Defining Column Attributes (4)

Creating Enhanced List and Summary Reports

Defining Column Attributes

Specifying Column Spacing

Another way to enhance your PROC REPORT output is to specify column spacing, which is the number of blank characters between the selected column and the column immediately to its left. The default column spacing is 2. To specify a different column spacing, use the SPACING= attribute in the DEFINE statement.

The SPACING= attribute has no effect on HTML output.

Example

This is PROC REPORT output without any spacing defined. Orig and Dest have 2 blank characters preceding their columns.

Partial PROC REPORT Output, SAS Listing

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

To specify 5 blank spaces before the column headings for Orig and Dest, you can use DEFINE statements as shown below in your PROC REPORT step:

proc report data=flights.europe nowd; where dest in ('LON','PAR'); column flight orig dest mail freight revenue; define revenue / format=dollar15.2; define flight / width=6; define orig / width=4 spacing=5; define dest / width=4 spacing=5; run;

Now the two columns display the extra spacing.

Partial PROC REPORT Output, SAS Listing

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