ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

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1 Automatically Output Rich Text Format Tables Using Dynamic Table Definitions in DATA _NULL_ Step Mei Tang, Ventana Clinical Research Corporation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ABSTRACT This paper presents an automated approach to produce word processor ready tables using ODS option of FILE statement in DATA _NULL_ step to output tables to ODS RTF destination with customized table definitions. A macro with simple parameters is introduced to generate dynamic table definitions through PROC TEMPLATE according to different table structures. The use of such technique eliminates the need for manual word processing of SAS outputs, resulting in improving the quality and accuracy of reports, and conforming to FDA guidance. The approach is flexible, heuristic, and easy to modify with different layout standard. SAS version 8.2 for Windows environment is used for practice. Since the approach adopt pure SAS language, it is easy to learn by SAS programmers at different skill levels. INTRODUCTION There are too many reasons to keen on word processor ready tables, specifically Rich Text Format (RTF) tables, with nice table headers, footers and page numbers directly generated from SAS rather than plain text listings and tabulations. This becomes more desirable when we found tens or hundreds of tables need to be produced, maybe with different shapes, and maybe, make things worse, integrated with graphs to illustrate the same measurements. In order to avoid the tremendous work load of such tedious work as copying pasting the plaint text table into the statistical report, manually re-typing the table numbers, and putting the tables and graphs on the proper places, people are keeping on looking for innovative ways of transforming SAS generated tables into great looking documents with minimal word processing to save cost and resource, improve the quality and accuracy of the report, and conform to FDA guidance. There are a lot of smart and distinguished programmers generated creative SAS macros to write documents with RTF specification and can be read directly by word processor as matured tables. Peszek et al. presented a macro called %rtf that can be used within DATA _NULL_ step to provide full control over the table appearance with multiple calls. It can produce attractive word tables with much flexibility. But the extensive experience in the DATA _NULL_ step with PUT statements, the proficiency of RTF specification syntax, as well as the considerable programming effort, obscured the approach being implemented by an average SAS programmer especially under intensive timelines. With the introduction of the Output Delivery System (ODS) in version 7 of the SAS System, a convenient approach of getting RTF tables is available. A lot of programmers are using standard SAS procedures such as PROC REPORT, PROC PRINT, or PROC TABLULATE to write output directly to RTF files by defining ODS RTF destination. It is easy to accomplish, especially for the programmers who have been so familiar with the procedures for years. However, when output to rtf files, some of the preferable characteristics disappeared, such as controlling the page break during report generation, blank separator rows in the table etc. Moreover, the possibility of controlling the appearance of the table is very poor though tips of improving the appearance are introduced in several papers. The author propose here another way of taking full advantage of the convenience of ODS RTF destination, but more versatile and easy to implement, by calling a SAS macro with simple parameters to define dynamic table definitions in PROC TEMPLATE and using these definitions to output tables to ODS RTF destination with ODS option of FILE statement in DATA _NULL_ step. This approach can be used several times within the ODS RTF destination, together with other standard SAS procedures including PROC GPLOT or PROC GCHART for producing graphs. These characteristics of this approach make it very suitable for the scenario that different shapes of tables and graphs are integrated to demonstrate one measurement, and several measurements are sharing the same procedure of analysis. Sometimes, the appendix tables and graphs of a whole section of the analysis can be done using this approach, with little word processing works afterwards. The following text will describe the approach in the following four folds: A brief introduction of output tables to ODS destination in DATA _NULL_ statement. Tips of using customized style definition to optimize the appearance of the tables The idea of creating dynamic table definitions using SAS macro language and PROC TEMPLATE Examples of producing a table using the dynamic table definition Appendix A also contains the code of this macro and its specifications for macro parameters. CREATING OUTPUT AS RTF FILES USING ODS Generally, the traditional program output refers to the outcome of a SAS procedure step. Working in a windowing environment, the output is sent to Output window by default. One of the ways to send the output to a file is using PUT statement in DATA _NULL_ step with assigning a file name in FILE statement. The DATA _NULL_ approach has been widely used for plain text table producing and its flexible characteristics was well recognized among SAS programmers. With the development of the ODS, the ODS option in FILE statement provided in version 8 can specify using ODS to format the output from the DATA _NULL_ step. It defines the structure of the data component and binds that component to a table definition to produce an output object. ODS sends this object to all open ODS destinations, each of which formats the object appropriately. Using this approach, we have a chance to directly produce tables as Rich Text Format (RTF) files, and can easily integrate them into the statistical report that are by convention written using word processor. The main steps and syntaxes include: Define and open the ODS destination as RTF and give the name of the file that we are going to write to: ods rtf body='filename.rtf'; Producing table(s) from DATA _NULL_ step and send to RTF file data _null_; set dataset; file print ods <=(ODS suboptions)>; put _ods_; <other put statements>... run; Close the ODS RTF destination and finish writing to the file ods rtf close;

