Optional Arguments

DATATYPE=DATE | TIME | DATETIME

enables the use of directives in the picture as a template to format date, time, or datetime values. Specify either DATE, TIME, or DATETIME based on the directive that you use in the picture format. See the definition and list of directives in the description of picture.

Tip:If you format a numeric missing value, then the resulting label will be ERROR. Adding a clause to your program that checks for missing values can eliminate the ERROR label.

DEFAULT=length

specifies the default length of the picture. The value for DEFAULT= becomes the length of picture if you do not give a specific length when you associate the format with a variable.

The default length of a picture is the length of the longest picture value.

Tip:If you are formatting DBCS characters, use the DEFAULT= option to set the default format width large enough to format these characters.

DECSEP='character'

specifies the separator character for the fractional part of a number.

Default:. (a decimal point)

DIG3SEP='character'

specifies the three-digit separator character for a number.

Default:, (a comma)

FILL='character'

If the number of significant digits is less than the length of the format, then the format must complete, or fill, the formatted value:

• The format uses character to fill the formatted value if you specify zeros as digit selectors.
• The format uses zeros to fill the formatted value if you specify nonzero digit selectors. The FILL= option has no effect.

If the picture includes other characters, such as a comma, which appear to the left of the digit selector that maps to the last significant digit placed, then the characters are replaced by the fill character or leading zeros.

Default:' ' (a blank)

Interaction:If you use the FILL= and PREFIX= options in the same picture, then the format places the prefix and then the fill characters.

Example:Filling a Picture Format

FUZZ=fuzz-factor

specifies a fuzz factor for matching values to a range. If a number does not match or fall in a range exactly but comes within fuzz-factor, then the format considers it a match. For example, the following VALUE statement creates the LEVELS. format, which uses a fuzz factor of .2:

value levels (fuzz=.2) 1='A'
                       2='B'
                       3='C';

FUZZ=.2 means that if a variable value falls within .2 of a value on either end of the range, then the format uses the corresponding formatted value to print the variable value. So the LEVELS. format formats the value 2.1 as B.

If a variable value matches one value or range without the fuzz factor, and also matches another value or range with the fuzz factor, then the format assigns the variable value to the value or range that it matched without the fuzz factor.

Default:1E−12 for numeric formats.

Tip:Specify FUZZ=0 to save storage space when you use the VALUE statement to create numeric formats.

LANGUAGE=

specifies the language that is used for weekdays and months year that you can substitute in a date, time, or datetime picture. If you specify a language that is not supported or is invalid, English is used.

Valid values for LANGUAGE= are the same languages that you can specify for the DFLANG= system option:

Afrikaans	English	Macedonian	Spanish
Catalan	Finnish	Norwegian	Swedish
Croatian	French	Polish	Swiss_French
Czech	German	Portuguese	Swiss_German
Danish	Hungarian	Russian
Dutch	Italian	Slovenian

Default:English

Tip:To use a user-defined format in languages other than those that are supported by the LANGUAGE= option, set the LOCALE= system option to the locale for the language. In PROC FORMAT, do not specify the LANGUAGE= option. The language of a picture format is determined by the locale setting. For a list of locales, see LOCALE= Values and Default Settings for ENCODING, PAPERSIZE, DFLANG, and DATESTYLE Options in SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

See:DFLANG= System Option: UNIX, Windows, and z/OS in SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide

MAX=length

specifies a maximum length for the format. When you associate the format with a variable, you cannot specify a width greater than the MAX= value.

Default:40

Range:1–40

MIN=length

specifies a minimum length for the format.

Default:1

Range:1–40

MULTILABEL

The label is the formatted value that is determined by the picture definition on the right of the equal sign in a value-range-set. Here is an example of how MULTILABEL is used:

The following PICTURE statements show the two uses of the MULTILABEL option. In each case, number formats are assigned as labels. The first PICTURE statement assigns multiple labels to a single value. Multiple labels can also be assigned to a single range of values. The second PICTURE statement assigns labels to overlapping ranges of values. The MULTILABEL option enables the assignment of multiple labels to the overlapped values.

picture abc (multilabel)
    1000='9,999'
    1000='9999';

  picture overlap (multilabel)
    /* without decimals */
    0-999='999'
    1000-9999='9,999'

     /* with decimals */
    0-9='9.999'
    10-99='99.99'
    100-999='999.9';

Only multilabel-enabled procedures such as PROC MEANS, PROC SUMMARY, and PROC TABULATE can use multiple labels. All other procedures and the DATA step recognize only the primary label.

The primary label for a given entry is the formatted value (based on the picture) that is assigned to the first value or range-of-values (left side of the equal sign) that matches or contains the entry when all values (on the left side of the equal sign) are ordered sequentially. Here is an example:

• In the first PICTURE statement, the primary label for 1000 is 1,000 because the picture 9,999 is the first value that is assigned to 1000. The secondary label for 1000 is 1000, based on the 9999 picture.
• In the second PICTURE statement, the primary label for 5 is 5.000 based on the 9.999 picture that is assigned to the range 0–9 because 0–9 is sequentially the first range of values that contain 5. The secondary label for 5 is 005 because the range 0–999 occurs in sequence after the range 0–9.

