SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 6th Edition

Interface Library Engines

An interface library engine is a SAS engine that accesses files formatted by other

software. Interface library engines are not transparent to the user and must be explicitly

specified (for example, in the LIBNAME statement).

The following are interface library engines:

SPSS

reads SPSS portable file format. This file format is analogous to the transport format

for SAS data sets. The SPSS portable files (also called an export file) must be

created by using the SPSS EXPORT command. Under z/OS, the SPSS engine also

reads SPSS Release 9 files and SPSS-X files in either compressed or uncompressed

format.

OSIRIS

reads OSIRIS data and dictionary files in EBCDIC format.

BMDP

reads BMDP save files.

In addition, a view engine is an interface library engine that is used by SAS/ACCESS

software in order to retrieve data from files formatted by another vendor's software.

These engines enable you to read and write data directly to and from files formatted by a

database management system (DBMS), such as DB2 and ORACLE.

View engines enable you to use SAS procedures and statements in order to process data

values stored in these files without the cost of converting and storing them in files

formatted by SAS. Contact your on-site SAS support personnel for a list of the

SAS/ACCESS interfaces available at your site. For more information about

SAS/ACCESS features, see Chapter 33, “About SAS/ACCESS Software,” on page 709

and the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.

Operating Environment Information

The capabilities and support of these engines vary depending on your operating

environment. See the SAS documentation for your operating environment for more

complete information.

Special-Purpose Engines

Character Variable Padding (CVP) Engine

The character variable padding (CVP) engine expands character variable lengths, using a

specified expansion amount, so that character data truncation does not occur when a file

requires transcoding. Character data truncation can occur when the number of bytes for a

character in one encoding is different from the number of bytes for the same character in

another encoding, such as when a single-byte character set (SBCS) is transcoded to a

double-byte character set (DBCS) or a multi-byte character set (MBCS).

The CVP engine is a read-only engine for SAS data files only. You can request character

variable expansion by either of the following methods:

• You can explicitly specify the CVP engine (for example, with the LIBNAME

statement, and using the default expansion of 1.5 times the variable lengths).

752 Chapter 37 • SAS Engines