topic Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ? in ODS and Base Reporting

Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

ddutton325 — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 20:26:04 GMT

Hi folks,

I have search high and low in the Doc and cannot find anything about using the ODS Escapecharacter in strings followed by a single character, instead of one of the escapecharacter functions inside {---}. And yet, I know that ^n (or whatever escape character you are using) works to give a new line, just as ^{newline} would. Are there any other single characters that can be used in such a way, and if so, where are they documented?

Thanks,

Donna

Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

Tom — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 20:29:38 GMT

You can use almost any character you want. Just tell SAS which one you want to use with the ODS ESCAPECHAR statement.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/odsug/p11xia2ltavr8ln17srq8vn4rnqc.htm

Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

ddutton325 — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 20:33:47 GMT

no, sorry Tom, you misunderstood me. I know how to change the default '^' to whatever I want it to be. My question is about the 'n' which follows the escape character, which is what results in the new line. Are there other commands besides this 'n'? Are where is it (or where are they) documented.

Donna

Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

Tom — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 21:53:20 GMT

Not sure. There used to be some cheat sheets for ODS, perhaps something is written there.

You could try running an experiment.

data test;
 length code 8 char $1 odschar $2 ;
 format code hex2. ;
 do code = rank(' ') to rank('~');
   char = byte(code);
   odschar= '^'||char;
   output;
 end;
run;
ods escapechar='^';
proc print;
run;

Looks to me like it did something strange with: hyphen, 0 to 9, P, underscore, a, h, m, n, p, w and z.

Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

Cynthia_sas — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 23:34:28 GMT

Hi:
The single character ESCAPECHAR that you mention was used for a LINEFEED or RETURN in the version of ODS prior to SAS 9.2. The older version of syntax is not guaranteed to work in all the destinations.
If you look for some of the older user group papers on ODS ESCAPECHAR, including my old 2007 paper "Funny ^Stuff~ in My Code", https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings/proceedings/forum2007/099-2007.pdf you can see some of the original syntax. But even back then, I showed the newer syntax that was on the way with SAS 9.2. However, just be aware of the fact that the new "function" style of ODS ESCAPECHAR replaced that original style.
Cynthia

Re: Are there other single character ODS escape sequences besides ^n ?

ddutton325 — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:38:27 GMT

Thanks so much Cynthia! That explains why I couldn't find it in the documentation. I shall spread the word that we should modernize our code to use the current function-style syntax.