• Issue 38357 – SAS stored process might fail to run when the language is set to Norwegian
• Issue 40130 – Errors might occur running a project after migration in SAS Enterprise Guide

You can obtain more details at the SAS Enterprise Guide 4.22 Hot Fix Downloads page at http://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/A53.html#A53007.

I had been using SAS Enterprise Guide 4.22 for months without any crashes, but in May I installed the SAS Hot Fix A53005 primarily because it was available.  After installation of the Hot Fix, whenever I attempted to run the Create Format task, even in a brand new project, I received the following error:

SAS Enterprise Guide has encountered a problem.  We recommend that you save your work and restart SAS Enterprise Guide.

I submitted a ticket to SAS Tech Support, and for SAS, it took a relatively long time to get resolved.  Tech Support had to forward the issue on to the Development Team, who determined that the hot fix (and A53003 before it) relied on a patched version of the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime.  The patched version of the runtime was used because it fixed a security hole in ATL (Active Template Library).

Tech Support sent me the link for the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=766a6af7-ec73-40ff-b072-9112bab119c2&displaylang=en), and when I applied the update to my system, the Create Format task worked fine.

The issue described in SAS Note 36601: Cannot undo changes in Microsoft Excel when the SAS® Add-In for Microsoft Office is installed can be fixed by applying the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2 (TS2M2).

However, after you apply the maintenance release, you must also select the option Always Prompt for Data Source. This option can be found under SAS –> Options on the Tasks page. See Usage Note 37701: Additional SAS® Add-In for Microsoft Office configuration is required to restore functionality of the Undo button in Microsoft Excel.

from Chris Hemendinger, senior software manager in SAS R&D and author of

Supported Versions and Combinations:

• You can use EG 4.1 with local SAS 9.2 (no metadata server).  Everything local on your Windows machine; it should just work.
• You can have both EG 4.1 and EG 4.2 on your local machine, along with local SAS 9.2, and all should work together.
• You can have SAS 9.1.3 and SAS 9.2 on your local machine, but EG (either version) will use only the version of SAS that is registered for local use, which is usually the version that was installed last.  You can run "sas /regserver" to register a particular version of SAS.
• You can have SAS 9.1.3 and SAS 9.2 side-by-side on a server machine with two metadata servers (one 9.1.3 and one 9.2) and object spawner instances, as long as you assign unique ports for the metadata server and workspace servers.  So in this way, you could point EG 4.1 at the SAS 9.1.3 instance, and EG 4.2 at the SAS 9.2 instance.  This approach might be helpful for transitioning.

Unsupported Versions and Combinations:

• You cannot use EG 4.1 with remote SAS 9.2, nor can you connect to a SAS 9.2 metadata server.  The SAS 9.2 metadata server has a different API that EG 4.1 doesn’t speak.
• You cannot use EG 4.2 with SAS 9.1.3 at all: EG 4.2 relies on some new features within SAS 9.2 that aren’t compatible with SAS 9.1.3 (ODS Graphics and some new APIs).

One data set that we were working with included a date variable which was stored as a DATE9. format.  A user complained that every time she exported the data it ended up in DATETIME format, and all of the zeroes from the time complicated her project.  I tried to replicate her problem many times by exporting the same data set into Excel and I ended up with DATE9. every time.  I finally asked her to send screen shots of what she was doing, and noticed what she called “export” was actually using “Send To –> Microsoft Excel”.  I explained that to get the results she wanted, she needed to use the “real” export technique.  After I solved this problem, I browsed to support.sas.com and sure enough, SAS had already identified this issue in Microsoft Excel might not maintain date formats in SAS Enterprise Guide.  Apparently this issue is fixed in Enterprise Guide 4.2 but I have not tested it yet.

• context sensitive keyword completion (syntax suggestion)
• relative file addressing
• code reverse engineering (see what old code is doing)
• an autoexec process flow for projects (runs automatically when project is opened)
• code analyzer (reads a program and turns it into a process flow)

I also had the opportunity to preview some of the new features in the upcoming version of Web Report Studio (4.3).  SAS is expanding drag and drop capabilities, which makes creation of report even easier.  The biggest news though is the ability to use more than one data source in a report section!

• Problem Note 39149: The SAS Enterprise Guide editor’s width of caret position panel within the status bar does not accommodate for large row and column number schemes
• Problem Note 38003: Unable to edit existing parameter in SAS® Enterprise Guide®

Enterprise Guide 4.1 Hot Fix 41EG14 (66)

The following considerations apply to SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2 customers who have used SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 or earlier releases.

• Support for SAS Enterprise Guide repositories has been discontinued; all metadata must be stored in a SAS Metadata Repository.
• Servers are no longer administered through SAS Enterprise Guide Explorer, and must now be administered using SAS Management Console. For information about administering servers, see the online Help for SAS Management Console.
• Users and user groups are no longer administered through SAS Enterprise Guide Explorer, and must now be administered using SAS Management Console. For information about administering users, see the online Help for SAS Management Console.
• The project format has changed from earlier releases. To change the format, you must either open each project in SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2 or use the Migration Wizard for SAS Enterprise Guide and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office. You must also use the migration wizard to import the metadata changes that occurred during the BI migration from SAS 9.1.3 to SAS 9.2. For more information, see "Using the Migration Wizard" in Administering SAS Enterprise Guide.
• Tasks are no longer enabled or disabled for user groups, so any task assignments for SAS Enterprise Guide users are not maintained. Any restrictions on SAS Enterprise Guide tasks must be made through roles, and administered through SAS Management Console. For information about using roles in SAS Enterprise Guide, see "Administering Role-Based Settings" in Administering SAS Enterprise Guide and the online Help for SAS Management Console.

By creating a new Character variable of SSN, I can simply put the Numeric SSN with Z9. format into the variable.

The format Z9. states the variable should be 9-bytes, and for each byte less than 9, put a leading zero in front of the var.

No strip or trim is necessary either.

I used this in the past with a transaction number I was creating (numeric) and later wanted to display it in a title with leading zeros [Example:  had 123 as the value, put it with a Z10. and the display in the title was 0000000123].

Thanks to Paula for showing me this trick!

I attended SAS Programming 3: Advanced Techniques and Efficiencies training recently at the SAS’ Austin Training Center.  Programming 3 demonstrates many ways to make your SAS code and programs more efficient, but I also picked up one tidbit that makes coding and testing even easier.  When using the enhanced editor, to create comments in your code or comment out code you do not want to run, merely highlight or select the block or statements to comment with your mouse.  Now type the CTRL-/ key combination and your SAS code will include the required /* and the beginning and */ at the end of each selected line.  To uncomment a block or code or statement, highlight or select it and type the CTRL-Shift-/ key combination.  I did notice that if I select only one word on a line or merely have my cursor positioned anywhere within my code that the key combination will operate on the entire line which contains the highlighted word or cursor.  The quick commenting technique only works in the Windows version of the enhanced editor.  It will not work in the standard SAS program editor or on non-windows systems.