The FORMAT Procedure

PICTURE Statement

Creates a template for printing numbers.

Featured in: Creating a Picture Format and Filling a Picture Format

See also: The section on formats in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary for documentation on formats supplied by SAS.

PICTURE name <(format-option(s))>
<value-range-set-1 <(picture-1-option(s) )>
<...value-range-set-n <(picture-n-option(s))>>>;

To do this Use this option

Control the attributes of the format

Specify a fuzz factor for matching values to a range DEFAULT=

Specify a fuzz factor for matching values to a range FUZZ=

Specify a maximum length for the format MAX=

Specify a minimum length for the format MIN=

Specify multiple pictures for a given value or range and for overlapping ranges MULTILABEL

Store values or ranges in the order that you define them NOTSORTED

Round the value to the nearest integer before formatting ROUND

Control the attributes of each picture in the format

Specify a character that completes the formatted value FILL=

Specify a number to multiply the variable's value by before it is formatted MULTIPLIER=

Specify that numbers are message characters rather than digit selectors NOEDIT

Specify a character prefix for the formatted value PREFIX=

To do this	Use this option
Control the attributes of the format
	Specify a fuzz factor for matching values to a range	DEFAULT=
	Specify a fuzz factor for matching values to a range	FUZZ=
	Specify a maximum length for the format	MAX=
	Specify a minimum length for the format	MIN=
	Specify multiple pictures for a given value or range and for overlapping ranges	MULTILABEL
	Store values or ranges in the order that you define them	NOTSORTED
	Round the value to the nearest integer before formatting	ROUND
Control the attributes of each picture in the format
	Specify a character that completes the formatted value	FILL=
	Specify a number to multiply the variable's value by before it is formatted	MULTIPLIER=
	Specify that numbers are message characters rather than digit selectors	NOEDIT
	Specify a character prefix for the formatted value	PREFIX=

Required Arguments

name: names the format you are creating. The name must be a SAS name up to eight characters long, not ending in a number. A user-defined format cannot be the name of a format supplied by SAS. Refer to the format later by using the name followed by a period. However, do not put a period after the format name in the PICTURE statement.

Options
The following options are common to the INVALUE, PICTURE, and VALUE statements and are described in Informat and Format Options :

DEFAULT= length

FUZZ= fuzz-factor

MAX=length

MIN=length

NOTSORTED

In addition, you can use the following arguments:

DATATYPE=DATE | TIME | DATETIME

specifies that you can use directives in the picture as a template to format date, time, or datetime values. See the definition of directives for a list.

DECSEP='character'

specifies the separator character for the fractional part of a number.

Default:

. (a decimal point)

DIG3SEP='character'

specifies the three-digit separator character for a number.

Default:

, (a comma)

FILL='character'

specifies a character that completes the formatted value. If the number of significant digits is less than the length of the format, the format must complete, or fill, the formatted value:

The format uses character to fill the formatted value if you specify zeros as digit selectors.
The format uses zeros to fill the formatted value if you specify nonzero digit selectors. The FILL= option has no effect.

If the picture includes other characters, such as a comma, which appear to the left of the digit selector that maps to the last significant digit placed, the characters are replaced by the fill character or leading zeros.

Default: ' ' (a blank)
Interaction: If you use the FILL= and PREFIX= options in the same picture, the format places the prefix and then the fill characters.
Featured in: Filling a Picture Format

MULTILABEL

allows the assignment of multiple labels or external values to internal values. The following PICTURE statements show the two uses of the MULTILABEL option. In each case, number formats are assigned as labels. The first PICTURE statement assigns multiple labels to a single internal value. Multiple labels may also be assigned to a single range of internal values. The second PICTURE statement assigns labels to overlapping ranges of internal values. The MULTILABEL option allows the assignment of multiple labels to the overlapped internal values.

picture abc (multilabel)
   1000='9,999'
   1000='9999';

picture overlap (multilabel)
   /* without decimals */
   0-999='999'
   1000-9999='9,999'
   
   /* with decimals */
   0-9='9.999'
   10-99='99.99'
   100-999='999.9';

Only multilabel-enabled procedures such as PROC MEANS, PROC SUMMARY, and PROC TABULATE can use multiple labels. All other procedures recognize only the primary label. The primary label for a given entry is the external value that is assigned to the first internal value or range of internal values that matches or contains the entry when all internal values are ordered sequentially. For example, in the first PICTURE statement, the primary label for 1000 is 1,000 because the format 9,999 is the first external value that is assigned to 1000. The secondary label for 1000 is 1000, based on the 9999 format.

