Formats and Informats in SAS

Welcome back to Mindful Data Minds! In this session, we’ll explore formats and informats in SAS — two essential tools for representing and interpreting data.

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What You Will Learn

The difference between formats and informats.
How to apply formats like COMMA, DATE, DDMMYY, DOLLAR, PERCENT, Z.
How date formats vary by length.
How informats help SAS read pre-formatted data correctly.

What Are Formats and Informats?

Format → Controls how data is displayed. It’s about presentation.
Informat → Controls how data is read into SAS. It’s about input.

In short:

Format = Output (display)
Informat = Input (read)

Commonly Used Formats

Let’s look at some of the most common formats applied to numeric variables.

data a;
  x=7584;
  y=0.75;
run;

1. Comma Format

Adds commas to numbers for readability.

format x comma10.;

Result: 7584 → 7,584

2. Date Format

Converts numeric values (stored as days since 1 Jan 1960) into readable dates.

format x date8.;

Result: 7584 → 06OCT1980

3. DDMMYY Format

Displays dates in day-month-year style.

format x ddmmyy10.;

Result: 7584 → 06-10-1980

4. Dollar Format

Displays numeric values as currency.

format x dollar10.2;

Result: 7584 → $7,584.00

5. Percent Format

Converts fractions into percentages.

format y percent9.2;

Result: 0.75 → 75.00%

6. Z Format

Pads numbers with leading zeros.

format x z8.;

Result: 7584 → 00007584

Variations in Date Formats

SAS date formats range from DATE5. to DATE11.

DATE5. → 06OCT
DATE7. → 06OCT80
DATE9. → 06OCT1980

Similarly, DDMMYY formats vary by length:

DDMMYY6. → 061080
DDMMYY8. → 06-10-80
DDMMYY10. → 06-10-1980

Using Informats

When importing pre-formatted data, SAS uses informats to interpret values correctly.

data b;
  input x y comma_format date_format DDMMYYD_format DOLLAR_format PERCENT_format z_format;
  informat comma_format comma10. date_format date8. DDMMYYD_format DDMMYY10. DOLLAR_format DOLLAR10.2 
  PERCENT_format PERCENT9.2 z_format z8.;
  cards;
  7584 0.75 7,584 06OCT80 06-10-1980 $7,584.00 75.00% 00007584
  ;
run;

Informats ensure SAS reads values like 7584, 0.75, 7,584, 06OCT80, 06-10-1980, $7,584.00, 75.00% or 00007584 correctly and stores them as numeric values internally.

Next Step

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