SAS Data Sets (10)

Basic Concepts

SAS Data Sets

Column Attributes: Labels

A variable can have a label, which consists of descriptive text up to 256 characters long. By default, many reports identify variables by their names. You may want to display more descriptive information about the variable by assigning a label to the variable.

For example, you can label Policy as Policy Number, Total as Total Balance, and Name as Patient Name to display these labels in reports.

Variable Type Length Format Informat Label

Policy Num 8
Policy Number

Total Num 8 DOLLAR8.2 COMMA10. Total Balance

Name Char 20 Patient Name

You may even want to use labels to shorten long variable names in your reports!