The FORMAT procedure in SAS ® is a very powerful and productive tool, yet many beginning programmers rarely make use of it. The FORMAT procedure provides a convenient way to do a table lookup in SAS. User generated FORMATS can be used to assign descriptive labels to data values, create new variables and find unexpected values. PROC FORMAT can also be used to generate data extracts and to merge data sets. This paper will provide an introductory look at PROC FORMAT for the beginning user and provide sample code that will illustrate the power of PROC FORMAT in a number of applications. Additional examples and applications of PROC FORMAT can be found in the SAS Press book titled “The Power of PROC FORMAT” (2005, Bilenas)
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