A submission problem caused by resizing the output window

[Kabuto]

My SAS output window can only show results in the top-left corner while it left a large space, which looks like:

The output setting shows that the line size is only 64 and the page size is only 29:

I realized that I have to increase the line and page sizes. However, as long as I set a larger size (e.g., line size = 80; page size = 40), sometimes I can get a note dialog after submitting a program, which looks like:

Sometimes the window can be closed after clicking the OK icon; however, mostly I cannot close this window no matter how many times I click the OK icon. I cannot close SAS normally as well, so I have to use CTRL+ALT+DEL to close SAS via the task manager. This problem has somewhat affected my work, and I would like to know how to adequately resize my output window without encountering such a problem. Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

First question, why are you sending output to the listing destination in the first place? It is much more limited than the Results window.

First thing I would suggest is to set output to go to the results window: Tools>Options>Preferences>Result , uncheck the Listing box and check the HTML.

If you really need to send some output to the output window then you can use the ODS LIsting;  ods listing close; around whatever code is generated the specific output you want in listing.

Different procedures have different templates to create output and 64 characters by 29 lines could be pretty small for some of them. For the small amount of listing output I do generate I tend to leave the line size about 100 or larger and page size at least 60.

Without knowing every system setting you have and possibly the code you are running I really can't say what is going on. I've used the SAS Display Manager interface off and on since 1993 and have never managed to do what you describe even when the Output window was the only output option. I have filled up the output window, which generally brings up a dialog box about "save" or clear contents and won't do anything until a selection is made.

[Kabuto]

The SAS was installed by our IT person. I did not change any interface setting, so the by-default output is the listing destination. I knew using the HTML destination can have a better performance to review outputs, but for some personal reasons, I still prefer having my outputs in the listing destination. Previously I set the line size = 80 and the page size = 40, and got the note which stuck my SAS. By using your suggestions of setting the line size = 100 and page size = 60, now I can get rid of the annoying note and make my SAS codes run smoothly. Not so sure why the line size and page size do matter, but I will use your suggestion to generate SAS outputs. Thank you!

[ballardw]

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@Kabuto wrote:

The SAS was installed by our IT person. I did not change any interface setting, so the by-default output is the listing destination. I knew using the HTML destination can have a better performance to review outputs, but for some personal reasons, I still prefer having my outputs in the listing destination. Previously I set the line size = 80 and the page size = 40, and got the note which stuck my SAS. By using your suggestions of setting the line size = 100 and page size = 60, now I can get rid of the annoying note and make my SAS codes run smoothly. Not so sure why the line size and page size do matter, but I will use your suggestion to generate SAS outputs. Thank you!

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As I mentioned, there are templates that control which columns go in which output for procedures. Since the listing destination has a limited fixed number of columns, max of 256, then some tables have a hard time fitting in narrow lines.

Consider a basic output table that has 5 columns and a line size of 60.

The listing destination uses:

    5 print positions for | (or other character depending on your settings) to specify the column boundaries.

Then you have the formats assigned to any variables. So if you have 5 numeric variables that are using a F16.0 format each will attempt to use 16 characters (5*16=80) and now the procedure wants to use 85 total characters. But with the line size of 64 then SAS has to start working with values. Such as changing the format. Or for character variables splitting across lines (and across pages). Depending on which procedure and the specific output tables the rules may just have a hard time within constraints to fit in the number of characters on line. I am not sure whether some of the later procedures / optional tables have had as much thought into the exceptions needed for the listing destination as the procedures that have been around since the days of tractor-driven green-bar 132 column paper.

This is likely a gross over-simplification but it may give you an idea of why line size, and less likely page size, might cause problems.