Working with User-Defined Formats

A format is a set of instructions that SAS uses to write data values. Formats are used in the data builder to control the written appearance of data values. User-defined formats are specialized formats that are not supplied by SAS. These formats are stored in a custom format catalog.

The preferred method for making user-defined formats available to a SAS Application Server is to name the custom format catalog formats.sas7bcat, and to place it in SAS-config-dir/Lev1/SASApp/SASEnvironment/SASFormats. For more information about using user-defined formats, see SAS Intelligence Platform: Data Administration Guide.

When a user-defined format is permanently associated with a variable, the data builder uses the format and shows it in the Format column. However, if you select the Format menu and choose a different format, you cannot use the Format menu to go back to the original user-defined format. You can click to undo the change to the format if you have not saved your work yet, or you can remove and add the column back again.

Even if the custom format catalog is made available to the SAS Application Server correctly, you cannot associate a user-defined format to a variable with the data builder. The menu in the Format column does not enable you to specify a user-defined format.