In the second PICTURE statement, the primary label for 5 is 5.000 based on the 9.999 format that is assigned to the range 0-9 because 0-9 is sequentially the first range of internal values containing 5. The secondary label for 5 is 005 because the range 0-999 occurs in sequence after the range 0-9. Consider carefully when you assign multiple labels to an internal value. Unless you use the NOTSORTED option when you assign variables, the SAS System stores the variables in sorted order. This may produce unexpected results when variables with the MULTILABEL format are processed. For example, in the second PICTURE statement, the primary label for 15 is 015, and the secondary label for 15 is 15.00 because the range 0-999 occurs in sequence before the range 10-99. If you want the primary label for 15 to use the 99.99 format you may want to change the range 10-99 to 0-99 in the PICTURE statement. The range 0-99 occurs in sequence before the range 0-999 and will produce the desired result.

MULTIPLIER=n

specifies a number that the variable's value is to be multiplied by before it is formatted. For example, the following PICTURE statement creates the MILLION. format, which formats the variable value 1600000 as $1.6M:

picture million low-high='00.0M' 
       (prefix='$' mult=.00001);

Alias:	MULT=
Default:	10ⁿ, where n is the number of digits after the first decimal point in the picture. For example, suppose your data contain a value 123.456 and you want to print it using a picture of '999.999'. The format multiplies 123.456 by 10³ to obtain a value of 123456, which results in a formatted value of `123.456`.
Example:	Creating a Picture Format

NOEDIT

specifies that numbers are message characters rather than digit selectors; that is, the format prints the numbers as they appear in the picture. For example, the following PICTURE statement creates the MILES. format, which formats any variable value greater than 1000 as >1000 miles:

picture miles 1-1000='0000'
          1000<-high='>1000 miles'(noedit);

PREFIX='prefix'

specifies a character prefix to place in front of the value's first significant digit. You must use zero digit selectors or the prefix will not be used.

The picture must be wide enough to contain both the value and the prefix. If the picture is not wide enough to contain both the value and the prefix, the format truncates or omits the prefix. Typical uses for PREFIX= are printing leading dollar signs and minus signs. For example, the PAY. format prints the variable value 25500 as $25,500.00:

picture pay low-high='000,009.99'
                     (prefix='$');

Default:	no prefix
Interaction:	If you use the FILL= and PREFIX= options in the same picture, the format places the prefix and then the fill characters.
Featured in:	Creating a Picture Format and Filling a Picture Format

ROUND

rounds the value to the nearest integer before formatting. Without the ROUND option, the format multiplies the variable value by the multiplier, truncates the decimal portion (if any), and prints the result according to the template you define. With the ROUND option, the format multiplies the variable value by the multiplier, rounds that result to the nearest integer, and then formats the value according to the template.

Tip:

Note that the ROUND option rounds a value of .5 to the next highest integer.

value-range-set

specifies one or more variable values and a template for printing those values. The value-range-set is the following:

value-or-range-1 <..., value-or-range-n>='picture'

picture

specifies a template for formatting values of numeric variables. The picture is a sequence of characters in single quotation marks. The maximum length for a picture is 40 characters. Pictures are specified with three types of characters: digit selectors, message characters, and directives. You can have a maximum of 16 digit selectors in a picture.

Digit selectors are numeric characters (0 through 9) that define positions for numeric values. A picture format with nonzero digit selectors prints any leading zeros in variable values; picture digit selectors of 0 do not print leading zeros in variable values. If the picture format contains digit selectors, a digit selector must be the first character in the picture.

Note: This chapter uses 9's as nonzero digit selectors. [cautionend]
Message characters are nonnumeric characters that print as specified in the picture. The following PICTURE statement contains both digit selectors (99) and message characters (illegal day value). Because the DAYS. format has nonzero digit selectors, values are printed with leading zeros. The special range OTHER prints the message characters for any values that do not fall into the specified range (1 through 31).

picture days 01-31='99'
        other='99-illegal day value';

For example, the values 02 and 67 print as

                             02
           67-illegal day value

Directives are special characters that you can use in the picture to format date, time, or datetime values.

Restriction: You can only use directives when you specify the DATATYPE= option in the PICTURE statement.
The permitted directives are

%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name

%A Locale's full weekday name

%b Locale's abbreviated month name

%B Locale's full month name

%d Day of the month as a decimal number (1-31), with no leading zero

%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23), with no leading zero

%I Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12), with no leading zero

%j Day of the year as a decimal number (1-366), with no leading zero

%m Month as a decimal number (1-12), with no leading zero

%M Minute as a decimal number (0-59), with no leading zero

%p Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM

%S Second as a decimal number (0-59), with no leading zero

%U Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (0,53), with no leading zero

%w Weekday as a decimal number (1= Sunday, 7)

%y Year without century as a decimal number (0-99), with no leading zero

%Y Year with century as a decimal number

%% %

Any directive that generates numbers can produce a leading zero, if desired, by adding a 0 before the directive. This applies to %d, %H, %I, %j, %m, %M, %S, %U, and %y. For example, if you specify %y in the picture, then 2001 would be formatted as '1', but if you specify %0y, then 2001 would be formatted as '01'.

value-or-range

See Specifying Values or Ranges .

