.
All the information that you need in order to use these
informats under CMS is included in
SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
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Floating-Point Number Format and Portability |
The manner in which CMS stores floating-point numbers can affect
your data. See Representation of Floating-Point Numbers
for details.
If
a SAS program that reads binary data is run on only one type of machine, you
can use the following native-mode informats. Native mode means that these
informats use the byte-ordering system and floating-point representation that
is standard for the machine.
If you want to write SAS programs that can be run on multiple
machines that use different byte-storage systems, then use the following IBM
370 informats:
-
S370FIB
- reads integer binary data in the IBM mainframe
format
-
S370FIBU
- reads unsigned integer binary data in the
IBM mainframe format
-
S370FPD
- reads packed decimal data in the IBM mainframe
format
-
S370FPDU
- reads unsigned packed decimal data in the
IBM mainframe format
-
S370FPIB
- reads positive integer binary data in the
IBM mainframe format
-
S370FRB
- reads real binary data in the IBM mainframe
format
-
S370FZD
- reads zoned decimal data in the IBM mainframe
format
-
S370FZDL
- reads zoned decimal leading sign data in
the IBM mainframe format
-
S370FZDS
- reads zoned decimal separate leading sign
data in the IBM mainframe format
-
S370FZDT
- reads zoned decimal separate trailing sign
data in the IBM mainframe format
-
S370FZDU
- reads unsigned zoned decimal data in the
IBM mainframe format.
These IBM 370 informats enable you to write SAS programs
that can be run in any SAS environment, regardless of the standard for storing
numeric data. They also enhance your ability to port raw data between host
operating environments.
For more information about the IBM 370 informats, see
SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
Several informats are designed to read time and date stamps
that have been written by the System Management Facility (SMF), or by the
Resource Management Facility (RMF). SMF and RMF are standard features of
the OS/390 operating environment. They record information about each job that
is processed. The SAS System under CMS can be used to analyze SMF and RMF
data from an OS/390 system.
The following informats are used to read time and date stamps that are
generated by SMF and RMF:
-
PDTIMEw.
- reads the packed decimal time of SMF and
RMF records.
-
RMFDUR.
- reads the duration values of RMF records.
-
RMFSTAMPw.
- reads the time and date fields of RMF records.
-
SMFSTAMPw.
- reads the time and date of SMF records.
-
TODSTAMP.
- reads the 8-byte time-of-day stamp.
-
TUw.
- reads Timer Unit values.
In order to facilitate the portability of SAS programs,
you may use these informats with any operating environment that is supported
by the SAS System; therefore, they are documented in
SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
Four informats read data from column-binary files:
Data that are stored in column-binary form have usually
been read into the SAS System from punch cards. Although column-binary files
are not unique to CMS, that method of storing punch card data was used extensively
on IBM 370 computer systems, and many files that were originally stored on
punch cards are still in use today.
The $CB, CB, PUNCH, and ROW informats are completely
portable. They enable SAS programs to read data that are stored in column-binary
format regardless of which operating environment your site is running under.
The only CMS-specific aspect of these informats is the historical relationship
between the Hollerith card-coding system and IBM. See
SAS Language Reference: Dictionary for complete information about
the column-binary informats.
Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.