topic Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re in SAS Programming

Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate report

SASsusrik — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 04:50:23 GMT

Hello

I am learning about proc print tabulate and report procedures.

Though all of them at the outset seem to be presenting data , I am wondering why there are three ways to do it (perhaps more but currently I am aware of these 3). I mean where would one prefer to use one over the other. Any writeup that compares/contrasts them would really help me. TIA!!!

Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re

MarkusWeick — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 06:49:18 GMT

Hi @SASsusrik,

have a look at

"The Battle of the Titans (Part II): PROC REPORT versus PROC TABULATE" (https://www.lexjansen.com/pharmasug/2023/SD/PharmaSUG-2023-SD-082.pdf) and

"The Workhorses of Customized Report Writing – PROC TABULATE and PROC REPORT" (https://www.lexjansen.com/scsug/2004/Buck%20-%20PROC%20REPORT%20and%20PROC%20TABULATE.pdf).

Maybe you find them helpful.

Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re

Ksharp — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:16:48 GMT

@Cynthia_sas could give you more detail information.

PROC PRINT is just plaint printing a report/table , nothing can do on it .
PROC TABULATE is for describe statistical, if you just want get some statistics like mean,sum,frequency ..... with table, you could use it. It would not used too much as to my experience.
PROC REPORT could get you detail and summarize report . a.k.a it is like a combination of PROC PRINT and PROC TABULATE. It is most useful and usage in real life.

Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re

ballardw — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:47:35 GMT

I am going to add a bit to @Ksharp's summary.

Proc print doesn't calculate anything except sums.

Proc tabulate only displays numeric values in the body of the report (not page, row or column headers) though an applied format can show text for the numeric values. Proc tabulate is easier to get nesting of values in both row and column dimensions. Also Proc Tabulate with care can have the statistics of multiple variables in the same column (as long as the stats requested are the same).

Proc report allows custom calculations and conditional behavior based on the result of other cells in the report.

There are reasons that SAS has separate books for examples of Proc Report and Tabulate and many papers have been written about them for specific applications. They have been around for about 50 years.

Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re

SASsusrik — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 13:36:14 GMT

Wow, didnt knwo it is that big a thing that books have been authored on the same. Will try to look up. TY!

Do you know of any papers/ books that show examples of comparinc contrasting each one's usage and functions. That will be super helpful to understand the limitations or usages so to speak. TY!

Re: Hello I am trying to understand the different usages and implications of Proc Print, Tabulate re

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 14:44:55 GMT

Hi:
I had a table of comparisons in the Creating Complex Reports paper https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings/pdfs/sgf2008/173-2008.pdf on page 7. Several of the papers already mentioned discuss differences.
Cynthia