Why does viewtable make the column so narrow?

[PaigeMiller]

data months;
    do i=1 to 4;
	month=intnx('month',today(),i,'b');
	output;
	end;
	format month yymm7.;
run;

This is what I see in viewtable in SAS 9.4M5 Windows 10. The column for MONTH is too narrow. Yes, I can manually expand the column to see the values of the data, but this gets tiresome after having to do this all the time (and my real data has several month columns). So, how do I fix this programmatically so that viewtable will make the column wide enough?

[Tom]

Did you try using a different font?  Not sure what setting impacts ViewTable, but there are font setting options in Display Manager.  Tools -> Options -> Font...

[Ksharp · Accepted solution]

Try expand the width of format
format month yymm9.;
Or use other format like yymmn7. ;

[PaigeMiller]

Any explanation why viewtable works with YYMM9. but not YYMM7. ?

[RichardDeVen]

The viewtable layout engine (internal) sets the column width wider for a format that says its data render is 9 characters wide.

On my system the 7. format set aside is 47 pixels and 9. is 59 pixels. The minimum pixels need to wholly display the sample data is 49 pixels. I presume the M in the format cause the data render, with default font settings, to require a final graphic (screen) rendering wider than the estimate for space needed. So you get ****** instead.

[Ksharp]

I don't know why . If I run your code under SAS9.2 . The result is good .
Anytime if you find ***** in viewtable , that means the width of format is not enough .

[Ksharp]

format month yymm12.;