topic Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing... in ODS and Base Reporting

Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

Cynthia_sas — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:00:48 GMT

Here's something I'm curious about.

If you could change just ONE thing about ODS what would it be?? Pick your piece of ODS. Post your change. Let's talk.

ODS OUTPUT?
ODS HTML?
ODS RTF?
ODS PDF?
ODS MARKUP?

cynthia

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

JackHamilton — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:25:12 GMT

Better support for flowing in layouts.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

rtemp001 — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:44:29 GMT

Better support for the "Page x of Y" in RTF and PDF when you
mix tables and graphs. And it would be nice to have a common
method of asking for this, no matter what ODS destination you are using.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 18:14:55 GMT

I can respond to the rtf side of the question and partially to the rest. In SAS 9.1, you can modify a style element to use the PAGEOF syntax without having to burn a title statement. This gets around the problem of graphics not honoring the spec unles the NOGTITLE option is used.

I'll insert some text to show this technique. Notice the use of a "universal escape sequence". The escape alerts the process that a function is being used. The use of the universal escape means you do not have to set up the escapechar anytime you use this style.

This gives you the global usage you might use. I believe there is a restriction with PDF and graphics, but I can't answer with a lot of detail on that issue.

[pre]
proc template;
define style mystyle;
parent=styles.default;
Replace PageNo from TitlesAndFooters /
font = fonts("strongFont")
cellpadding = 0 cellspacing = 0
just=r vjust=t
posttext= " of (*ESC*){lastpage}" ;
;
end;
run;

ods rtf file="pageno.rtf" style = mystyle ;

proc print data=sashelp.class ; run;
proc gplot data=sashelp.class ; plot age*height; run;
proc print data=sashelp.class ; run;

ods rtf close ;
[\pre]

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

David_SAS — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:52:36 GMT

We're aware that the PAGEOF functionality does not work with
ODS PRINTER and SAS/Graph. Customers have reported it to us more than once!

-- David Kelley, SAS

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

mlamias — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 08:31:10 GMT

I know this is probably a stretch for SAS right now, but it would be great to have an ODS EXCEL option. I know you can achieve this with ods html file='filename.xls" or ods csv or with DDE, but all these methods seem clumsy.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

Eric_SAS — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:06:05 GMT

How about using the ODS tagsets.Excelxp destination?

It's been around since SAS 9.0. It works best with SAS 9.1.3.

You can get the latest version here.

http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/topics/odsmarkup/

Not a stretch at all...

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:58:17 GMT

A graphical user interface for ODS LAYOUT would be great.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

kdoherty_fau_edu — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:17:21 GMT

I second this. A GUI to create layouts would be excellent.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:42:05 GMT

I vote for that too.

The GUI needs to be available through EG.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

DouglasMartin — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:38:48 GMT

But not only through Enterprise Guide!

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:44:04 GMT

A general thing: make all ODS destinations use the exact same syntax to achieve the same results.

If you are looking for something more specific: in the printer destinations, let titles print even when not the first thing on a page. Currently we have to use ODS PDF TEXT to get around this, and I dislike having to code all my titles twice, once for printer destinations and once for HTML.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:53:00 GMT

We have this type of functionality in EG 4.1 using the new SAS 9 Report Object Model (ROM) ODS output type. See the presentation that includes that at SUGI 31 @ http://support.sas.com/rnd/papers/ (EG 4.1 overview- http://support.sas.com/rnd/papers/sugi31/neweg41.pdf see page 4 for some screenshots.)

Regards,
Stephen

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:47:45 GMT

I need to use ods tagsets.excelxpfor creating a report using an existing template.
The template contains all the header information in a required format.
What option should I use to output my dataset values into those specific cells (meant for values in the template)???

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:13:48 GMT

Hi:
It would be better to start a new post than to tack a question onto a very different posting.

The bad news is that there is no option to do what you ask.

ODS TAGSETS.EXCELXP does not write to an existing Excel template (.xlt) file. Every time you run TAGSETS.EXCELXP, it creates a new, complete workbook. TAGSETS.EXCELXP will not add to an existing workbook; will not update specific rows/cells/columns in an existing workbook; will not update or add cells to an Excel template (.xlt) file. Every time ExcelXP runs it creates a new file, by overwriting the name specified in the FILE= option if it already exists or by creating a new file, if the name does not exist.

This is the kind of scenario (writing to an existing workbook or Excel template) that folks use DDE for.

You might try to replicate your header information using the TAGSETS.EXCELXP options to set PRINT headers and footers.

cynthia

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

deleted_user — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:32:01 GMT

Hi cynthia, thanks for suggestion, please watch the thread "Exploring tagsets.excelxp for existing templates " .

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

sbb — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:32:02 GMT

ODS HTML and simplified pagination control

Today, I am forced to use a "hidden" BY variable to force pagination every "nn" detail output rows. This requires me to use PAGEBY and also NOBYLINE along with my BY statement declaration. Also, influencing the SAS ODS HTML behavior requires a pre-processor DATA step used to "count rows" and force a new (virtual) page which is actually a new HTML-generated table to get the desired HTML windowing size needed.

I have attempted to use the PROC TEMPLATE "hack" to get the "freeze column header" for the most simplistic PROC PRINT instances, but this alternative approach seems to fail if you attempt to use BY/PAGEBY processing with the TEMPLATE override.

And, this type of functionality needs to work on the IBM mainframe platform as well as others, if that is anyone else's concern, as it is for me.

Thanks for asking, Cynthia!!

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

Peter_C — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:29:53 GMT

fix tagsets.excelxp for non-US locale where NLS support on z/OS introduces problems for prx---- functions used to identify data-types

Alternatively, could suitable compiled versions of latest tagset.excelxp be made available for download to ebcdic-in-foreign-locales.
Alternatively, bypass the need for prx--- in the tagset code by providing the data-types as object attribute when the reporting objects are created.

- - my experience was in z/OS on SAS9.1.3sp4 -
- - has the SAS9.2 versions eliminated the need for characters among the "extended" ebcdic character-set?

PeterC

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

wildhogs — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:28:14 GMT

Create a Super ODS destination for Microsoft Excel, Word, and/or Powerpoint.

Functionality

1. create a worksheet X for a lot of good stuff !!!!

1a. create a chart object 1 and place in location 1 on worksheet x.
1b. create a chart object 2 and place in location 2 on worksheet x.
1c. create a chart object 3 and place in location 3 on worksheet x.
1d. create a text box object 1 and place in location 4 on worksheet x.

etc...

2a. send sas report 1 to location 5 on worksheet x.
2b. send sas report 2 to location 6 on worksheet x.
2c. send sas report 3 to location 7 on worksheet x.
etc...

3a. create pivot table 1 and place it in location 8 on worksheet x.
3b. create pivot table 2 and place it in location 9 on worksheet x.
3c. create pivot table 3 and place it in location 10 on worksheet x.
etc...

Allow the destination to be called multiple times for each report, pivot table, or chart that you want to send to Excel, Word, or Powerpoint.

Wow!

Re: Question: If you could change just ONE thing...

ChrisNZ — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:41:37 GMT

>A general thing: make all ODS destinations use the exact same syntax to achieve the same results.

Seconded, destinations should absolutely be transparent [same for graphics devices, but that's another story] unless some features don't exist for a particular destination, in which case they would simply be ignored.

Even more important though: an easier way to alter default looks than proc template. Or is it just me who haven't felt like spending the time to get my head around its hideous syntax?
Maybe a report editor where one makes visual changes, and the template code is created?