Defining Column Attributes (2)

Creating Enhanced List and Summary Reports

Defining Column Attributes

Assigning Formats

In previous lessons, you learned that formats determine how data values appear in SAS output. If you don't specify a format for a variable within the PROC REPORT step, PROC REPORT uses the format that is stored in the data set. If no format is stored in the data set, PROC REPORT uses the default format for that variable type.

To assign a format to a specific report column, use the FORMAT= attribute in the DEFINE statement for that column. You can specify any appropriate SAS format or user-defined format.

Example

The variable Revenue has no format assigned to it in the Flights.Europe data set. So, in your current report, revenue values appear as shown in the example below.

Partial PROC REPORT Output, HTML

Flight	Orig	Dest	Mail	Freight	Revenue
821	LGA	LON	403	209	150634
271	LGA	PAR	492	308	156804
271	LGA	PAR	366	498	190098
821	LGA	LON	345	243	150634
821	LGA	LON	248	307	193930

But suppose you want your revenue figures to be formatted with a dollar sign, commas, and two decimal places, in a total width of 15 positions. To do this, you can assign the DOLLAR15.2 format to Revenue.


     proc report data=flights.europe nowd;
        where dest in ('LON','PAR');
        column flight orig dest mail freight revenue;
        define revenue / format=dollar15.2;
     run;

This is part of the HTML output from the program above. Notice that the format supplies the dollar sign, comma, decimal point, and decimal places. However, because the HTML table column conforms to the width of its contents, assigning the format does not increase the column width beyond the length of the data values.

Partial PROC REPORT Output, HTML

Flight	Orig	Dest	Mail	Freight	Revenue
821	LGA	LON	403	209	$150,634.00
271	LGA	PAR	492	308	$156,804.00
271	LGA	PAR	366	498	$190,098.00
821	LGA	LON	345	243	$150,634.00
821	LGA	LON	248	307	$193,930.00

By contrast, the monospace SAS listing of the report does display the increased column width.

Partial PROC REPORT Output, SAS Listing

Fli ght	Ori g	Des t	Mail	Freight	Revenue
821	LGA	LON	403	209	$150,634.00
271	LGA	PAR	492	308	$156,804.00
271	LGA	PAR	366	498	$190,098.00
821	LGA	LON	345	243	$150,634.00
821	LGA	LON	248	307	$193,930.00

You can also use FORMAT statements with PROC REPORT. However, the DEFINE statement enables you to specify more than one column attribute at a time. Also, you can use the FORMAT= attribute to define report columns (such as statistics or computed variables) that are not data set variables .