Using ODS to Create Customised Output

Using the SAS Output Delivery System (ODS), you can create, customise, and manage HTML output in any operating environment by submitting programming statements. After creating HTML files, you can view them using Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or any Web browser that fully supports HTML 3.2.

ODS gives you new formatting options and makes procedure output much more flexible. With ODS, you can easily create HTML, RTF, PCL, PS, XML, Latex and PDF output, an output data set of procedure results and traditional SAS listing output. Also, ODS stores your output in its component parts (data and table definition) so that numerical data retains its full precision.

Procedure output is divided into components, or output objects. Depending on the procedure that you run you might have one or several output objects created. For example proc print would create just one output object but proc univariate would produce multiple output objects. ODS stores a link to each output object in the results window. Using ODS programming statements we can control what output objects we are interested in and what ODS destinations we want to send them to.

In order to start creating HTML, RTF, PDF files etc. you will need a few ODS statements to get you started. By default SAS output still goes to the output window. In order to send the output elsewhere you need to open the appropriate destination. The example below turns off the listing destination (the output window) and opens the HTML destination so that it is ready to receive our output. When the HTML destination is closed the class.html file is created and the HTML destination is closed:


Ods listing close;
Ods html body='c:\myreports\class.html';
Proc print data=sashelp.class;
run;
Ods html close;
Ods listing;

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