What's New in the 9.4 Base SAS Language Reference: Concepts

• Overview
• SAS System Features
  • Universal Printing
  • Fonts
  • Support for SAS DATA Step View Buffers
  • Extended Attributes
  • Extended Observation Count
  • Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)
  • SMTP Email Authentication Protocol
  • LOCKDOWN State Restrictions
  • LOCKDOWN Statement Enhancements
• Data File Protection
• Column Headings in VIEWTABLE
• Restriction for PROC SQL Views
• New and Enhanced SAS Language Elements for CAS

Overview

SAS 9.4 has the following changes and enhancements:

• in SAS 9.4M6, Noto Sans TrueType fonts are added to support languages for harmonious web display.
• in SAS 9.4M6 and later, be aware of a restriction for PROC SQL views.
• in SAS 9.4M5, a new AES2 encryption is supported.
• in SAS 9.4M5, you can access SAS Cloud Analytics Services from your SAS session when you license and install SAS Viya 3.2 and later releases.
• in SAS 9.4M5, new AvenirNextforSAS and HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts replace the Avenir Next LT W04, Avenir Next Cyr W04, and Helvetica LT Pro fonts.
• in SAS 9.4M4, new TrueType fonts are added.
• in SAS 9.4M3, new Avenir Next TrueType fonts are added.
• in SAS 9.4M2, it is no longer necessary to use the UUID Generator Daemon to generate UUIDs for SAS sessions that execute on UNIX hosts. See What Is the Object Spawner? for more information.
• in SAS 9.4M2, the LOCKDOWN feature is enhanced.
• in SAS 9.4M2, font slanting and emboldening features are added. For more information, see Slanting and Emboldening Fonts.
• in SAS 9.4M1, the LOCKDOWN statement and system option are added.
• in SAS 9.4, the following are new:
  • universal printing enhancements to support additional graphic output types and animation for GIF and SVG files
  • buffer size specification support for SAS DATA step views
  • new multilingual and Asian monolingual TrueType fonts are added
  • support for extended attributes on SAS data sets and variables
  • enhanced functionality to extend the observation count for 32-bit SAS data files
  • enhancements to SAS data file protection
  • enhanced functionality for VIEWTABLE column headings.

SAS System Features

Universal Printing

The following features are new in SAS 9.4:

• You can animate multi-page GIF images and SVG files.
• SAS can now create TIFF images, and the EMFPlus and EMFDual metafile formats.
• Transparency is supported for EMF Universal Printers and GIF images that are printed using the PostScript Universal Printer.
• You can add a printer’s mark that is not visible in Universal Printing output by using the COLOPHON= system option.
• SVG documents can be magnified by setting the SVGMAGNIFYBUTTON system option. SAS embeds a magnify tool in the document when the SVG document is created.

See Creating TIFF Images Using Universal Printing.

Fonts

• In SAS 9.4M6 and later, the following monotype TrueType fonts are added to support languages for harmonious web display:
  • NotoSans-Bold
  • NotoSans-BoldItalic
  • NotoSans-Italic
  • NotoSansJP-Bold
  • NotoSansJP-Light
  • NotoSansJP-Regular
  • NotoSansKR-Bold
  • NotoSansKR-Light
  • NotoSansKR-Regular
  • NotoSans-Regular
  • NotoSansSC-Bold
  • NotoSansSC-Light
  • NotoSansSC-Regular
  • NotoSansTC-Bold
  • NotoSansTC-Light
  • NotoSansTC-Regular
  • NotoSansThai-Bold
  • NotoSansThai-Regular
  Note: The NotoSansThai-Regular and the NotoSansThai-Bold fonts do not contain all of the Latin1 glyphs. When a glyph is missing, SAS substitutes the ArialUnicodeMS font, enabling the output to display.
• In SAS 9.4, the following TrueType fonts were added, replacing the fonts shown in the second column:

  New Font	Replaces This Font
  Arial Unicode MS	Monotype Sans WT
  Times New Roman Uni	Thorndale Duospace WJ
  CSongGB18030C_Light	Sim Sun
  MYingHei_18030_C-Medium	Sim Hei
  CSongGB19030-LightHWL	NSimSun
  MYingHei_18030C-MediumHWL	Sim Hei

• In SAS 9.4M2, font slanting and emboldening features are new. If you specify italic or bold styles on a universal printer font that does not have italic or bold, the font will display as slanted or bold. See Slanting and Emboldening Fonts.
• In SAS 9.4M3, the following Avenir Next Fonts were added for the Latin and Cyrillic character sets. These fonts were replaced with AvenirNextforSAS fonts in SAS 9.4M5.

  Avenir Next Fonts for the Latin Character Set	Avenir Next Fonts for the Cyrillic Character Set
  Avenir Next LT W04 Regular	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Regular
  Avenir Next LT W04 Italic	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Italic
  Avenir Next LT W04 Demi	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Demi
  Avenir Next LT W04 Demi Italic	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Demi Italic
  Avenir Next LT W04 Light	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Light
  Avenir Next LT W04 Light Italic	Avenir Next Cyr W04 Light Italic

  Avenir Next is a sans-serif TrueType font family characterized as a modern typeface designed for on-screen display. Its ancestors are primarily the Futura and Univers typefaces.

• In SAS 9.4M4, the following Helvetica Fonts were added. These fonts were replaced with AvenirNextforSAS fonts in SAS 9.4M5.

