SAS IF ELSE - I don't understand the answer to this

[pri26]

Hi,

I don't understand why the answer to this is a and not b?

[ChrisNZ]

WORD is set when AMOUNT=7.

It is not reset when AMOUNT changes.

[ed_sas_member]

Hi @pri26 

If you execute the code step by step:

• first, amount is set to 7

• Then SAS checks the IF condition:
  • if amount = 5 then word = "CAT"; FALSE
  • else if amount = 7 then word = "DOG"; TRUE -> so the value of word is set to 'DOG'
  • else word = "NoNE !!!"; FALSE

• Finally, the value of amount is set to 5:

NB: it would have been better to have a LENGTH statement to define the word variable. As it is missing here, the length is set by default to 3, as it is the length of the first value proposed for this variable in the IF condition ('CAT'). It doesn't matter here as 'DOG' has the same number of letters than 'CAT'. But you can test to set amount to 3 for example, you will see that the 'ELSE' statement is true and that is displays 'NoN' and not 'NoNE !!!'

Best,