Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!NIHCU!HIS
From: HIS@NIHCU.BITNET (Howard Schreier)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Subject: re:  Internal collating sequences and character comparisons.
Message-ID: <SAS-L%90020404340610@VTVM2.BITNET>
Date: 2 Feb 90 15:29:52 GMT
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@OHSTVMA>
Reply-To: Howard Schreier <HIS@NIHCU>
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> From:         Philip Gallagher <UPHILG@UNC.BITNET>
> >
> >    "...  the smallest  to largest comparison sequence for
> >     EBCDIC is    a to z  <  A to Z  <  0 to 9    and for
> >     ASCII  is    0 to 9  <  A to Z  <  a to z    . "
>
> Since one of my students correctly pointed out my ignorance last
> semester, I would like to tell you that the EBCDIC collating sequence
> contains what I choose to consider an oddity that makes me want to say
> "That EBCDIC collating sequence is even weirder than I realized!".  I
> refer to my version 5 Basics manual, p. 1040:
>     Under CMS, OS, & VSE a portion of the EBCDIC collating sequence is:
>         abcdefghijklmnopq~stuvwxyz{ABCDEFGHI}J
>         KLMNOPQR\STUVWXYZ0123456789

Note:  the EBCDIC sequence *does*  include  the  lower  case
"r", following the "q" and preceding the tilde.

I see the following implications:

Where sorts are done strictly for internal purposes (such as
MERGEing  data  sets), there shouldn't be much of a problem.
A data set which has been transported, say  from  an  EBCDIC
environment to an ASCII one, may have to be re-sorted.

If a sort  is  done  to  alphabetize  a  list  for  external
presentation,  and the character variables contain a mixture
of upper and lower case, it is a good idea to create one  or
more new variables using the UPCASE function and to actually
sort by these.  This is  true  for  both  ASCII  and  EBCDIC
environments.   It  assures  correct placement of names with
embedded upper case letters (such as VanDyke).

If you need an alphabet string  in  a  character  expression
(for  example,  to use with the VERIFY function), do not try
to generate it with the COLLATE  function.   It  would  work
with ASCII, but not with EBCDIC.

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