Proc Format is Not Work as Expected

[User_Help]

Hi SAS Experts,

Trying to Proc Format A1-A5, unfortunately couldn't generate as per described with following errors.

What's wrong with the SAS code?

Helps.....

data a;
	infile '/folders/myfolders/a.txt';
	input ID $3. Gender $ age salary A1 A2 A3 A4 A5;
run;

proc format;
value $gender 'M' = 'Male'
			  'F' = 'Female'
			  ' ' = 'Not Entered'
			other = 'Miscoded';
			
value age low-29  = 'Less than 30'
          30-50   = '30 to 50'
          51-high = '51+';
          
value A1      1 = 'Strongly Disagree' 
			  2 = 'Disagree'
			  3 = 'No Opinion'
			  4 = 'Agree'
			  5 = 'Strongly Agree';

proc print data=a noobs;
var id gender age salary A1-A5;
format 
	   gender $gender.
	   age    age.
	   salary dollar11.2
	   A1 A1.;	   
run;

 ID Gender age salary A1 A2 A3 A4 A5

001	Male	Less than 30	$28,000.00	1	2	1	2	3
002	Female	51+	$76,123.00	4	5	2	1	1
003	Male	30 to 50	$36,500.00	2	2	2	2	1
004	Female	51+	$128,000.00	5	3	2	2	4
005	Male	Less than 30	$23,060.00	3	3	3	4	2
006	Male	51+	$90,000.00	2	3	5	4	3
007	Female	30 to 50	$76,100.00	5	3	4	3	3

Below is the Log Results:-

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

72

73 data a;

74 infile '/folders/myfolders/a.txt';

75 input ID $3. Gender $ age salary A1 A2 A3 A4 A5;

76 run;

NOTE: The infile '/folders/myfolders/a.txt' is:

Filename=/folders/myfolders/a.txt,

Owner Name=root,Group Name=vboxsf,

Access Permission=-rwxrwx---,

Last Modified=29Oct2019:20:16:44,

File Size (bytes)=183

NOTE: 8 records were read from the infile '/folders/myfolders/a.txt'.

The minimum record length was 0.

The maximum record length was 25.

NOTE: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line.

NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 7 observations and 9 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.01 seconds

cpu time 0.01 seconds

77

78 proc format;

79 value $gender 'M' = 'Male'

80 'F' = 'Female'

81 ' ' = 'Not Entered'

82 other = 'Miscoded';

NOTE: Format $GENDER is already on the library WORK.FORMATS.

NOTE: Format $GENDER has been output.

83

84 value age low-29 = 'Less than 30'

85 30-50 = '30 to 50'

86 51-high = '51+';

NOTE: Format AGE is already on the library WORK.FORMATS.

NOTE: Format AGE has been output.

87

88 value A1 '1' = 'Strongly Disagree'

ERROR: The format name A1 ends in a number, which is invalid.

89 2 = 'Disagree'

90 3 = 'No Opinion'

91 4 = 'Agree'

92 5 = 'Strongly Agree';

NOTE: The previous statement has been deleted.

93

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

NOTE: PROCEDURE FORMAT used (Total process time):

real time 0.00 seconds

cpu time 0.01 seconds

94 proc print data=a noobs;

95 var id gender age salary A1-A5;

96 format

97 gender $gender.

98 age age.

99 salary dollar11.2

100 A1 A1.;

101

102

103 run;

NOTE: There were 7 observations read from the data set WORK.A.

NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):

real time 0.09 seconds

cpu time 0.09 seconds

104

105 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

117

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

What it says. Since you need to be able to append a width to the format name where used, the name itself MUST NOT end with a number. Use an additional underline to prevent this:

value A1_
  1 = 'Strongly Disagree' 
  2 = 'Disagree'
  3 = 'No Opinion'
  4 = 'Agree'
  5 = 'Strongly Agree'
;

[ballardw]

An example of why the SAS proc format doesn't allow numbers at the end of the format:

proc format library=work;
value $gender 
   'M' = 'Male'
   'F' = 'Female'
   ' ' = 'Not Entered'
   other = 'Miscoded'
;
run;			

data example;
  input x $;
datalines;
M
F
.
pdq
;

proc print data=example;
   format x $gender3.;
run;

The general rules for using a format is the displayed length of the value. Even when you assign a longer value by default you can override that default by specifying when the format is actually used.