The Output Delivery
System (ODS) gives you greater flexibility in generating, storing,
and reproducing SAS procedure and DATA step output, with a wide range
of formatting options. ODS provides formatting functionality that
is not available from individual procedures or from the DATA step
alone. ODS overcomes these limitations and enables you to format your
output more easily.
Before Version 7, most
SAS procedures generated output that was designed for a traditional
line-printer. This type of output has limitations that prevent you
from getting the most value from your results:
-
Traditional SAS output is limited
to monospace fonts. With today's desktop document editors and publishing
systems, you need more versatility in printed output.
-
Some commonly used procedures do
not produce output data sets. Before ODS, if you wanted to use output
from one of these procedures as input to another procedure, then you
relied on PROC PRINTTO and the DATA step to retrieve results.
For more information about the Output Delivery System,
see the
SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.