topic OPTION Groups Enterprise Guide versus Windowing Environment in SAS Procedures

OPTION Groups Enterprise Guide versus Windowing Environment

FK1 — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 13:08:14 GMT

Hi Everybody,

can someone explain to me, why I get a different number of OPTION Groups (and presumably also a different number of options! ) when runninng PROC OPTIONS in SAS Enterprise Guide like this:

proc options listgroups long; 
run;

which results in the following Log output:

GROUP=ADABAS ADABAS
GROUP=ANIMATION Animation
GROUP=CAS CAS Options
GROUP=CODEGEN Code generation
GROUP=COMMUNICATIONS Networking and encryption
GROUP=DATACOM Datacom
GROUP=DATAQUALITY Data Quality
GROUP=DB2 DB2
GROUP=EMAIL E-mail
GROUP=ENVDISPLAY Display
GROUP=ENVFILES Files
GROUP=ERRORHANDLING Error handling
GROUP=EXECMODES Initialization and operation
GROUP=EXTFILES External files
GROUP=GRAPHICS Driver settings
GROUP=HELP Help
GROUP=IDMS IDMS
GROUP=IMS IMS
GROUP=INPUTCONTROL Data Processing
GROUP=INSTALL Installation
GROUP=ISPF ISPF
GROUP=LANGUAGECONTROL Language control
GROUP=LISTCONTROL Procedure output
GROUP=LOGCONTROL SAS log
GROUP=LOG_LISTCONTROL SAS log and procedure output
GROUP=MACRO SAS macro
GROUP=MEMORY Memory
GROUP=META Metadata
GROUP=ODSPRINT ODS Printing
GROUP=PDF PDF
GROUP=PERFORMANCE Performance
GROUP=REXX REXX
GROUP=SASFILES SAS Files
GROUP=SECURITY Security
GROUP=SMF SMF
GROUP=SORT Procedure options
GROUP=SQL SQL
GROUP=SVG SVG
GROUP=TK TK

versus using the SAS Windowing Environment by opening the SAS Options Environment Window via command line:

and then counting the OPTION GROUPS, that are shown:

In the first case, I counted 39 Option Groups, while in the later case, I only got 31 (I did not count the "Top Folders" like "Communications", "Environment Control", etc. since they do not have any options but only seem to be an aggregation of several Option Groups).

In essence, I am observing a deviance in the sense of not being displayed of the following OPTIONS GROUPS in Windowing Environment:

ADABAS
Datacom
DB2
IDMS
IMS
ISPF
REXX
SMF

Re: OPTION Groups Enterprise Guide versus Windowing Environment

Cynthia_sas — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 01:22:26 GMT

Hi:

Well, without knowing what kind of operating system server SAS is running on when you use Enterprise Guide, it's hard to comment. Remember that Enterprise Guide is a client application. It is a front end to SAS where SAS could be on a mainframe, a Unix or Linux box or on a Windows server. Some of the names for your options groups are familiar to me from my old mainframe days, ISPF, REXX, IMS, DB2, those are all mainframe applications. ADABAS is a SoftwareAG database system that I used on a mainframe. DB2 and IMS are IBM databases that I used on a mainframe and also I used DB2 on Unix.

Options are operating system specific. So I would always expect server SAS to have different options than a local Windows install of SAS. My guess is that it's a difference related to operating system. If it really bothers you, then consult with your SAS Systems group or open a track with Tech Support.

Cynthia

Re: OPTION Groups Enterprise Guide versus Windowing Environment

FK1 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:10:12 GMT

Hello @Cynthia_sas ,

this definitely already clarifies things a little bit for me, thank you.

Basically, I was trying to clarify what "type" of Options in the SAS universe exist and what type of values, which can be assigned to these options, exist.

Therefore, I tried to set up an options/option values typology. But it turns out, that this is more difficult than thought, as - in my opinion- the SAS documentation alreay has some ambiguities, when it comes to this topic.

For example, this is the "official" definition of SAS system options

Reading through the documentation of the "getoption" function , it is talked about "system options" versus "graphics options".

Some options can be restricted versus non-restricted,. Also some options are portable and some are host-dependent. Additionally, some options can be saved, other cannot besaved.

Sidenote:

Running

proc options listoptsave;
run;

The log displays "core options" and "Host options" that can be saved....

Of course, some options apply only to certain operating systems.

Furthermore there are "character system option values" versus "numeric system option values" not to mention the "boolean option values".

Long story short: is there a kind of "list" that tells me at one glance all the above mentioned "types of information" with respect to a particular option and its option value?