dollar format: not define the w?

[mnew]

Experts:
Is it possible to tell SAS to format a numeric value in dollar format without having to specify the w? Sometimes all I want to make sure is to limit the decimal points. If the format is for a cumulative variable (e.g. total payments from a large number of customers), I'm hoping to avoid the trouble of estimating how large the total will be to make sure dollar w.d has enough width.
Thank you!

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
If you just used the format (for the AMOUNT variable) like this:
[pre]
format amount dollar.;
[/pre]

You'd probably see this note in the SAS log:
[pre]
NOTE: At least one W.D format was too small for the number to be printed. The decimal may be shifted by the "BEST"
format.
[/pre]

This might result in something like 'E' notation or scientific notation (1.23E8) being used. However, there's no problem in just specifying a large width. Only the LISTING destination uses the WIDTH for the output. ODS destinations just use the widest column for output reports. Consider the program below.

cynthia
[pre]
data numbers;
infile datalines;
input name $ amount;
return;
datalines;
alan 1.00
barb 123456789.22
carl 2345.33
dana 345.44
;
run;

ods listing close;
ods html file='c:\temp\usebigdollar.html' style=sasweb;
proc print data=numbers;
title 'Note that the table cell for amount does not use the "extra" width of the format';
sum amount;
var name amount;
format amount dollar24.;
run;
ods html close;
[/pre]

[mnew]

Thank you for the details, Cynthia. I also forgot that format has nothing to do with storage so it does not hurt to define a large one.