If you try to assign a numeric format to a character variable with the NOFMTERR system option specified, a note like the following is correctly written to the SAS® log:
NOTE: 484-185: Format $MMDDYY. was not found or could not be loaded.
However, when you view the data set attributes using PROC CONTENTS for example, the format name is shown as $MDDYY., where the first letter of the format name has been dropped.
The following sample program demonstrates this issue:
options nofmterr;
data sample;
length x $ 10;
x=" ";
format x mmddyy.;
run;
proc contents data=sample;
run;
The format attribute name should be shown as $MMDDYY.
This will be corrected in a future version of SAS.