Informats by Category

There are five categories of informats in this list:

Category		Description
Character		instructs SAS to read character data values into character variables.
Column Binary		instructs SAS to read data stored in column-binary or multipunched form into character or numeric variables.
Date and Time		instructs SAS to read date values into variables that represent dates, times, and datetimes.
ISO 8601		instructs SAS to read date, time, and datetime values that are written in the ISO 8601 standard into either numeric or character variables.
Numeric		instructs SAS to read numeric data values into numeric variables.

For information about column-binary data, see Reading Column-Binary Data in SAS Language Reference: Concepts. For information about creating user-defined informats, see FORMAT Procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide.

The following table provides brief descriptions of the SAS informats. For more detailed descriptions, see the dictionary entry for each informat.

Category	Language Elements	Description
Character	$ASCIIw. Informat	Converts ASCII character data to native format.
	$BASE64Xw. Informat	Converts ASCII text into character data by using Base 64 encoding.
	$BINARYw. Informat	Converts binary data to character data.
	$CHARw. Informat	Reads character data with blanks.
	$CHARZBw. Informat	Converts binary 0s to blanks.
	$EBCDICw. Informat	Converts EBCDIC character data to native format.
	$HEXw. Informat	Converts hexadecimal data to character data.
	$OCTALw. Informat	Converts octal data to character data.
	$PHEXw. Informat	Converts packed hexadecimal data to character data.
	$QUOTEw. Informat	Removes matching quotation marks from character data.
	$UPCASEw. Informat	Converts character data to uppercase.
	$VARYINGw. Informat	Reads character data of varying length.
	$w. Informat	Reads standard character data.
Column Binary	$CBw. Informat	Reads standard character data from column-binary files.
	CBw.d Informat	Reads standard numeric values from column-binary files.
	PUNCH.d Informat	Reads whether a row of column-binary data is punched.
	ROWw.d Informat	Reads a column-binary field down a card column.
Date and Time	$N8601Bw.d Informat	Reads complete, truncated, and omitted forms of ISO 8601 duration, datetime, and interval values that are specified in either the basic or extended notations.
	$N8601Ew.d Informat	Reads ISO 8601 duration, datetime, and interval values that are specified in the extended notation.
	ANYDTDTEw. Informat	Reads and extracts the date value from various date, time, and datetime forms.
	ANYDTDTMw. Informat	Reads and extracts datetime values from various date, time, and datetime forms.
	ANYDTTMEw. Informat	Reads and extracts time values from various date, time, and datetime forms.
	B8601CIw.d Informat	Reads an IBM date and time value that includes a century marker, in the form cyymmddhhmmss<fff>.
	B8601DAw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 base notation yyyymmdd.
	B8601DJw.d Informat	Reads a Java date and time value that is in the form yyyymmddhhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601DNw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation yyyymmdd and returns SAS datetime values where the time portion of the value is 000000.
	B8601DTw.d Informat	Reads datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation yyyymmddThhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601DZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 datetime basic notation yyyymmddThhmmss+\|–hhmm or yyyymmddThhmmss<ffffff>Z.
	B8601TMw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation hhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601TZw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic time notation hhmmss<ffff>+\|–hhmm or hhmmss<ffffff>Z.
	DATEw. Informat	Reads date values in the form ddmmmyy or ddmmmyyyy.
	DATETIMEw. Informat	Reads datetime values in the form ddmmmyy hh:mm:ss.ss or ddmmmyyyy hh:mm:ss.ss.
	DDMMYYw. Informat	Reads date values in the form ddmmyy<yy> or dd-mm-yy<yy>, where a special character, such as a hyphen (-), period (.), or slash (/), separates the day, month, and year; the year can be either 2 or 4 digits.
	E8601DAw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-dd.
	E8601DNw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-dd and returns SAS datetime values where the time portion of the value is 000000.
	E8601DTw.d Informat	Reads datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.<ffffff>.
