Free SAS Institute A00-215 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

In SAS, the code you provided involves creating two datasets, table1 and table2, from the dataset sashelp.shoes. The key part to understand here is how the DATA statement and OUTPUT statement interact with the specified datasets.

• DATA Statement: The statement data table1 table2; initiates the creation of two new datasets named table1 and table2.
• SET Statement: The set sashelp.shoes; statement is used to read data from the sashelp.shoes dataset. This dataset includes data on shoe sales from SASHELP library, which is commonly used for demonstration purposes in SAS.
• OUTPUT Statement: In the context of the DATA step where multiple datasets are specified in the DATA statement (as in table1 table2), the OUTPUT statement without a dataset name specified outputs the current observation to all datasets listed in the DATA statement. This is a critical point because it determines where the data goes after processing in the DATA step.
• Execution: When the run; statement is executed, it processes each observation from sashelp.shoes. For each observation, because there is no condition or additional OUTPUT statements specifying dataset names, each observation is output to both table1 and table2.

Therefore, the correct behavior as described is that each observation in sashelp.shoes is written to both table1 and table2. This effectively duplicates each row from the source into both target datasets.

References:

• SAS 9.4 Language Reference: Concepts, "DATA Step Processing" and "OUTPUT Statement" sections provide detailed explanations on how DATA steps process and how OUTPUT statement works in different contexts.
• Practical examples and explanations from SAS programming courses and official SAS documentation, which discuss DATA and SET statements, and their interaction with OUTPUT in data duplication scenarios.

Option B is correct. The DATE9. format in SAS displays dates in the ddMMMyyyy format, which corresponds to the example given (25JUN2019). This format writes dates with a two-digit day, a three-character month abbreviation, and a four-digit year. The other options do not match the correct format:

• A is incorrect because ddMMMyy9. format would display a two-digit year.
• C is incorrect because there is no such format as Ddmmmyyyy9. in standard SAS formats.
• D is incorrect because Dmy9. does not correspond to the required format.

References:

• SAS 9.4 documentation on date and time formats.

The DROP statement during the compilation phase of the DATA step flags variables in the Program Data Vector (PDV) to be dropped when the data set is output. This means that although the variables exist in the PDV during the DATA step execution, they will not be written to the output data set. The DROP statement does not affect the order of variables (which is the purpose of the ORDER= data set option), nor does it remove variables from the input data set or prevent them from being created in the PDV.

References:

• SAS documentation on the DROP statement.

In the PROC PRINT statement, the LABEL option is used to display variable labels in the report. If the variables in the dataset have labels associated with them, the LABEL option will ensure that these labels are used in the output instead of the variable names.

Here's how the LABEL option is used:

• proc print data=sashelp.class label; (assuming sashelp.class is the dataset in question)
• The LABEL keyword after the dataset name within the PROC PRINT call activates the use of variable labels in the output report.

The other options provided are incorrect for the following reasons:

• SHOWLABELS is not a valid SAS option.
• COLS does not exist as a PROC PRINT option in SAS.
• LABELS= is not a correct syntax for any SAS procedure.

References:

• SAS 9.4 documentation for the PROC PRINT statement with LABEL option: [SAS Help Center: PROC PRINT]

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.

References:

• SAS documentation on numeric variables, SAS Institute.

The type and length of SnackType are character and 7, which makes option B correct. In the provided program, SnackType is assigned a value of "Chips" which is a character string. The length statement is used to explicitly declare SnackType as a character variable with a length of 7 before it is used, which will take precedence over any later assignments or implications about the variable's type or length.

References:

• SAS documentation on variable length.

In the given statement, BirthDate = 15DEC2005’d;, the 'd' denotes a SAS date constant, which is a numeric value representing a specific date. SAS date values are stored as numeric variables counting the number of days from January 1, 1960. Therefore, BirthDate is a numeric variable, making option B correct. This constant does not represent a character string (eliminating A), and the byte size of any numeric variable in SAS is 8 by default, not 9 (eliminating C). There is no syntax error in the statement (eliminating D).

References:

• SAS documentation on dates, times, and datetime values, SAS Institute.

The FORCAST dataset is created from the INVEST dataset, which has 10 observations as seen in the PROC PRINT report. For each observation in INVEST, three new observations are added in FORCAST, one for each year's balance calculation (year=1, year=2, year=3). This is achieved by the output; statement after each balance calculation, which writes the current state of the data step to a new row in the dataset. Therefore, since there are 10 original observations, and each leads to three new observations, the total number of observations in the FORCAST dataset will be 30 (10 observations from INVEST multiplied by 3 years each).

References:

• SAS documentation on the DATA step and output statement, SAS Institute.

The PROC CONTENTS step in SAS is used to display metadata about a SAS dataset, including information such as the names of variables, types of variables (numeric or character), lengths of variables, and other attributes like formats, labels, and indexes. Therefore, the correct answer is:

• A) a report showing the descriptor portion of the REVENUE data set

The descriptor portion of a SAS data set contains metadata about the dataset's structure, not the actual data values or any specific information about individual variables beyond their structure and definition in the dataset. Options B, C, and D suggest details that are not part of the dataset's descriptor information as shown by PROC CONTENTS.

References: SAS 9.4 Procedures Guide: Statistical Procedures.

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.