A00-215 Exam Dumps : SAS Certified Associate: Programming Fundamentals Using SAS 9.4

In SAS, when you use a BY statement in a DATA step, SAS creates two temporary variables for each variable listed in the BY statement: one to indicate the first occurrence (FIRST.variable) and another to indicate the last occurrence (LAST.variable) of the value within the BY-group. Given the provided code and assuming that State is the variable used in the BY statement, SAS will create First.State and Last.State. Thus, option A is correct.

References:

• SAS documentation on the BY statement, SAS Institute.

In SAS, the FORMAT procedure (PROC FORMAT) allows users to create custom formats that can be used to change the way data is displayed without altering the data itself. The VALUE statement within PROC FORMAT is a key component of this procedure.

The VALUE statement can indeed create both numeric and character formats, which is why option C is correct. Numeric format names typically do not start with a $ sign (this is reserved for character format names), and the keyword UNKNOWN is not a part of the VALUE statement syntax; it is used in a different context within PROC FORMAT, specifically for handling undefined data values when using custom formats.

Moreover, the LIB= option is not used within the VALUE statement. The LIB= option is used at the PROC FORMAT level to specify the library where the formats should be stored or from which they should be read.

References

• SAS 9.4 documentation for the PROC FORMAT and VALUE statement.
• "SAS Formats and Informats." in "Step-by-Step Programming with Base SAS 9.4" from the SAS Institute.

The correct answer is A. The SET statement in SAS is used within a DATA step to specify which existing SAS dataset is to be read. This statement is used to read in data from an existing SAS dataset to be processed in the current DATA step. The SET statement does not specify an output data set; that is determined by the name specified in the DATA statement.

Options B, C, and D are incorrect because:

• B and C are incorrect as the SET statement is not used in the PROC SORT step at all.
• D is incorrect because the SET statement specifies the input dataset, not the output dataset, in the DATA step.

References:

• SAS 9.4 Language Reference: Concepts, "DATA Step Processing"
• SAS documentation on the SET statement.