SAS data viewer format toggle switch

[Haris]

Please add a toggle switch that would alternate between displaying formatted and unformatted values in SAS data viewers.  Similar to the existing option to view Variable Names versus Variable Labels.  The current display always hows value labels and one has to resort to time-consuming tricks to unmask the relationship between value and format.  A simple toggle would permit a quick access to information hidden by the formatted values.

[ballardw]

You might provide an example of what your particular issue is and which environment.

If you are talking about the view table in the SAS Display Manger then you can click on any column heading to bring up the variable properties and set a format for the variable.

A variable will always have a format. That is the way SAS works. You can set something like a BEST for numeric but it is still a format and has a default number of characters it will display.

[Tom]

In the VIEWTABLE tool of Display Manager you can change the format used.  But you have to do it for each variable individually.  Note that if the variable has no format attached to it then VIEWTABLE will make it look like the default format (BEST12. for numeric and $<length> for character) is attached when you look at the field properties.

[Haris]

I have not used Base SAS interface in about a decade.  All my work is done via SAS Enterprise Guide.  I will need to look at the view capabilities of SAS Display Manager.  In SEG, you can see variable format in Properties, but not change it.

[Tom]

Here is a example of the type of painful work around you need to do this with SAS/Studio. 

You can click on the button the says "display the code that creates the current table"

and you will get a program window that has a PROC SQL select statement.  You can edit that to attach a different format to the variable(s) in question, run it and then browse that output instead.  Note that PROC SQL syntax does not support removing an attached format. Instead set it to something generic like BEST for numeric and $xxx for character where xxx is the length of the variable.