SAS Interview Questions and Answers

Q1 : What are the 3 components in SAS programming?
A : The 3 components in SAS programming are:

  • Statements
  • Variables
  • Dataset

Q2 : Explain what is the basic structure of SAS program?
A : The basic structure of SAS consist of
==DATA step, which recovers & manipulates data.
==PROC step, which interprets the data.

Q3 : Mention the validation tools used in SAS?
A : For DataSet : Data set name/ debug Data set: Name/stmtchk
For Macros: Options: mprint mlogic symbolgen

Q4 : How you can debug and test your SAS program?
A : You can debug and test your SAS program by using Obs=0 and systems options to trace the program execution in log

Q5 : Explain what is SAS? What are the functions does it performs?
A : SAS means Statistical Analysis System, which is an integrated set of software products.
• Information retrieval and data management
• Writing reports and graphics
• Statistical analysis, econometrics and data mining
• Business planning, forecasting, and decision support
• Operation research and Project management
• Quality Improvement
• Data Warehousing
• Application Development

Q6 : What are the data types does SAS contain?
A : The data types in SAS are Numeric and Character.

Q7 : What is PROC in SAS?
A : In SAS, PROC steps to analyze and process data in the form of an SAS data set. It controls a library of routines that perform tasks on SAS data set such as sorting, summarizing and listing.

Q8 : What is SAS data set?
A : A SAS data set is a file consisting of two parts.

  • A descriptor portion
  • A data portion

Q9 : What are the special input delimiters used in SAS?
A : Special input delimiters used in SAS are DLM and DSD.

Q10 : Mention how SUBSTR function works in SAS?
A : The SUBSTR function is used to abstract substring from a character variable.

Q11 : Mention 5 ways to do a “table lookup” in SAS?
A : 5 ways to do a “table lookup” in SAS include,

  1. PROC SQL
  2. Match Merging
  3. Direct Access
  4. Format Tables
  5. Arrays

Q12 : Mention the difference between SAS functions and procedures?
A : The difference between SAS functions and procedures is that

  • Procedures expect one variable value per observation
  • Functions expect values to be supplied across an observation

Q13 : What are the scrubbing procedures in SAS?
A : The scrubbing procedures in SAS are Proc Sort with nodupkey option.  It will eliminate the duplicate values.

Q14 : What is RUN-Group processing?
A : RUN-Group processing allows submitting a PROC step using RUN statement without ending the procedure.

Q15 : Mention how to test the debugging in SAS?
A : For debugging in SAS use the Debug clause after ‘/’ in the data statement.

Q16 : Mention how to create a permanent SAS data set?
A : To create a permanent SAS data set, there are two steps necessary,

  • Assign a library and engine.
  • Create the data. Make sure to assign both a library (other than WORK) and data set name to make the dataset permanent.

Q17 : Mention what are the default statistics that PROC MEANS produce?
A : The default statistics that PROC MEANS produce are,

  • N
  • MN
  • MAX
  • MEAN
  • STD-DEV

Q18 : Mention common programming errors committed in SAS?
A : Common programming errors committed in SAS are,

  • Missing semicolon
  • Not checking log after submitting program
  • Not using debugging techniques
  • Not using Fsview option vigorously

Q19 : Mention the difference between INFORMAT and FORMAT?
A :

  • INFORMAT: To indicate SAS that a number should be read in a particular format
  • FORMAT: To indicate SAS how to print the variables

Q20 : What is the use of PROC gplot?
A : PROC gplot has more options and can create more colorful and fancier graphics.

Q21 : What function CATX syntax does?
A : CATX syntax concatenate character strings remove trailing and leading blanks and inserts separators.

Q22 : Mention the category in which SAS Informats are placed?
A : SAS informats are placed in three categories,
• Character Informats : $INFORMATw
• Numeric Informats : INFORMAT w.d
• Date/Time Informats: INFORMAT w.

Q23 : What Proc glm does?
A : Proc glm performs simple and multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVAL), analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance and repeated measure analysis of variance.

Q24 : Explain what does PROC print, and PROC contents are used for?
A : To display the contents of the SAS dataset PROC print is used and also to assure that the data were read into SAS correctly. While, PROC CONTENTS display information about a SAS dataset.

Q25 : What are the data types does SAS contain?
A : The data types in SAS are Numeric and Character.