About the SAS Output Delivery System and SAS ODS Statistical Graphics

The SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) gives you greater flexibility in generating, storing, and reproducing SAS procedure and DATA step output along with a wide range of formatting options. ODS provides formatting functionality that is not available when using individual procedures or the DATA step without ODS.

SAS Data and AI Studio uses very specific ODS options and the GOPTIONS statements so that the output is displayed properly in the web environment. All automatically generated code is included in a collapsed region in the log file. To view all of the ODS options in your code, expand the appropriate region in the log file.

Note: To ensure that your output is displayed properly, do not change the settings of the ODS options or GOPTIONS statements in the generated code.

SAS ODS Statistical Graphics, more commonly referred to as SAS ODS Graphics, is an extension of the SAS Output Delivery System (ODS). ODS manages all output that is created by procedures and enables you to display the output in a variety of forms, including HTML and PDF.

Many SAS analytical procedures use ODS Graphics functionality to produce graphs. ODS Graphics uses the Graph Template Language (GTL) syntax, which provides the power and flexibility to create many complex graphs. The GTL is a comprehensive language for defining statistical graphics.

Last updated: October 1, 2026