The following SAS program illustrates a FORMAT procedure that creates a permanent formats catalog in the directory referenced by library, that is, in C:\simon\icdb\data:

LIBNAME library 'C:\simon\icdb\data';

PROC FORMAT library=library;
   value sex2fmt 1 = 'Male'
                 2 = 'Female';

   value race2fmt 3 = 'Black'
                  4 = 'White'
                  OTHER = 'Other';
 RUN;

 DATA temp4; 
   infile 'c:\simon\icdb\data\back.dat';
   input subj 1-6 sex 17 race 19;
   format sex sex2fmt. race race2fmt.;
 RUN;

 PROC CONTENTS data=temp4;
   title 'Output Dataset: TEMP4';
 RUN;

 PROC PRINT data=temp4;
 RUN;

The DATA step creates a temporary data set called temp4 by reading in the variables subj, sex, and race from the raw data file back.dat, and associates the variables sex and race, respectively, with the formats sex2fmt and race2fmt that are defined in the FORMAT procedure. SAS first looks for the occurrence of these two formats in the temporary catalog work.formats and then when it doesn't find them there, it looks for them in the catalog of the permanent format in the c:\simon\icdb\data directory.

Launch the SAS program, and edit the INFILE statement so it reflects the location of your back.dat file. And, edit the LIBNAME statement so it reflects your desired location for the catalog of the permanent format. Then, run   the program and review the output from the CONTENTS and PRINT procedures to convince yourself that the variables sex and race are associated with the permanent formats sex2fmt and race2fmt, not the temporary formats sexfmt and racefmt previously associated with f_sex and f_race. Also, view the directory referenced in your LIBNAME statement to convince yourself that SAS created and stored a permanent formats catalog there.

Just a few more comments on this permanent formats stuff. One of the problems with permanent informats and formats is that once a variable has been associated permanently with an informat or format, SAS must be able to refer to the library to access the formats catalog. As long as the formats catalog exists, and you have permission to the file, you just have to specify the appropriate LIBNAME statement:

LIBNAME library 'c:\stat480\formats\'; 

to access the catalog. If for some reason, you do not have access to the formats catalog, SAS will give you an error that looks something like this:

If you specify the NOFMTERR in the OPTIONS statement:

OPTIONS NOFMTERR; 

you can use the SAS data sets without getting errors. SAS will just display a note (not a program-halting error!) in the log file:

You will be able to run SAS programs that use the data sets containing the permanent formats. You will just not have access to the formats.

Rather than creating a permanent formats catalog, you can create a SAS program file which contains only a FORMAT procedure with the desired value and invalue statements. Then you need merely include this secondary program file in your main SAS program using the %INCLUDE statement, as illustrated here:

%INCLUDE 'C:\simon\icdb\formats\backfmt.sas';

 PROC FREQ data=back;
   title 'Frequency Count of STATE (statefmt)';
   format state statefmt.;
   table state/missing;
 RUN;

To make it clear, here's the only thing contained in the backfmt.sas file:

PROC FORMAT;
    value statefmt 14 = 'Ind'
                   21 = 'Mass'
                   22 = 'Mich'
                   23 = 'Minn'
                   42 = 'Tenn'
                   49 = 'Wisc'
                   .  = 'Missing'
                Other = 'Other';

Since the FORMAT procedure in the backfmt.sas file does not refer to a permanent library, the format statefmt is stored in the temporary work.formats catalog.

To run this program, first download and save the backfmt.sas file to a convenient location on your computer. Then, launch the SAS program and edit the %INCLUDE statement so it reflects the location of your backfmt.sas file. Finally, run   the program and review the output from the FREQ procedure. Convince yourself that the format statement in the FREQ procedure appropriately associates the state variable with the statefmt format created by the FORMAT procedure in backfmt.sas. You may as well also take note of the effect of the MISSING option in the FREQ procedure. Basically, it tells SAS to include missing values as a countable category.

The technique illustrated in this example is particularly useful when you work in an open environment, in which data sets are shared. Different users may not have access to the format file, or different users may prefer different formats.