Date:         Sun, 29 Sep 1996 13:45:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Stanley <don_stanley@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Don Stanley <don_stanley@IBM.NET>
Organization: Don Stanley Consulting Limited
Subject:      SASTIP - length of formats

A recent post commented that the length of a SAS format is 40 characters. That
restriction was removed in
either release 608 or release 610.
 
It is now the case that a format can be up to 200 characters long. A couple of
oddities occur tho ...
 
* the FMTLIB option only shows 40 characters in the output
* if you put more than 200 characters in the label only the first 98 are used
and a somewhat bizarre error
message (see below) is printed. Anyone from SI care to comment by email on
this?
 
Heres some example code
 
89   proc format ;
90    value test 1=
'0---------0=========0\\\\\\\\\0+++++++++0|||||||||0_________0~~~~~~~~~'
91
'0`````````0!!!!!!!!!0@@@@@@@@@0#########0$$$$$$$$$0%%%%%%%%%0^^^^^^^^^'
92
'0&&&&&&&&&0*********0(((((((((0)))))))))0?????????0/////////'
93
94   run ;
WARNING: Format TEST is already on the library.
NOTE: Format TEST has been output.
95
 
NOTE: The PROCEDURE FORMAT used 0.11 seconds.
 
 
96   data test ;
97     x = 1 ;
98     put x= /
99         x= test. ;
100  run ;
 
X=1
X=0---------0=========0\\\\\\\\\0+++++++++0|||||||||0_________0~~~~~~~~~0``````
```0!!!!!!!!!0@@@@@@@@@0#########0$$$$$
$$$$0%%%%%%%%%0^^^^^^^^^0&&&&&&&&&0*********0(((((((((0)))))))))0?????????0////
/////
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: The DATA statement used 0.33 seconds.
 
 
101
102  proc format ;
103   value test 1=
'0---------0=========0\\\\\\\\\0+++++++++0|||||||||0_________0~~~~~~~~~'
104
'0`````````0!!!!!!!!!0@@@@@@@@@0#########0$$$$$$$$$0%%%%%%%%%0^^^^^^^^^'
105
'0&&&&&&&&&0*********0(((((((((0)))))))))0?????????0/////////0.........' ;
WARNING: At least one string was over 98 characters long and had special
characters and had to be truncated to
98
         characters.
WARNING: Format TEST is already on the library.
NOTE: Format TEST has been output.
106
107  run ;
 
NOTE: The PROCEDURE FORMAT used 0.11 seconds.
 
 
108
109  data test ;
110    x = 1 ;
111    put x= /
112        x= test. ;
113  run ;
 
X=1
X=0---------0=========0\\\\\\\\\0+++++++++0|||||||||0_________0~~~~~~~~~0``````
```0!!!!!!!!!0@@@@@@@
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: The DATA statement used 0.33 seconds.
 
 
 
 
 ========================================================================
Don Stanley,    Don Stanley Consulting Limited
                Box 14554, Kilbirnie, Wellington NEW ZEALAND
                Ph 0064 025 479 863, Fax 0064 04 386 2209
                email   DSTANLE@IBM.NET
 
Author:         Beyond the obvious with SAS Screen Control Language
Writing:        An Applications oriented FRAME text