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SAS FORMATS: USES AND ABUSES
Citation:
Croghan, C. SAS FORMATS: USES AND ABUSES. Presented at Southeastern SAS User Group, St. Petersburg, FL, September 22-24, 2003.
Impact/Purpose:
- Developing publically accessible databases.
- isseminating human exposure data bases and data tools in an appropriate manner to improve human exposure research and information.
- Ensuring that human exposure data sets generated by HEASD and its contractors or collaborators are useful for data analysis and for human exposure modeling, by providing formats and guidance on data base creation, documentation, storage, and retrieval.
- Ensuring that data sets produced in HEASD conform with ORD and EPA requirements.
- Compiling and translating existing human exposure data sets into useful formats for use by HEASD scientists and modelers.
- Making fully documented human exposure data sets available for researchers with collaborating external organizations.
Description:
SAS formats are a very powerful tool. They allow you to display the data in a more readable manner without modifying the data. They can also be used to group data into categories for use in various procedures like PROC FREQ, PROC TTEST, and PROC MEANS (as a class variable). As with many powerful tools, there are some 'gotchas' to be aware of. Formats can bomb a program without specific options. They can also produce misleading information especially the picture format. There are many aspects of formats to consider, including 'built in' or 'user defined' formats. A format can be set to be temporary or permanent. The PUT and INPUT functions can be used to generate new variables using formats. If you have several format libraries, managing the formats can be difficult. The SAS dictionary tables are useful in managing the different formats. With code and output examples, this presentation will demonstrate the various uses and potential abuses of SAS formats.
This work has been funded wholly by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products do not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.