Using Formats

You can use formats in these ways:

The PUT statement with a format after the variable name uses a format to write data values in a DATA step. For example, this PUT statement uses the DOLLARw.d format to write the numeric value for AMOUNT as a dollar amount:

amount=1145.32;
put amount dollar10.2;

The DOLLARw.d format in the PUT statement produces this result:

$1,145.32

For more information, see PUT Statement in SAS Statements: Reference.

The PUT function converts a numeric variable, a character variable, or a constant by using any valid format and then returns the resulting character value. For example, the following statement converts the value of a numeric variable to a two-character hexadecimal representation:

num=15;
char=put(num,hex2.);

The PUT function returns a value of 0F, which is assigned to the variable CHAR.

The PUT function is useful for converting a numeric value to a character value.

The %SYSFUNC (or %QSYSFUNC) macro function executes SAS functions or user-defined functions and applies an optional format to the function outside a DATA step. For example, the following program writes a numeric value in a macro variable as a dollar amount.

 %macro tst(amount);
   %put %sysfunc(putn(&amount,dollar10.2));
 %mend tst;

 %tst (1154.23);

The FORMAT statement permanently associates character variables with character formats and numeric variables with numeric formats.

SAS uses the format to write the values of the variable that you specify. For example, the following statement in a DATA step associates the COMMAw.d numeric format with the variables SALES1 through SALES3:

format sales1-sales3 comma10.2;

Because the FORMAT statement permanently associates a format with a variable, any subsequent DATA step or PROC step uses COMMA10.2 to write the values of SALES1, SALES2, and SALES3.

The ATTRIB statement can also associate a format, as well as other attributes, with one or more variables. In the following statement, the ATTRIB statement permanently associates the COMMAw.d format with the variables SALES1 through SALES3:

attrib sales1-sales3 format=comma10.2;

Because the ATTRIB statement permanently associates a format with a variable, any subsequent DATA step or PROC step uses COMMA10.2 to write the values of SALES1, SALES2, and SALES3.

For more information, see ATTRIB Statement in SAS Statements: Reference.