Making a Report

Question 1

Notation and facts about:

1. Block comment (and 3 facts about them)
2. Comment statement

Answer 1

Block comments: /* comment */

• Can be any length and contain semicolons.
• Cannot be nested.
• Avoid placing in first or second columns because SAS might interpret them as signal to end job or session

Comment statement: * comment statement ;

• They can begin in columns 1 and 2
• Cannot contain internal semicolons

Question 2

4 common syntax errors

Answer 2

invalid options, missing semicolons, unmatched quotation marks, and misspelled keywords

Question 3

Is a user-created library automatically available in a SAS session?

Answer 3

NO, must assign a libref to make it available.

Question 4

LIBNAME statement

Answer 4

LIBNAME libref ‘filepath’

filepath = physical location of the library

Note: does not need a run statement

Question 5

rules for naming libref

Answer 5

1. 1-8 characters long
2. Must begin with letter or underscore
3. Remaining characters can be letters, numbers, or underscores

Question 6

T or F: Macro variables can be referenced in double or single quotation marks

Answer 6

False. Macro variables can only be referenced in double quotation marks

Question 7

1. How do you generate a report of a library’s contents?
2. How do you suppress descriptors data of each individual file in the library?

Answer 7

1. PROC CONTENTS DATA = libref._ALL_;

RUN;

2. PROC CONTENTS DATA = libref._ALL_ nods;

RUN;

nods = no descriptors

(make sure to add space before nods)

Question 8

How do you distinguish numerical and character variables on a table?

Answer 8

SAS automatically displays numerical variable right-aligned and character variables left-aligned

Question 9

How to dissociate a library?

Answer 9

LIBNAME libref clear;

Question 10

How does SAS display missing values for character and numeric variables?

Answer 10

Character: blank

Numeric: . (period)

Question 11

Change what SAS displays for missing numeric values

Answer 11

MISSING = ‘character’

Question 12

Length for character and numeric values

Answer 12

Character: 1 - 32,767 bytes

Numeric: 8 bytes (16 or 17 significant digits)

Question 13

Rules for naming variables

Answer 13

1. Can be 1 -32 characters long
2. Start with letter or underscore
3. Can contain numbers, letters, or underscores
4. Can be uppercase or lowercase
5. After variable is created, can refer to it in any case in code without affecting way in which it’s stored

Question 14

How to add totals of several variables within one SUM statement

Answer 14

Separate variable with blank:

SUM var1 var2;

Question 15

Which statement do you use to choose specific variable to display in a report?

Answer 15

VAR

Question 16

How to subset observations in a report?

Answer 16

Within PROC PRINT, use WHERE statement

Question 17

Use where statement to select variables that equal to one in a list

Answer 17

WHERE variable in (‘condition1’, ‘condition2’)

or WHERE variable in (‘condition1’ condition2’)

Question 18

What happens when you use 2 consecutive WHERE statements?

proc print data=orion.sales;

where Country=’AU’;

where Salary<30000; run;

Answer 18

The second where statement replaces the first one! Intead use logical operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Question 19

Which operator do you use to include observations with a certain substring in a report? Which statement do you use it with? What is the symbol for it?

Answer 19

CONTAINS. WHERE. ?

WHERE variable CONTAINS ‘substring’;

or

WHERE variable ? ‘substring’;

Note: substring is case-sensitive

Question 20

Name 5 special operators that can only be used in a WHERE statement

Answer 20

1. BETWEEN AND : WHERE Salary between 5000 and 10000
2. WHERE SAME AND condition: add to a where expression.
3. WHERE variable IS NULL: a missing value
4. WHERE variable IS MISSING: a missing value
5. WHERE variable LIKE: matches a pattern (use % for any number of characters or _ for one character)

Question 21

How do you replace the observation number column with another variable?

Answer 21

Use ID variable;

Question 22

How to sort observations?

Answer 22

Use PROC SORT before printing. Note that by default, SAS replaces the original data set unless you use to create a new dataset.

PROC SORT DATA = SASDataSet

[OUT = NewDataSet];

BY [descending] variable1 [decending] variable2 variable3;

RUN;

(Stuff inside [] is optional)

Question 23

How to generate reports by groups

Answer 23

Use BY variable; under PROC PRINT

Remember to sort by the variable first

Question 24

Where it is best to add a WHERE statement? PROC SORT or PROC PRINT

Answer 24

PROC SORT

Question 25

How to add titles and footnotes

Answer 25

Titlen ‘title’;

Footnoten ‘footnote’;

n = number 1-10. That’s the number of the title you add

Note that these are global statements. Will remain until you change, replace, or cancel them

Question 26

You have 3 titles. What happens if you add a new title1? What happens if instead you add a new title2?

Answer 26

All 3 previous titles get replaced by title1.

Title2 and title3 get replaced.

Question 27

How to cancel title/footnote?

Answer 27

Title;

footnote;

Question 28

How do you assign temporary labels to variables?

Answer 28

Under PROC PRINT, use LABEL statement

PROC PRINT data=data.set label;

LABEL variable1=‘label name’

• Varible2=‘label name*’;
• ˆ*RUN;

Note: remember to add the label option after PROC print.

Question 29

How to display a variable label in two lines

Answer 29

proc print data=data.set SPLIT=‘*’;

label variable=‘label*name’;

run;

* can be any symbol used to split the label

Question 30

In the following code, which where expression is evaluated first?

where age<=55 and (pulse>75 or area=’A’)

Answer 30

The expression in parenthesis

Question 31

How you do you create column subtotals for different levels of a variable in a PROC PRINT step?

Answer 31

Use SUM and BY statements;

e.g.

proc print data=my.data;

var variable1 variable2;

sum variable2;

by variable3;

run;

This will produce separate tables for each level of variable3 with the subtotal of variable2 for that level.

Question 32

What 4 things happen when an ID statement specifies the same variable as the BY statement in a PROC PRINT step?

Answer 32

1. The Obs column is suppressed
2. the ID/BY variable is printed in the left-most column
3. Each ID/BY value is printed only at the start of each BY group and on the line that contains that group’s subtotal (If have sum statement)
4. Shows all values in one table rather than separating in different tables according to BY groups.

Question 33

When using PROC PRINT, how do you display different BY groups on separate pages?

Answer 33

PAGEBY BY-variable;

e.g.

proc print data=dataset;

var variable1 variable2

sum variable2

by variable3

PAGEBY variable3;

run;

Note that the variable specified in PAGEBY must also be in the BY statement