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

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.

References:

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

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.

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.