A00-215 Practice Questions

The correct answer is B: The XLSX engine can read and write data in Microsoft Excel workbooks. This

functionality allows SAS users to directly access and manipulate data stored in Excel files using the

.xlsx extension. The XLSX engine does not automatically concatenate individual worksheets; instead,

each worksheet is accessed separately. Also, it specifically works with files that have the .xlsx

extension, not the older .xls format, thus eliminating option C. Option D is incorrect because the

XLSX engine requires the correct file extension (.xlsx) in the LIBNAME statement to properly identify

and interact with Excel files.

Reference:

SAS documentation on LIBNAME statement for XLSX engine: SAS Support: LIBNAME Statement

The correct answer is A: Ods excel='c:\report.xlsx' style=analysis;. This syntax is correct for the ODS

EXCEL statement in SAS, where you specify the path and filename, followed by the 'style' option to

apply a specific style template to the output Excel file. The 'style=analysis' is used to set the output

appearance according to the 'ANALYSIS' style template provided by SAS. Option B is syntactically

incorrect and does not use the 'style' option correctly. Option C incorrectly places a slash which is not

syntactically valid in this context, and Option D misses the equals sign and quotes which are

necessary for correct syntax in SAS.

Reference:

SAS documentation on ODS EXCEL statement: SAS Support: ODS EXCEL Statement

The SAS program provided includes a PROC FORMAT step that defines a numeric format called Syn

and applies this format to the variable answer in the PROC PRINT step. The format maps the value '0'

to 'No', '1' to 'Yes', and all other values to 'Unknown'.

However, there is a syntax error in the PROC FORMAT step: it uses a dollar sign before Syn, which is

used to indicate character formats, but the format is defined for numeric values (0 and 1). Therefore,

when applying this format to the answer variable in PROC PRINT, it should not have a dollar sign, it

should be format answer Syn.; instead of format answer $yn.;.

The correct output based on the given code, assuming the error with the dollar sign is corrected,

would be as follows:

For numeric values 0 and 1, 'No' and 'Yes' would be displayed, respectively.

For any other numeric value, 'Unknown' would be displayed.

For character values, the format would not apply and the actual values would be displayed.

Given that the values in the 'answer' column are numeric, the program will format them according to

the defined Syn format. Thus, the report corresponding to Option D, which shows numeric values

unformatted, would be the one created. This indicates that the format was not applied because of

the syntax error with the dollar sign.

Reference:

SAS 9.4 documentation for the FORMAT procedure and statement: SAS Help Center: PROC FORMAT

The correct answer is C. To create the NODONATIONS dataset, which includes only the employees

who did not make any donations, a merge operation is used with a conditional statement to filter out

those records. The syntax if inE=1 and inD=0; ensures that the merged dataset includes only the

observations from the EMPLOYEES dataset that do not have a corresponding observation in the

DONATIONS dataset. This is achieved using data step processing with the in= option to create

temporary variables that indicate whether the data is coming from the input dataset.

In the other options:

A is incorrect because inE=0 and inD=0 will never be true after a merge since at least one of the

datasets must contribute to the merged observation.

B lacks the necessary conditional logic to filter out employees with donations.

D is incorrect because if inE=1 and inD=1; would actually select employees who made donations, the

opposite of what we want.

Reference:

SAS documentation on merging data sets using the DATA step.

In SAS, the PROC SORT procedure is used to sort data. To save the sorted data into a new dataset,

the OUT= option is used in the PROC SORT statement. This option allows you to specify the name of

the output dataset that will contain the sorted data.

Here is how it's used:

proc sort data=original out=sorted; by variable; run; will sort the dataset original by variable and

create a new dataset named sorted containing the sorted data.

Option A, Data=, is not valid for the PROC SORT procedure. Option B, SORTOUT=, is a common

misconception but is not correct; OUT= is the right option. Option C, OUTPUT=, is not used within

PROC SORT; it is used in other procedures such as PROC TABULATE and PROC SUMMARY for output

datasets.

Reference:

SAS 9.4 documentation for the PROC SORT statement: SAS Help Center: PROC SORT

In SAS, the correct syntax for assigning labels to variables is to use the LABEL statement within a

DATA step or a PROC step. Labels are assigned to variables using the format variable='label'. The

correct syntax for the LABEL statement is represented by option B.

Here’s the breakdown:

FName=’First Name’ correctly assigns the label First Name to the variable FName.

LName=’Last Name’ correctly assigns the label Last Name to the variable LName.

Each variable and label pair is separated by a space, and the overall statement ends with a

semicolon, which is the proper syntax for a LABEL statement in SAS.

Options A, C, and D are incorrect due to various syntax errors like the use of the wrong character for

the apostrophe, missing apostrophes, incorrect punctuation, and in the case of option C, an incorrect

conjunction ‘and’ which is not used in LABEL statements.

Reference:

SAS 9.4 documentation for the LABEL statement: SAS Help Center: LABEL Statement

The FORMAT statement in the DATA step assigns formats to variables for the SAS dataset being

created. In the code provided, MSRP is given the dollar12. format and Invoice is given the dollar10.

format. However, during the PROC PRINT step, MSRP is reassigned to the comma12.2 format. The

format specified in the most recent PROC step or DATA step that executes is the one that is used in

the output.

Therefore, the format for MSRP in the PROC PRINT output will be comma12.2, making the answer: B.

Comma12.2

Reference:

SAS documentation on PROC PRINT and FORMAT statement, SAS Institute.

Option A is correct. The (obs=10) option is used as a data set option within the proc print statement

to limit the number of observations processed to the first 10. The syntax should be placed

immediately after the data set name within parentheses. Options B, C, and D are incorrect because

they either use the wrong option or place the obs option incorrectly outside of the parentheses or

with incorrect syntax.

Reference:

SAS 9.4 documentation on the obs= data set option.

In SAS, the DATA step is a powerful tool that allows programmers to perform a variety of tasks such as reporting, managing, and analyzing dat a. The DATA step processes data one observation at a time, making it highly efficient for data manipulation tasks. It enables the creation of new datasets, modification of existing ones, and complex data transformations. Additionally, within a DATA step, you can use a wide range of programming statements and functions to calculate new variables, merge or sort datasets, and perform conditional processing. The flexibility and functionality provided by DATA steps make them a fundamental part of SAS programming for handling and preparing data for further analysis or reporting. Reference: SAS 9.4 Language Reference: Concepts.

The default length of numeric variables in SAS data sets is 8 bytes. In SAS, the default byte size of a numeric variable is 8 bytes. This allows for a significant amount of precision and a wide range of numeric values to be stored within a numeric variable, regardless of the actual number of digits in the number being stored. Reference: SAS documentation on numeric variables, SAS Institute.