SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 6th Edition

Chapter 34

Processing Data Using Cross-

Environment Data Access

(CEDA)

Definition of Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Advantages of CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

SAS File Processing with CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

What Types of Processing Does CEDA Support? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716

Behavioral Differences for Output Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Restrictions for CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

Understanding When CEDA Is Used to Process a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Determining Whether Update Processing Is Allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Alternatives to Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Creating Files in a Different Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Examples of Using CEDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Example 1: Automatically Processing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Example 2: Creating a New File in a Different Data Representation . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Example 3: Changing the Data Representation of an Existing File . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Definition of Cross-Environment Data Access

(CEDA)

Cross-environment data access (CEDA) is a Base SAS feature. CEDA enables a SAS

file that was created in a directory-based operating environment (for example, UNIX or

Windows) to be processed in an incompatible environment or under an incompatible

session encoding. With CEDA, the processing is automatic and transparent. You do not

need to create a transport file, use SAS procedures that convert the file, or change your

SAS program. CEDA supports files that were created with SAS 7 and later releases. This

documentation explains the restrictions, benefits, and behavior of CEDA processing.

Here are a few concepts to help you understand CEDA:

data representation

is the form in which data is stored in a particular operating environment. Different

operating environments use different standards or conventions for storing floating-

point numbers (for example, IEEE or IBM mainframe); for character encoding

(ASCII or EBCDIC); for the ordering of bytes in memory (big Endian or little

Endian); for word alignment (4-byte boundaries or 8-byte boundaries); for integer

data-type length (16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit); and for doubles (byte-swapped or not).

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