FedSQL formats have the following syntax:
Arguments
$
indicates a character
format; its absence indicates a numeric informat.
format
names the format. The
format is a SAS format, a FedSQL format, or a user-defined format
that was previously defined with the INVALUE statement in PROC FORMAT.
For more information about user-defined formats, see PROC FORMAT in
Base SAS Procedures Guide.
w
specifies the format
width, which for most formats is the number of columns in the input
data.
d
specifies a decimal
scaling factor in the numeric formats. FedSQL divides the input data
by 10 to the power of d.
| Tip |
When the value of d is
greater than 15, the precision of the decimal value after the fifteenth
decimal place might not be accurate.
|
Formats always contain
a period (.) as a part of the name. If you omit the w and
the d values from the format,
SAS uses default values. The d value
that you specify with a format tells FedSQL to display that many decimal
places, regardless of how many decimal places are in the data. Formats
never change or truncate the internally stored data values.
For example, in DOLLAR10.2,
the w value of 10 specifies
a maximum of 10 columns for the value. The d value
of 2 specifies that two of these columns are for the decimal part
of the value, which leaves eight columns for all the remaining characters
in the value. This includes the decimal point, the remaining numeric
value, a minus sign if the value is negative, the dollar sign, and
commas, if any.
If the format width
is too narrow to represent a value, FedSQL tries to squeeze the value
into the space available. Character formats truncate values on the
right. Numeric formats sometimes revert to the BESTw. format. The
BESTw. format is the default format for writing numeric values. BESTw.
rounds the value, and if SAS can display at least one significant
digit in the decimal portion within the width specified, BESTw. produces
the result in decimal. Otherwise, it produces the result in scientific
notation. SAS always stores the complete value regardless of the format
that you use to represent it. At least 3 columns must be available
for the BESTw. format to be applied. FedSQL prints blanks if you do
not specify an adequate width. To illustrate, the following request:
select put(12345, 3.);
returns
the output
1E4. Meanwhile, this request:
select put(12345, 2.);
returns
a blank value.
If you use an incompatible
format, such as using a numeric format to write character values,
FedSQL first attempts to use an analogous format of the other type.
If this is not feasible, an error message that describes the problem
appears in the SAS log.