A SAS informat
is an instruction or template that SAS uses to read data values into
a variable. Most SAS informats are described completely in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference. The informats that are described here have behavior
that is specific to SAS under Windows.
Many of the SAS informats that have details specific to the Windows operating environment
are used to read
binary data. In using these informats, it is important that you understand the concepts
that are presented in
Reading Binary Data .