Creating Custom Formats in SAS – PROC FORMAT

Welcome back to Mindful Data Minds! In this session, we’ll learn how to create our own formats in SAS using PROC FORMAT. We’ll cover three types of formats:

Character format
Numeric format
Picture format

Watch the Full Tutorial

What You Will Learn

How to create picture formats for custom numeric displays.
How to create character formats to map codes to labels.
How to create numeric formats to group values into ranges.
How to apply these formats to datasets for cleaner reporting.

Why Use PROC FORMAT?

Formats let us display values in a more meaningful way. For example:

Show M as “Male” and F as “Female”.
Group salaries into ranges like “Group 1”, “Group 2”, etc.
Display numbers with symbols like $ or €.

data a;
infile cards dlm=" " dsd;
input id name $ sex $ sal;
format sal euro10.2;
cards;
1 A M 52.56
2 B F 75.65
3 C  500
;
run;

Picture Format

Picture formats are used to display numbers with special symbols or styles.

Example: Euro Salary Format

proc format;
  picture eur
    low-high ="00,000,000,000,009.99" (mult=100 prefix="€");
run;

data b;
   set a;
   format salary eur.;
run;

Result: 52.56 → €52.56

Character Format

Character formats map specific values to labels.

Example: Gender Format

proc format;
   value $sx
      'M' = 'Male'
      'F' = 'Female'
      other = 'Unknown';
run;

data c;
   set a;
   format sex $sx.;
run;

Result: M → “Male”, F → “Female”, blank → “Unknown”

Numeric Format

Numeric formats group numeric values into ranges.

Example: Salary Groups

proc format;
   value salary
      0 - 20   = 'Group 1'
      21 - 40  = 'Group 2'
      41 - 60  = 'Group 3'
      61 - 80  = 'Group 4'
      81 - 100 = 'Group 5'
      101 - high = 'Group 6';
run;

data d;
   set a;
   format salary salary.;
run;

Result:

52.56 → “Group 3”
75.65 → “Group 4”
98.12 → “Group 5”
500 → “Group 6”

Next Step

Continue learning by exploring the next tutorial in this series. Also subscribe to get notified about new lessons.

Formats and Informats in SAS

Proc Means

Have a Question?

Drop your doubts in the comments below or contact us.