Glossary

A

active window

a window that is open and displayed, and to which keyboard input is directed. Only one window can be active at a time.

application workspace ( AWS )

a window that contains other windows or from which other windows can be invoked, but which is not contained within any window that is part of the same software application. The SAS application workspace (SAS AWS) is also referred to as the main SAS window.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

a 7-bit encoding (8 bits when a parity-check bit is included) for the United States that provides 128 character combinations. The encoding contains characters for uppercase and lowercase English, American English punctuation, base 10 numbers , and a few control characters. This set of 128 characters is included in most other encodings. ASCII is used on personal computers. See also EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code).

ASCII collating sequence

an ordering of characters that follows the order of the characters in the ASCII character coding scheme. See also ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), EBCDIC collating sequence.

autocall macro

a macro whose uncompiled source code and text are stored in an autocall macro library. Unlike a stored, compiled macro, an autocall macro is compiled before execution the first time it is called.

AUTOEXEC.SAS

a file containing SAS statements that are executed automatically when SAS is invoked. The autoexec file can be used to specify some SAS system options, as well as to assign librefs and filerefs to folders or directories that are used frequently.

automatic macro variable

a macro variable that is defined by SAS rather than by the user .

AWS

See application workspace (AWS).