The
column-identifier argument can be either the CA-Datacom/DB
field name or the positional equivalent from the LIST statement, which is the number that
represents the column's place in the
access descriptor. For example, to associate the DATE9. informat with the BIRTHDATE column and with
the second column in the access descriptor, submit the following statement:
informat 2=date9. birthdate=date9.;
The column-identifier is specified on the left and the SAS informat is specified on
the right
of the expression. The equal sign(=) is optional. If the DBMS column name contains
special characters or national characters, enclose the name
in quotation marks. You can enter informats for as many columns as you want in one
INFORMAT statement.
You can use the INFORMAT statement with a
view descriptor only if the ASSIGN statement that was used when creating the access descriptor was
specified with the
NO value.
Note: You do not have to issue
a SELECT statement in a view descriptor for the columns included in
the INFORMAT statement. The INFORMAT statement selects the columns.
When you use the INFORMAT statement with access descriptors, the INFORMAT
statement reselects columns that were previously dropped with the
DROP statement.
INFMT is the alias for
the INFORMAT statement.