156-2007: Tabbing through ODS

The author presents a significant approach to aligning multiple variables inside a cell by applying tabs to the ODS reporting process. Consequently what appeared to be one limitation in classical ODS reporting has been overcome. The technique makes it easy to adopt mixed patterns in presenting the result of proc report, which have become necessary under certain circumstances such as patient profile. INTRODUCTION This paper will describe the challenging question of aligning variables in ODS reporting and why and how with the aid of tabbing (a control word in RTF) the difficulty will be solved. Throughout the duration of this paper, ODS destination RTF is assumed unless otherwise indicated. Familiarity with proc report and basic concepts in ODS as well as ODS template is preferred for better understanding the technical nature of the paper. THE QUESTION The question has its root in the column structure of proc report. The COL and DEFINE statement define each column for a report, no matter it’s a summary or detail report. These columns are as important to a report as pillars to a building. Therefore, it’s no wonder an experienced programmer would spend time designing these columns almost as seriously as an architect to a building. Follows is an example from SAS Online Doc, in which columns “Manager”, “Department”, and “Sales” pretty much defined the whole report. Manager Department Sales Smith Paper $50.00 Smith Meat/Dairy $100.00 Smith Canned $120.00 Smith Produce $80.00 Jones Paper $40.00 Jones Meat/Dairy $300.00 Jones Canned $220.00 Jones Produce $70.00 =========== $980.00 However, these pre-defined “pillar” type construct will have problem when data requires more flexibilities. Using the above example for the purpose of illustration, is it possible to include employee numbers, but without changing the program? To achieve something like this: Manager Department Sales Smith Paper 1 $50.00 Smith Meat/Dairy 2 $100.00 ... ... ... The solution for this particular case is not too difficult and will be presented later in this paper, with the use of tab stops. It’s very important to allow more data to be added into the columns when proc report is required to present data that are heterogeneous. Building standard reporting structure will become impossible if this feature doesn’t exist. There may be many other approaches to this enhancement, a novel solution by combining ODS and tabbing controls is presented in this paper. HISTORY OF TABBING The history of tabbing goes all the way back to typewriter. A tab stop on a typewriter is a location where the carriage movement is halted by mechanical gears. Modern word processors generalize this concept by offering tab stops that have an alignment attributes and cause the text to be automatically aligned at left, at right or center of the tab stop itself. You can customize these attributes in WORD by selecting Tabs under the pull-down menu of Format: 1 SAS Global Forum 2007 Posters