2 Above syntaxes show the simplest way of producing an rtf table using the rtf style and table definition that SAS provides by default. However, by little chance it will be what we want for the physical appearance. There are two ways to improve the appearance and attain the tables with pleasing appearance and ready to report. First, an option style= stylename offered in ODS RTF allow us using a customized style to write RTF files. Second, we can use template= templatename suboption in ODS option for FILE statement to ask SAS use a customized table definition that we defined beforehand. The following text will address both issues. USING STYLE CUSTOMIZATION TO GET TIDY APPEARANCE Most biostatisticians prefer tidy tables which less busy than the appearance of those using default style. A lot of papers addressed the ways of creating customized style by modifying default style definition using PROC TEMPLATE. Some of the tips we customized our rtf style definitions are listed as the following: top and the bottom of the table, the line under the column headers. If there are footers for the table, an extra line between the table body and the table footer will be generated. replace Table from Output/ rules = GROUPS frame = HSIDES Always set the table be as large as possible on the body size to ensure it be always on the center of the page. outputwidth=100%; run; proc template; define style customdefault; parent=styles.rtf; Using several replace statement, we made main changes including: Set the margins of the page into 1 inch in both direction: replace Body from Document "Set the margins into standard"/ bottommargin=1 in topmargin=1 in rightmargin=1 in leftmargin=1 in Set the background of the column headers into white instead of gray: replace color_list "Colors used in the default style"/ 'link'=blue 'bgh'=white 'fg'=black 'bg'=white; Change the shape and size of fonts to conform to our company standard replace fonts "Fonts used in the default style" / 'TitleFont2' = ("Arial, Helvetica, Helv",4,Bold Italic) /*change the font from size5, and delete italic*/ 'TitleFont' = ("Arial",3,Bold) /*get rid of italic for emphasis font*/ 'EmphasisFont' = ("Arial",3,Bold) /* change the font from Courier to Arial and change size to 2*/ 'FixedFont' = ("Arial",3) /*get rid of bold for headingfont */ 'headingfont' = ("Arial, Helvetica, Helv",3) Keeping less visible line borders for tables. No visible column borders are applied for all of the tables, and generally, there are only 3 lines left for the table: The DEFINING A DYNAMIC TABLE DEFINITION A table definition is a way that SAS offered to describe how to render the output for a tabular output object by using DEFINE TABLE statement in PROC TEMPLATE. It will be automatically stored in the template store located in SASUSER.TEMPLAT without specifying template store. One can also store the definitions in any template store that can be specified using PATH statement. The traits that are beneficial when we use table definition to produce tables includes: Repeatable. Stored in the template store, it can be easily applied for different data with the same tabulation structure Macro language friendly. With MVAR and NMVAR statement, one can easily define symbols that reference macro variables which are resolved when ODS binds the definition and the data component to produce an output object. Dynamic. Similar with MVAR and NMVAR, the DYNAMIC statement can define a symbol that references a value that the data component supplies from the DATA _NULL_ step. So we are given a chance to decide the exact value of a component, which in our case, the columns headers, only when tabulating the data. Generic. Collaborating with the GENERIC=ON in the ODS suboptions, multiple variables in the data sets can share the same definition of one column in table definition Before we give further endeavor of creating the macro generating dynamic table definitions, it is necessary to take a close study on the structure of typical statistical tables. Table 1 shows a complex enough table sample. It is a table template for demonstrating summary statistics of a measurement under certain comparison groups in a crossover study. The main purpose of this table is showing the statistics within 8 combined groups for the interactions among sexes, treatment A and treatment B. The column of Overall and two sexes are shown here for the purpose of comparison. The main body of a table is consisted as three parts: column headers, row headers, and the contents (the values in the data set). Usually, the structure of column headers is more complex than row headers to satisfy a nice appearance of a table. We can summarize the structure of column headers as hierarchy one. Hens the 12 columns of table1 can be put into four types: Column1:row headers Column2: column(s) with no hierarchical structure (Type I) Column3-Column4: columns with one level hierarchical structure (Type II)

