listing help

[deleted_user]

hi
i am unsure about listing in SAS is it similar to wat we call output in output window
and if any one can give me a link to view samples of such datasets listings and tables.

before going on project what do i need to know.
plz help.

thaxn a lot.

[Cynthia_sas]

April:
What you see in the OUTPUT window is LISTING destination output. People use the terms OUTPUT window and LISTING window interchangeably. When you run SAS in batch mode, or non-windowing mode, SAS will create a .LOG file -- which is the equivalent of what you see in the LOG window and a .LST file -- which is the equivalent of what you see in the OUTPUT window.

However, some other folks use the term LISTING in this way: "I want to run a report on sales and send the LISTING to all the salesmen." In this usage, they could mean that they want to send the contents of the LISTING window to all the salesmen. Or, they could just be using the word LISTING -- in the more generic sense -- as a substitute for either 'REPORT' or 'OUTPUT'.

In the first usage, above, the word LISTING implies that you will get what you see in the OUTPUT window--that is -- output from SAS procedures and processes that has no STYLE (no colors, no fonts, etc) applied. With the second usage -- they could mean they want LISTING output (no colors, no fonts) or they could mean that they want to send the ODS results to the salesmen, in which case, they could be sending an ODS HTML, ODS RTF or ODS PDF file to the salesmen.

cynthia

[deleted_user]

Quite often the term "Listing" is used to describe a particular type of report.

It tends to describe a non-summarized presentation of the data.

For instance, a listing of adverse events would display (or list) all of the adverse event data by patient collected during the study. Or a demographics listing would display (by patient) all of the demographic data.

In other words, a "listing" is similar to a PROC PRINT, but layed out in a more readable (and logical - based on the study design) format.

This separates a "listing" from what is commonly referred to as a "table", "summary", or even "summary table" - which is a summarized presentation of the data (eg, how many patients had adverse events). Message was edited by: RussN

[Cynthia_sas]

Russ:
That's a really good point. A "non-summarized presentation of the data" is still a detail report, whether you call it a detail table, a detail report, a listing report, a detail listing report -- the key word being "presentation" -- it's NOT the data -- it's the DATA laid out in a particular way in a report or presentation format.

The 4 ways to create a "listing" or detail report are:
1) Proc Print (most people don't choose this for Adverse Event reports because they can't get the breaks and layout they want)
2) Proc SQL -- could produce a detail "listing" report -- but most people would not choose this for Adverse Event reporting either because it has even fewer break/formatting/layout options than Proc Print.
3) Proc Report can also produce a detail "listing" report and I have seen student examples that do use Proc Report to produce an Adverse Event report.
4a) Data _NULL_ with File Print -- NOT using ODS -- Only sending output to a .LST or .TXT file or to the Output Window: I have also seen student examples that use this technique to produce an Adverse Event "listing" report.
4b) Data _NULL_ with File Print -- USING ODS -- most students do NOT use this technique because they don't get the kind of break control (PUT _PAGE_) that they generally want -- and they don't like the fact that this technique forces their output into tabular form instead of "free-format" form.

However, no matter what procedure or technique you use, the word "listing" has different connotations in different contexts. For example, with ODS -- even the detail "listing" reports are put into "tables" -- as far as ODS is concerned -- the output from ANY procedure is basically tabular in nature -- whether using PROC FREQ or PROC REPORT. You can tell if you look at the underlying ODS HTML source code, for example, that your entire PROC output is enclosed within one HTML <TABLE> and </TABLE> set of tags. (Or your output could have multiple <TABLE> tags, since some procedures produce multiple tables of output in the result file.)

And this all gets complicated by other technology, too. You could say that you wanted to get a "listing" of patient demographic or adverse event data in XML form. But is that really a LISTING in any meaning of the word or is it really the detail DATA represented in XML form -- and of course, we'd have to clarify WHICH XML specification we were using to represent the data.

cynthia

[Dave_SAS]

The context here is very important. It's difficult to tell from the originial question if this is a 'listing, as normally used in clinical trials', or a more generalized 'listing'.

A clinical trials listing is most often a 'dump' of the data, as would most easily been generated when applying a 'proc print' to a clinical data table. (Of course, the dump could be made prettier with ODS, proc report and other tools). Regardless of how it looks, it is a num-summarized display.

A more generalized listing is much more difficult to describe.

Dave

[deleted_user]

hi!

i was talking about d listing in clinical trials itself.. as a part of job we are asked to prepare listings so i wanted to know regarding that.
thank u Dave for expalining it in clinical context.
regards
april

[deleted_user]

hi everyone

thanx a lot for ur replies.. it was indeed useful.

[deleted_user]

This is an interesting topic.

My understanding about listing in clinical trials is that most end-users/data viewers are still used to paper-based report/listing/detailed report. They prefer to read all the data in letter/A4-sized paper. Then SAS listing in monospace is still the best solution for them, which contains most info/data in one page, comparing to HTML.

I don't know if SAS guys think they are IT guys? I saw many other IT company do the same thing using SQL or in data warehouse, some are planning to get rid of SAS from data management area 😉

Hope SAS can catch up with the latest technology...