Difference between messages in log about wrong format

[Pavlo11]

Can someone explain what is the difference between these two messages in SAS log?

ERROR 48-59: The format XXX was not found or could not be loaded.

NOTE 484-185: Format XXX was not found or could not be loaded.

[PaigeMiller]

You have given us no context. We need to see the log that contains these messages (including the code as it appears in the log, plus all ERRORs, WARNINGs and NOTEs)

[Kurt_Bremser]

The first one is fatal, so the code can't run. The second one is a notification that the code will not work as expected.

[Ksharp · Accepted solution]

If you didn't specify
option nofmterr;

you will get
ERROR 48-59: The format XXX was not found or could not be loaded.

otherwise, you will get
NOTE 484-185: Format XXX was not found or could not be loaded.

[Tom]

That reflects a different setting for the FMTERR system option.

208   options fmterr;
209   data x;
210    format x nosuch.;
                -------
                48
ERROR 48-59: The format NOSUCH was not found or could not be loaded.

211   run;

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.X may be incomplete.  When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.17 seconds
      cpu time            0.01 seconds


212   options nofmterr;
213   data x;
214    format x nosuch.;
                -------
                484
NOTE 484-185: Format NOSUCH was not found or could not be loaded.

215   run;

NOTE: Variable x is uninitialized.
NOTE: The data set WORK.X has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.01 seconds
      cpu time            0.01 seconds