Building a Picture Format: Step by Step
This section shows how to write a picture format for formatting numbers with leading zeros. In the SAMPLE data set, the default printing of the variable Amount has leading zeros on numbers between 1 and -1:

options nodate pageno=1 linesize=64
        pagesize=60;
data sample;
   input Amount;
   datalines;
-2.05
-.05
-.01
  0
 .09
 .54
 .55
6.6
14.63
;

The following PROC FORMAT step creates the NOZEROS. format, which eliminates leading zeros in the formatted values:

libname library 'SAS-data-library';

proc format library=library;
   picture nozeros
           low -  -1  =  '00.00' 
              (prefix='-')
           -1 <-<  0  =     '99' 
              (prefix='-.' mult=100)
            0  -< 1   =     '99'
              (prefix='.'  mult=100)
            1  - high =  '00.00';
run;

Building a Picture Format explains how one value from each range is formatted. Formatting One Value in Each Range provides an illustration of each step. The circled numbers in the figure correspond to the step numbers in the table.

Building a Picture Format
Step Rule In this example

1 Determine into which range the value falls and use that picture. In the second range, the exclusion operator < appears on both sides of the hyphen and excludes -1 and 0 from the range.

2 Take the absolute value of the numeric value. Because the absolute value is used, you need a separate range and picture for the negative numbers in order to prefix the minus sign.

3 Multiply the number by the MULT= value. If you do not specify the MULT= option, the PICTURE statement uses the default. The default is 10ⁿ , where n is the number of digit selectors to the right of the decimal (table note 1) in the picture. (Step 6 discusses digit selectors further.) Specifying a MULT= value is necessary for numbers between 0 and 1 and numbers between 0 and -1 because no decimal appears in the pictures for those ranges. Because MULT= defaults to 1, truncation of the significant digits results without a MULT= value specified. (Truncation is explained in the next step.) For the two ranges that do not have MULT= values specified, the MULT= value defaults to 100 because the corresponding picture has two digit selectors to the right of the decimal. After the MULT= value is applied, all significant digits are moved to the left of the decimal.

4 Truncate the number after the decimal. If the ROUND option is in effect, the format rounds the number after the decimal to the next highest integer if the number after the decimal is greater than or equal to .5. Because the example uses MULT= values that ensured that all of the significant digits were moved to the left of the decimal, no significant digits are lost. The zeros are truncated.

5 Turn the number into a character string. If the number is shorter than the picture, the length of the character string is equal to the number of digit selectors in the picture. Pad the character string with leading zeros. (The results are equivalent to using the Zw. format. Zw. is explained in the section on SAS formats in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. The numbers 205, 5, and 660 become the character strings 0205, 05, and 0660, respectively. Because each picture is longer than the numbers, the format adds a leading zero to each value. The format does not add leading zeros to the number 55 because the corresponding picture only has two digit selectors.

6 Apply the character string to the picture. The format only maps the rightmost n characters in the character string, where n is the number of digit selectors in the picture. Thus, it is important to make sure that the picture has enough digit selectors to accommodate the characters in the string. After the format takes the rightmost n characters, it then maps those characters to the picture from left to right. Choosing a zero or nonzero digit selector is important if the character string contains leading zeros. If one of the leading zeros in the character string maps to a nonzero digit selector, it and all subsequent leading zeros become part of the formatted value. If all of the leading zeros map to zero digit selectors, none of the leading zeros become part of the formatted value; the format replaces the leading zeros in the character string with blanks. (table note 2) The leading zero is dropped from each of the character strings 0205 and 0660 because the leading zero maps to a zero digit selector in the picture.

7 Prefix any characters that are specified in the PREFIX= option. You need the PREFIX= option because when a picture contains any digit selectors, the picture must begin with a digit selector. Thus, you cannot begin your picture with a decimal point, minus sign, or any other character that is not a digit selector. The PREFIX= option reclaims the decimal point and the negative sign, as shown with the formatted values -.05 and .55.

