topic Re: SAS formats categories in SAS Programming

SAS formats categories

NicoM — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 09:43:11 GMT

I would like to replace the formats of a data set by some standard formats based on the type of format. That is, I would like to specify a specific format for the following categories of variables:

numeric (excl. date / datetime)
character
date
datetime

It is straightforward to determine using code whether a variable is character or numeric. For example, using PROC CONTENTS, the information in SASHELP.VCOLUMN or the variable info functions (vtype, vtypex).

Is there also a way to determine the category of the format of the variable (date, datetime, etc.) using the format that is applied? Similar to the categories as described in the SAS programming documentation: Formats by category.

Information about the format is available in the three sources mentioned above, but I would like to avoid having to create the list of valid date and datetime formats myself.

Re: SAS formats categories

FreelanceReinh — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 10:48:47 GMT

Hello @NicoM,

@NicoM wrote:

Is there also a way to determine the category of the format of the variable (date, datetime, etc.) using the format that is applied?

Yes, there is: the FMTINFO function, as Tom illustrated last week in https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Identify-List-all-date-fields/m-p/727124.

Re: SAS formats categories

NicoM — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 13:33:28 GMT

Thanks, @FreelanceReinh! That is exactly what I need.

I searched using keywords "format" and "category", but I did not come across that thread.

Re: SAS formats categories

FreelanceReinh — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 13:42:56 GMT

@NicoM wrote:

I searched using keywords "format" and "category", but I did not come across that thread.

I was just lucky that I remembered the discussion, so I could restrict my search to posts by user Tom, date: "A month ago." 🙂