topic Re: How do to delete a format in a permanent format library in SAS Procedures

How do to delete a format in a permanent format library

merrittsas — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:05:57 GMT

I am needing to delete a defunct format from our format library. How do I go about doing that?

Thank you for any advice/suggestions.

Re: How do to delete a format in a permanent format library

ArtC — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:30:49 GMT

Formats are stored as entries in SAS catalogs. Assuming you have write access to the catalog you can delete it interactively through the SAS explorer. The entry name will correspond to the name of the format. You can use the FMTSEARCH option to show you the locations of the format catalogs.

From batch you can utilize the CATALOG and DATASETS procedures.

Re: How do to delete a format in a permanent format library

merrittsas — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 01:51:27 GMT

Great, it worked deleting it interactively. Thank you very much!

Re: How do to delete a format in a permanent format library

Fredrik_Hansson — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 20:48:19 GMT

To delete format "BFC_ENKOPING_MOST_RECENT_MONTH." from catalog "formats" in libname "formats":

PROC CATALOG CATALOG=formats.formats;
  DELETE BFC_ENKOPING_MOST_RECENT_MONTH.FORMAT;
QUIT;


NOTE: Deleting entry BFC_ENKOPING_MOST_RECENT_MONTH.FORMAT in catalog FORMATS.FORMATS. 
NOTE: PROCEDURE CATALOG used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

Re: How do to delete a format in a permanent format library

KevinViel — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 16:29:38 GMT

I just did this, but got caught. The following appears to work:

proc catalog
   catalog = work.formats ;
  delete egtest ( et = formatc ) ;
quit ;

Good luck,

Kevin