Contents
P A R T 1 SAS System Concepts 1
Chapter 1 􀀀 Essential Concepts of Base SAS Software 3
What Is SAS? 3
Overview of Base SAS Software 4
Components of the SAS Language 4
Ways to Run Your SAS Session 7
Customizing Your SAS Session 9
Conceptual Information about Base SAS Software 10
Chapter 2 􀀀 SAS Processing 13
Definition of SAS Processing 13
Types of Input to a SAS Program 14
The DATA Step 15
The PROC Step 16
Chapter 3 􀀀 Rules for Words and Names in the SAS Language 17
Words in the SAS Language 17
Names in the SAS Language 20
Chapter 4 􀀀 SAS Variables 25
Definition of SAS Variables 26
SAS Variable Attributes 26
Ways to Create Variables 28
Variable Type Conversions 32
Aligning Variable Values 32
Automatic Variables 33
SAS Variable Lists 34
Dropping, Keeping, and Renaming Variables 36
Numeric Precision in SAS Software 38
Chapter 5 􀀀 Missing Values 49
Definition of Missing Values 49
Creating Special Missing Values 50
Order of Missing Values 51
When Variable Values Are Automatically Set to Missing by SAS 52
When Missing Values Are Generated by SAS 53
Working with Missing Values 55
Chapter 6 􀀀 Expressions 57
Definitions for SAS Expressions 58
Examples of SAS Expressions 58