About SAS Format Catalogs in the Oracle Life Sciences Data Hub

A SAS format translates short data value codes like zero (0) and one (1) to meaningful data values such as Male and Female or Yes and No.

Using SAS formats, you can store a minimum amount of data and call the format to correctly display the data in a report. The format itself can consist of source code containing hardcoded values, such as:

Alternatively, the format can consist of a simple call to an Oracle LSH Table instance that contains the relationships between the short stored values and the meaningful display values.

In this case the format refers to a data set, now converted to an Oracle LSH Table called Standard Formats that contains data such as:

Table 5-1 Format Table Example

Format Name	Stored Code	Display Value
$Sex.	0	Male
$Sex.	1	Female
$YesNo.	0	No
$YesNo.	1	Yes

You can create the Oracle LSH Table in several ways, including:

• uploading a format data set from SAS using a Load Set
• modifying an Oracle Clinical Discrete Value Group (DVG) table (loaded into Oracle LSH by the Oracle Clinical Global Library adapter)
• uploading a table from any integrated external system and modifying as necessary

A SAS format data set contains all the information required to define a format, such as the format name; its starting and ending value; minimum, maximum, and default length; and so on as columns or variables.