	E8601DZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 datetime extended notation yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<fffff> or yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.<fffff>Z.
	E8601LZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation hh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<fffff> or hh:mm:ss.<fffff>Z and converts the values to the local time.
	E8601TMw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation hh:mm:ss.<ffffff>.
	E8601TZw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended time notation hh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<ffffff> or hh:mm:ssZ.
	HHMMSSw. Informat	Reads hours, minutes, and seconds in the form hh:mm:ss or hhmmss.
	JULIANw. Informat	Reads Julian dates in the form yyddd or yyyyddd.
	MDYAMPMw.d Informat	Reads datetime values in the form mm-dd-yy<yy> hh:mm:ss.ss AM\|PM, where a special character such as a hyphen (-), period (.), slash (/), or colon (:) separates the month, day, and year; the year can be either 2 or 4 digits.
	MMDDYYw. Informat	Reads date values in the form mmddyy or mmddyyyy.
	MONYYw. Informat	Reads month and year date values in the form mmmyy or mmmyyyy.
	MSECw. Informat	Reads TIME MIC values.
	PDJULGw. Informat	Reads packed Julian date values in the hexadecimal form yyyydddF for IBM.
	PDJULIw. Informat	Reads packed Julian dates in the hexadecimal format ccyydddF for IBM.
	PDTIMEw. Informat	Reads packed decimal time of SMF and RMF records.
	RMFDURw. Informat	Reads duration intervals of RMF records.
	RMFSTAMPw. Informat	Reads time and date fields of RMF records.
	SHRSTAMPw. Informat	Reads date and time values of SHR records.
	SMFSTAMPw. Informat	Reads time and date values of SMF records.
	STIMERw. Informat	Reads time values and determines whether the values are hours, minutes, or seconds; reads the output of the STIMER system option.
	TIMEw. Informat	Reads hours, minutes, and seconds in the form hh:mm:ss.ss, where special characters such as the colon (:) or the period (.) are used to separate the hours, minutes, and seconds.
	TODSTAMPw. Informat	Reads an eight-byte time-of-day stamp.
	TUw. Informat	Reads timer units.
	WEEKUw. Informat	Reads a value in the form of a week-number within the year and returns a SAS date value by using the U algorithm.
	WEEKVw. Informat	Reads a value in the form a week-number within a year and returns a SAS date value using the V algorithm.
	WEEKWw. Informat	Reads a value in the form of a week-number within the year and returns a SAS date value using the W algorithm.
	YMDDTTMw.d Informat	Reads datetime values in the form <yy>yy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.ss, where special characters such as a hyphen (-), period (.), slash (/), or colon (:) are used to separate the year, month, day, hour, minute, and seconds; the year can be either 2 or 4 digits.
	YYMMDDw. Informat	Reads date values in the form yymmdd or yyyymmdd.
	YYMMNw. Informat	Reads date values in the form yyyymm or yymm.
	YYQw. Informat	Reads quarters of the year in the form yyQq or yyyyQq.
ISO 8601	$N8601Bw.d Informat	Reads complete, truncated, and omitted forms of ISO 8601 duration, datetime, and interval values that are specified in either the basic or extended notations.
	$N8601Ew.d Informat	Reads ISO 8601 duration, datetime, and interval values that are specified in the extended notation.
	B8601CIw.d Informat	Reads an IBM date and time value that includes a century marker, in the form cyymmddhhmmss<fff>.
	B8601DAw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 base notation yyyymmdd.
	B8601DJw.d Informat	Reads a Java date and time value that is in the form yyyymmddhhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601DNw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation yyyymmdd and returns SAS datetime values where the time portion of the value is 000000.
	B8601DTw.d Informat	Reads datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation yyyymmddThhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601DZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 datetime basic notation yyyymmddThhmmss+\|–hhmm or yyyymmddThhmmss<ffffff>Z.
	B8601TMw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic notation hhmmss<ffffff>.
	B8601TZw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 basic time notation hhmmss<ffff>+\|–hhmm or hhmmss<ffffff>Z.
	E8601DAw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-dd.