Consider carefully when you assign multiple labels to a value.

Unless you use the NOTSORTED option when you assign variables, SAS stores the variables in sorted order. This order can produce unexpected results when variables with the MULTILABEL format are processed. Here is an example:

In the second PICTURE statement, the primary label for 15 is 015, and the secondary label for 15 is 15.00 because the range 0–999 occurs in sequence before the range 10–99. If you want the primary label for 15 to use the 99.99 format, then you might want to change the range 10–99 to 0–99 in the PICTURE statement. The range 0–99 occurs in sequence before the range 0–999 and will produce the desired result.

Restriction:The maximum number of labels that can be created for a single format or informat is 255.

MULTIPLIER=n

specifies a number to multiply the variable's value by before it is formatted. The value of the MULTIPLIER= option depends both on the result of the multiplication and on the digit selectors in the picture portion of the value-range-set. For example, the following PICTURE statement creates the MILLION. format, which formats the variable value 1600000 as $1.6M:

picture million low-high='09.9M'
        (prefix='$' mult=.00001);

1600000 is first multiplied by .00001, which equals 16. Note that there is a digit selector after the decimal. The value 16 is placed into the picture beginning on the right. The value 16 overlays 09.9, and results in 01.6. Leading zeros are dropped, and the final result is 1.6M.

If the value of low-high is equal to '000M', then the result would be 16M.

Alias:MULT=

Default:10ⁿ, where n is the number of digits after the first decimal point in the picture. For example, suppose your data contains a value 123.456 and you want to print it using a picture of '999.999'. The format multiplies 123.456 by 10³ to obtain a value of 123456, which results in a formatted value of 123.456.

Example:Creating a Picture Format

NOEDIT

specifies that numbers are message characters rather than digit selectors. That is, the format prints the numbers as they appear in the picture. For example, the following PICTURE statement creates the MILES. format, which formats any variable value greater than 1000 as >1000 miles:

picture miles 1-1000='0000'
           1000<-high='>1000 miles'(noedit);

NOTSORTED

stores values or ranges in the order in which you define them. If you do not specify NOTSORTED, then values or ranges are stored in sorted order by default, and SAS uses a binary searching algorithm to locate the range that a particular value falls into. If you specify NOTSORTED, then SAS searches each range in the order in which you define them until a match is found.

Use NOTSORTED if one of the following is true:

• You know the likelihood of certain ranges occurring, and you want your format to search those ranges first to save processing time.
• You want to preserve the order that you define ranges when you print a description of the format using the FMTLIB option.
• You want to preserve the order that you define ranges when you use the ORDER=DATA option and the PRELOADFMT option to analyze class variables in PROC MEANS, PROC SUMMARY, or PROC TABULATE.

Do not use NOTSORTED if the distribution of values is uniform or unknown, or if the number of values is relatively small. The binary searching algorithm that SAS uses when NOTSORTED is not specified optimizes the performance of the search under these conditions.

SAS automatically sets the NOTSORTED option when you use the CPORT and the CIMPORT procedures to transport informats or formats between operating environments with different standard collating sequences. This automatic setting of NOTSORTED can occur when you transport informats or formats between ASCII and EBCDIC operating environments. If this situation is undesirable, then do the following:

• Use the CNTLOUT= option in the PROC FORMAT statement to create an output control data set.
• Use the CPORT procedure to create a transport file for the control data set.
• Use the CIMPORT procedure in the target operating environment to import the transport file.
• In the target operating environment, use PROC FORMAT with the CNTLIN= option to build the formats and informats from the imported control data set.

PREFIX='prefix'

specifies a character prefix to place in front of the formatted value. The prefix is placed in front of the value's first significant digit. You must use zero digit selectors or the prefix is not used.

Typical uses for PREFIX= are printing leading currency symbols and minus signs. For example, the PAY. format prints the variable value 25500 as $25,500.00:

picture pay
   low-high='000,009.99' (prefix='$');

Default:no prefix

Interaction:If you use the FILL= and PREFIX= options in the same picture, then the format places the prefix and then the fill characters.

Examples:Creating a Picture Format

Filling a Picture Format

CAUTION:

If the picture is not wide enough to contain both the value and the prefix, then the format truncates or omits the prefix, which results in inaccurate data.

ROUND

rounds the value to the nearest integer before formatting. Without the ROUND option, the format multiplies the variable value by the multiplier, truncates the decimal portion (if any), and prints the result according to the template that you define. With the ROUND option, the format multiplies the variable value by the multiplier, rounds that result to the nearest integer, and then formats the value according to the template. Note that if the FUZZ= option is also specified, the rounding takes place after SAS has used the fuzz factor to determine which range the value belongs to.

