In SAS^® code, formats determine how variable values are printed. However, sometimes the format supplied by the SAS^® System for date or datetime variables do not give you exactly the display format that you want. For example, consider the SAS QTRw. format, which only displays a date variable value as the quarter of the year (1, 2, 3 or 4). If you want to display the quarters as QTR1, QTR2, QTR3 or QTR4 instead of just as numbers, SAS does not have a format to accomplish such a display. However, you can use format options in the FORMAT procedure's PICTURE statement to create a mask (or picture) that instructs SAS to append the quarter number to your desired text string.

In general, PROC FORMAT enables you to define your own formats for variables in order to change the way the variables display or print in procedure output. With formats, you can do the following:

• Using a VALUE statement in PROC FORMAT, you can perform these tasks:
• Print or display numeric values as character values (for example, print 1 as MALE and 2 as FEMALE).
• Print or display one character string as a different character string (for example, print YES as OUI).
• Using a PICTURE statement in PROC FORMAT, you can print or display numeric values using a mask or pattern for the numbers (for example, you can print 9458763450 as 945-876-3450 or print the date variable value 10Feb2010 as QTR1).

  The syntax for the PICTURE statement in PROC FORMAT is as follows:

     PICTURE name <(format-option(s))> <value-range-set-1
                            <(picture-1-option(s))> <...value-range-set-n
                            <(picture-n-option(s))>>;

  The following program illustrates a custom PICTURE format that is used to generate a custom format for a quarter from a date variable. The DATATYPE= option specifies a special directive for the date variable's display. In the program, %q is replaced with the value 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the string Qtr%q. For more information about using date or datetime directives in PICTURE formats, see "The FORMAT Procedure" in the Base SAS^® 9.2 Procedures Guide.

  Example

  proc format; picture myfmt low-high='Qtr%q' (datatype=date); run; data a; infile datalines; input date date9.; put "**********************************"; put "Using a custom format created by a PICTURE statement: " ; put "Original value: " date= date9. "PICTURE: " date= myfmt.; return; datalines; 10feb2010 14oct1968 ; run; proc print data=a; title 'Print Procedure Output Using the PICTURE Statement'; format date myfmt.; run;

  If you look at the SAS log, you will see the following output:

  ********************************** Using a custom format created by a PICTURE statement: Original value: date=10FEB2010 PICTURE: date=Qtr1 ********************************** Using a custom format created by a PICTURE statement: Original value: date=14OCT1968 PICTURE: date=Qtr4

  The following output is generated by PROC PRINT in the SAS Output window:

  Proc Print Output Using PICTURE Format Obs date 1 Qtr1 2 Qtr4
  
  
  

  Operating System and Release Information

  Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
  			Reported	Fixed*
  SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS
  		OpenVMS VAX
  		Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition
  		Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition
  		Microsoft® Windows® for x64
  		OS/2
  		Microsoft Windows 95/98
  		Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  		Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
  		Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
  		Microsoft Windows NT Workstation
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
  		Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
  		Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit
  		Windows 7 Enterprise x64
  		Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
  		Windows 7 Home Premium x64
  		Windows 7 Professional 32 bit
  		Windows 7 Professional x64
  		Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
  		Windows 7 Ultimate x64
  		Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
  		Windows Vista
  		64-bit Enabled AIX
  		64-bit Enabled HP-UX
  		64-bit Enabled Solaris
  		ABI+ for Intel Architecture
  		AIX
  		HP-UX
  		HP-UX IPF
  		IRIX
  		Linux
  		Linux for x64
  		Linux on Itanium
  		OpenVMS Alpha
  		OpenVMS on HP Integrity
  		Solaris
  		Solaris for x64
  		Tru64 UNIX

  * For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.