Tips for Using the Format Publishing Macros

  • Use the ACTION=CREATE option only the first time that you run the format publishing macro. After that, use ACTION=REPLACE or ACTION=DROP.
  • The format publishing macro does not require a format catalog. If you do not have any custom formats, only the formats that SAS supplies are published. However, you can use this code to create an empty format catalog in your WORK directory before you publish the PUT function and the formats that SAS supplies:
    proc format;
    run;
  • If you modify any PROC FORMAT entries in the source catalog, you must republish the entire catalog.
  • If the format publishing macro is executed between two procedure calls, the page number of the last query output is increased by two.