Introduction to ODS Language Statements

Types of ODS Statements

DATA step statements are either executable or declarative statements that appear in the DATA step. The ODS statements that are used in the DATA step are executable statements. Executable statements result in some action during individual iterations of the DATA step. For information about declarative statements, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

Global Statements

Global statements

provide information to SAS
request information or data
move between different modes of execution
set values for system options

The global ODS statements deliver or store output in a variety of formats. You can use global statements anywhere in a SAS program. Global statements are not executable; they take effect as soon as SAS compiles program statements.

Global ODS statements are organized into three categories:

ODS: Output Control

statements that provide descriptive information about the specified output objects and indicate whether the style definition or table definition is supplied by SAS. The Output Control statements can do the following:

select or exclude specific output objects for specific destinations
specify the location where you want to search for or store style definitions or table definitions
verify if you are using a style definition or a table definition that is supplied by SAS
provide descriptive information about each specified output object, such as name, label, template, path, and label path

ODS: SAS Formatted

statements that enable you to produce items that are specifuc to SAS, such as a SAS data set, SAS output listing, or an ODS document. The statements in the ODS SAS Formatted category create the SAS entities. For more information, see The SAS Formatted Destinations.

ODS: Third-Party Formatted

statements that enable you to apply styles and markup languages, or produce output to physical printers using page description languages. For more information, see The Third-Party Formatted Destinations.

Procedure Statements

For information about the TEMPLATE procedure, see TEMPLATE Procedure: Overview. For information about the DOCUMENT procedure, see The DOCUMENT Procedure.

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