topic Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program? in SAS Procedures

How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

ranniefung — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:28:45 GMT

I am a beginner. For some simple sas program, should I always count the number of semicolons?
Thanks!

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

Linlin — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:40:42 GMT

Yes. I agree.

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

Doc_Duke — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:14:39 GMT

Counting the number of semicolons will get you close. However, one can put in a bare semicolon. It is effectively a "null" statement so I am not sure how useful that would be to your (unstated) need.

Also, when you have data inline with the program, there can be semicolons in the data that are not statements (that were you see the "card4" statement.)

Lastly, one can have semicolons in literals and they are not statements.

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

ranniefung — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:47:09 GMT

If we exclude the last two cases you mentioned, is a "null" statement also one type of statement?

Thank you!

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

Ksharp — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 02:47:39 GMT

One situation you need to consider is Annotation ( /* */ * ...; ) which can also contain many semicolon .

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

Astounding — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 12:52:31 GMT

Let's muddy the waters a bit more then. What if the program calls a macro? Each macro call can generate thousands of SAS statements. The macro call itself may not contain a semicolon at all, but the generated statements certainly will. Should that add to your statement count?

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

advoss — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:08:35 GMT

And some more mud. What about semicolons in quoted strings?

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

ballardw — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:27:25 GMT

And don't forget the contents of %INCLUDE files;

How will this information be used? That might helpfilter responses.

Re: How many SAS statements are there in a SAS program?

ranniefung — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:59:09 GMT

Thank you! I am a beginner and preparing for sas base exam. Therefore, the question I asked are based on some very simply sas programs. I didn't think that what I asked might not be correct in so many cases. But their anwsers are helpful for my future study.