TOPIC: COBOL
Shaping SAS output using ODS Style Definitions as well as SAS Formats
14th March 2026
Working with SAS output involves two related but distinct concerns: how results look, and how values are displayed. The material here covers both sides of that equation. On one hand, the DEFINE STYLE statement in PROC TEMPLATE provides a way to create and customise ODS styles for destinations that support the STYLE= option. On the other, SAS formats determine how character, numeric, date and time values are written in output. Taken together, these features shape both presentation and readability, which is why it is useful to understand them in the same discussion.
The DEFINE STYLE Statement
The DEFINE STYLE statement is the foundation for creating a stand-alone style. Its syntax allows a style to be stored in a template store and to include inherited behaviour, notes, imported CSS and individual style element definitions. A style definition begins with DEFINE STYLE followed by a style path (or in the special case of Base.Template.Style, it is that name itself), and it must end with an END statement. That final END is not optional, as it is a hard requirement. Within the body of the style, statements such as PARENT=, NOTES, CLASS, IMPORT and STYLE determine how the style behaves and what it contains.
Style Paths and the STORE= Option
The style path identifies where a style is stored. It consists of one or more names separated by periods, with each name representing a directory in a template store. PROC TEMPLATE writes the style to the first writeable template store in the current path unless a STORE= option directs it elsewhere. The STORE=libref.template-store option specifies a particular template store, and if that template store does not already exist, SAS creates it automatically. One important point is that the syntax of the STORE= option does not become part of the compiled template, so it affects where the style is saved rather than the internal definition itself.
Base.Template.Style
A notable special case is Base.Template.Style. This creates a style that becomes the parent of all styles that do not explicitly specify a parent, and once created it is automatically applied to output until it is specifically removed from the item store. That convenience comes with a clear caution: the SAS-supplied Base.Template.Style contains inheritance information relied upon by many styles, and if that inheritance structure is not preserved, some style elements might not appear in output. The safer route is therefore to start from the existing Base.Template.Style, write it to an external file and edit its contents rather than constructing a replacement from scratch. There is also a restriction: if PARENT= is specified, it must refer to a style other than Base.Template.Style.
Inheritance and the PARENT= Statement
Inheritance is central to how ODS styles work. The PARENT= statement specifies the style from which the current style inherits its style elements, style attributes and statements. The style path named in PARENT= is looked up in the first readable template store in the current path, and unless the current style overrides something, everything in the parent style carries through. SAS ships with several styles that can be used as a base, including styles.default, styles.beige, styles.brick, styles.brown, styles.d3d, styles.minimal, styles.printer and styles.statdoc. This inheritance model makes style creation more manageable because most new styles are refinements of existing ones rather than fully independent definitions.
The NOTES Statement
For documentation inside the style itself, the NOTES statement provides a place to store descriptive text. This differs from a SAS comment because the text becomes part of the compiled style template and can be viewed with the SOURCE statement. That makes NOTES useful for recording what a style is for, what it changes, or any implementation detail worth preserving alongside the template. In a shared environment, that sort of embedded documentation can be more durable than comments kept in a separate program file.
The CLASS Statement
The CLASS statement creates a style element from a like-named style element. In practical terms, it duplicates an existing element of the same name and applies modifications. The three statements class fonts;, style fonts from fonts; and style fonts from _self_; are equivalent, making CLASS a convenience form for a common pattern. It takes one or more style element names, optional descriptive text and optional attribute specifications. If the same attribute is specified more than once, the last value given is the one SAS uses, and that rule is worth keeping in mind when reading or maintaining larger templates.
The STYLE Statement
The STYLE statement is more general and is the main mechanism for creating or modifying one or more style elements. It can define new elements, override inherited ones, or absorb attributes from an existing element by using the FROM option. When a new style element overrides one that is a parent of other elements, all of its descendants (including those inherited from parent styles) also inherit the new attributes, which is one of the reasons why small changes can have broad visual effects in output. Style elements within a single STYLE statement must be separated by commas.
The distinction between using FROM and not using it is particularly important. If a like-named style element already exists in the child style, and it is not created with FROM, the child version overrides the parent version entirely. If it is created with FROM, the attributes from the parent style element are absorbed into the child style element. Without FROM, an attribute defined in a like-named style element in the parent is not inherited unless it is explicitly specified again. With FROM, inherited attributes remain in play and can then be modified selectively, and this is the practical difference between replacement and extension.
The _SELF_ keyword is a shorthand within the STYLE statement, specifying that each named style element should inherit from an existing style element of the same name. It is most useful when specifying multiple style elements in one statement. For example, the single statement style data, data1, dataempty from _self_ / color = red backgroundcolor = black; is exactly equivalent to writing separate STYLE statements for data, data1 and dataempty individually. Where the same attribute appears more than once among multiple identical style element names, the last value specified is used. PROC TEMPLATE looks first in the current style for the named style element when resolving a FROM reference, and only looks in the parent style if the element is not found there.
