Contrasting programming techniques for summarizing voluminous SAS output using the SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) (PROC FREQ as an example) Stuart Long, Westat

SAS® ODS provides programmers with the ability to extract selected information from a procedure and store it in datasets. Such datasets can then be combined to summarize the results from numerous procedures. The SAS Macro facility can be used to execute and extract information from repetitively called SAS procedures. “Macro Variable Arrays” can simplify the extraction of information from SAS procedures when identical or similar code is executed repeatedly on a multitude of datasets and/or variables. This paper describes Macro Variable Arrays and contrasts these with other programming methods to obtain summary datasets from ODS output. Although PROC FREQ is used in this paper, these techniques can serve as a blueprint for extracting and summarizing output from other SAS procedures. This is an advanced tutorial intended for SAS programmers knowledgeable with the SAS Macro facility.