Statistical Table Specifications and Automatic Code Generation Using XML

We present a general table model for display of statistical results from a typical clinical trial and describe an application to generate table descriptions in XML. This XML file is then used as input to a SAS code generating application which creates a SAS driver program built with validated macros. The table descriptions and associated software may be saved as standards for future studies. Using an XML-structured approach to defining tables and validated software for producing the tables will result in much quicker validation and higher quality of statistical tables produced for clinical study reports.