Style Attributes
Style attributes follow the general form style-attribute-name=<|>style-attribute-value. Standard attribute names from the documented list are written without quotation marks, while user-defined attribute names must be enclosed in quotation marks. The vertical bar (|) symbol prevents the style attribute from being inherited by any child style elements, allowing a template author to control precisely how far a change spreads through the inheritance tree. Text associated with a STYLE statement also becomes part of the compiled template (much like NOTES), which can help explain why a specific element is defined in a particular way.
The IMPORT Statement and CSS
The IMPORT statement bridges CSS and ODS styles by importing Cascading Style Sheet information from a file into the style. The file specification can be an external file path, a fileref or a URL, and once imported, SAS converts the CSS code into style attributes and style elements that can be used by PROC TEMPLATE. There are requirements of which you need to be aware: the CSS file must be written in the same type of CSS that the ODS HTML statement produces, and only class names that match ODS style element names are supported, with no IDs and no context-based selectors permitted. If needed, the CSS that ODS creates can be examined with the STYLESHEET= option, or by viewing the HTML source and inspecting the code at the top of the file.
Media types add another layer to the IMPORT statement. The syntax allows up to ten media types to be specified, separated by commas, corresponding to how output will be rendered on screen, paper, with a speech synthesiser or with a braille device, for example. CSS code outside any media block is always included, and the media type option additionally imports the section of a CSS file intended only for a specific media type. If no media type is specified in the ODS statement, but media types exist in the CSS file, ODS uses the Screen media type by default. If multiple media types are specified, all of their style information is applied, though if duplicate style information appears in different media blocks, the styles from the last media block are used.
The REPLACE Statement
One statement that no longer belongs in current practice is REPLACE. The SAS documentation states plainly that it is no longer supported and that STYLE or CLASS should be used instead to create and modify style elements. That is a useful reminder when reading older code, as REPLACE appears in legacy templates and conference papers that predate its deprecation.
The ODS Style Element Catalogue
To make sense of style customisation, it helps to understand the wider catalogue of ODS style elements. These elements are organised by function, and many are abstract, meaning they exist for inheritance purposes rather than direct rendering. Abstract elements are not explicitly used in ODS output and will not appear in destinations that generate a style sheet.
Miscellaneous and Document Elements
A broad abstract element, Container, controls all container-oriented elements and sits near the top of several inheritance chains. Document-related elements such as Document, Body, Frame, Contents and Pages control the overall presentation of output files, including page background and margins, with Body, Frame, Contents and Pages all inheriting from Document. Several further miscellaneous elements handle specific rendering concerns: Continued controls the continued flag when a table breaks across a page (paginated destinations only), ExtendedPage handles the message displayed when a page will not fit (Printer destination only), PageNo controls page numbers for paginated destinations and Parskip controls the space between tables. UserText controls the ODS TEXT= style and inherits from Note. The StartUpFunction and ShutDownFunction elements add JavaScript functions to HTML output that execute on page load and page exit, respectively, and PrePage controls the ODS RTF/MEASURED PREPAGE= style.
Date Elements
Date-related elements include Date (an abstract element controlling how date fields look), BodyDate (which controls the date field in the Contents file and inherits from ContentsDate) and PagesDate (which controls the date field in the Pages file and inherits from Date).
Contents and Pages Elements
Contents and pages files are influenced by a substantial group of elements. IndexItem is an abstract element controlling list items and folders for both files. ContentFolder controls folders in the Contents file, and ByContentFolder controls byline folders there, inheriting from ContentFolder. ContentItem controls items in the Contents file and PagesItem controls items in the Pages file, both inheriting from IndexItem. The abstract element Index covers miscellaneous Contents and Pages components, and from it inherit IndexProcName, ContentProcName, ContentProcLabel, PagesProcName and PagesProcLabel, which handle procedure names and labels in each file. IndexTitle and ContentTitle control the titles of the Contents and Pages files; in styles.default, ContentTitle contains a PRETEXT= attribute that prints the text "Table of Contents". IndexAction and FolderAction determine what happens on mouse-over events for folders and items (HTML only). SysTitleAndFooterContainer controls the container for system page titles and footers, and is generally used to add borders around a title.
Titles, Footers and Related Elements
Titles and footers are handled by the abstract element TitlesAndFooters, which controls system page title and footer text. SystemTitle inherits from it and chains through SystemTitle2 up to SystemTitle10, with each inheriting from the one before. The footer series follows the same pattern from SystemFooter through SystemFooter2 to SystemFooter10. TitleAndNoteContainer controls the container for procedure-defined titles and notes, inheriting from Container. ProcTitle controls procedure title text and inherits from TitlesAndFooters, with ProcTitleFixed handling procedure title text that requests a fixed font.
