Dear SAS support Communities   My goal is to have all output from SAS printed in one window, instead of two windows.   The current default is that all output is printed to both the log and results viewer, but I would like all output to be printed to the log (or everything to the output-window).    By 'output' I mean: The text that is usually printed to the log (warnings, errors, notes, messages) ...AND the text/html that is usually printed to the 'results viewer' (e.g. the output of 'proc sql; select * from sashelp.class;quit; )   The reason for this goal is that it would give me more screen estate, because 2 windows take up less space than 3 windows.    PS: Printing everything to the output-window instead of the log would also suffice.  PS: I am using  SAS 9.4 for Windows ... View more

  Dear everyone The following macro mostly works:  It extracts the tables defined.   However, the "where" clause in the "proc sql" does not have any effect. So the problem is that rows are extracted which do not comply with the "where" clause.  For example rows are returned which have ATC = "A0".    Do anyone have any ideas what I am doing wrong?   (I have highlighted the part of the code which does seem to have the desired effect, i.e. it does not ensure that only the described ATC-codes are included)             proc sql; select memname into :LMDB_names separated by '' from dictionary.tables where libname = "RAWDST" and memname like "LMDB%" ;quit; %let LMDB_len = &sqlobs; %let LMDB_vars = pnr atc eksd; %macro extract_LMDB(table_list, list_len, col_names); %do i=1 %to &list_len; data out.%scan(&table_list, &i); merge out.pop (in=in_pop) pdb.%scan(&table_list, &i) (in = in_lmdb); by pnr; if in_pop = 1 & in_LMDB = 1; keep &col_names; run; proc sql; create table out.%scan(&table_list, &i) as select distinct pnr, atc, eksd from out.%scan(&table_list, &i) where upper(atc) like "G%" or upper(atc) like "D06%" or upper(atc) like "H02AB%" or upper(atc) like "G03%" or upper(atc) like "L04%" ;quit; %end; %mend extract_LMDB;   ... View more

      What are the advantages to using formats as opposed to storing categorical- or text-information in character columns instead?    At my workplace we use SAS, R, STATA and SPSS and other software. We sometimes have problems using SAS formats between different projects. The problems include: Problems opening a SAS dataset created by other SAS users, because the formats could not be loaded.  Granted, it is still possible to open that SAS dataset by specifying the noformat option, but then the information stored in the formats are lost.  Granted, SAS users should always store a format catalogue together with a SAS dataset, but this is routinely forgotten in at my workplace, because we have a steady influx of new SAS users.  Although storing a SAS format catalogue together with the dataset solves the problem, it adds complexity in storing and managing different versions of SAS data sets because two files are required to use the data, instead of just one file.  Problems opening SAS datasets in R because the packages (the haven-package) does not always read the formats correctly. It reads character variables correctly however.  Using a number to represent another value adds another layer of complexity, which would be avoided if the information was stored as a string. For example, if find it easier to read: if var1 = 'myocardial infarction' then var2 = 'cardiovascular disease'; than to read: if var1 = 3 then var2 = 'cardiovascular disease';   I can see that it is advantageous to use a format for dates, as opposed to having a string with the date, because it makes arithmetic and comparisons operations possible.  Further, I can see that in the past, using formats would save disk space because numeric columns take less space than character columns.  I am aware that he special-missing types (.A, .B .C etc) would not be possible using character columns. However the special missing only work for numeric-variables anyway, which detracts from their usability anyway.  Further, it is my experience that using special missing variables confuses people more than they help people, because they add implicit exception handling to the proc freq procedure for example.  However, at least in my experience, this is of no practical value, because disk space is so plentiful and cheap today (2019).    I would like to hear if you agree or disagree with the critique of SAS formats described above, and the proposed solution (just storing categorical information in character-variables)? I would also like to hear what you do, or would do in a similar situation? Does using SAS formats work for you? What are the If, so what are your tactics for avoiding the above mentioned problems? What do YOU see as the advantages and disadvantages of using SAS formats as opposed to storing categorical/text-like information in character-columns instead of numerical columns. ... View more