%VALIDCHS Macro Function

Validates the character(s) encoding compatibility for data set variables.

Restriction:	This macro should not be used when the encoding value equals DEFAULT.

Table of Contents

Syntax

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=dataset_name,< libnm=libref_name,><ENCODING=encoding_name,><COMPATIBLE=encoding_name>)

Required Argument

dsnm=<libref.>dataset_name

name of the data set to be verified.

Optional Arguments

ENCODING=encoding_name

optional encoding name that the %VALIDCHS macro function uses to validate that the characters in the data set are valid for the specified encoding. If the ENCODING= option is not specified, the encoding of the data set is used.

libnm=libref_name

name of the SAS library to be verified.

COMPATIBLE=encoding_name

optional encoding that the %VALIDCHS macro function uses to verify the compatibility of the data in the data set with the specified encoding. It helps determine whether you can successfully transfer the data set between a server and a client where the encoding is different. Incompatible characters can cause data transfer issues.

Details

Basics

The %VALIDCHS macro function scans the data set and inspects the characters in the data set’s character variables to determine whether they are valid for the specified encoding. If an ENCODING= option is specified, the %VALIDCHS macro function validates based on the ENCODING= value. If the ENCODING= option is not specified, then %VALIDCHS uses the encoding of the data set. If the COMPATIBLE= option is specified, %VALIDCHS validates the contents of the character data in the encoding of the data set (or the encoding of the ENCODING= option). Then it verifies the compatibility based on the encoding that is specified by the COMPATIBLE= option. For example, a data set with a euc-cn encoding, Chinese characters, and COMPATIBLE=wlatin1 is specified. %VALIDCHS verifies that the characters are valid for the euc-cn encoding. Then %VALIDCHS verifies the compatibility of the characters to see whether they are supported by the wlatin1 encoding. If %VALIDCHS detects invalid character(s) in the data set, it displays a message and continues validation.

Automatic Macro Variable

_validchars_rc is an automatic macro variable that is generated by %VALIDCHS. It indicates the test status. Here is an example:

2:  No invalid characters are found but data will cause the truncation
        1:  No invalid characters are found
        0:  Invalid characters are found
       -1:  Invalid characters are found and also data will cause the truncation
       -2:  General error

Examples

Example 1: Simple Validation of the Character Data in the Data Set

%VALIDCHS uses the encoding of the input data set.

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class);
%put &_validchars_rc;

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class);
%put &_validchars_rc;

The encoding of the data set is us-ascii. The %VALIDCHS macro function finds that all the character data is valid in us-ascii so that it returns following message in the log:

NOTE: All characters in the dataset: sashelp.class (encoding:us-ascii) are valid.
0

Example 2: Validate the Character Data in theData Set in the Specified Encoding

%VALIDCHS uses the specified encoding to validate these characters:

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class, encoding=utf-8);
%put &_validchars_rc;

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class, encoding=utf-8);
%put &_validchars_rc;

These messages are written to the SAS log:

NOTE: All characters in the dataset: sashelp.class (encoding:utf-8) are valid.
0

Example 3: Validate the Character Data and Check the Compatibility

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class, encoding=euc-cn, compatible=wlatin1);
%put &_validchars_rc;

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=sashelp.class, encoding=euc-cn, compatible=wlatin1);
%put &_validchars_rc;

These messages are written to the SAS log:

NOTE: All characters in the dataset: sashelp.class (encoding:euc-cn) are compatible to wlatin1 encoding.
0

Example 4: Validate the Character Data and Check the Compatibility

The following data set has the wlatin1 encoding and a national character:

data mydata; 
   length ch $1.;
   ch = ‘€’;
run;

data mydata; 
   length ch $1.;
   ch = ‘€’;
run;

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=mydata, encoding=wlatin1, compatible=utf-8);
%put &_validchars_rc;

%VALIDCHS(dsnm=mydata, encoding=wlatin1, compatible=utf-8);
%put &_validchars_rc;

These messages are written to the SAS log:

WARNING: Found possible truncation in the variable: ch at observation number: 1
ERROR: Detected the issue in the dataset: mydata (encoding:wlatin1) when validating the compatibility to ::utf-8 encoding.
2

Last updated: September 15, 2026