topic Re: proc transpose wide to tall, numbers lose formatting in SAS Procedures

proc transpose wide to tall, numbers lose formatting

Steelers_In_DC — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 21:17:20 GMT

I have a simple transpose from wide with 11 columns to tall with 3 columns. When the data is wide the numbers are formatted to show commas, when tall they lose the formatting. Is there anyway in the proc to format the columns?

I'm following up with a proc report, so if I can format there I'll be happy to do it there.

Re: proc transpose wide to tall, numbers lose formatting

ballardw — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 21:27:13 GMT

Add a format statement to Proc Report or override separately for each variable in the Define statement.

I suspect that all of the variables in the wide format did not have the same format.

I just did a quick test and when all the variables have the same format the result has that format but if they have mixed formats then the transposed end up with BEST format.

SAS variables have the format, not individual cell values like spreadsheets. So only one format can be applied. I suspect the SAS developers chose to use a BEST format when there is a conflict so something appears instead of the things that might happen trying to display a large currency value with a date format...

Re: proc transpose wide to tall, numbers lose formatting

Steelers_In_DC — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 21:31:23 GMT

Spot on, I didn't realize I missed one of the (pre transpose) columns in formatting. Once I fixed that it's perfect, and the formatting held through the proc report.

Have a great weekend, Happy Holidays, stay healthy.