Problem Note 68229: PROC TABULATE stops with the error message "The 'other' format range . . . is unreachable"
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When the PRELOADFMT option is used with summary procedures like the TABULATE procedure, all possible values of class variables are expected to be assigned a range. For each label in the format, there must be at least one representative raw value that produces the label. If a range does not have any raw values that fall into it, the range is considered “unreachable.”
The following errors are examples of errors that are generated by a CLASS variable whose format label is unreachable:
ERROR: A format range for the variable variable-name could not be pre-loaded.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
The following example code creates the above errors in the log:
value $fmt_sex_
(multilabel) '1'='M' other='_Other' low-high='_Total';
do gender='1', 'F', ' ';
output;
end;
run;
class gender / preloadfmt order=data;
table gender, n;
format gender $fmt_sex_.;
run;
The error is produced because the LOW-HIGH range includes all values, including missing values that are in a character format. Therefore, all raw values are already accounted for, and the OTHER= range cannot be reached by any raw value.
This behavior is expected and is not considered a defect.
In numeric formats, missing values are excluded from the LOW-HIGH range, the missing values are assigned to the OTHER= range, and the code does not generate an error.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | SAS Release | |
| Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | Base SAS | z/OS | ||
| z/OS 64-bit | ||||
| OpenVMS VAX | ||||
| Macintosh | ||||
| 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 8 Enterprise 32-bit | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | ||||
| 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 2003 for x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2016 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2019 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Windows Vista for x64 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Type: | Problem Note |
| Priority: | medium |
| Date Modified: | 2021-08-11 14:59:11 |
| Date Created: | 2021-08-09 13:43:44 |