delete labels and formats

To delete labels and formats from SAS variables, use the PROC DATASET  procedure and attrib statement. Consider the example dataset ex with label and formats applied.

data ex;
	a=10.3;
	b=20.5;
	attrib a format=dollar10.2 label='VARIABLE A' b format=dollar10.2 
		label='VARIABLE B';
run;

How to delete labels and formats form a variable?

To delete a variable label and format, use the PROC DATASETS procedure as below.

proc datasets lib=work memtype=data;
	modify ex;
	attrib a label=' ';
	attrib a format='';
	run;
quit;

ods select Variables;
proc contents data=ex;
run;
ods select default;

How to delete labels and formats form a variable?

To delete labels and formats from all the variables replace the attrib statement as below.

attrib _all_ label=' ';
attrib _all_ format='';

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4 Comments

  1. 32 proc datasets lib=work memtype=data;
    33
    33 ! modify ex;
    34 attrib a label=’ ‘;
    35 attrib a format=”;
    __
    22
    200
    ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, a format name, ;, FORMAT, INFORMAT, LABEL, LENGTH, _ALL_,
    _CHARACTER_, _CHAR_, _NUMERIC_.
    ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

    Reply

    1. Looking at the error, it seems there is only one quote in the 

      attrib a format=”

      The correct syntax is

      attrib a format="";

      When you copy any code, it is always good to format the code, so you can see the statements and any syntax error like this. To indent the code in SAS EG select all the code and press Ctrl +i

      Reply

  2. Hi,
    I copied the code given and executed the same. It throws above error.
    can we have both run; and quit; in proc dataset ?

    Reply