  New Helvetica Fonts
  Helvetica LT Pro Regular
  Helvetica LT Pro Italic
  Helvetica LT Pro Bold
  Helvetica LT Pro Bold Italic
  Helvetica LT Pro Light
  Helvetica LT Pro Light Italic

• In SAS 9.4M5, new AvenirNextforSAS and HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts replace the Avenir Next Fonts and Helvetica LT Pro Fonts. For more information, see Multilingual TrueType Fonts.

  New Font	Replaces This Font
  AvenirNextforSAS	Avenir Next LT W04 Regular
  AvenirNextforSAS Italic	Avenir Next LT W04 Italic
  AvenirNextforSAS Bold	Avenir Next LT W04 Demi
  AvenirNextforSAS Bold Italic	Avenir Next LT W04 Demi Italic
  AvenirNextforSAS Light	Avenir Next LT W04 Light
  AvenirNextforSAS Light Italic	Avenir Next LT W04 Light Italic

  The following HelveticaNeueforSAS fonts are new:

  New Font	Replaces This Font
  HelveticaNeueforSAS	Helvetica LT Pro Regular
  HelveticaNeueforSAS Italic	Helvetica LT Pro Italic
  HelveticaNeueforSAS Bold	Helvetica LT Pro Bold
  HelveticaNeueforSAS Bold Italic	Helvetica LT Pro Bold Italic
  HelveticaNeueforSAS Light	Helvetica LT Pro Light
  HelveticaNeueforSAS Light Bold	Helvetica LT Pro Light Italic

Support for SAS DATA Step View Buffers

You can now specify the size of the buffer that is used for DATA step views. Speed up execution time by setting the view buffer so that it can hold more generated observations and require less task switching. See VBUFSIZE=.

Extended Attributes

You can create customized attributes for variables and data sets by using extended attributes. Extended attributes are customized metadata for your SAS files. They are user-defined characteristics that you associate with a SAS data set or variable. See Extended Attributes.

Extended Observation Count

SAS 9.4 enhances the functionality to extend the observation count by automatically creating a 32-bit SAS data file with an extended observation count and by providing the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= system option. In SAS 9.4, the EXTENDOBSCOUNTER= data set option, LIBNAME statement option, and system option are, by default, set to YES. See Understanding the Observation Count in a SAS Data File.

Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA)

Under cross-environment data access (CEDA), extended attributes can be read but cannot be updated.

In SAS 9.4M5, CEDA is supported by the SAS Scalable Performance Data Engine (SPD Engine), with some additional restrictions.

See Processing Data Using Cross-Environment Data Access (CEDA).

SMTP Email Authentication Protocol

The SMTP email server authentication protocol is enhanced to look for a user ID that is specified by the EMAILHOST= system option.

LOCKDOWN State Restrictions

The LOCKDOWN statement and LOCKDOWN system option are new in SAS 9.4M1. With LOCKDOWN, if you are running in a client/server environment, the SAS server administrator can limit access to directories and files. In addition to there being restrictions on directories and files, several language elements are not available when SAS is in a locked-down state.

See SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State.

LOCKDOWN Statement Enhancements

In SAS 9.4M2, the LOCKDOWN statement is enhanced so that certain access methods and their related procedures are disabled by default when a SAS session is locked down.

The LOCKDOWN ENABLE_AMS= option is also new in SAS 9.4M2. This statement allows administrators to re-enable access methods and procedures that are disabled by default when LOCKDOWN is in effect. See SAS Processing Restrictions for Servers in a Locked-Down State.

Data File Protection

SAS 9.4 supports Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. AES encryption produces a stronger encryption by using a key value. See AES Encryption.

SAS 9.4 supports the use of metadata-bound libraries for enhanced data security. A metadata-bound library is a physical library that is tied to a corresponding metadata secured table object. See Metadata-Bound Libraries.

Beginning in SAS 9.4M1, a metadata-bound library administrator can require that all data files in the bound library be encrypted with one of the two algorithms. For more information, see Requiring Encryption for Metadata-Bound Data Sets in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Beginning in SAS 9.4M5, in the V9 engine, AES2 provides more security than AES. For more information, see Encryption in SAS.

Column Headings in VIEWTABLE

Beginning in SAS 9.4M1, you can save either column labels or column names for the data set that you are viewing in VIEWTABLE.

Restriction for PROC SQL Views

In SAS 9.4M6 and later releases, if you use the V9 engine to create a PROC SQL view that contains a USING clause, the view is not accessible in SAS 9.4M5 or prior releases. For this and similar restrictions, see Using SAS Files in a Previous Release.

New and Enhanced SAS Language Elements for CAS

In SAS 9.4M5, if you have licensed SAS Viya, then you can access SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) from your SAS 9.4 environment. See What is SAS Cloud Analytic Services? for an introduction to CAS.

The following new features and enhancements have been added:

• DATA step processing in CAS. For more information, see DATA step processing in CAS in SAS Cloud Analytic Services: DATA Step Programming.
  • provides multithreaded processing of distributed and non-distributed data
  • provides reading and writing of in-memory tables in CAS
• CAS LIBNAME statement
  • provides DATA step access to CAS tables and to multithreaded processing in CAS. For more information, see CAS LIBNAME Statement.
  • provides access to the new VARCHAR data type, a varying length data type for character strings. For more information, see VARCHAR Data Type in SAS Cloud Analytic Services: User’s Guide.
• Other new SAS language elements, including SAS language elements for CAS and CAS-specific language elements.