3 Column5-Column12: columns with two level hierarchical structure (Type III) According to the definitions above, we can generate a general template for the column headers and footers for most of the statistical tables showed in Figure 1. More than two levels of hierarchic structure is not recommended since it will make tables messy and is suggested to split into two tables. When writing table definition, with GENERIC=ON option in both PROC TEMPLATE and ODS suboptions in DATA _NULL_ step, it is easy to duplicate new columns for the same structure as the previous one. So the only columns we need to define are those with macro symbols (in italic) shown Figure 1. No new column needs to be defined unless a new header emerged. In order to make the template more flexible, and can be easily modified according to different table structures, a macro summary were written using simple macro language to determine how many columns are needed in the template, the position of the grand header we want to place if exists, if there will be a specific footer (this is quite useful when we hope to present a simple referential statistics across different comparison groups) and its position, if a general note is required, and the width of the columns if a fixed width is demanded for the columns. The complete code of the macro and its specifications are listed in Appendix A. USING THE DYNAMIC TABLE DEFINITIONS TO PRODUCE TABLES The following examples illustrate the concept of using the dynamic table definition after getting the data set ready using regular SAS coding for analysis and data manipulation. The table definitions generated using %summary are listed in Appendix B, Table 1. A typical template for statistical tables Sex*(Treatment A)*(Treatment B) Overall Sex Males Females Males Females P_a & P_b P_a& E_b E_a& P_b E_a& E_b P_a & P_b P_a& E_b E_a& P_b E_a& E_b N Missing Mean STD Minimum Median Maximum LS mean SE Note: P_a: the placebo of treatment A E_a: the effective components of treatment A P_b: the placebo of treatment B E_b: the effective components of treatment B Figure 1: A general template for the column headers and footers with macro symbols for columns (in blue), headers (in red), and footers (in red). VAR Row headers Type I Type II Type III NAME1 NAME2 NAME3 NAME(n) NAME(n+1) NAME(n+2) Header1 HEADER HEADER GRAND HEADER Header2 Header3 Header(n) Grand CH CH CH CH CH CH HEADER HEADER CH CH CH CH NOTES Notes1 Notes1 Notes(n) FOOTER Footer DATA LINES

4 and their outputs can be found in Appendix C. The values of the data are simulated with no clinical meaning. Table 2: The Data Structure of the examples: COL1 COL2 COL3 COL4 COL5 COL6 COL7 COL8 COL9 col N Missing Mean COL Lsmean Stderr 3.52 * First example: The simplest table with no hierarchy structure; **********************************************; *************************************** * Step 1: Open the ODS RTF destination* ***************************************; ods rtf body='example_try.rtf' style=customdefault bodytitle; ************************************************ * Step 2: Call %summary to generate customized table definition* ***********************************************; %summary(col=1, footer=1, note=5); ************************************************ * Step 3: Producing table from DATA _NULL_ step and send to RTF file* ***********************************************; data _null_; * Title of the table; Title1 'Table 1. Summary Statistics of Heart Rate by 4 combination treatment groups'; Title2 '-- A simple table layout'; * No header in this case; call symput ('header1', ' '); * A line that simple inferential statistics may be presented; call symput ('footer', 'F=xx,xx, df=(x,xx), p=x.xxx'); * multiple lines of note presented in footer area; call symput ('note1', 'Note:'); call symput ('note2', 'P_a: the placebo of treatment A'); call symput ('note3', 'E_a: the effective components of treatment A'); call symput ('note4', 'P_b: the placebo of treatment B'); call symput ('note5', 'E_b: the effective components of treatment B'); set tabletext(where=(destinate=3)); columns= (var=col0 name1=col6(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_a & P_b')) name1=col7(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_a & E_b')) name1=col8(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='e_a & P_b')) name1=col9(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='e_a & E_b')) ) ); * Produce blank lines between the groups of statistics; if _n_=1 then put; if trim(col0)='mean' then put; if trim(col0)='lsmean' then put; put _ods_; run; *************************************** * Step 4: Open the ODS RTF destination* ***************************************; ods rtf close; ***********************************************; In step 2, by default, a column with the name VAR acting as a row header was defined in the DEFINE TABLE statement. With calling col=1, one extra column (TABLE_NAME1) with one header (TABLE_HEADER1) above was defined. Setting footer=1 and note=5 allow us to define 6 footers (with the name of TABLE_FOOTER, TABLE_NOTE1 to TABLE_NOTE5 respectively) to generate 6 lines of space to write the text afterwards. Within DEFINE TABLE statement, symbols for headers and footers were defined using MVAR statement to facilitate us using CALL SYMPUT to fill the text in when producing the table. They are shown on Figure 1 in red color. Each column defined from %summary (TABLE_NAME1 to TABLE_NAME(n)) are set GENERIC=on and given a dynamic symbol of the column header called COLHEADER. In the FILE PRINT ODS statement, the suboptions of ODS option should contain two parts: TEMPLATE= tells SAS using the template we just generated; COLUMN= assigns the variables in SAS data set to a specific column. In this example, please note with GENERIC=on option, 4 generic columns were generated using the same column name (NAME1), and entitled different column headers using dynamic symbol COLHEADER. Example 2 is a more complicated table with one level hierarchy structure. In order to generate the table definition which is suitable for the table, just call %summary with the parameters col=4. The table definition automatically generates 5 columns, with one VAR for row headers and 4 dynamic columns with one level header above. If there are columns without hierarchy structure in the table, simply define either its header or the column header as blank (here in column two, we define NAME1 as COLHEADER= ). width=6 defines each of the dynamic columns into a fixed width, with 6 characters length. By default, SAS will define the width of each column according to the maximized length of all values in the column. The code within the ODS RTF destination is listed below. * Second example: A table with one level hierarchy; %summary(col=4,width=6); file print ods=(template='summary' data _null_;