Tip:The ROUND option rounds a value of .5 to the next highest integer.

CAUTION:

The picture must be wide enough for an additional digit if rounding a number adds a digit to the number.

For example, the picture for the number .996 could be ‘99’ (prefix ‘.’ mult=100). After rounding the number and multiplying it by 100, the resulting number is 100. When the picture is applied, the result is .00, an inaccurate number. In order to ensure accuracy of numbers when you round numbers, make the picture wide enough to accommodate larger numbers.

value-range-set

specifies one or more variable values and a template for printing those values. value-range-set has the following form:

value-or-range-1 <..., value-or-range-n>='picture'

picture

specifies a template for formatting values of numeric variables. The picture is a sequence of characters in single quotation marks. The maximum length for a picture is 40 characters. Pictures are specified with three types of characters: digit selectors, message characters, and directives. You can have a maximum of 16 digit selectors in a picture.

digit selectors

are numeric characters (0 through 9) that define positions for numeric values. A picture format with nonzero digit selectors prints any leading zeros in variable values; picture digit selectors of 0 do not print leading zeros in variable values. If the picture format contains digit selectors, then a digit selector must be the first character in the picture.

Note:This section uses 9's as nonzero digit selectors.

message characters

are nonnumeric characters that print as specified in the picture. The following PICTURE statement contains both digit selectors (99) and message characters (illegal day value). Because the DAYS. format has nonzero digit selectors, values are printed with leading zeros. The special range OTHER prints the message characters for any values that do not fall into the specified range (1 through 31).

picture days 
           01-31='99'
           other='99-illegal day value';

Example:The values 02 and 67 print as

                             02
       67-illegal day value

directives

are special characters that you can use in the picture to format date, time, or datetime values.

Note: You can use directives only when you specify the DATATYPE= option in the PICTURE statement. Ensure that the value of the DATATYPE= option is appropriate for the type of directive that you want to use. If you use an inappropriate value, the data does not format. For example, for the %a directive, use DATATYPE=DATE.

The permitted directives are as follows:

%a

abbreviated weekday name (for example, Wed).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%A

full weekday name (for example, Wednesday).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%b

abbreviated month name (for example, Jan).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%B

full month name (for example, January).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%C

long month name with blank padding (January through December) (for example, December).

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%d

day of the month.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0d).

%e

day of the month as a two-character decimal number with leading spaces (" 1"- "31") (for example, “ 2”).

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%F

full weekday name with blank padding.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%G

year as a four-digit decimal number (for example, 2008). If the week that contains January 1 has four or more days in the new year, then it is considered week 1 in the new year. Otherwise, it is the last week of the previous year and the year is considered the previous year.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%H

hour (24-hour clock).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0H).

%I

hour (12-hour clock).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0I).

%j

day of the year as a decimal number (1–366), with leading zero.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0j).

%m

month (1–12).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0m).

%M

minute (0–59).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0M).

%n

number of days in a duration as a decimal number (maximum of 10 digits) (for example, 25).

Interaction:This directive is not valid for national languages.

%o

month (1-12) with blank padding (for example, " 2").

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%p

equivalent to either a.m. or p.m.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%q

abbreviated quarter of the year string such as 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%Q

quarter of the year string, such as Quarter1, Quarter2, Quarter3, or Quarter4.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%s

fractional seconds as decimal digits (for example, .39555). The number of digits formatted is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point that is specified when you use the format. SAS rounds fractional seconds to accommodate the number of digits specified for fractional seconds.

Interaction:This directive is not valid for national languages.

%S

seconds (0–59), allowing for possible leap seconds.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0S).

Example:58 and 59.07

%u

weekday as a one-digit decimal number (1–7 (Monday - Sunday)) (for example, Sunday=7).

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%U

week number of the year as a decimal number (0–53). Sunday is considered the first day of the week.

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0U).

%V

week number (01–53) with the first Monday as the start day of the first week. Minimum days of the first week is 4.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0SV).

%w

weekday as a one-digit decimal number (0–6 (Sunday through Saturday)) (for example, Sunday=0).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0w).

%W

week number (0–53) with the first Monday as the start day of the first week.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0W).

%y

year without century (0–99) (for example, 93).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

Note:To add a leading zero before a single-digit number, insert a 0 before the directive (for example, %0y).

%Y

year with century as a four-digit decimal number (1970–2069) (for example, 1994).

Interaction:This directive can be used for all formats, including national language formats.

%z

UTC time-zone offset.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%Z

time-zone name.

Interaction:This directive can be used only for national language formats.

%%

the % character.

Tip:Add code to your program to direct how you want missing values to be displayed.

value-or-range

See Specifying Values or Ranges.

Interaction:If you specify LANGUAGE= and PICTURE= in the format definition, the format supports only English and the European languages. To use a user-defined format in languages other than those that are supported by the LANGUAGE= option, use the PICTURE= statement. Do not specify the LANGUAGE= option. The language of a picture format is determined by the locale setting.