Each SET statement will assign a pointer to the table, even if they are the same table.
Therefore,the first one has only one SET/pointer , will output three obs.
the second one have three SET/pointer , will output 3*3 obs .
Thank you for the reply. This is very helpful.
I would accept this as a solution as well but I'm not sure how to have multiple answers as solutions.
Another potentially useful exercise: Compare the two resulting sets from:
data newbank; set banks; output; set banks; output; set banks; output; run; data newbank2; set banks banks banks ; run;
Thank you for the exercise. This is a good point and it helps me to understand what is going on behind the scenes when combining datasets.
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