How Informats Are Used in FedSQL

Informats are informational and do not operate on your data at run time in the FedSQL environment. The client application is responsible for using the informat to convert the raw data when the table is returned to the application.

Note: If the informat that is stored in the FedSQL environment is invalid, an error occurs only when the invalid informat is used in the client application.

Diagram of How Informats Work

In FedSQL, informats are informational and do not operate on your data at runtime in the FedSQL environment. They are available for use by the Base SAS session and any client that knows how to use them.

However, in FedSQL, you can store and retrieve informat names. The informat name is associated with a column—either temporarily for the duration of an operation or permanently-by storing the informat as a metadata attribute on the column. The metadata then can be retrieved for subsequent operations.

FedSQL supports SAS informats as follows.

Both informats supplied by SAS and user-defined informats can be associated with a column. For information about how to create your own informat in SAS, see PROC FORMAT in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Note: To create and access user-defined informats, a Base SAS session must be available in order to access the SAS catalog file that stores the SAS informat definitions.
Only the SAS data sets and SPD Engine data sets support storing and retrieving an informat with a column.
Informats can be associated with all data types, but all data types are converted to either CHAR or DOUBLE.
You can associate SAS informats with a column by using the HAVING clause of the FedSQL CREATE TABLE or the SET clause of the FedSQL ALTER TABLE statement. For more information, see How to Specify Informats in FedSQL.

For more information and a complete list of informats that are supplied by SAS, see the section on informats in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference.