1. Make your SAS programs ready for any language
Lihsin Hwang
Statistics Canada

2. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Agenda
Concept and options
Locale
String Externalization Steps
Demo
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3. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Concept and Options
Concept
Allow your application to speak multiple languages without changing the code
Minimize the workload required to apply a new language
Options
Keep multiple SAS programs
Multiple %put statements
Format
String Externalization
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4. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Locale
Conventions for handling written language and various units
Display of numbers, dates, currency..etc
Identifies a specific user preference and represents a language in a geographical region
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5. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Set Locale
sasv9.cfg
-LOCALE “EN_GB”
SAS system options
Options locale=French_Canada;
Options locale=en_US;
setlocale(sas_locale)
So how do we set and retrieve locale?
Set: SAS support long name (SAS name) and short names (POSIX name)
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6. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Retrieve Locale
getOption
%LET PLOC=%SYSFUNC(getOption(LOCALE));
%PUT &PLOC ;
ENGLISH_UNITEDSTATES
getpxLocale: five-letter POSIX locale value (en_us)
getpxLanguage: two-letter language (en)
getpxRegion: two-letter region code (US)
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7. String Externalization Process
OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
String Externalization Process
Identify and move translatable strings
Create .smd file
Convert .smd files
Create the final SAS data set
Retrieve the messages in your application
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8. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Process Step I
Step 1: Identify and move translatable strings
Excel file contains each language on a separate column
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9. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Process Step II
Step 2: Create.smd file
proc import, excel engine via PCFile Server… etc
put together keys and values
each localized .smd file, shared the same base name
message.smd
message_es_mx.smd
message_fr.smd
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10. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Process Step III
Step 3:Convert SMD files
All characters that cannot be expressed as ASCII must be represented with UNICODE escape sequence
Tools to use:
KPROPDATA function (SAS)
UNICODEC function (SAS)
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11. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Process Step IV
Step 4: Create the final SAS data set
Such data sets can be created with the %SMD2DS() macro function. The macro %SMD2DS is available in the SAS AUTOCALL library:
%SMD2DS(DIR=,BASENAME=,LOCALE=,LIB=)
%smd2ds ( dir = &base_dir,
basename = message,
locale = &locale_list
lib = );
Contain four variables :
path
shared base name
english french #
Variables Name
Type
Length
DESC 1
Locale
char 5
Language of the message 2
Key 60
Key to identify the message 3
Lineno
num
line # of the message in reverse order 4
Text
1200
Text of the message
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12. Output
Final output – SAS Data set
16/11/2018

13. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Process Step V
Retrieve the messages in your application
%SYSFUNC(SASMSG(BASENAME, KEY, <<QUOTE|Q|DQUOTE|D|NOQUOTE|N> <, substitute1, substitute2, ...>>)
SASMSG("BASENAME", "KEY", <<"QUOTE"|"Q"|"DQUOTE"|"D"|"NOQUOTE"|"N"> <, "subs1", "subs2", ...>>)
%PUT %SYSFUNC(SASMSG(&msgDataset, 00-1, D, &user, &adate)) ;
%PUT %SYSFUNC(SASMSG(&msgDataset, 00-2, N));
%PUT %SYSFUNC(SASMSG(&msgDataset, 00-3, N, UnitID));
data _null_;
msg = sasmsg("&msgDataset",“00-1","noquote" , "&user", "&adate");
put msg;
run;
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14. Now your child is trilingual!
OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Now your child is trilingual!
Locale set to EN_CA
"Hello Steve! Today's date is May 26."
ERROR: Weight variable cannot have any other role assigned to it in the same table
ERROR: UnitID variable must have at least one group
Locale set to FR_CA
"Bonjour Steve! Aujourd'hui nous sommes le 26 mai 2015."
ERROR: Variable pondérée ne peut pas avoir d'autre rôle lui est attribué par la même table
ERROR: UnitID variable doit avoir au moins un groupe
Locale set to ES_MX
"Hello Steve! Today's date is 26 de mayo de 2015."
ERROR: Variable de peso no puede tener ninguna otra función asignada en la misma tabla
ERROR: Variable de UnitID debe tener al menos un grupo
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15. String Externalization Pros and Cons
OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
String Externalization Pros and Cons
Pros
Minimum code maintenance
Fallback mechanism
Cons
Setup itself cannot use the dataset
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16. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Resources
Write Once, Run Anywhere! How to Make Your SAS Applications Speak Many Languages, Mickaël Bouedo, SGF paper
SAS 9.3 National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.
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17. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Friday, November 16, 2018
Demo Time
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18. OASUS Spring or Fall YYYY
Questions / Comments
Friday, November 16, 2018
Lihsin Hwang
System Engineering Division
Statistics Canada
(613)
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