Ian,

Thanks - I was hoping there would be a shorter route to take than your solution, but alas... Thanks alot for your help.

-Casey

On Thu, 24 Jan 2002, Ian Whitlock wrote:

> Subject: RE: format oddity > Summary: How to update formats > Respondent: IanWhitlock@westat.com > > Casey, > > Your code > > > proc format; > > value drgcde > > 8180007="Some Drug" > > other =[drgcde.]; > > run; > > appears circular. When I ran the code as is it seemed to execute, but then > I got an error message saying that it ran out of stack space on the next > step. When I changed the name in the brackets it ran fine. > > Remember you are not really updating DRGCDE. The format above merely stores > the format reference which happens to be to itself so the format will not be > usable. Now it is circular. > > I do not know why you saw the affect you did, but I am convinced it it had > something to do with the your circular reference to the same format when the > format was applied. > > To really update DRGCDE you might use > > proc format ; > value drgcde > 1 = "123456789012345" > other = "Other" ; > run ; > > proc format cntlout = fmtdata ; > select drgcde ; > run ; > > proc sort data = fmtdata ; > by fmtname start end ; > run ; > > data trans ; > length start end $ 16 fmtname $ 8 label $ 40 ; > start = "8180007" ; > end = "8180007" ; > label = "Some Drug" ; > fmtname = "drgcde" ; > output ; > run ; > > data fmtdata ; > length start end $ 16 fmtname $ 8 label $ 40 ; > update fmtdata trans ; > by fmtname start end ; > run ; > > proc format cntlin = fmtdata fmtlib ; > run ; > > Using the UPDATE statement worked with both numeric and character formats. > When I tried to avoid it I fell into all sorts of little traps. > > The LENGTH statement given might cause trouble with a format where either > the START/END or LABEL lengths are too short. > > IanWhitlock@westat.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: Casey Pierce [mailto:casey@SDAC.HARVARD.EDU] > Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 1:52 PM > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: format oddity > > > When I update a permanent format, I lose my macro variables. > I don't update formats often, so I'm at a bit of a loss. > The gist of the program is the follows: > > ********************************************************** > %let FORM = txw0000; > > proc format; > value drgcde > 8180007="Some Drug" > other =[drgcde.]; > run; > > %include "&FORM..dat"; > > data &FORM; > set outfile; > > format drug drgcde.; > > label week = "&FORM week"; > > run; > > > proc sort data=&FORM; > by patid; > run; > > ************************************************************* > > FORM resolves just fine in the data statement, but once > it gets to the labels, I get the warning that symbolic > reference not resolved. If I don't apply the format, or > if I change the name of the format that I'm creating, > there's no problem. Is there any way to update a format > this way (with the same name) and can someone explain how > this is causing the loss of the macro variables? Thanks so much. > > -Casey >