	E8601DNw. Informat	Reads date values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-dd and returns SAS datetime values where the time portion of the value is 000000.
	E8601DTw.d Informat	Reads datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.<ffffff>.
	E8601DZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) datetime values that are specified using the ISO 8601 datetime extended notation yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<fffff> or yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.<fffff>Z.
	E8601LZw.d Informat	Reads Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation hh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<fffff> or hh:mm:ss.<fffff>Z and converts the values to the local time.
	E8601TMw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended notation hh:mm:ss.<ffffff>.
	E8601TZw.d Informat	Reads time values that are specified using the ISO 8601 extended time notation hh:mm:ss+\|–hh:mm.<ffffff> or hh:mm:ssZ.
Numeric	BINARYw.d Informat	Converts positive binary values to integers.
	BITSw.d Informat	Extracts bits.
	BZw.d Informat	Converts blanks to 0s.
	COMMAw.d Informat	Removes embedded characters.
	COMMAXw.d Informat	Removes embedded periods, blanks, dollar signs, percent signs, dashes, and closing parenthesis from the input data. An open parenthesis at the beginning of a field is converted to a minus sign. The COMMAX informat reverses the roles of the decimal point and the comma.
	Ew.d Informat	Reads numeric values that are stored in scientific notation and double-precision scientific notation.
	FLOATw.d Informat	Reads a native single-precision, floating-point value and divides it by 10 raised to the dth power.
	HEXw. Informat	Converts hexadecimal positive binary values to either integer (fixed-point) or real (floating-point) binary values.
	IBw.d Informat	Reads native integer binary (fixed-point) values, including negative values.
	IBRw.d Informat	Reads integer binary (fixed-point) values in Intel and DEC formats.
	IEEEw.d Informat	Reads an IEEE floating-point value and divides it by 10 raised to the d th power.
	NUMXw.d Informat	Reads numeric values with a comma in place of the decimal point.
	OCTALw.d Informat	Converts positive octal values to integers.
	PDw.d Informat	Reads data that are stored in IBM packed decimal format.
	PERCENTw.d Informat	Reads percentages as numeric values.
	PIBw.d Informat	Reads positive integer binary (fixed-point) values.
	PIBRw.d Informat	Reads positive integer binary (fixed-point) values in Intel and DEC formats.
	PKw.d Informat	Reads unsigned packed decimal data.
	RBw.d Informat	Reads numeric data that are stored in real binary (floating-point) notation.
	S370FFw.d Informat	Reads EBCDIC numeric data.
	S370FIBw.d Informat	Reads integer binary (fixed-point) values, including negative values, in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FIBUw.d Informat	Reads unsigned integer binary (fixed-point) values in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FPDw.d Informat	Reads packed data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FPDUw.d Informat	Reads unsigned packed decimal data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FPIBw.d Informat	Reads positive integer binary (fixed-point) values in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FRBw.d Informat	Reads real binary (floating-point) data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FZDw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FZDBw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal data in which zeros have been left blank.
	S370FZDLw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal leading-sign data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FZDSw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal separate leading-sign data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FZDTw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal separate trailing-sign data in IBM mainframe format.
	S370FZDUw.d Informat	Reads unsigned zoned decimal data in IBM mainframe format.
	TRAILSGNw. Informat	Reads a trailing plus (+) or minus (–) sign.
	VAXRBw.d Informat	Reads real binary (floating-point) data in VMS format.
	VMSZNw.d Informat	Reads VMS and MicroFocus COBOL zoned numeric data.
	w.d Informat	Reads standard numeric data.
	ZDw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal data.
	ZDBw.d Informat	Reads zoned decimal data in which zeros have been left blank.
	ZDVw.d Informat	Reads and validates zoned decimal data.