***Building a Picture Format***
Step	Rule	In this example
1	Determine into which range the value falls and use that picture.	In the second range, the exclusion operator < appears on both sides of the hyphen and excludes -1 and 0 from the range.
2	Take the absolute value of the numeric value.	Because the absolute value is used, you need a separate range and picture for the negative numbers in order to prefix the minus sign.
3	Multiply the number by the MULT= value. If you do not specify the MULT= option, the PICTURE statement uses the default. The default is 10ⁿ , where n is the number of digit selectors to the right of the decimal (table note 1) in the picture. (Step 6 discusses digit selectors further.)	Specifying a MULT= value is necessary for numbers between 0 and 1 and numbers between 0 and -1 because no decimal appears in the pictures for those ranges. Because MULT= defaults to 1, truncation of the significant digits results without a MULT= value specified. (Truncation is explained in the next step.) For the two ranges that do not have MULT= values specified, the MULT= value defaults to 100 because the corresponding picture has two digit selectors to the right of the decimal. After the MULT= value is applied, all significant digits are moved to the left of the decimal.
4	Truncate the number after the decimal. If the ROUND option is in effect, the format rounds the number after the decimal to the next highest integer if the number after the decimal is greater than or equal to .5.	Because the example uses MULT= values that ensured that all of the significant digits were moved to the left of the decimal, no significant digits are lost. The zeros are truncated.
5	Turn the number into a character string. If the number is shorter than the picture, the length of the character string is equal to the number of digit selectors in the picture. Pad the character string with leading zeros. (The results are equivalent to using the Zw. format. Zw. is explained in the section on SAS formats in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.	The numbers 205, 5, and 660 become the character strings `0205`, `05`, and `0660`, respectively. Because each picture is longer than the numbers, the format adds a leading zero to each value. The format does not add leading zeros to the number 55 because the corresponding picture only has two digit selectors.
6	Apply the character string to the picture. The format only maps the rightmost n characters in the character string, where n is the number of digit selectors in the picture. Thus, it is important to make sure that the picture has enough digit selectors to accommodate the characters in the string. After the format takes the rightmost n characters, it then maps those characters to the picture from left to right. Choosing a zero or nonzero digit selector is important if the character string contains leading zeros. If one of the leading zeros in the character string maps to a nonzero digit selector, it and all subsequent leading zeros become part of the formatted value. If all of the leading zeros map to zero digit selectors, none of the leading zeros become part of the formatted value; the format replaces the leading zeros in the character string with blanks. (table note 2)	The leading zero is dropped from each of the character strings `0205` and `0660` because the leading zero maps to a zero digit selector in the picture.
7	Prefix any characters that are specified in the PREFIX= option. You need the PREFIX= option because when a picture contains any digit selectors, the picture must begin with a digit selector. Thus, you cannot begin your picture with a decimal point, minus sign, or any other character that is not a digit selector.	The PREFIX= option reclaims the decimal point and the negative sign, as shown with the formatted values `-.05` and `.55`.

TABLE NOTE 1: A decimal in a PREFIX= option is not part of the picture.

TABLE NOTE 2: You can use the FILL= option to specify a character other than a blank to become part of the formatted value.

Formatting One Value in Each Range

[IMAGE]

The following PROC PRINT step associates the NOZEROS. format with the AMOUNT variable in SAMPLE:

proc print data=sample noobs;
   format amount nozeros.;
   title 'Formatting the Variable Amount';
   title2 'with the NOZEROS. Format';
run;

CAUTION:: The picture must be wide enough for the prefix and the numbers. In this example, if the value -45.00 were formatted with NOZEROS. the result would be 45.00 because it falls into the first range, low - -1, and the picture for that range is not wide enough to accommodate the prefixed minus sign and the number.

Specifying No Picture
This PICTURE statement creates a picture-name format that has no picture:

picture picture-name;

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Featured in:	Creating a Picture Format and Filling a Picture Format
See also:	The section on formats in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary for documentation on formats supplied by SAS.

	DEFAULT= length
	FUZZ= fuzz-factor
	MAX=length
	MIN=length
	NOTSORTED

Default:	' ' (a blank)
Interaction:	If you use the FILL= and PREFIX= options in the same picture, the format places the prefix and then the fill characters.
Featured in:	Filling a Picture Format

%a	Locale's abbreviated weekday name
%A	Locale's full weekday name
%b	Locale's abbreviated month name
%B	Locale's full month name
%d	Day of the month as a decimal number (1-31), with no leading zero
%H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23), with no leading zero
%I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12), with no leading zero
%j	Day of the year as a decimal number (1-366), with no leading zero
%m	Month as a decimal number (1-12), with no leading zero
%M	Minute as a decimal number (0-59), with no leading zero
%p	Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM
%S	Second as a decimal number (0-59), with no leading zero
%U	Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (0,53), with no leading zero
%w	Weekday as a decimal number (1= Sunday, 7)
%y	Year without century as a decimal number (0-99), with no leading zero
%Y	Year with century as a decimal number
%%	%