Using the SAS® System Release 6.12 on WindowsTM
Gary Mehler, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC
ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of the new Release 6.12 enhancements. You should Release 6.12 of the SAS System for Per- view this paper as an introduction but you sonal Computers provides support for Mi- should refer to the SAS Companion for the crosoft Windows (version 3.1 using Win32s Microsoft Windows Environment and the technology, Windows 95, Windows NT), and OS/2 Environment: Changes and Enhance- OS/2® (Warp). With this release, the SAS ments of the SAS System for more details System incrementally improves both its user as well as online documentation, which is interface and its interoperability with other more extensive in Release 6.12. Release PC applications. This paper discusses both 6.12 continues to provide incremental en- new features and incremental enhance- hancements to the user interface and ments to the user interface. This paper also interoperability areas of the SAS System. In describes the SAS System for Windows 95 other areas such as the SAS System Viewer and Windows NT 4.0, detailing the new user and the SETUP application, new features interface features that are consistent with have also been added. the look and feel for Windows 95 and Win- dows NT 4.0. The SAS System Viewer, pro- duction for 6.12, is described as is the GUI- THE SAS SYSTEM VIEWER based SETUP program. Interoperability topics include Windows Explorer integration, The SAS System Viewer is a electronic mail, Lotus Notes, OLE, OBDC, freely redistributable application and access to external DLLs. This paper for viewing and printing files that also discusses the support provided by the were created by the SAS System. SAS System for Windows NT. The Viewer provides a quick and convenient way to view the contents of a SAS data set or catalog without invoking the entire SAS INTRODUCTION System, or even having the SAS System installed on your computer. Release 6.12 of the SAS System under Windows and under OS/2 is a complete im- When you install the SAS System Viewer plementation of the SAS System. This re- under Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, the lease takes advantage of the 32-bit per- Setup procedure automatically updates the formance of the operating system. For ex- Windows registry to associate the Viewer ample, the following operating system im- program with SAS data set files (.SD2), provements over 16-bit environments will catalog files (.SC2), and other files (.SAS, positively affect your SAS programs: .LOG, .LST) associated with the SAS Sys- tem. When you click on the right-mouse - the 32-bit operating system enables button from an Explorer view of one of your SAS programs to execute faster these files, you can select SASView to - the improved fault isolation capabilities launch the SAS System Viewer ensure that if another application fails, your SAS session is not affected The SAS System Viewer lets you view the - the additional resources reduce re- following types of SAS files: source contention, so your SAS pro- • grams execute more efficiently SAS data sets (.sd2 and .ssd files), up to two gigabytes in size, generated by Release - the redesigned interface in Windows 95 6.04 and later of the SAS System for Win- and Windows NT makes SAS easier to dows, OS/2, or DOS. These data sets can use. be compressed and/or encrypted. (If you attempt to access an encrypted data set, tures as well. Using the SAS System the SAS System Viewer prompts you for the Viewer you can: read password.) • View SAS data sets and SAS catalogs in a • SAS catalogs (.sc2 files) generated by the grid format. You can view SAS files that SAS System for Windows or OS/2. have been created using the SAS System Release 6.04 or later. You can also view • SAS programs (.sas files), output listings SAS files created by versions of the SAS (.lst files), logs (.log files), text files (.txt System that run on other platforms. files), and RTF files (.rtf files). • View a SAS data set or catalog by dragging • Files created by SAS Institute's JMP product and dropping its icon on an icon represent- (.jmp files) that reside on a local or network ing the SAS System Viewer, or on an exist- disk. ing instance of the Viewer.
• If you have the SAS System for Windows • View and edit SAS programs, text files, LST installed with SAS/CONNECT, you can also files, LOG files, and RTF files. view cross-platform data sets and catalogs (VMS, Macintosh, UNIX, OS/2, Windows, • Print the contents of any SAS file that you and DOS) that you can access from a disk, can view. file server, or network using the HTTP and FTP network protocols. • View multiple SAS files within a single in- stance of the Viewer.
• Sort your view of a SAS file by column by selecting a cell in a column and then se- lecting a sort option from the View menu.
