The PRINTTO procedure requires an open Listing destination in order to route procedure output to an external file or to a SAS catalog entry. ODS LISTING is off by default in the SAS windowing environment in SAS® 9.3 on Microsoft Windows and UNIX operating systems. A file is created by PROC PRINTTO, but no procedure output is written. The file appears to be empty.

To prevent the creation of an empty file with PROC PRINTTO in SAS® 9.3, SAS® Enterprise Guide® users can select Tools ► Options ► Results ► Results General and verify that the Text option is selected. SAS windowing environment users can select Tools ► Options ► Preferences ► Results, and select the Create Listing option. In both environments, you can also explicitly open and close the Listing destination using the ODS LISTING statement, as shown below.

ods listing;

proc printto print="check.lst" new; 
run; 

data test; 
   a=5; 
   b=7; 
   c=9; 
run; 

proc means data=test maxdec=1 mean; 
   var a b c; 
run; 

proc printto print=print; 
run;

ods listing close;

Starting with the second maintenance release for SAS 9.3 (TS1M2), the Listing destination is automatically turned on when issuing a PROC PRINTTO statement using the PRINT= option.

Operating System and Release Information