topic Unicode text in ExcelXP output in ODS and Base Reporting

Unicode text in ExcelXP output

bullman — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 20:28:21 GMT

Hi all,

I'm having some issues generating customized output using excelXP.

I need to be able to display an uppercase sigma in excel output via the excelxp engine, but i cannot get the escape character to resolve to the proper unicode text.

For example, if i specify

ods escapechar="^";

prior to the rest of my code, my title statement

the text resolves to {unicode 03A3x} in the relevant title cell.

How can i get the text to resolve to the greek sigma? Or, is it simply not possible?

Any input from the experts?

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

bullman — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 22:59:30 GMT

I should add -- I have all of this compiling in a macro, so it is possible that the escapechar is not resolving properly due to being nested within a macro.

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

Jagadishkatam — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 07:22:13 GMT

i tried the below code and it resolved to uppercase Sigma. Use ' (single quotes) instead of double quotes for 03A3.

ODS Escapechar='^';

Title "Sas Session ^{unicode '03A3'x}";

I tested the above code in sas enterprise guide. could you check the sas version.

Thanks,

Jag

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

bullman — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 15:30:35 GMT

Hi Jag,

I will look into using single quotes instead of double -- i had been using double quotes because the code is nested within a macro

some thing along these lines:

%macro excelloop;

ods escapchar="^";

ods tagsets.excelxp

filename...

title1 "Sas example ^{unicode '03A3'x)";

proc report ...;

run;

%mend;

%excelloop;

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

Cynthia_sas — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 16:18:05 GMT

Hi:

Part of the beauty of the Unicode function with ODS ESCAPECHAR is that you do NOT need to use quotes. For example, refer to page 4 in this paper

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi31/227-31.pdf (page 4)

or look in the doc

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/odsug/66611/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p11xia2ltavr8ln17srq8vn4rnqc.htm

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/grstatug/63302/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n14y94tov3cxxjn1vll5bt19aob6.htm

or run this program below.

Cynthia

ods tagsets.excelxp file='c:\temp\uni_symbols.xml' style=sasweb

options(embedded_titles='yes');

ods escapechar='^';

title 'Unicode symbol is ^{unicode 03A3}';

title2 'Unicode by glyph name is ^{unicode sigma_u}';

title4 'Unicode Alpha Glyph is ^{unicode alpha}';

title3 'Unicode Beta is ^{unicode 03B2}';

title5 'Unicode Gamma is ^{unicode 03B3}';

proc print data=sashelp.class(obs=3);

run;

ods tagsets.excelxp close;

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

bullman — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 14:14:44 GMT

Cynthia, Jag:

In order to figure out whether the issue had to do with Excel, my macro, or my sas implementation, i rant the following code;

options nonumber nodate;

ods escapechar='^';

ods pdf file="foo.pdf";

title 'Unicode Alpha is ^{unicode 03B1}';

title2 'Unicode Alpha is ^{unicode alpha}';

title3 'Unicode Beta is ^{unicode 03B2}';

title4 'Unicode Gamma is ^{unicode gamma}';

title5 'Unicode Sigma is ^{unicode 03C3}';

proc print data=sashelp.class(obs=1); run;

ods _all_ close;

result is a pdf which the line: Unicode Sigma is ^{unicode 03C3}

I'm beginning to think that my issue is not my code, but rather my sas implementation. I am running sas 9.3 on a server, SAS TM Level 1M2 X64_ESRV08.

Is it possible that there is a package i need to install for this to all work?

Thanks,

Ben

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

art297 — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 14:47:06 GMT

You may just be using a font that is too limited. Have you tried?:

/* Change unicode font to something with more characters in it */
/* Copy this to 'unicode.sasxreg' */
/*
[ODS\DESTINATIONS\PRINTER]
"Unicode Font"="Arial Unicode MS"
*/
proc registry import = 'unicode.sasxreg'; run;

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 17:21:32 GMT

Hi:

I agree with Art. I think you have a font issue. Running your code results in the screen shot of the PDF output below.

cynthia

Re: Unicode text in ExcelXP output

bullman — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:29:09 GMT

I resolved the issue by running my code in a SAS unicode environment, as opposed to English. Works perfectly, now.