topic Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable" in SAS Certification

the word "Column" versus "Variable"

TheresaM — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 17:44:21 GMT

I have a question regarding the wording of Question 23 on the SAS Certification Practice Exam: SAS 9.4 Programming Fundamentals:

When reading a question, I'm sensitive to the wording and look out for ways that I might misread a question based on a simple error (on my side) of not paying attention to how the question is worded. In question 23 (see screenshot), I assumed that "how many columns" was asking an objective question, i.e., it wasn't asking how many variables. So I believed the answer was 5 (Obs, ProductID, Quantity, Location, ProdID).

According to the answer key, the answer was 4 columns, i.e., the Obs column was not counted. When taking the exam, should I always assume that "columns" refers to "variables"?

Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable"

Tom — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 17:57:57 GMT

The reports in the photographs in the question show four columns of text to describe the datasets. But there are only 3 variables (aka "columns") in each of the datasets (aka "tables") that were used to produce those reports.

So when the question is asking about a DATASET (notice how I do not put a space between data and set so it is clear that tie meaning is the SAS object and not the general concept of a "set" of "data") then you can assume that column and variable mean the same thing.

But when talking about a tabular report (like the pictures in the question) then table and column have a different meaning.

The confusion is caused by SQL syntax adopting the terminology of TABLE for a dataset and COLUMN for a variable. Unfortunately since most database products only offer SQL syntax as the way of querying data the usage of those ambiguous is pretty ubiquitous. So you do need to be comfortable with both sets of terminology and learn to look for clues to set the context of when TABLE means DATASET and when it means a tabular report in the output.

Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable"

TheresaM — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 18:17:20 GMT

@Tom, thanks for those clarifications. I'm glad you pointed out "dataset" vs "a set of data" as I do think that'll be key in some of the questions. But I'm still not clear whether I can trust that the SAS 9.4 Base Programming exams will be consistent in their use of the word "columns" to refer to "columns of variables" when referring to "number of columns in the newly created x data set" (e.g., the way this question is worded). I hate the idea of "teaching to the exam," but I'd just like to make sure I don't get an answer wrong based on terminology misunderstanding.

BTW, I understand that SQL plays a big part in the SAS community, so throughout my studying I've been trying to learn SQL terminology too. But in reference to this exam, I was thinking/assuming that the SAS 9.4 Base Programming exams do not touch on SQL topics/terminology.

Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable"

Cynthia_sas — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 23:49:58 GMT

Hi:
This Content Guide shows you the topics on the Base exam:
https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/documents/technical/certification/content-guide/specialist-base-programming.pdf

Hope this helps,
Cynthia

Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable"

TheresaM — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 01:05:37 GMT

Thanks, @Cynthia_sas .

I've made sure to read through the Certification Exam content guides, so it's not the topical content that I'm thinking about as much as how careful I have to be with the wording of each question (i.e., is the question trying to be tricky, or straightforward?). I'm thinking that since the Output Data tab (at least in SAS Studio) refers to "Columns" when referencing Variables, then I'm going to assume that any time I see "Column" on the exam that it does indeed refer to "Variable".

Re: the word "Column" versus "Variable"

LinusH — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 07:48:53 GMT

The way I see is that any relational storage (datasets, tables) has columns.

But we refer to them as variables in SAS programs, such as data step and PROC's.