TOPICS FOR SAS BASE PROGRAMMING EXAM

TRAINING AND PREPARATION:

SAS offers specifically designed packages of instructor lead courses that are tailored to the requirements of
individual certification tracks. But if these excellent training resources are beyond your budget, there are still
other options. One can practically prepare for the certification exam just by reading paper published in different
SAS conference. Majority of the papers given below will cover the topics tested by certification exam and might
give more information than required. Its always good to be over prepared than under prepared.

Accessing Data
Use FORMATTED, LIST and COLUMN input
to read raw data files
The Power of SAS! Input
Statements: Imelda C. Go
Use INFILE statement options to control
processing when reading raw data files
The SAS INFILE and FILE
Statements: Steven First
Use various components of an INPUT
statement to process raw data files including
column and line pointer controls, and trailing @
controls
The Input Statement: Where It's
@ : Ronald Cody
Combine SAS data sets using the DATA step Get it together: Combining data
with SAS

MERGE, UPDATE, and
SET : Mel Widawski
Creating Data Structures
Create temporary and permanent SAS data
sets
A Hands-On Introduction to SAS
DATA Step Programming :Debbie
Buck
Create and manipulate SAS date values Looking for a Date? A Tutorial on
Using SAS Dates and
Times: Arthur L. Carpenter
Use DATA Step statements to export data to
standard and comma delimited raw data files
The Little SAS Book Chapter 9
Exporting Your Data.
Control which observations and variables in a
SAS data set are processed and output
Programming with the KEEP,
RENAME, and DROP Data Set
Options: Stephen Philp

WHERE vs. IF Statements:
Knowing the Difference in How and
When to Apply: Sunil Gupta
Managing Data
Investigate SAS data libraries using base
SAS utility procedures
PROC CONTENTS and
DATASETS from SAS
Documentation.
Sort observations in a SAS data set The SORT Procedure: Beyond the
Basics: Britta Kelsey Bassett
Conditionally execute SAS statements UTILIZING CONDITIONAL LOGIC
TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY: Karla
E. Atwell
Use assignment statements in the DATA step How SAS Thinks : Neil Howard
Modify variable attributes using options and
statements in the DATA step
SAS's Various Varying Variables,
or 1000+ Ways to Manipulate SAS
Variables:Paul A. Choate
Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA
step statements
The Power of the BY
Statement: Paul Choate
Use SAS functions to manipulate character
data, numeric data, and SAS date values
An Introduction to SAS Function-
ality:
Deb Cassidy
Use SAS functions to convert character data
to numeric and vice versa
INPUT and PUT function from SAS
Documentations.
Process data using DO LOOPS Do Which? Loop, Until or While? A
Review Of Data Step And Macro
Algorithms: Ronald J. Fehd
Process data using SAS arrays Arrays Made Easy: An Introduction
to Arrays and Array
Processing: Steve First and Teresa
Schudrowitz,
Generating Reports
Generate list reports using the PRINT and
REPORT procedures
A Gentle Introduction to the
Powerful REPORT Procedure:Ben
Cochran

Generate summary reports and frequency
tables using base SAS procedures
Proc FREQ What's it really good
for?
Theresa Gordon and Monique Eleby
Enhance reports through the use of labels,
SAS formats, user-defined formats, titles,
footnotes and SAS System reporting options
SAS Documentation on following
topics: Label statement/ dataset
option, label option in proc print,
title and footnote statement and
proc report options like headline,
headskip etc.
Generate HTML reports using ODS
statements
Creating HTML Output with Output
Delivery System
Kirk Paul Lafler
Handling Errors
Identify and resolve programming logic errors Errors, Warnings, and Notes (Oh
My)
A Practical Guide to Debugging
SAS Programs
Susan J. Slaughter and Lora D.
Recognize and correct syntax errors
Examine and resolve data errors


Delwiche
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MEMORIZE USING ACRONYMS/FIGURES
If you dont use PROC SQL that often then you might tend to forget some of the commands, try to
create figure or some acronym you can remember to associate with this kind of information.

FIGURE 1: Statements used in PROC SQL to create/delete table or to manipulate table rows/columns.
CREATE
TABLE : To
create a table
DROP TABLE:
To delete a
table

ALTERDROP:
To delete a
column
ALTER
ADD:
To add a
column
ALTER
MODIFY:
To update a
column
DELETE
FROM: To
delete a row

INSERT
INTO:
To add a row

UPDATE ...
SET:
To update a
row


FIGURE 2: Sequence in which clauses appear in a SELECT statement of PROC SQL.
So Few Workers Get Home On-time
SELECT FROM WHERE GROUP BY HAVING ORDER BY

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ATTENTION TO DETAIL
SAS certification author will correct the error in one answer choice but then introduce another error.
So when you select you answer make sure that none of the other answer choices can be the correct
answer.
Q. The SAS DATA SET temp has 100 observation and v1, v2, v3 and v4 variables. Which SAS DATA
STEP writes only the variables v1, v2 and v3 to both SAS data sets One and Two?
A. DATA one two;
SET temp;
KEEP v1 v2 v3
RUN;
B. DATA one (keep v1 v2 v3) two;
SET temp (keep = v1 v2 v3);
RUN;
C. DATA one two;
SET temp (keep v1 v2 v3);
RUN;
D. DATA one two;
SET temp (keep = v1 v2 v3);
RUN;
This looks like an easy question but if you dont pay attention, you might choose A as your answer
without realizing that a semicolon is missing in the KEEP statement. You might choose B or C as your
answer without realizing an equal to sign is missing in KEEP dataset option. The last choice D is the
correct answer, as it does not have any syntax error and does what the questions is asking. So before
you pick any answer, rule out all other options before making it your final choice.
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PROCESS OF ELIMINATION (POE)
Following illustration will show how POE will improve your changes of guessing the right answer.
Q. The following SAS program is submitted.
DATA one;
ARRAY g[4,3] (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12);
RUN;
What is the value of element g (3, 2)?
A. 8
B. 10
C. 1
D. 12
Now, just by looking at the data we know that element g (3, 2) should be somewhere in the middle of
the array definition. Lets now look at the answer choices, A can be the answer as it is somewhere in
the middle and so can choice B. But when you look at choice C and D, and you know g (3, 2) cannot
be extreme left or right values, so now you can remove these obviously two wrong choices. Now you
are left with choice A and B, now you can make an educated guess and choose either A or B as your
answer.
Sometime adding new line or spaces in your question can make finding answer easy. In our above
example suppose the array was declared as
ARRAY g [4, 3] (1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12);
It is intuitive to understand here that there are 4 rows and 3 columns and question is asking for
element in 3
rd
row and 2
nd
column which is 8.
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TIPS FOR ACING THE EXAM
Here is list of all important tips to remember before appearing for the certification exam.
1> If you encounter a question for which dont have any idea about its answer, dont be afraid to
apply Process-Of-Elimination (POE) and remove one or more obviously wrong choices. After
that you have higher chances of getting your answer right.
2> Like in any certification exam, attention to details is very important, read your question
properly and all answer choices before deciding your answer. Look for some obvious
mistakes like missing semicolon, or missing alias name in FROM clause. You can flag
questions for which you are not certain and come back to them after you have answered all
the questions. Read all the answer choices and see what is different in each answer
choice. By doing this you will be able to rule out some of the choices and also understand
what knowledge author is try to test.
3> Create a table or diagram or acronym to remember some key concepts and syntax.