topic Re: PROC PRINT no paging in SAS Procedures

PROC PRINT no paging

deleted_user — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:39:10 GMT

I frequently have to produce outputs which contain no titles, headers or page breaks. I there a way to turn off all paging in PROC PRINT. The best I have been able to do so far is to set the lines in OPTIONS to a high number, however some data listings exceed even those line limits and I still get page breaks.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

sbb — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:24:21 GMT

None that I am aware of, other than setting PAGESIZE=MAX (as you indirectly mentioned). A SAS DATA step using PUT to a non-print (FILE fileref NOPRINT) destination is one option. Or, possibly, consider using ODS CSV with RS=NONE, and parse your generated output data, may be another option.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:27:12 GMT

Hi:
If you do make a CSV file from your procedure output, then your limitation on the number of report rows that you can have are limited by your spreadsheet program limit.

Other options to a DATA step program writing to a file are:
--investigate the use of the FORMDLIM option, which does not remove page break characters, but would let you replace the usual page break character with something like a line of dashes, for example:
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/59540/HTML/default/a000279106.htm

It is possible that some combination of FORMDLIM with PROC PRINTTO will give you a LISTING version of your output that does not have page breaks.

--make an ODS HTML file with style=minimal. There are no page breaks in an HTML file you will get one huge table with all the report rows. Page breaks are only inserted in an HTML file when the browser needs to print the file. The viewer for an HTML file is a web browser or any HTML viewer.

--avoid "paged" destinations, like PDF and RTF. Those destinations DO insert page break characters or instructions, as appropriate to the destination.

I'm just wondering what the purpose of no page breaks is -- without any kind of pause or reader break in the output, it will be very hard for someone to review the output. If all you want is an archive or record of the output and you don't intend to look at the output file after the fact, then the page break characters and page numbers don't add -that- much to the size of the file (and you can turn the titles and page numbers off). You could just use ODS or PROC PRINTTO to do the equivalent of taking a snapshot of the LISTING file output and then store the file on disk.

Just a few more suggestions.

cynthia

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:40:22 GMT

Hello,

I'm also seeking the abilty to print to the output window with no breaks.

I need to copy output from the SAS output window in Unix and paste into Excel in Windows. I'm really struggling to make this 'easy'. (No, open office isn't allowing cut and paste, sigh). And I can't share data between platforms.

I've used ODS to save the output to a sas dataset. But when I print the dataset with proc print - it breaks up the dataset with titles and extra lines. The more I can eliminate this - the easier I can copy to Excel and use 'text to columns' in one fell swoop.

Second problem: For some reason, the header row that lists the variable names isn't always left justified. Any way to force the variable names to print left-justified? It seems to be centering variable names that take up 2 rows. When I use 'text to columns' with a space as the delimiter - it throws off everything because it thinks the space+title represent 2 columns.

This has been exhausting - any help is appreciated. My hands are somewhat tied as I can't get open office to copy/paste to windows excel w/ any success.

Thanks

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:37:09 GMT

Hi:
ODS CSV creates an ASCII text file that you should be able to FTP from Unix to Windows and open directly in Excel, especially if you give the file an extension of .CSV.

The PROC PRINT in this instance, creates a comma-separated file, without any page breaks or titles. As long as you have SAS 8.2 or later, you should be able to use the ODS CSV destination to create a comma separated file that Excel can open and render. Your other alternatives are PROC EXPORT or the LIBNAME engine (to export a SAS dataset to an Excel binary file format) or ODS HTML (to create an HTML file that Excel can open and render (without page breaks, but with titles, if you have a SAS TITLE statement) or ODS TAGSETS.EXCELXP (to create a Spreadsheet Markup Language XML file) that Excel can open and render.

cynthia
[pre]
ods csv file='comma_sep.csv';

proc print data=sashelp.shoes label;
var region product subsidiary stores sales returns inventory;
run;

ods csv close;
[/pre]

