SAS Advanced Programming

SAS Base Programming Online Training

Accessing Data

Use FORMATTED and LIST input to read raw data files.

• Distinguish between character and numeric data, between standard and nonstandard numeric data.
• Use the INPUT statement with formatted input to read character, standard and nonstandard fixed-field data: INPUT variable informat;
• Use the INPUT statement with list input to read character, standard and nonstandard free-format data: INPUT variable <$>;

Use INFILE statement options to control processing when reading raw data files.

• Use the INFILE statement DLM= option to specify field
• Use the INFILE statement PAD= option to reading variable-length
• Use the INFILE statement DSD= option to read data when missing values
• Use the INFILE statement options, FLOWOVER, MISSOVER, TRUNCOVER and STOPOVER, as appropriate to control reading records.

Use various components of an INPUT statement to process raw data files including column and line pointer controls, and trailing @ controls.

• Use pointer
• Use line
• Use trailing @ and double trailing @.

Combine SAS data sets.

• Concatenate and interleave data
• Merge data sets one-to-one.
• Merge data sets one-to-many.

Access an Excel workbook.

• Use the SAS/ACCESS EXCEL or PCFILES engine to read an .xlsx file OR use the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine to read an .xlsx file.

Creating Data Structures

Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets.

• Use a DATA step to create a SAS data set from a text Example:

Data NewData;

Infile "path.rawdata";

Input <pointer-control> variable informat; Run;

• Use a DATA step to create a SAS data set from an existing SAS data Example:

Data Mylib.NewData;

Set Mylib.OldData;

<other SAS statements> Run;

Create and manipulate SAS date values.

• Explain how SAS stores date and time
• Use SAS informats to read common date and time
• Explain the YearCutOff system option as used to interpret two digit year
• Use SAS date and time formats to specify how the values are

Export data to create standard and comma-delimited raw data files.

• Create a simple text file by using the DATA step with the file and put
• Create a simple raw data file by using the EXPORT procedure as an alternative to the DATA
• Use the DSD option to create a comma-delimited file that writes out values separated by a delimiter.

Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output.

• Use the WHERE statement in the DATA step to select observations to be
• Subset variables to be output by using the DROP and KEEP
• Use the DROP= and KEEP= data set options to specify columns to be processed and/or

Managing Data

Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures.

• Use a LIBNAME statement to assign a library reference name to a SAS
• Investigate a library programmatically using the CONTENTS and DATASET

Sort observations in a SAS data set.

• Use the SORT Procedure to re-order observations in place or output to a new

Conditionally execute SAS statements.

• Use IF-THEN/ELSE statements to process data
• Use DO and END statements to execute multiple statements
• Use SELECT/WHEN statements to process data

Use assignment statements in the DATA step.

• Create new variables and assign a
• Assign a new value to an existing variable.
• Assign the value of an expression to a variable.
• Assign a constant date value to a

Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step.

• Change the names of variables by using the RENAME= data set
• Use LABEL and FORMAT statements to modify attributes in a DATA
• Define the length of a variable using the LENGTH

Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements.

• Use the BY statement to aggregate by

Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values.

• Use SAS functions such as SCAN, SUBSTR, TRIM, UPCASE, and LOWCASE to perform tasks such as the tasks shown below.
  • Replace the contents of a character
  • Trim trailing blanks from a character
  • Search a character value and extract a portion of the
  • Convert a character value to upper or
• Use SAS arithmetic, financial, and probability functions to create or modify numeric values by using the INT and ROUND functions.
• Create SAS date values by using the functions MDY, TODAY,DATE, and
• Extract the month, year, and interval from a SAS date value by using the functions YEAR, QTR, MONTH, and DAY.
• Perform calculations with date and datetime values and time intervals by using the functions INTCK, INTNX, DATDIF and

Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa.

• Explain the automatic conversion that SAS uses to convert values between data
• Use the INPUT function to explicitly convert character data values to numeric

Process data using DO LOOPS.

• Explain how iterative DO loops function.
• Use DO loops to eliminate redundant code and to perform repetitive
• Use conditional DO
• Use nested DO

Process data using one-dimensional SAS arrays.

• Explain the concepts of SAS
• Use SAS arrays to perform repetitive
• Define the elements in an array using the ARRAY statement
• Use a DO loop to process an

Validate and clean data.

• Use PROC FREQ to list unique values, with the nlevel option to show the number of distinct values, with the order=freq to check for duplicate or missing
• Use PROC PRINT with the WHERE statement to display observations with invalid
• Use PROC MEAN to validate the range of numeric
• Use PROC UNIVARIATE to display extreme observations and missing values and with the ID statement to display the value of identifying variable(s).

Generating Reports

Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure.

• Modify the default behavior of PROC PRINT by adding statements and options such as
  • use the VAR statement to select and order
  • calculate totals with a SUM
  • select observations with a WHERE
  • use the ID statement to identify
  • use the BY statement to process

Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures.

• Produce one-way and two-way frequency tables with the FREQ
• Enhance frequency tables with
• Use PROC FREQ to validate data in a SAS data
• Calculate summary statistics and multilevel summaries using the MEANS procedure
• Enhance summary tables with
• Identify extreme and missing values with the UNIVARIATE

Enhance reports through the use of user-defined formats, titles, footnotes and SAS System reporting.

• Use the LABEL statement to define descriptive column
• Control the use of column headings with the LABEL and SPLIT=options in Proc Print

Generate reports using ODS statements.

• Identify the Output Delivery System
• Create HTML, PDF, RTF, and LISTING files with ODS
• Use the STYLE=option to specify a style
• Create files that can be viewed in Microsoft

Handling Errors

Identify and resolve programming logic errors.

• Use the PUTLOG Statement in the Data Step to help identify logic errors.
• Use PUTLOG to write the value of a variable, formatted values, or to write values of all
• Use PUTLOG with Conditional
• Use temporary variables N and ERROR to debug a DATA

 

Recognize and correct syntax errors.

 

• Identify the characteristics of SAS
• Define SAS syntax rules including the typical types of syntax errors such as misspelled keywords, unmatched quotation marks, missing semicolons, and invalid
• Use the log to help diagnose syntax errors in a given

 

Examine and resolve data errors.

 

• Use the SAS system option, ERRORS=n, to specify the maximum number of observations for which SAS issues complete error messages written to the
• Given a SAS program, use the log to determine the reason for a data

Note: All 27 main objectives will be tested on every exam. The 91 expanded objectives are provided for additional explanation and define the entire domain that could be tested.

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