About ODS Destinations and Styles

ODS destinations determine where your graph output is sent and how the output is formatted. For example, the HTML destination creates an HTML file that points to the graph image file. The LISTING destination sends output to an image file. The output image can be displayed by opening the image file from the Results window.

For creation of ODS graphs, a valid ODS destination must be open. You can open destinations by specifying an ODS destination statement. In the SAS windowing environment on Windows and UNIX systems, the HTML destination is open by default. (The default destination for batch mode is LISTING.) If you keep the default HTML destination open and open another, the resultant output is sent to the Web as well as to the other specified destination. With the exceptions of the HTML and LISTING destinations, you must also close the destination before output is generated.

The ODS destination statement is used at the beginning and end of the program to open and close destinations.

ods listing;     /* opens the destination */
    /* procedure statements and other program elements here */
ods listing close; /* closes the destination */

Depending on the options available for the destination, you can specify options such as the filename or the path to an output directory. For more information, see Specifying a Destination.

ODS styles determine the overall appearance of your output. By default, ODS applies a style to all output. A style is a template, or set of instructions, that determines the colors, fonts, line styles, fill colors, and other presentation aspects of your output. Each destination has a default style associated with it. For example, the default style for the PDF destination is Printer, and the default style for the HTML destination is HTMLBlue.

The ODS Graphics procedures automatically obtain their default appearance attributes from the current ODS style. However, you can use appearance options in your plot statements to override the default style attributes.

To change the style that is applied to your output, specify the STYLE= option on your ODS destination statement.

ods html style=analysis;

SAS ships predefined styles in the STYLES item store in SASHELP.TMPLMST. Some of these predefined styles are described in Recommended Styles. To see all available styles, see Viewing a Style Template.