SAS - Base Programming A00-231

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SAS 9.4 Base Programming – Performance Based Exam

Access and Create Data Structures

Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets.

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

Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures.

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

Access data.

• Access SAS data sets with the SET statement. • Use PROC IMPORT to access non-SAS data sources.

o Read delimited and Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) files with PROC IMPORT. o Use PROC IMPORT statement options (OUT=, DBMS=, REPLACE) o Use the GUESSINGROWS statement

• Use the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine to read a Microsoft Excel workbook.xlsx file.

Combine SAS data sets.

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

Create and manipulate SAS date values.

• Explain how SAS stores date and time values. • Use SAS informats to read common date and time expressions. • Use SAS date and time formats to specify how the values are displayed.

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 processed. • Subset variables to be output by using the DROP and KEEP statements. • Use the DROP= and KEEP= data set options to specify columns to be processed and/or

output.

Manage Data

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Sort observations in a SAS data set.

• Use the SORT Procedure to re-order observations in place or output to a new dataset with the OUT= option.

• Remove duplicate observations with the SORT Procedure.

Conditionally execute SAS statements.

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

Use assignment statements in the DATA step.

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

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

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

Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements.

• Use the BY statement to aggregate by subgroups. • Use first. and last. processing to identify where groups begin and end. • Use the RETAIN and SUM statements.

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.

o Replace the contents of a character value. o Trim trailing blanks from a character value. o Search a character value and extract a portion of the value. o Convert a character value to upper or lowercase.

• Use SAS numeric functions such as SUM, MEAN, RAND, SMALLEST, LARGEST, ROUND, and INT.

• Create SAS date values by using the functions MDY, TODAY, DATE, and TIME. • 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 YRDIF.

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

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

Process data using DO LOOPS.

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

Restructure SAS data sets with PROC TRANSPOSE.

• Select variables to transpose with the VAR statement. • Rename transposed variables with the ID statement. • Process data within groups using the BY statement. • Use PROC TRANSPOSE options (OUT=, PREFIX= and NAME=).

Use macro variables to simplify program maintenance.

• Create macro variables with the %LET statement • Use macro variables within SAS programs.

Error Handling

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

variables. • Use PUTLOG with Conditional logic. • Use temporary variables N and ERROR to debug a DATA step.

Recognize and correct syntax errors.

• Identify the characteristics of SAS statements. • Define SAS syntax rules including the typical types of syntax errors such as misspelled

keywords, unmatched quotation marks, missing semicolons, and invalid options. • Use the log to help diagnose syntax errors in a given program.

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Generate Reports and Output

Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure.

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

Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures.

• Produce one-way and two-way frequency tables with the FREQ procedure. • Enhance frequency tables with options (NLEVELS, ORDER=). • Use PROC FREQ to validate data in a SAS data set. • Calculate summary statistics and multilevel summaries using the MEANS procedure • Enhance summary tables with options. • Identify extreme and missing values with the UNIVARIATE procedure.

Enhance reports system user-defined formats, titles, footnotes and SAS System reporting options.

• Use PROC FORMAT to define custom formats. o VALUE statement o CNTLIN= option

• Use the LABEL statement to define descriptive column headings. • Control the use of column headings with the LABEL and SPLIT=options in PROC PRINT

output.

Generate reports using ODS statements.

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

Export data

• Create a simple raw data file by using the EXPORT procedure as an alternative to the DATA step.

• Export data to Microsoft Excel using the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine.

Note: All 23 main objectives will be tested on every exam. The 70 expanded objectives are

provided for additional explanation and define the entire domain that could be tested.