In reply to Jack.

Some sample data that ships with SAS is localized, and can be different if using a different locale. Check the PROC CONTENTS for the SASHELP.CLASS to verify that the file is coming from an English directory. Use PROC OPTIONS to see where your config file is being read from. The sasv9.cfg is either in the same path as SAS.exe (and that will be a small file that simply references a locale-specific config), or in a larger SAS deployment this will be in your Config/Lev1 folder.