5 Title1 'Table 2. Summary Statistics of Heart Rate by two treatments and their 4 combination groups'; Title2 '-- A table with one level hierarchy structure'; call symput ('header1', 'Over all'); call symput ('header2', 'Treatment A'); call symput ('header3', 'Treatment B'); call symput ('header4', "(Treatment A)*(Treatment B)"); set tabletext(where=(destinate=3)); file print ods=(template='summary' ); columns=(var=col0 name1=col1(generic=on dynamic=(colheader=' ')) name2=col2(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='e_a')) name2=col3(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_a')) name3=col4(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='e_b')) name3=col5(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_b')) name4=col6(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_a& P_b')) name4=col7(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='p_a& E_b')) name4=col8(generic=on dynamic=(colheader='e_a& P_b')) name4=col9(generic=on if trim(col0)='mean' then put; if trim(col0)='lsmean' then put; put _ods_; run; dynamic=(colheader='e_a& E_b')) ) ***********************************************; Table 3 in Appendix C, which is the table template we mentioned before, is another complicated table that generated using this approach. The code is similar with previous two. The table definition was generated by calling %SUMMARY as: %summary(col=4,grand=3,note=5,width=4); By stating GRAND=3, a two level header is defined and begin at the third dynamic column. CONCLUSION The concern of producing statistical report tables not only lies in the complexity and the tremendous amount we need to deal with. It also lies in the fact that there are multiple ways of doing this, each of which has their own limitations. The reasonably versatility and feasibility for the approach we are providing here allows us to produce tidy statistical report tables with hierarchy structures that may cover most demands of reporting. The main part of this method is stored in macro with simple parameters that can be easily followed by junior level SAS programmers without necessary knowing the background of styles and table definitions. It also provides flexibilities to improve the appearance of the table using traditional PUT statement. For example, adding a blank separator row is just as easy as add one line code of if condition then put;. Through this paper, the author is trying to explore the accessibility of using dynamic table definitions for the automation process of generating statistical tables. The approach works efficiently and we believe, with the development of ODS RTF in Version 9, it will do even better job in the future. REFERENCES 1. Peszek I, Song C and Kuznetsova O, Producing Tabular Reports in SAS System in the Form of MS Word Tables; Proceedings of the PharmaSUG 99 Conference, Zhou J, Output Generating System A Tool for Creating Tables and Listings in Word; Proceedings of the SUGI Conference, Paper Hamilton P, ODS to RTF: Tips and Tricks; Proceedings of the PharmaSUG SAS Institute, The Complete Guide to the SAS Output Delivery System, Version 8 5. SAS Institute, SAS Language Reference: Dictionary, SAS OnlineDoc, Version 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to acknowledge and thank Howard Kaplan and Lyndon Lacaya for their helps and endeavors in the exploration of the techniques presented in this paper, and their generosity in sharing their discoveries. The author also would like to take this change to express greatly appreciation to our Vise President Gale summer for her support and feedback. CONTACT INFORMATION (HEADER 1) (In case a reader wants to get in touch with you, please put your contact information at the end of the paper.) Your comments and questions are valued and encouraged. Contact the author at: Mei Tang Ventana Clinical Research Corporation 340 College Street, Suite 400 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3A9 Work Phone: (416) ext 327 Fax: (416) m.tang@ventana-crc.com Web: SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration. APPENDIX A: -- MACRO %SUMMARY CODE AND SPECIFICATIONS options orientation=landscape; %macro summary(col=1,footer=0,grand=,note=0,width=); proc template; define table summary; mvar var_name %if %upcase(&grand) ne %then %do; grand

