topic Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2 in SAS Programming

Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

Warren — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:37:21 GMT

Dear Sir/Madam,

I converted some of my mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS programs from SAS 9.2 to SAS 9.4. Now my output SAS dataset in 9.4 cannot be read by another user in another department. How can I convert the 9.4 SAS dataset back to 9.2?

Thanks,

Warren

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

ballardw — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:54:49 GMT

You may need to recreate this, and any other data sets others with 9.2, using the data set option EXTENDOBSCOUNTER=NO.

That can be added like any other data set option where the data set is created by adding it after the new dataset name in ( ).

If you have a lot of users/data sets you may want to set the 9.4 users SAS system option of Extendobscounter =no.

There was a change with the 64 bit versions to have a different size value in the data set header information that uses more bits to count possible observations in a data set that earlier versions can't use.

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

SASKiwi — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:56:00 GMT

V9 datasets should be compatible. What error is your 9.2 SAS user getting?

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

Warren — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 21:04:48 GMT

I got this error:

ERROR: FILE DD.REGION.DATA NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS SAS VERSION.

Don't worry. This is working now. I just need to run the following.

libname v92 v6;
%macro v(m);
data V92.&m;
     set v94.&m;
run;
%mend v;

%v(REGION );

%v(TRANSIT );

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

SASKiwi — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 21:10:32 GMT

@Warren - The SAS option posted by @ballardw is probably the issue here.

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

Warren — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 21:25:56 GMT

I also got this reply from SAS Technical support:

Hello Warren,

What you are wanting to do is regress the file to a lower version of SAS. If the file will be used on the same operating system on a lower release of SAS, then I suggest the V6 engine.
http://support.sas.com/rnd/migration/planning/files/regression.html

This requires using dataset names and character variable names of 8 characters or less. You can use the VALIDVARNAME= option prior to submitting the PROC COPY which will automatically truncate longer than 8 character variable names according to a documented algorithm which will avoid naming collisions.
Proc options option=validvarname;run;

Libname mylib v6 'c:\path-to-library';
libname sas9dat v9 'c:\path-to-library';
options validvarname=v6;
proc copy in=sas9dat out=mylib;
select dataset; /*<=== name of data set goes here*/
run;

SAS will generate a file called dataset.sd2 in the mylib library. Then, we need to set the VALIDVARNAME option back to its original value.
Options validvarname=v7; /* or v8 or v9 */

Please let us know if you have any other questions. This track will remain open for an additional 7 days to allow you an opportunity to request further assistance. I encourage you to respond to let me know if I have resolved this issue to your satisfaction.

Sincerely,
SAS Technical Support

Re: Mainframe MVS OS/2 TSO SAS 9.4 to 9.2

ChrisNZ — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 06:46:17 GMT

That's a drastic step that TechSupport recommended. Unless you have short variable names, text strings and labels.

As @SASKiwi mentioned, it is less destructive to use the options described by @ballardw .