Working with the TEMPLATE Procedure

Introduction to the TEMPLATE Procedure

The TEMPLATE procedure enables you to customize the appearance of your SAS output. For example, you can create, extend, or modify existing templates for various types of output, such as the following:

styles
tables
crosstabulation tables
columns
headers
footers
tagsets
ODS Graphics

ODS uses these templates to produce formatted output.

You can use the TEMPLATE procedure to navigate and manage the templates stored in template stores. Here are some tasks that you can do with PROC TEMPLATE:

Edit an existing template.
Create links to an existing template.
Change the location where you write new templates.
Search for existing templates.
View the source code of a template.

What Can You Do with the TEMPLATE Procedure?

Modify a Table Template That a SAS Procedure Uses

The following output shows the use of a customized table template for the Moments output object using PROC UNIVARIATE. The program that creates the modified table template does the following:

Creates and edits a copy of the default table template.
Edits a header in the table template.
Sets column attributes to enhance the appearance of the HTML output.

To view the code that creates the following output, see the Editing a Table Template That a SAS Procedure Uses in SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

Default Moments Table

Customized Moments Table (Customized HTML Output from PROC UNIVARIATE and Viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer)

Modify a Style

When you are working with styles, you are more likely to modify a style that SAS provides than create a completely new style. The following output uses the Styles.HTMLBlue template that SAS provides and includes changes made to the style to customize the output’s appearance. To view the code that creates this output, see the Using the CLASS Statement in SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

In the contents file, changes to the style are to the following:

The text of the header and the text that identifies the procedure that produced the output.
The colors for some of the text.
The font size for some of the text.
The spacing in the entries in the table of contents.

In the body file, changes to the style are to the following:

Two of the colors in the color list. One of these colors is used as the foreground color for the table of contents, the BY line, and column headings. The other color is used as the foreground color for many parts of the body file, including SAS titles and footnotes.
The font size for titles and footnotes.
The font style for headers.
The presentation of the data in the table by changing attributes like cell spacing, rules, and border width.

HTML Output (Viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer)

Create Your Own Tagset

Tagsets are used to create custom markup. You can create your own tagsets, extend existing tagsets, or modify a tagset that SAS provides. The following display shows the results from a new tagset named TAGSET.MYTAGS.

To see the customized MYTAGS.CHTML tagset, view the source by selecting View

Source from your Web browser’s toolbar.

MYTAGS.CHTML Output (Viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer)

Create a Template-Based Graph

StatGraph templates create output called ODS Graphics. For complete information, see the SAS Graph Template Language: User's Guide.

The following code creates the StatGraph template MyGraphs.Regplot, which creates the following graph:

proc template;
define statgraph mygraphs.regplot;
begingraph;
  entrytitle "Regression Plot";
  layout overlay;    
	modelband "mean";
    scatterplot x=height y=weight;
	regressionplot x=height y=weight / clm="mean";
  endlayout;
endgraph;
end;
run;

ods listing style=analysis;
ods graphics / reset imagename="reg" width=500px;

proc sgrender data=sashelp.class template=mygraphs.regplot;
run;

The following display shows a scatterplot with an overlaid regression line and confidence limits for the mean of the HEIGHT and WEIGHT variables of a data set.

Scatterplot Created with a StatGraph Template

Modify a Crosstabulation Table

The TEMPLATE procedure enables you to customize the appearance of crosstabulation (contingency) tables that are created with the FREQ procedure. By default, crosstabulation tables are formatted based on the CrossTabFreqs template that SAS provides. However, you can create a customized CrossTabFreqs template using the TEMPLATE procedure with the DEFINE CROSSTABS statement. To view the SAS code that creates this output, see the Creating a Crosstabulation Table Template with a Customized Legend in SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

The following output shows the use of a customized CrossTabFreqs template for the CrossTabFreqs table. The program that creates the customized CrossTabFreqs template does the following:

Modifies table regions.
Customizes legend text.
Modifies headers and footers.
Modifies variable labels used in headers.
Customizes styles for cellvalues.

Customized CrossTabFreqs Template for the CrossTabFreqs Table