Maintaining Formats when Exporting Data from SAS into Microsoft Excel

Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

Maintaining Formats when Exporting Data

from SAS into Microsoft Excel

Nate Derby & Colleen McGahan

Stakana Analytics, Seattle, WA

BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC

Regina SAS Users Group

3/11/15

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

Outline

Introduction

Solutions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

Conclusions

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

Introduction

Many typical ways of exporting data from SAS into Excel destroy

the data formats.

Creating Data Formats

DATA class;

SET sashelp.class;

FORMAT age 3. height weight 6.2;

IF name = 'Thomas' THEN age = .;

RUN;

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

SAS Dataset

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

Exporting SAS Data

Now let’s export it via PROC EXPORT and the ExcelXP tagset:

SAS Code

PROC EXPORT DATA=class

OUTFILE="&outroot\Output from PROC EXPORT.xls";

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP

FILE="&outroot\Output from ExcelXP.xls";

PROC PRINT DATA=class;

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP CLOSE;

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

PROC EXPORT Output

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

PROC EXPORT Output

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

ExcelXP Tagset Output

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

ExcelXP Tagset Output

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

SAS Formats vs. Excel Formats

SAS format Excel format Excel format name

$8. @ Text

8.2 0.00 Number, 2 decimal places

z8.2 00000.00 (none)

percent8.2 0.00% Percentage, 2 decimal places

mmddyy8. mm/dd/yy Date, type “03/14/01”

comma12.2 #,##0.00 Number, 2 decimal places, with ...

We need to translate SAS formats into Excel formats!

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

ExcelXP Tagset Solution

SAS Code

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP

FILE="&outroot\Output from ExcelXP, Numeric Formatting.xls";

PROC PRINT DATA=class;

VAR name sex age;

VAR height weight / STYLE={TAGATTR='format=0.00'};

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP CLOSE;

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

ExcelXP Tagset Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

ExcelXP Tagset Solution with PROC TEMPLATE

SAS Code

PROC TEMPLATE;

DEFINE STYLE styles.mystyle;

PARENT = styles.default;

STYLE data_num from data / TAGATTR='format:0.00';

END;

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP

FILE="&outroot\Output from ExcelXP, Numeric Formatting.xls";

PROC PRINT DATA=class;

VAR name sex age;

VAR height weight / STYLE( data )=data_num;

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP CLOSE;

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

Dealing with Missing Values

SAS Code

OPTIONS MISSING='';

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP

FILE="&outroot\Output from ExcelXP, Numeric Formatting.xls";

PROC PRINT DATA=class;

VAR name sex age;

VAR height weight / STYLE( data )=data_num;

RUN;

ODS tagsets.ExcelXP CLOSE;

OPTIONS MISSING='.';

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Solution

DDE = SAS opens Excel, tells it what to do.

You have to tell Excel every single step.

Best solution: The %exportToXL macro (free!).

SAS Code

%LET exroot = c:\...\exportToXL;

OPTIONS SASAUTOS=( "&exroot" ) MAUTOSOURCE;

%exportToXL( DSIN=class, SAVEPATH=&outroot,

SAVENAME=Output from DDE );

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

Requires the SAS/ACCESS for PC Files package.

We “cheat” by (manually) formatting the Excel template ahead

of time.

We then pour the data into the template.

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

SAS Code

LIBNAME workbook PCFILES

PATH="&outroot\Output from LIBNAME.xls";

PROC DATASETS LIBRARY=workbook NOLIST;

DELETE MyRange;

QUIT;

DATA workbook.MyRange;

SET class;

RUN;

LIBNAME workbook CLEAR;

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

The ExcelXP Tagset

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)

The LIBNAME Engine

The LIBNAME Solution

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Introduction

Solutions

Conclusions

Many ways of exporting data from SAS into Excel destroy

data formats.

SAS and Excel speak different languages for data formats.

This can be ﬁxed in three ways:

ExcelXP Tagset with the TAGATTR style.

Dynamic Data Exchange with %exportToXL macro.

The LIBNAME engine with pre-formatted template.

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Appendix

Further Resources

Too many to list – see the paper!

Nate Derby: [email protected]

Colleen McGahan: [email protected]

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