• Subset the data (using a WHERE clause) displayed by the viewer by selecting Where from the View menu (or pressing Ctrl-W).
• Email a copy of all or selected grid cells using a MAPI-compliant mail program by selecting Send from the File menu.
• Resize columns and rows by grabbing and dragging the separator between the head- ers.
• Copy the entire table, column, row and block selections to the clipboard.
Figure 1. The SAS System Viewer, displaying the The SAS System Viewer is shipped with the contents of three SAS System files: a catalog, a SAS SAS System. You can always download the program, and a dataset. latest version of the SAS System Viewer from SAS Institute's World Wide Web site The SAS System Viewer is primarily a or FTP site on the internet: “Quick Viewer” like those provided by other WWW: http://www.sas.com software vendors to support browsing of program files. A Quick Viewer does not re- The SAS System Viewer is also available in quire the entire software application and as the download section of the Technical Sup- the name implies, can be used more quickly port area at: than the complete application. The SAS FTP: ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/ System Viewer supports many other fea- bar, and the status line. The tooltips are dis- IMPROVED GUI FEATURES played as you move your mouse cursor over these controls. Tooltips are additional de- GUI enhancements to the Release 6.12 tailed help that is displayed on the status SAS System continue the trend to provide a line. The Tool Editor allows you to modify more native look and feel familiar to PC us- tooltip text as you modify your default tool ers. Some of the new GUI features include settings. a print preview utility, rich text support, addi- tional toolbar support, Program Editor en- Program Editor Enhancements hancements, and Windows 95 support. You can use the mouse (or the SHIFT key in combination with the cursor movement Print Preview keys) to select text. The marking of an area To see how the contents of a window will of text continues until you release the appear as printed output, select the window mouse button or press a key that is not a you want to preview and then select Print cursor movement key (or release the SHIFT Preview from the File menu (or click the key). To select all of the text in the active Print Preview tool bar button). window, choose Select All from the Edit menu. Here are some advanced text selec- In the Preview window, you can use the tion methods (new for Release 6.12): Next and Previous buttons to navigate through the pages to be printed. The current - Double-click on a single word to select page number and total number of pages are it. To select an entire line, hold down displayed at the bottom of the window. You the CTRL key as you double-click on can also magnify your view of the current the line you want. page (by 100%) by clicking Zoom, or by simply clicking inside of the page. To re- - Use the ALT key as you hold down the duce your view, click Zoom or inside of the mouse button and drag the mouse to page again. select a rectangular block (or column) of text. In the Print Preview window, you can navi- gate by using the following shortcut keys: - Use the SHIFT key in combination with the mouse button to select the text Key Full Page mode action Zoom mode action between the current text cursor and the PgDn Advance to next page Scroll down on current page position in the text where you click. PgUp Back to previous page Scroll up on current page (You can use this feature only within Ctrl-PgDn none Scroll right on current page the current page.) Ctrl-PgUp none Scroll left on current page Ctrl-Home Go to first page Go to first page - If characters are marked and you start Ctrl-End Go to last page Go to last page typing text, the marked area is replaced with the new text. This occurs even if A new command, DLGPRTPREVIEW, can you have moved the cursor away from be used to invoke the Print Preview window the marked area. See Using the Clip- board for information about marking Toolbar support and copying text with a mouse. The SAS System uses industry standard tools on the default toolbar. The Tool Editor Rich Text Format Support browser contains more tools for you to Beginning with Release 6.11 for Windows, choose from when you create custom tool- two new TrueType fixed pitch fonts are pro- bars. You can choose to display the SAS vided: SAS Monospace and SAS Mono- toolbar with either large or small tools. space Bold. These fonts contain several extended ASCII line drawing characters in Tooltips provide concise help information for positions that are normally undefined in an the tools on the SAS toolbar, the command ANSI font. Using these line drawing char- acters with the TABULATE procedure pro- be overwritten without prompting you with a vides a smooth line drawing capability re- confirmation dialog. sulting in tabular output that is more visually appealing. Cursor Control A new command, WHIDECURSOR, sup- The Sasfont bitmap font displays faster and presses the display of the cursor in SAS looks better on the display, so it is the de- windows that do not allow text input, such as fault display font when you install the SAS those in SAS/ASSIST, SAS/EIS, and System. The SAS Monospace font looks SAS/AF software. With syntax: WHIDE- better in printed output and scales to many CURSOR
When you are using an e-mail package that supports MAPI under Windows NT or Win- dows 95, the SAS System uses the native e-mail dialog. This dialog allows you to at- tach the contents of the current SAS win- dow.
