topic Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded." in SAS Programming

Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

lior — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:57:35 GMT

Hello, I tried to produce a "left join" procedure as follow:

proc sql;

create table reg as

select a.*,b.company_price

from invest1 a

left join invest2 b

on put(a. b_s_d_w, three_days_befor_report_day.) eq put (b.DATADATE, date.)

order by GVKEY, b_s_d_w;

quit;

run;

I'm getting this error message: " The format THREE_DAYS_BEFOR_REPORT_DAY was not found or could not be loaded."

The format of the variable " three_days_befor_report_day" is YYMMDDN8. Type: Num .

The informat is F8.

Those format and informat are identical to other variables which I perform on them "left join" and succeed, that why I don't understand why this time I have no success.

Any ideas?

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

RW9 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:08:34 GMT

There are a few things I can see wrong here off the bat. Firstly you have a space between a. and b_s_d_w.
Secondly what do you mean by "The format of the variable " three_days_befor_report_day" is YYMMDDN8. Type: Num ."

Is three_days_befor_report_day

and actual format, created by proc format? Is it spelt correctly as e is missing from before. Is the length of the format name acceptable, I assumed there was an 8 char limit, but that might be old SAS.

Alternatively, I could also guess that three_days_befor_report could be a macro variable, if so It needs an ampersand in front of it &.

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

Reeza — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:11:10 GMT

The following statement is where you're problem originates, I think.

It attempts to format a.b_s_d_w variable with the format three_days_before_report_day but you've indicated that three_days_befor_report_day is a variable not a format? Perhaps you're applying the wrong format?

put(a. b_s_d_w, three_days_befor_report_day.)

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

lior — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:08:01 GMT

Hi,

Regarding the space, I try to also run the statement without space and recieve the same error messegae.

Regarding the variable: the variable name is "b_s_d_w" and its lable is "three_days_befor_report_day" the limit for label is 256 char...

This variable is a variable that I created and its base on a different variable that I recievd from a university database, RDQ:

data want;

set have;

b_s_d_w=RDQ-3;

format b_s_d_w ddmmyy8.;

run;

in order to recive the informat of the variable I run the statement:

data reg;

set reg;

informat b_s_d_w F8.;

run;

I did it because I read in this forum that sometimes when the format and informat of the variable is incorrect one will recieve the error message :

: " The format was not found or could not be loaded.", so I delibaretly use format and informat which work for me before in "left put" statements/

Also the format and informat of RDQ (the original variable) is YYMMDDN8. Type: Num .The informat is F8. so I thought the new variable format and informat should be the same.

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

RW9 — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:26:09 GMT

Well there's your problem. You don't use a put() function and provide a variable and label, but a variable and a format.

on put(a. b_s_d_w, three_days_befor_report_day.) eq put (b.DATADATE, date.)

This should then be:

on put(a.b_s_d_w,date9.) eq put (b.DATADATE,date9.)

I.e. put the numeric value found in b_s_d_w into the structure DDMONYYYY, same for datadate, then match the two.

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

lior — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:48:46 GMT

yes, I just figur it out myself...

thanks!

Re: Error message: " The format was not found or could not be loaded."

lior — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:50:21 GMT

yes this was my mistake, I use the lable instead of the format .

thank you.