The FORMAT Procedure

SELECT Statement

Selects entries from processing by the FMTLIB and CNTLOUT= options.

Restriction: Only one SELECT statement can appear in a PROC FORMAT step.

Restriction: You cannot use a SELECT statement and an EXCLUDE statement within the same PROC FORMAT step.

Featured in: Printing the Description of Informats and Formats .

SELECT entry(s);

Required Arguments

entry(s)

specifies one or more catalog entries for processing. Catalog entry names are the same as the name of the informat or format that they store. Because informats and formats can have the same name, and because character and numeric informats or formats can have the same name, you must use certain prefixes when specifying informats and formats in the SELECT statement. Follow these rules when specifying entries in the SELECT statement:

Precede names of entries that contain character formats with a dollar sign ($).
Precede names of entries that contain numeric informats with an at sign (@).
Precede names of entries that contain character informats with an at sign and a dollar sign, for example, @$entry-name.

Shortcuts to Specifying Names
You can use the colon (:) and hyphen (-) wildcard characters to select entries. For example, the following SELECT statement selects all formats or informats that begin with the letter a.

select a:;

In addition, the following SELECT statement selects all formats or informats that occur alphabetically between apple and pear, inclusive:

select apple-pear;

FMTLIB Output
If you use the SELECT statement without either FMTLIB or CNTLOUT= in the PROC FORMAT statement, the procedure invokes FMTLIB.

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Restriction:	Only one SELECT statement can appear in a PROC FORMAT step.
Restriction:	You cannot use a SELECT statement and an EXCLUDE statement within the same PROC FORMAT step.
Featured in:	Printing the Description of Informats and Formats .