About Format and Informat Processing with OLE DB

What Are Formats and Informats?

A SAS format is a pattern or set of instructions that SAS uses to determine how the values of a variable (or column) should be written or displayed. A SAS informat is a pattern or set of instructions that SAS uses to determine how data values in an input file should be interpreted. SAS provides a set of standard formats and informats and also enables you to define your own.

OLE DB applications use customizations to the OLE DB interfaces in order to access SAS formatting features. The following topics explain how to use the customizations in your application:

Note: ADO applications support SAS formatting features through the use of the "SAS Formats" and "SAS Informats" properties. For more information, see Using SAS Formats When You Read Data and Using SAS Informats When You Write Data.

Supported SAS Formats

The level of support for SAS formats depends on the provider:

The IOM provider supports both user-written formats and SAS formats that are defined within the context of the currently active IOM workspace.
The local provider, OLAP provider, and SAS/SHARE provider do not support user-written formats; however, they do support most SAS formats.

Note: The OLAP provider requires that the formats are persisted with the cube on the OLAP server. For more information, see Determining Persisted (Default) Formatting Information.

Here is the list of supported SAS formats:

$ASCII	DOWNAME	NUMX	S370FZDT
$BINARY	DTDATE	OCTAL	S370FZDU
$CHAR	DTMONYY	PD	TIME
$EBCDIC	DTYEAR	PERCENT	TIMEAMPM
$HEX	DTYYQC	PIB	TOD
$OCTAL	E	PIBR	WEEKDATE
$QUOTE	FLOAT	PK	WEEKDATX
$REVERJ	FRACT	PVALUE	WEEKDAY
$REVERS	HEX	QTR	WORDDATE
$UPCASE	HHMM	QTRR	WORDDATX
$XPORTCH	HOUR	RB	WORDF
BEST	IB	ROMAN	WORDS
BINARY	IEEE	SSN	XYYMMDD
COMMA	JULIAN	S370FF	YEAR
COMMAX	MINGUO	S370FIB	YEN
D	MMDDYY	S370FIBU	YYMM
DATEAMPM	MMSS	S370FPD	YYMMDD
DATETIME	MMYY	S370FPDU	YYMMN
DATE	MONNAME	S370FPIB	YYMON
DAY	MONTH	S370FRB	YYQ
DDMMYY	MONYY	S370FZD	YYQR
DOLLAR	NEGPAREN	S370FZDL	Z
DOLLARX	NENGO	S370FZDS	ZD

For more information about SAS formats, see the SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

Determining Persisted (Default) Formatting Information

In a SAS data set, a variable (column) can have persisted (default) formatting information. There are two methods that you can use to determine what, if any, default formatting information exists in a data set. Use the method that is most appropriate for your application.

Along with some other column metadata that is specific to SAS, the ISASColumnsInfo customized rowset interface returns the names, lengths, and decimal widths of formats and informats that are stored in the data set. In order to use the interface, the data set must be open. For more information about how to use the interface, see ISASColumnsInfo Custom Interface.

Note: A format or informat name that is returned by ISASColumnsInfo::GetColumnsInfo might not be supported by a particular provider or server. By default, you will receive an error if you attempt to apply format or informat services with a format that is not supported. To change this default behavior, set the DBPROP_SAS_FMTERR property to VARIANT_FALSE.

The COLUMNS schema rowset also returns format and informat metadata. Consider using this method if your application needs to determine metadata for columns that exist in a table that is not open. For more information, see COLUMNS Schema Rowset.