Introduction Custom formats are used to display variable values in certain ways, such as formatting a product number so that it is displayed as descriptive text. You should already be familiar with using the FORMAT procedure to create and store formats. In this lesson you learn to document formats, use formats located in any catalog, create formats with overlapping ranges, and use the PICTURE statement to create a format for printing numbers. You also learn an easy way to update formats by creating a SAS data set from a format, updating the data set, and then creating a format from the SAS data set.

Time to Complete This lesson contains pages and takes approximately 1.5 hours to complete.

Objectives In this lesson, you learn to create formats with overlapping ranges create custom formats using the PICTURE statement use the FMTLIB keyword with the FORMAT procedure to document formats use the CATALOG procedure to manage format entries use the DATASETS procedure to associate a format with a variable use formats located in any catalog substitute formats to avoid errors create a format from a SAS data set create a SAS data set from a custom format.

Prerequisites Before taking this lesson, you should complete the following lessons: .