Bylines
BylineContainer controls the container for the byline (generally used to add borders) and inherits from Container. Byline controls byline text and inherits from TitlesAndFooters.
Notes, Warnings and Errors
Notes, warnings and errors each consist of two pieces: a banner area and a content area. The abstract element Note controls the container for note banners and note contents, and inherits from Container. The banner elements (NoteBanner, WarnBanner, ErrorBanner and FatalBanner) generally use the PRETEXT= attribute to print the banner label. Each has a corresponding content element (NoteContent, WarnContent, ErrorContent and FatalContent), and fixed-font variants exist for note, warning and error content (NoteContentFixed, WarnContentFixed and ErrorContentFixed). All of these elements inherit from Note.
Table Elements
Elements governing table output form a substantial hierarchy. Output is an abstract element that controls basic output forms, including borders (via FRAME=, RULES= and individual border control attributes), cell spacing, cell padding and background colour, inheriting from Container. Table controls overall table style and inherits from Output, as does Batch (which controls batch mode output). Three further abstract elements are specific to RTF output: TableHeaderContainer (which places and controls the box around all column headings), TableFooterContainer (which does the same for column footers) and ColumnGroup (which controls the box around groups of columns).
Data Cell Elements
Cell is an abstract element that controls data, header and footer cells, inheriting from Container. Data cells are controlled by Data (the default style for data cells), DataFixed (for data cells requesting a fixed font), DataEmpty (for empty data cells), DataEmphasis (for emphasised data cells), DataEmphasisFixed (for emphasised data cells requesting a fixed font), DataStrong (for strong, more emphasised data cells) and DataStrongFixed. All inherit from Cell or from one another in a chain.
Header and Footer Cell Elements
Header and footer cells are governed by HeadersAndFooters, an abstract element inheriting from Cell. Headers include Header, HeaderFixed, HeaderEmpty, HeaderEmphasis, HeaderEmphasisFixed, HeaderStrong and HeaderStrongFixed. Row headers follow a parallel set: RowHeader, RowHeaderFixed, RowHeaderEmpty, RowHeaderEmphasis, RowHeaderEmphasisFixed, RowHeaderStrong and RowHeaderStrongFixed. Footers mirror the same pattern through Footer, FooterFixed, FooterEmpty, FooterEmphasis, FooterEmphasisFixed, FooterStrong and FooterStrongFixed, with row footers following suit via RowFooter and its variants. PROC TABULATE captions are separately covered by the abstract element Caption (which inherits from HeadersAndFooters), BeforeCaption and AfterCaption.
SAS Formats
While styles affect appearance, formats affect representation. SAS organises formats into four categories: Character, Date and Time, ISO 8601 and Numeric. Formats that support national languages are documented separately in the SAS National Language Support reference, and storing user-defined formats is an important consideration when those formats are associated with variables in permanent SAS data sets shared with others.
Character Formats
Character formats cover both simple display and conversion tasks. $CHARw. and $w. write standard character data, while $QUOTEw. encloses values in double quotation marks. $UPCASEw. converts character data to uppercase, and $MSGCASEw. writes uppercase output when the MSGCASE system option is in effect. Several formats transform character data into alternative encodings or representations: $ASCIIw. converts to ASCII, $EBCDICw. converts to EBCDIC, $HEXw. converts to hexadecimal, $BINARYw. converts to binary and $OCTALw. converts to octal. Others alter ordering or length handling: $REVERJw. writes character data in reverse order and preserves blanks, $REVERSw. writes it in reverse and left-aligns it, and $VARYINGw. writes character data of varying length. $BASE64Xw. converts character data into ASCII text using Base 64 encoding.
Date and Time Formats
Date and time formats are especially broad. Traditional date formats include DATEw. (writing values as ddmmmyy or ddmmmyyyy), DDMMYYw. and DDMMYYxw. (day-month-year with various separators), MMDDYYw. and MMDDYYxw. (month-day-year), YYMMDDw. and YYMMDDxw. (year-month-day), MONYYw. (month and year), MONNAMEw. (month name), DOWNAMEw. (day of week name), WEEKDATEw. and WEEKDATXw. (day of week and date in different orderings) and WORDDATEw. and WORDDATXw. (month name with day and year in different orderings). Quarter and year formats include QTRw., QTRRw. (Roman numerals), YEARw., YYQw., YYQxw., YYQRw. and YYQRxw.. Week number formats include WEEKUw., WEEKVw. and WEEKWw., each using a different numbering algorithm.
