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Considerations for Using Informats under OS/390

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 OS/390 uses the EBCDIC character-encoding system, all of the following informats convert data to EBCDIC.

These informats are not discussed in detail in this chapter 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.

$CHARZBw.

reads character data and converts any byte that contains a binary zero to a blank.

$EBCDICw.

converts character data to EBCDIC. Under OS/390, $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.

w.d

reads standard numeric data.

All the information that you need in order to use these informats under OS/390 is in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

Floating-Point Number Format and Portability

The manner in which OS/390 stores floating-point numbers can affect your data. See Representation of Floating-Point Numbers for details.

Reading Binary Data

If a SAS program that reads and writes binary data is run on only one type of machine, you can use the following native-mode(footnote 1)informats:

IBw.d	reads integer binary (fixed-point) values, including negative values, that are represented in two's complement notation
PDw.d	reads data that are stored in IBM packed decimal format
PIBw.d	reads positive integer binary (fixed-point) values
RBw.d	reads real binary (floating-point) data

If you want to write SAS programs that can be run on multiple machines that use different byte-storage systems, use the following IBM 370 informats:

S370FFw.d

is used on other computer systems to read EBCDIC data.

S370FIBw.d

reads integer binary data.

S370FIBUw.d

reads unsigned integer binary data.

S370FPDw.d

reads packed decimal data.

S370FPDUw.d

reads unsigned packed decimal data.

S370FPIBw.d

reads positive integer binary data.

S370FRBw.d

reads real binary data.

S370FZDw.d

reads zoned decimal data.

S370FZDLw.d

reads zoned decimal leading sign data.

S370FZDSw.d

reads zoned decimal separate leading sign data.

S370FZDTw.d

reads zoned decimal separate trailing sign data.

S370FZDUw.d

reads unsigned zoned decimal data.

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.

Date and Time Informats

Several informats are designed to read time and date stamps that have been written by the System Management Facility (SMF) or by the Resource Measurement Facility (RMF). SMF and RMF are standard features of the OS/390 operating environment. They record information about each job that is processed. 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 the Timer Unit.

In order to facilitate the portability of SAS programs, these informats may be used with any operating environment that is supported by the SAS System; therefore, they are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

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Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.