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Cynthia_sas
SAS Super FREQ

Hi:

There is no such thing as a "fixed" point on the page when you use a proportional spaced font. That is why old data _null_ programs did not convert seamlessly to ODS output destinations like HTML, RTF and PDF -- because all of those destinations used proportional fonts instead of monospace fonts.

  In the old DATA _NULL_ world, the LISTING window or OUTPUT window or .LST output was like a piece of graph paper...where every cell was one "print" position or one "letter" position. So the letter 'i' and the space ' ' and the letter 'w' all took up the same amount of space. so in the following 3 lines, where is position 10 (highlighted in red):

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

we went westward in wagons

lee left long before the end of the movie

Position 10 in each line is at a different position depending on the "size" of the letters that came before it. Each proportional spaced font has a definition for every letter that specifies the sizing and space that goes around, above and under each letter and how "big" each space, period and punctuation character is. The third line has a bunch of "skinny" letters, so position 10 is in a different place than on the lines above where there were wider letters used.

ODS LAYOUT and the DATA step reporting writing interface may help you a bit -- if you want PDF output. Take a look at some of the examples on this site.

http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/early-access/index.html (under ODS LAYOUT and ODS Report Writing Interface)

cynthia

Michelle
Obsidian | Level 7

Thanks so much Cynthia, this explains a lot. Now if there were a class on ODS Layout and the data step that would make my day.. I am not really a programmer!! Smiley Happy

Cynthia_sas
SAS Super FREQ

Hi:

  I don't know what your older reports looked like with DATA _NULL_. I can share with you that in all the years I've been using ODS and teaching ODS, that many of my students who use PROC REPORT use it because they needed to convert their old "free format" DATA _NULL_ reports to work with ODS.

  For example, look at the "demographic" report example in the Gallery on page 9 and 17 of the paper below -- this is a typical kind of report that used to be generated with DATA _NULL_. In my paper on creating complex reports (http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/forum2008/173-2008.pdf ), I show 2 different ways to produce a demographic report (example 1 on page 9 and example 8 on page 17). Example 1 uses PROC REPORT and Example 8 uses DATA _NULL_.

cynthia

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