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:22:02 GMT

Thank you for the reply. For certain reasons - I cannot use FTP. So I must rely on copying and pasting from SAS to Excel. Any additional tips are welcomed.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:31:47 GMT

Hi:
The ODS CSV file is an ASCII file without page breaks or titles. You should be able to open it in a text editor (such as VI) on UNIX and do your copy and then paste to Excel on Windows.

cynthia

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

sbb — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:46:25 GMT

You may also consider using SAS-generated EMAIL with your CSV file as an attachment or imbedded in the EMAIL body.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:22:34 GMT

Thanks for the clarification, Cynthia -

Both the csvall and csv file worked well. I made the pico window large enough so I could copy all output. Probably a more swift way to copy all - but I'm relearning unix after many years away.

The only issue with the csvall was a lot of extra space between titles and data - but I can live with that. Unless there's a trick, of course.

Best

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:55:36 GMT

Since your ORIGINAL post said "no titles" that would indicate the use of ODS CSV -- which does not use SAS titles.

ODS CSVALL will cause SAS titles and BY lines and Procedure titles to show in the CSV file. The way to avoid titles is to use ODS CSV.

cynthia

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:09:27 GMT

Hello,

Thanks. Ideally, I'd have the titles print once per proc - and your suggestion of printing to CSV worked (for titles, I use CSVALL). There's a blank line after every title - ideally I'd supress it, but don't know if I can.

The main problem of having the output broken up has been solved.

Anjali

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:45:56 GMT

Somewhat related - is there any way to append to a csvall file? I'm running a macro that recreates files under different conditions - and I'd like one file of results in the end.

I'm trying to reset the file to itself - if it's been created ... but appending to a csvall file would be grand.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:26:26 GMT

Hi:
For ODS HTML and ODS CSV (as far as I've tested the code), you can use the MOD option on the FILENAME statement to append to an existing file...as shown in the program below.

cynthia
[pre]
** start by making CSV file of male students;
filename newcsv 'c:\temp\new.csv';

ods csv file=newcsv;

proc print data=sashelp.class;
where sex = 'M';
run;
ods csv close;

** Now add 12-year old students to existing file;
filename newcsv 'c:\temp\new.csv' mod;

ods csv file=newcsv;

proc print data=sashelp.class;
where age = 12;
run;
ods csv close;

** Now add Females to existing file;
filename newcsv 'c:\temp\new.csv' mod;

ods csv file=newcsv ;

proc print data=sashelp.class;
where sex = 'F';
run;
ods csv close;
[/pre]

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:48:01 GMT

Perfect - many thanks.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

anjgupta — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:29:28 GMT

Hopefully, one last task. I use PICO - but might have access to other editors. Do any offer 'select all' as a text option? I've messed around with Emacs just now but can't grab the entire contents.

Thanks.

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:42:46 GMT

Sorry, can't help with this. I generally avoid editing files on UNIX and when I do have to edit files, I use the SAS Program Editor to edit Unix text files.

cynthia

Re: PROC PRINT no paging

Andre — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:59:03 GMT

Anjgupta,
some information more perhaps usefull to you

I can attest that under this configuration (i suppose similar to yours)
-a open x11 screen showing a linux interactive sas session on a server
-on a windows pc, using Crimson Editor

you may copy paste every sas results or code
from the sas linux screen to Crimson Editor (i think this is true also for other only text editor but not true for word,open office

if you save you output to a file under linux from the output screen you LOOSE the page skip delimiter
but If under sas linux, you are saving the output with proc printto
then you obtain a file WITH a valid page skip under Windows.

the command print file="~;;;;.lst" is also saving the entire output screen
WITH the page skip delimiter

i think FORMDLIM may possibly change this situation

BUT you solution is to transit through a text editor and no going directly to excel
and then saving it with a correct end of line

Crimson (free) allow this and is well working also for printing under a windows context

You must also know that with the help of an administrator on linux/unix
you can mount under windows a view on the linux/unix server to see under
windows your files (your output sas files of course too)

Andre