Year-month combination formats include YYMMw., YYMMxw., YYMONw., MMYYw. and MMYYxw.. DAYw. writes the day of the month and WEEKDAYw. writes the day of the week as a number. Time and date time formats include TIMEw.d, TIMEAMPMw.d, TODw.d, HHMMw.d, HOURw.d, MMSSw.d, DATETIMEw.d and DATEAMPMw.d. Formats that take a date time value and write only part of it include DTDATEw., DTMONYYw., DTWKDATXw., DTYEARw. and DTYYQCw.. Julian date formats include JULDAYw. (Julian day of the year), JULIANw. (Julian date in yyddd or yyyyddd), PDJULGw. (packed Julian in hexadecimal yyyydddF for IBM) and PDJULIw. (packed Julian in hexadecimal ccyydddF for IBM).
The $N8601 character formats also appear within the Date and Time category. $N8601Bw.d and $N8601BAw.d both write ISO 8601 duration, date time and interval forms using basic notations. $N8601Ew.d and $N8601EAw.d use extended notations. $N8601EHw.d uses extended notation with a hyphen for omitted components, $N8601EXw.d uses an x in place of each digit of an omitted component, $N8601Hw.d drops omitted components in duration values and uses a hyphen for omitted date time components, and $N8601Xw.d drops omitted duration components and uses an x for each digit of an omitted date time component.
ISO 8601 Formats
The ISO 8601 category covers the same $N8601 character formats listed above, together with the B8601 (basic notation) and E8601 (extended notation) families of numeric formats. Basic formats include B8601DAw. (date as yyyymmdd), B8601DNw. (date from a date time value as yyyymmdd), B8601DTw.d (date time as yyyymmddThhmmssffffff), B8601DZw. (date time in UTC with time zone offset as yyyymmddThhmmss+|-hhmm), B8601LZw. (local time with UTC offset as hhmmss+|-hhmm), B8601TMw.d (time as hhmmssffff) and B8601TZw. (time adjusted to UTC as hhmmss+|-hhmm). Extended formats follow the same structure: E8601DAw. (date as yyyy-mm-dd), E8601DNw., E8601DTw.d, E8601DZw., E8601LZw., E8601TMw.d and E8601TZw.d, each using hyphen and colon delimiters to separate date and time components. These formats are important where standards compliance, machine readability or time zone clarity matter.
Numeric Formats
Numeric formats address general presentation, technical encoding and domain-specific output. BESTw. lets SAS choose the best notation, w.d writes standard numeric data one digit per byte and Zw.d adds leading zeroes. BESTDw.p lines up decimal places for values of similar magnitude and prints integers without decimals. Dw.p does the same over a potentially wider range of values, and Ew. writes values in scientific notation.
Financial and punctuation-sensitive displays are handled by COMMAw.d (comma every three digits, period for decimal), COMMAXw.d (period every three digits, comma for decimal), NUMXw.d (comma in place of the decimal point), DOLLARw.d, DOLLARXw.d, PERCENTw.d, PERCENTNw.d (using a minus sign for negative values) and NEGPARENw.d (negative values in parentheses). Integer and binary formats include IBw.d (native integer binary including negative values), IBRw.d (integer binary in Intel and DEC formats), PIBw.d (positive integer binary), PIBRw.d (positive integer binary in Intel and DEC formats) and RBw.d (real binary floating-point). Floating-point formats include FLOATw.d (native single-precision) and IEEEw.d. FRACTw. converts values to fractions.
Encoding formats include HEXw. (hexadecimal), BINARYw. (binary), OCTALw. (octal), PDw.d (packed decimal), PKw.d (unsigned packed decimal) and ZDw.d (zoned decimal). IBM mainframe formats form their own group: S370FFw.d (standard numeric), S370FIBw.d (integer binary including negative values), S370FIBUw.d (unsigned integer binary), S370FPDw.d (packed decimal), S370FPDUw.d (unsigned packed decimal), S370FPIBw.d (positive integer binary), S370FRBw.d (real binary floating-point), S370FZDw.d (zoned decimal), S370FZDLw.d (zoned decimal leading sign), S370FZDSw.d (zoned decimal separate leading sign), S370FZDTw.d (zoned decimal separate trailing sign) and S370FZDUw.d (unsigned zoned decimal). VAXRBw.d writes real binary data in VMS format and VMSZNw.d generates VMS and OpenText COBOL zoned numeric data.
Readable formats include ROMANw. (Roman numerals), WORDSw. (values as words) and WORDFw. (values as words with fractions shown numerically). The SSNw. format writes Social Security numbers and PVALUEw.d writes p-values.
Combining ODS Styles and Formats for Cleaner SAS Output
The connection between style definitions and formats is straightforward, even if the details are substantial. Styles determine the visual structure of ODS output through inheritance, element definitions and optional CSS imports, while formats determine how the values inside that output are written. A report can therefore be shaped at two levels at once: the appearance of titles, tables, notes and cells through DEFINE STYLE, and the textual form of dates, times, percentages, identifiers and other values through the SAS format system. Understanding both gives a clearer picture of how SAS turns data into output that is both functional and legible.