6 % %if %eval(&col)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &col; header&i % % %if %eval(&footer)>0 %then %do; footer % %if %eval(&note)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &note; note&i % % ; dynamic colheader; column var %if %eval(&col)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &col; name&i % % ; header %if %upcase(&grand) ne %then %do; table_grand % %if %eval(&col)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &col; table_header&i % % ; %if %eval(&footer+&note)>0 %then %do; footer %if %eval(&footer)>0 %then %do; table_footer % %if %eval(&note)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &note; table_note&i % % ; % /*Table headers*/ %if %upcase(&grand) ne %then %do; define table_grand; start=name&grand; text grand; style=headeremphasis; % %if %eval(&col)>0 %then %do; %do i=1 %to &col; define table_header&i; start=name&i;end=name&i; text header&i; style=headeremphasis; % % /*table footers*/ %if %eval(&footer)>0 %then %do; define table_footer; start=name&footer; text footer; % %if %eval(&note)>0 %then %do; % %do i=1 %to &note; define table_note&i; start=var; text note&i; % /*table columns*/ define var; header=' '; flow=off; %if %eval(&col)>0 %then %do; % run; %m %do i=1 %to &col; define name&i; % %if %upcase(&width) ne %then %do; format_width=&width; %

7 Table 4. Explanation of the Macro Parameters in %SUMMARY(default values in parentheses) Parameter Type Restriction Description Col (=1) Integer >=1 The number of columns defined in table definition with generic=on. It also defines the number of one level headers Footer (=0) Integer >=0 but have to be smaller than the integer specified in col. The corresponding position of the footer to a specific column. There will be no such footer with this parameter absent or using default value Note (=0) Integer >=0 The number of lines for the general footer area. There will be no footer area with this parameter absent or using default value Grand Integer >=0 but have to be smaller than the integer specified in col. The corresponding position of the second level header to a specific column. There will be no such header with this parameter absent or specify as 0. Width Integer >=0 The width of the generic columns by number of character length. The length of the generic columns will be defined according to the maximum length of the values (including headers) in the column with this parameter absent APPENDIX B TABLE DEFINITIONS GENERATED BY %SUMMARY Example 1: proc template; define table summary; mvar var_name header1 footer note1 note2 note3 note4 note5 ; dynamic colheader; column var name1 ; header table_header1 ; footer table_footer table_note1 table_note2 table_note3 table_note4 table_note5 ; define table_header1; start=name1; end=name1; text header1; style=headeremphasis; define table_footer; start=name1; text footer; define table_note1; start=var; text note1; define table_note2; start=var; text note2; define table_note3; start=var; text note3; define table_note4; start=var; text note4; define table_note5; start=var; text note5; define var; header=' '; flow=off; define name1; Example 2: proc template; define table summary; mvar var_name header1 header2 header3 header4 ; dynamic colheader; column var name1 name2 name3 name4 ; header table_header1 table_header2 table_header3 table_header4 ; define table_header1;

8 start=name1; end=name1; text header1; style=headeremphasis; define table_header2; start=name2; end=name2; text header2; style=headeremphasis; define table_header3; start=name3; end=name3; text header3; style=headeremphasis; define table_header4; start=name4; end=name4; text header4; style=headeremphasis; define var; header=' '; flow=off; define name1; format_width=6; define name2; format_width=6; define name3; format_width=6; define name4; format_width=6; Example 3: proc template; define table summary; mvar var_name grand header1 header2 header3 header4 note1 note2 note3 note4 note5 ; name4 ; header table_grand table_header1 table_header2 table_header3 table_header4 ; dynamic colheader; column var name1 name2 name3 footer table_note1 table_note2 table_note3 table_note4 table_note5 ; define table_grand; start=name3; text grand; style=headeremphasis; define table_header1; start=name1; end=name1; text header1; style=headeremphasis; define table_header2; start=name2; end=name2; text header2; style=headeremphasis; define table_header3; start=name3; end=name3; text header3; style=headeremphasis; define table_header4; start=name4; end=name4; text header4; style=headeremphasis; define table_note1; start=var; text note1; define table_note2; start=var;

9 text note2; define table_note3; start=var; text note3; define table_note4; start=var; text note4; define table_note5; start=var; text note5; define var; header=' '; flow=off; define name1; format_width=4; define name2; format_width=4; define name3; format_width=4; define name4; format_width=4; APPENDIX C OUTPUT OF THE EXAMPLES

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