Figure 3, SAS System Contents in the Windows Explorer
E-mail Support E-mail support is available interactively through the Send Mail dialog or program- matically through the DATA step or SCL. This implementation supports both industry standards VIM (Vendor-Independent Mes- saging) and MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface). Most popular e- mail packages provide support for either Figure 4, Sending e-mail with an Auto-attachment VIM or MAPI.
Support for using an SMTP (Simple Mail You can also access e-mail through the Transfer Protocol) server to send e-mail FILENAME statement using the Device type from within SAS is experimental for Release of EMAIL. Additionally, you can embed a 6.12. The EMAILSERVER System Option- set of directives in put statements to allow specifies the SMTP server to use when even more flexibility when writing a data sending e-mail through SAS. This option is step that conditionally sends multiple e-mail valid as part of your configuration file, or the messages. SAS System invocation. This option has the syntax: -EMAILSERVER host.domain.net, World-Wide-Web Integration where host.domain.net specifies the name The SAS System supports integration with of the SMTP server through which to route the world-wide-web in several ways. Through SAS System SETUP registration of associated with URLs in the Windows regis- MIME types, SAS data referenced in web try. pages (as shown in the example below) are able to use the SAS System or the SAS Lotus Notes System Viewer to display themselves if se- The SAS System provides an access en- lected. Post 6.12 updates of the SAS Sys- gine, NOTESDB, which allows you to add tem Viewer will support viewing SAS data new notes documents to an existing Lotus embedded In web documents within the web Notes database. You can use the DATA browser window. At present, this support is step or SCL to populate the Notes database. available in separate application windows. You do not need to have Notes running to access it from the SAS System, but you must have a workstation copy of Lotus Notes installed on your machine with a valid user ID certification.
DATA step or SCL code that interacts with a Notes database generally uses the following components:
• A FILENAME statement with the NOTESDB de- vice-type keyword
• PUT statements that contain data directives and the data to place in the Notes database
Figure 5, Accessing SAS System data from a web • PUT statements that contain action directives to page control when to send the data to the Notes data- base.
The SAS System can function well on a web OLE Support server and service web-based computing OLE is a means of integrating multiple requests. The output of these requests can sources of information from different appli- be generated in a format that is understood cations into a unified document. These ob- by web browsers (HTML) for complete inte- jects can include text, graphics, charts, gration into a web-based computing model. sound, video clips, and much more.
In addition, a new command, WBROWSE, OLE 1.0, which the SAS System under invokes the default web browser, which dis- Windows has supported since Release 6.08, plays SAS Insititute's home page allowed you to link and embed OLE objects (http://www.sas.com) by default. If you into SAS/AF FRAME entries and SAS/EIS specify a url (uniform resource locator), then applications. OLE 2.0, which Release 6.12 that location is displayed instead. Note that supports, provides many new features that you must enclose the URL in double quotes. you can use to enhance your SAS/AF frames and SAS/EIS applications. Note that the SAS System under Windows (and OLE Another command, DLGWBROWSE, in- 2.0 in general) still supports all the features vokes a dialog in which you can specify the from OLE 1.0. location of your preferred web browser. The browser you specify will be invoked when The OLE 2.0 features supported by the SAS you click the Browse tool bar button or enter System under Windows include: visual ed- a URL (uniform resource locator) in the iting, drag and drop, OLE automation, OLE command bar. Use of this command by custom controls, object conversion, and Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 users is OLE automation server. Since Release optional, since on these platforms the SAS 6.11, the SAS System has been able to System automatically uses the web browser perform as an OLE automation server. Pre- viously an experimental feature of SAS, this is now a production-level capability in Re- SAS/SHARE*NET lease 6.12. SAS/SHARE*NET software is added to a SAS/SHARE server to allow third party For more in-depth description of the OLE ODBC compliant Windows applications, support available in the SAS System, refer such as Microsoft’s Excel or Visual Basic, to