Date:         Thu, 10 Oct 1996 12:26:44 GMT
Reply-To:     Jack N Shoemaker <shoe@WORLD.STD.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack N Shoemaker <shoe@WORLD.STD.COM>
Organization: The World, Public Access Internet, Brookline, MA
Subject:      Removing Temporary Formats

A previous thread dealt with the question of discarding
user-defined formats.  Someone made the observation that
you could not delete temporary formats from memory.  My
response then was, "What?"  I believe that the log below
shows that you can remove user-defined formats using
proc catalog.  Is this what the original poster was after?
 
- Jack
 
NOTE: SAS (r) Proprietary Software Release 6.08  TS408
 
1    proc format;
2      value $a 'A' = '1';
NOTE: Format $A has been output.
3      run;
 
NOTE: The PROCEDURE FORMAT used 0.77 seconds.
 
4
5    proc catalog c = work.formats;
6      delete a / et = formatc;
7      run;
 
NOTE: Deleting object A.FORMATC in catalog WORK.FORMATS.
8
 
NOTE: The PROCEDURE CATALOG used 0.71 seconds.
 
9    data _null_;
10     x = 'A';
11     put x= $a.;
              ---
              31
12     run;
 
ERROR 31-185: Format $A is unknown.
 
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
--
 
Jack N Shoemaker   shoe@world.std.com