SAS Cert Prep Guide 4th edition; quiz question explanation

[tino86]

Hi all,

In SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming for SAS9 4th edition, there is a quiz question in ch 12:

6.Assuming that the data set Sasuer.Usa has five or more observations, what is the result of submitting the following program?

data work.getobs5;
obsnum=5;
set sasuser.usa(keep=manager payroll) point=obsnum;
output;
stop;
run;
a.an error
b.an empty data set
c.a continuous loop
d.a data set that contains one observation

I was convinced that "d" is the correct answer, but answer says:

"6. Correct answer: a
When you use the KEEP= data set option and the POINT= option with the OUTPUT
and STOP statements, your program cannot write out a single observation."

My question is why this this program doesn't output exactly 1 observation?

Thanks

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

d) has to be the correct answer, as this log shows:

27         data work.getobs5;
28         obsnum=5;
29         set sashelp.class (keep=name age) point=obsnum;
30         output;
31         stop;
32         run;

NOTE: The data set WORK.GETOBS5 has 1 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

[FreelanceReinh]

Also, the book's explanation for the "correct answer" is anything but convincing. It's not the only error in that edition: see, e.g., SAS Prep Guide SAS 9 4th edition question on Ch 13 quiz.

There is, however, a possibility of getting both an error (a) and an empty data set (b): if sasuser.usa does not contain variables manager and payroll. In addition, the assumption "has five or more observations" was made about a different dataset: Sasuer.Usa.

[tino86]

Now i see that libref in question (sasuer) and libref in code (sasuser) are different. But i believe it is a typo.

Yeah, there is a lot of mistakes in quiz, even if you include errata:

https://support.sas.com/en/books/content-updates-base-prep-guide-4th-edition.html

I just hope that real exam will not have those errors.