What is "Best12." and "f16." meaning?

[ybz12003]

Hi, all:

I found those in the steps formating numbers.   What are those means?  Thanks.

[Kurt_Bremser]

BESTw. is the standard numeric format that will try to fit the number as best as it can, using any formatting that does this (ie scientific)

Could not find any documentation for the Fw. format, but it seems to be valid.

[FreelanceReinh · Accepted solution]

Both are SAS-supplied numeric formats. (And there are informats of these names as well.) Please see BESTw. Format and w.d Format (Fw.d is an alias of the latter) in the documentation. The width w can take integer values (from the range 1 - 32) including 12 and 16.

[ballardw]

The F is for Fixed in ancient terms related to formats. Some of us like the reminder that the display will take that many characters and that we did not incorrectly state the use of another format like Zw.d, Dw.p, Ew. and others.