3. Save the file.

4. Restart the object spawner.

Note: If SAS is running on a UNIX server, you must enter your libref using uppercase letters. For example, APFMTLIB must be all uppercase.

Referencing Additional Format Catalogs in the Default Location

Your default location can contain catalogs in addition to the one named formats. For example, suppose that your default location also contains catalogs named format2 and format3. Here are the steps to reference those catalogs:

1. Place a copy of each catalog in the directory identified by the SET option in the sasv9.cfg file.

2. Locate the sasv9_usermods.cfg file for the workspace server, and open the file in a plain text editor.

3. Add the following line to point to your other format catalogs:

-insert fmtsearch (APFMTLIB.format2 APFMTLIB.format3)

4. Save the file.

5. Restart the object spawner.

Note: If SAS is running on a UNIX server, you must enter your libref using uppercase letters. For example, APFMTLIB must be all uppercase.

Specifying Additional Catalog Locations

You can specify format locations in addition to the default location. For example, suppose that you also store format catalogs in C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats. Here are the steps to point to catalogs in that additional location:

1. Locate the sasv9_usermods.cfg file for the workspace server, and open the file in a plain text editor.
2. Add the following lines. Use the SET system option to provide the libref and the fully qualified path to the additional catalog location. Use the FMTSEARCH option to point to both the default location (APFMTLIB) and the new location. In this example, the new libref is FMTLOC2.

-set FMTLOC2 "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch (APFMTLIB FMTLOC2)

3. (Conditional) If the catalog in the new location is not named formats, then append the name of the catalog to the libref. For example, if your catalog in FMTLOC2 is named usrfmt, then enter:

-set FMTLOC2 "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch (APFMTLIB FMTLOC2.usrfmt)

4. Save the file.

5. Restart the object spawner.

Note: If SAS is running on a UNIX server, you must enter your libref using uppercase letters. For example, APFMTLIB and FMTLOC2 must be all uppercase.

Changing the Default Format Catalog Location

You do not have to store your catalogs in the location specified by the SET option in the sasv9.cfg file, as long as the new location is still accessible to the SAS Application Server used by the clients. For example, suppose that your catalogs are stored in C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats. Here are the steps to use the same default libref (APFMTLIB) but point to your preferred location instead of the default location:

1. Locate the sasv9_usermods.cfg file for the workspace server, and open the file in a plain text editor.

2. Add the following lines. For the SET system option, specify the default libref (APFMTLIB) and the fully qualified path to the preferred catalog location. Include the FMTSEARCH option to point to APFMTLIB.

-set APFMTLIB "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch APFMTLIB.usrfmt

3. (Conditional) If the catalog in the new location is not named formats, then append the name of the catalog to the libref. For example, if your catalog in APFMTLIB is named usrfmt, then enter:

-set APFMTLIB "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch APFMTLIB.usrfmt

If you have more than one catalog in the new location, then use this form:

-set APFMTLIB "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch (APFMTLIB.usrfmt APFMTLIB.usrfmt2)

4. Save the file.

5. Restart the object spawner.

Note: If SAS is running on a UNIX server, you must enter your libref using uppercase letters. For example, APFMTLIB must be all uppercase.

Referencing a User-Defined Format Configuration File

Instead of specifying the location of your format catalogs directly in the sasv9_usermods.cfg file, you can point to a .cfg file that contains the location of your catalogs. For example, suppose that you have a format catalog named newcat. The catalog is located in C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats. You want to use the libref FMTLOC2. Here are the steps to use a .cfg file to point to that catalog:

1. Open a new file in a plain text editor, and add the following lines. Use the SET system option to provide the libref and the fully qualified path to the catalog location. Use the FMTSEARCH option to point to the location specified by the SET system option:

-set FMTLOC2 "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats"
-insert fmtsearch (FMTLOC2.newcat)

2. Save the file with a .cfg extension. For example, you might name it fmtfile.cfg.

3. Locate the sasv9_usermods.cfg file for the workspace server, and open the file in a plain text editor.

4. Add the following line to point to the .cfg file.

-config "C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\SASApp\MoreFormats\fmtfile.cfg"

Note: On UNIX systems, do not include the quotation marks around the file path.

5. Save the file.

6. Restart the object spawner.

Note: If SAS is running on a UNIX server, you must enter your libref using uppercase letters. For example, FMTLOC2 must be all uppercase.

Additional Considerations

• If you used the LOCALE option in the PROC FORMAT statement when you created the format, then you would add /locale to the FMTSEARCH option. For example, if you created a catalog named multi using the LOCALE option, then you might specify -insert fmtsearch (APFMTLIB.multi /locale).
• In general, you can use your custom formats in SAS Visual Analytics. For information about support for user-defined formats in SAS Visual Analytics, see SAS KB0041708.
• User-defined formats are not supported if the library is allocated with the META engine. For more information, see SAS Note 43378.
• When building cubes in the Cube Designer, you can enter the name of a user-defined format. However, a list of available formats is not presented.

Additional Resources

• For information about creating a format, see "FORMAT Procedure" in the Base^® SAS Procedures Guide.
• For information about applying a format, see "FORMAT Statement" in SAS Statements: Reference.
• For more information about the FMTSEARCH option and the SET option, see the "Dictionary of System Options" in SAS System Options.
• For information about managing format catalogs on multiple machines, see "Update References to User-Defined Formats" in the SAS Intelligence Platform: Application Server Administration Guide.
• For information about why user-defined formats might not appear in SAS^® Information Map Studio, see SAS Note 40181.