The following program uses the DEFINE statement to set the headings for the Yards and Type variables, respectively, as Total Yardage and Type of Course:

PROC REPORT data = stat480.penngolf NOWINDOWS HEADLINE;
     title 'Some Pennsylvania Golf Courses';
     column Name Year Type Par Yards;
	 define Yards / format = comma5.0 'Total Yardage' 
                    width = 7 spacing = 4;
	 define Type / 'Type of Course' spacing = 6;
RUN;

Output

In many cases, you'll need to set the width of the columns so that they accommodate the headings, as is done here for the Yards variable. Launch and run   the SAS program, and review the output to convince yourself that, in the resulting report, the headings of the Yards and Type variables are indeed as defined.

If you don't like the way SAS splits long headings across multiple rows, you can take control of it yourself by using a split character in the column label. When the REPORT procedure encounters the split character in a column heading, it breaks the heading and continues the heading on the next line. The split character itself does not appear in the heading. To use a split character, you can do either of the following:

• Use the default forward slash (/) as the split character.
• Define a split character by using the SPLIT= option in the PROC REPORT statement, and then use the split character in the column labels.

Let's take a look at another example.

The following program uses the default forward slash as a split character for the defined column labels of the Yards and Type variables:

PROC REPORT data = stat480.penngolf NOWINDOWS HEADLINE;
     title 'Some Pennsylvania Golf Courses';
     column Name Year Type Par Yards;
	 define Yards / format = comma5.0 'Total/Yardage' 
                    width = 7 spacing = 4;
	 define Type / 'Type of/Course' spacing = 6 width = 8;
RUN;

Output

You might want to note that we modified the width of the Type column so that it can now accommodate the length of the column label as it is now defined to be split. Launch and run   the SAS program, and review the output to convince yourself that the column labels are split as requested. How does it look? Hmmm, perhaps it might look a bit better now if we centered the Yards and Type columns. Let's go ahead and do that.

Just one more thing before we do ... you might want to first try out the other method of using a split character. To change the split character to an asterisk (*), say, let's have you attach the SPLIT = option:

split = '*'

just after HEADLINE and before the semicolon in the PROC REPORT statement in Example 10.10. Then, modify the labels so that they use the asterisk:

'Total*Yardage'

and:

'Type of*Course'

And, re-run   the SAS program, and review the output to convince yourself that the modified code worked.

Okay, now back to centering columns. Recall that, by default, the REPORT procedure left-justifies character variables and right-justifies numeric variables in listing output. For each variable that you define, you can instead specify the justification option CENTER, LEFT, or RIGHT in the DEFINE statement.

The following program uses the DEFINE statement's CENTER option to center the Yards and Type columns in the requested report:

PROC REPORT data = stat480.penngolf NOWINDOWS HEADLINE;
     title 'Some Pennsylvania Golf Courses';
     column Name Year Type Par Yards;
	 define Yards / format = comma5.0 'Total/Yardage' 
                    width = 7 spacing = 4 center;
	 define Type / 'Type of/Course' spacing = 6 
                    width = 8 center;
RUN;

Output

Launch and run   the SAS program, and review the output to convince yourself that the CENTER option centers the formatted values within the specified column width, as well as the headings that appear over the values. That is in fact how each option works. The RIGHT option right-justifies the formatted values within the specified column width, as well as the headings that appear over the values, and the LEFT option left-justifies the formatted values within the specified column width, as well as the headings that appear over the values.