the paper “OLE and the SAS System for open access to remote SAS System data Windows Release 6.12”. sets in shared read/write mode. When used in conjunction with SAS/ACCESS software SAS ODBC Driver on the server machine, the SAS/SHARE server becomes a read/only gateway for the The SAS ODBC Driver for the SAS System ODBC client applications to the wide variety allows third party ODBC compliant Windows of data supported by the various applications, such as Microsoft’s Excel or SAS/ACCESS engines. Visual Basic, open access to SAS data sets. The SAS ODBC Driver is a multi-tiered The SAS/SHARE*NET software provides driver meaning that it does not directly ac- the same SAS ODBC Driver software that cess SAS data sets but rather communi- comes with the base SAS System in addi- cates with either a local SAS ODBC server tion to server side licensing that enables or a remote SAS/SHARE server. The SAS SAS/SHARE servers to support ODBC Driver does not connect to a SAS/CONNECT single user server. Accessing External DLLS SAS System servers transparently handle You can access external DLLs through the all cross architecture issues such as floating DATA step or SCL with the MODULE family point data translation between different of SAS call routines and functions. This hardware/OS platforms. The same SAS functionality allows you to access either ex- ODBC Driver comes included with either the ternal DLLs that you create or DLLs that you base SAS System or with SAS/SHARE*NET purchase. You can even access operating software. The local SAS ODBC server also system DLLs. To use, you create a comes with the base SAS System and al- SASCBTBL attribute table that describes lows access to local SAS data. To access the DLL routine you want to access. SAS data remote from the local machine, you use the SAS ODBC Driver to connect to a SAS/SHARE server that has the ENHANCEMENTS TO THE SAS SYS- SAS/SHARE*NET software installed. TEM SETUP PROGRAM
When used in conjunction with The SAS System SETUP program, first SAS/ACCESS software on the local or re- available with Release 6.11 of the SAS mote server machines, the SAS ODBC System for Windows and for OS/2 adds Driver serves as a read/only gateway to the features that simplify installation of the SAS wide variety of DBMS data supported by the System. In addition, features of the SAS various SAS/ACCESS engines. The SAS System for Windows require that the ODBC Driver supports both local and net- SETUP program be used for full functionality work DDE and TCP/IP for connection to lo- of the SAS System on your PC. An auto- cal ODBC or remote SAS/SHARE servers. mated mode of operation, new in 6.12, SAS Institute will expand the available ac- makes enterprise installation of SAS System cess methods for the SAS ODBC Driver in software on Windows systems makes large- the future. scale installations manageable. Both the local SAS ODBC server and the SAS/SHARE server support multiple ODBC Easily-selectable default installation types client connections. The SAS ODBC Driver are available to facilitate easy use of the provides level 1 API conformance and SAS System SETUP program for typical minimum SQL grammar conformance and users. A Typical configuration will install does not support cursors. the most commonly-used parts of all prod- ucts for which you are licensed, and a 2. The SAS System for Windows Enterprise - a li- Compact configuration will install com- cense providing support for all Windows platforms including Windows 3.1 using Win 32s, Windows 95, monly-used parts of only the Base SAS Windows NT Workstation, and Windows NT Server. System. A unified Windows image is shipped by the A capability of the installation program for Institute for the three Windows platforms the SAS System is called a CDROM instal- supported: Windows with Win32s, Windows lation. In this mode of operation, only a lim- 95, and Windows NT. At installation time ited subset of SAS System files need to re- and at run-time, the SAS System will deter- side on the PC's hard drive or in a user's mine the type of system being used and network directory. Instead, all SAS System enable access to extended features avail- files are accessed from the remote fileserver able under advanced operating systems or the SAS System CD-ROM. Only files such as Windows NT. and data generated by the user need to be stored on their own disk space. Under Windows NT, the SAS System auto- matically takes advantage of the 64-bit file I/O features of the NT file system (NTFS). As a result, you can create, sort, and subset data sets and manipulate external files greater than the 2 gigabyte size limit placed on many other environments. The size limit for a SAS data set on NTFS is 263 (9,223,372,036,854,775,808) bytes, with a maximum of 231 (2,147,483,648) observa- tions.
