Date:         Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:49:16 -0400
Reply-To:     Mark Miller <mdhmiller@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Mark Miller <mdhmiller@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are SAS datasets endianness-specific?
Comments: To: Savian <savian.net@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <8f5ab826-f3d5-4a47-a399-4a845cdf5d87@t11g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

SAS has always used NATIVE floating point formats which do differ
between platforms (endianess & representation), notwithstanding
that both platforms may use IEEE754 floating point.

Endianess MAY no longer matter with v9, but unless I am mistaken,
the last version on PowerPC was v6.12 on Macintosh (still available )
which would mean that the NATIVE floating point is Big-Endian IEEE754
while all Intel hosts are Little-Endian IEEE754

Endianess did matter with SAS v6 in so far as file extensions differed
between big-endian and little-endian
e.g.
       (Big endian )    HP & SUN(Sun64, Solaris) extension was SSD01
       (Little Endian 32bit )  WinTel was SSD02
       (Little Endian 64bit)  DEC Alpha was SSD04

I do not recall what the SAS file extension was used on the PowerMac
platform (v6.12)
but I believe it was binary compatible with HP & Sun (i.e. ssd01)

So the files on PowerPC and Intel are not directly interchangeable.
As usual, it is possible to exchange files via SAS EXPORT format files.

... Mark Miller


On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 12:17 AM, Savian <savian.net@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Aug 26, 2:33 am, Troels Arvin <tro...@arvin.dk> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Will SAS dataset files produced on PowerPC host be read+writeable on an
> > Intel host?
> >
> > --
> > Troels
>
> I don't think that the endianess of the dataset will matter. I won't
> comment more than that but it should be handled.
>
> Alan
>
> Savian
>