Generate Page Numbers in X of Y Format in ODS RTF Output

 STEP 1. CREATE A PAGE VARIABLE IN THE FINAL DATASET BEFORE USING THE PROC REPORT PROCEDURE

A numeric variable containing page number values will be used in the PROC REPORT procedure to generate Page X of Y. To get page number values, first you have to figure out what is the maximum number of rows each page body (excluding title, footnote, and free margin space areas) can contain. The best way to get this number is to use the PROC PEPORT procedure to test it. In theory, if there are no wrapped columns, no blank rows, and assuming that each observation occupies only one row in the output, the total number of pages should be equal to the number of total rows divided by the maximum row number of a page if there is no remainder, or to that value +1 if there is a remainder. However, almost every RTF output contains blank rows at least for cosmetic purposes. Some RTF outputs such as most of listings have wrapped columns, which means that one single observation in the SAS dataset could be displayed in multiple rows depending on the maximum length of the variable in that    observation. As a result, how many rows each page contains will vary. This makes the job to create page numbers much more complicated.

The following three steps have been developed to get the page number:

1). Get the number of wraps for each wrapped column with the CEIL and LENGTH functions.

 wrapx = CEIL(LENGTH(colx) /Nx) ;

wrapx stands for the number of wraps for column x.

 Colx stands for column x.

Nx stands for the maximum number of characters column x can have. For example, if column x is 35

characters long, then replace Nx with 35.

2). Find out the maximum wrap count with the MAX function:

maxwrap = MAX(wrap1, wrap2, , …) ;

3). Calculate the page number.

DATA fin;

SET xyz ;

BY sitesubj ;

RETAIN pg 0 pgcnt 0 ;

IF FIRST.sitesubj THEN pgcnt = pgcnt + maxwrap + 1 ;

ELSE pgcnt = pgcnt + maxwrap ;

IF pgcnt > pnum THEN DO;

Pgcnt = maxwrap + 1;

Pg = pg + 1;

END;

RUN;

pg is the page number variable.

pnum stands for the maximum number of rows that each page body can contain. For example, if the

maximum row number that each page body can contain is 30, then replace pnum with 30.

STEP 2. CREATE A MACRO VARIABLE THAT CARRIES A VALUE FOR THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES

The PROC SQL procedure can be used to create a macro variable - &tpg that carries the maximum number of pages:

PROC SQL NOPRINT;

SELECT max(pg) into :tpg

FROM fin ;

QUIT;

STEP 3. GENERATE PAGE NUMBERS IN X of Y FORMAT IN ODS RTF OUTPUTS

The following macro generates RTF output.

ODS RTF FILE = “xyz.rtf” ;

 %MACRO Rept ;

   %DO i = 1 %to &tpg ;

    TITLE1 J=L "xyz Inc." J=C "Confidential" J=R "Page &i of &tpg" ;

 PROC REPORT DATA = fin (where=(pg= &i)) missing nowd headline headskip;

 COLUMN pg col01 col02 col03 col04 ;

 DEFINE pg / order order=internal noprint ;

 DEFINE col01 / … ;

                ……

 BREAK after pg / page ;

 RUN ;

   %END ;

 %MEND;

 %Rept ;

ODS RTF CLOSE ;

CONCLUSION

SAS’s position on RTF is that the format is intended for modification. However, this is not the case for drug submission. Once the final batch run is finished, the outputs are not supposed to be modified any more. The approach to generate page numbers in X of Y format as discussed above is straightforward without having to deal with the Microsoft Word field code information. A drawback is that the number of rows in each page may not be even. Some pages may contain more rows with less white space whereas other pages may have more white space.

However, the benefi