Hi Lawrence,   What FMTSEARCH actually does is point to a formats catalog that contains the formats you created. It sounds like you expect it to point to the dataset you created.   PROC FORMAT takes an input dataset through cntlin and creates what's called an entry (or entries) in a catalog. This catalog is called FORMATS by default and will be kept in a library, by default WORK. If the library is a permanent one you can point libname to it in a subsequent SAS session and have FMTSEARCH point to that catalog. Then your format will be available to that session and beyond.   Your code does not contain the option that directs PROC FORMAT to store the format in a catalog in a  permanent library. So what you should do is add LIBRARY=fmtlib to the PROC FORMAT statetement. That will create the expected catalog in the permanent library. In a new session your FMTSEARCH option would give the desired result. The cntlin dataset, once used by PROC FORMAT to create the catalog entry, can in fact be discarded (or kept for future reference). It can always be recreated with the inverse of CNTLIN, the CNTLOUT option.   If with this in mind, you read the SAS doc on the subject it should become crystal clear and you have gained yet another bit of the power to know.   Hope this helps, - Jan. ... View more

Trap for young players. Here is what I think is the issue. The code does not distinguish between "no keyes at all" and "no more keys" in the master table.   For key cod_cli=2 the master has three rows. The DO loop cycles through the master looking for potentially multiple occurences of the key. There are three rows in the master for that value. But the loop continues until a fourth lookup yield a DSENOM. This indicates there are no more rows with that key value. Your logic however has a case for that as well: it outputs a new row. Hence the extra row for cod_cli=2.   To further illustrate the issue add a row with cod_cli=3 in the transaction set. You will get an additional new row for that key as well.   I would set a flag if a key exists in the master and use that to prevent outputting new rows. See code below. But as usual there are probably many alternative approaches.   data master; set transaction; matched_flag='N'; do until (_iorc_=%sysrc(_dsenom)); modify master key=cod_cli; select(_iorc_); when(%sysrc(_sok)) do; Quantity = Quantity + AddQuantity; matched_flag='Y'; _error_=0; replace; end; when(%sysrc(_dsenom)) do; _error_=0; if matched_flag='N' then output; end; otherwise do; put 'ERROR: Unexpected value for _IORC_= ' _iorc_; put 'Program terminating. DATA step iteration # ' _n_; stop; end; end; end; run;   Regards, - Jan.   ... View more