The SAS System under Windows NT sup- ports a SAS/CONNECT Spawner. This Figure 6, SAS System SETUP selection screen spawner allows a Windows NT machine to showing the main installation types. service SAS/CONNECT remote requests without requiring you to first log into the Other enhancements include partial CD- Windows NT machine and execute the ROM installation which allows a mixed- spawner. Additionally, the spawner honors mode installation between CD-ROM and the access rights of the Window NT registry user disk, CD35 media that allows the with respect to the requesting user. SETUP program to generate floppy diskette images for non-networked installation onto In addition to these specific Windows NT systems lacking CD-ROM drives, Uninstal- support areas, operation of the SAS System lation support, and improved logging and on Windows NT benefits from NT-specific detection of problems at installation time. features, including:
• recovery support such as automatic restart, SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS NT which in conjunction with the SAS/CONNECT Spawner provides a high-availability platform Release 6.12 is a full production release of for NT SAS services. the SAS System for Windows, which fully includes Windows NT. The Institute provides • performance benefits from NTFS support for two types of licenses for Windows NT us- disk striping, which allows several disk drives ers: to be used in parallel for decreased latency • reliability benefits due to NT support for disk 1. The SAS System for Windows Workstations - a license providing support for all Windows platforms mirroring and duplexing in addition to its re- including Windows 3.1 using Win 32s, Windows 95 coverable, transaction-based nature. and Windows NT. • multi-session abilities resulting from NT sup- Mehler, Gary (1997), "Integrating the SAS Sys- port for multiprocessor machines. tem for Personal Computers into Your Enter- prise", Proceedings of the Twenty-second An- • among Windows systems, Windows NT is the nual SAS Users Group International Conference only fully 32-bit operating system, which can enhance performance in many types of appli- Rigsbee, Carol Williams (1995), "Enhancements cations. to the Graphical User Interface for the SAS System on Personal Computers", Proceedings of • NT’s support for Volume Sets allows disk ca- the Nineteenth Annual SAS Users Group Inter- pacity to be added to existing volumes as national Conference, 410-418 needed, without reformatting as storage needs increase. Rigsbee, Carol (1996), "Introducing Release 6.11 of the SAS System for Personal Comput- • Windows NT 4.0 increases performance over ers”, Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual NT 3.51 by 50-66% in some areas. SAS Users Group International Conference
• Performance optimizations available on NT Rigsbee, Carol (1997), "Using OLE with the SAS Server 4.0 in the areas of task scheduling, System”, Proceedings of the Twenty-second memory allocation, I/O throughput, and file Annual SAS Users Group International Con- caching can lead to better performance on this ference platform for large SAS applications.
For more details on the support provided for SAS, SAS/ACCESS, SAS/AF, SAS/CONNECT, Windows NT, refer to the paper “Comparing SAS/SHARE, and SAS/SHARE*NET are registered the SAS System Release 6.11 for Microsoft trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the Windows 95 and Windows NT”. USA and other countries. OS/2 is a registered trade- mark or trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. indicates USA registration.
CONCLUSIONS Other brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. This paper summarized some of the many features available in Release 6.12 of the SAS System for Personal Computers. New Author Information: Gary Mehler features such as Print Preview and the SAS SAS Institute Inc. System Viewer as well as incremental en- SAS Campus Drive hancements in other areas extend the Cary, NC 27513 graphical user interface available with the (919) 677-8000 e-mail: [email protected] SAS System. In the areas of application integration and SETUP program enhance- ments, improvements continue over previ- ous releases.
REFERENCES
Cates, Mark W. (1996), "Comparing the SAS System Release 6.11 for Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT”, Proceedings of the Twenty- first Annual SAS Users Group International Con- ference
Clegg, Jennifer and Rigsbee, Carol (1996), “OLE and the SAS System for Windows Release 6.11”, Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual SAS Users Group International Conference