Using the Output Delivery System

By default, the ODS path includes the name of the template store that provides the templates that are shipped with the SAS system. You can use the ODS PATH SHOW statement to see the list of active template stores:

ods path show;

By default, the results are as follows:

   Current ODS PATH list is:

   1. SASUSER.TEMPLAT(UPDATE)
   2. SASHELP.TMPLMST(READ)

The ODS PATH statement template search path name Sashelp.Tmplmst refers to the template stores that are shipped with the SAS System. More precisely, the ODS PATH name Sashelp.Tmplmst refers to multiple template store files including Sashelp.Tmplmst, Sashelp.Tmplstat, Sashelp.Tmplets, Sashelp.Tmplqc, Sashelp.Tmpliml, and others. The name Sashelp.Tmplmst refers to both the entire template store that is shipped with the SAS System and one particular file in that template store. In earlier releases of the SAS System, there was just one template store file, namely Sashelp.Tmplmst, and there was a one-to-one correspondence between the ODS PATH statement name and the template store file name. Now there are multiple files (because certain products have their own template store files), but the ODS PATH statement syntax for selecting all of them is unchanged. You do not need to be concerned about this, and you should not specify any of these template stores individually. You simply specify Sashelp.Tmplmst to get the item stores that are shipped with the SAS System. However, you will see these other names sometimes in the SAS log and output when you are working with templates, so you need to know what that means.

If you see a template store name of the form Sashelp followed by a period and a name, it refers to part of the overall template store that you can reference with the name Sashelp.Tmplmst. For example, submit the following step:

proc template;
   source Stat.REG.ANOVA;
run;

The following is displayed in the SAS log file:

   NOTE: Path 'Stat.Reg.ANOVA' is in: SASHELP.TMPLSTAT.

Submit the following step:

proc template;
   list Stat.REG;
   list ETS.ARIMA;
   list QC.Shewhart;
run;

The names Sashelp.Tmplstat, Sashelp.Tmplets, and Sashelp.Tmplqc are displayed in the headers of the tables that list the procedure templates.