SAS/ACCESS 9.2 for Relational Databases: Reference, Fourth Edition

The ACCESS Procedure for Relational Databases 4 FORMAT Statement 899DROP StatementDrops a column so that it cannot be selected in a view descriptorApplies to:Interaction:access and view descriptorsRESET, SELECTDROP column-identifier-1 ;column-identifierspecifies the column name or the positional equivalent from the LIST statement,which is the number that represents the column’s place in the access descriptor. Forexample, to drop the third and fifth columns, submit this statement:drop 3 5;DetailsThe DROP statement drops the specified column(s) from a descriptor. You can drop acolumn when creating or updating an access descriptor; you can also drop a columnwhen updating a view descriptor. If you drop a column when creating an accessdescriptor, you cannot select that column when creating a view descriptor that is basedon the access descriptor. The underlying DBMS table is unaffected by this statement.To display a column that was previously dropped, specify that column name in theRESET statement. However, doing so also resets all column attributes—such as theSAS variable name and format—to their default values.FORMAT StatementChanges a SAS format for a DBMS columnApplies to:Interaction:access descriptor or view descriptorASSIGN, DROP, RESETFORMAT column-identifier-1 SAS-format-name-1;column-identifierspecifies the column name or the positional equivalent from the LIST statement,which is the number that represents the column’s place in the access descriptor. Ifthe column name contains lowercase characters, special characters, or nationalcharacters, enclose the name in quotation marks.SAS-format-namespecifies the SAS format to be used.