you can add a 0 as one of the parameters in SUM to prevent returning a missing value -- SUM(0,cost,vat) ... View more

That's not entirely correct. %local and %global create macro variables with null values. Even without assigning a value to them with %let, you can reference them without error. ... View more

Based on SAS Programming 1: Essentials training book, the difference between PROC MEANS and PROC SUMMARY are: PROC MEANS: The PRINT option is set by default, displays output Omitting the VAR statement analyzes all the numeric variables PROC SUMMARY: The NOPRINT option is set by default, displays no output Omitting the VAR statement will produce only simple count of observations PROC TABULATE is merely different in usage, more to produce two or more dimensional report(s) ... View more

SAS is more powerful than SPSS. ... View more

Since the subject was interview question, I would think that multiple answers would be preferred.  Thus, I would definitely include interleaving (see, e.g., http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Tips:Interleaving ). Plus, it was never mentioned why 3 wasn't wanted, just that it wasn't wanted and not necessarily just because it was in both datasets.  If it was just because its value was three, I would use an if EID ne 3 statement in the code. ... View more

Koen Vyverman has published, extensively, on the topic.  If you read some of his papers, you will definitely get a flavor of what dde is and how it can be utilized. http://www.sas-consultant.com/professional/papers.html ... View more

Hi:   The problem with options like WRAP and FLOW is that they are LISTING-only options. The OP said that PDF was needed.   If you just make your long variable, ODS PDF will try to do the best it can and will automatically wrap. But you can use the CELLWIDTH style attribute to alter the width of the cell and how the value "flows". See the attached screenshot. It was produced with the code below. If the long text string did have spaces, then the text inside the cell would have flowed a bit differently, ODS will try to break the line at a space or punctuation character, if possible. cynthia data makelong; set sashelp.class;   length longvar1 longvar2 $1000 tmp $100;   keep name longvar1 longvar2;   where name in ('Alfred','Alice');   tmp = catt('aaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbcccccccccc',              'ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeffffffffff',              'gggggggggghhhhhhhhhh',              'iiiiiiiiiijjjjjjj--Z');                    ** make longvar1 and longvar2 exactly 1000 characters;   longvar1 = repeat(tmp,99);   longvar2 = longvar1;   lg = length(longvar1);   put lg=;   output; run;     options orientation=landscape         topmargin=.5in bottommargin=.5in         leftmargin=.5in rightmargin=.5in;               ods listing close; ods pdf file='c:\temp\compare_cellwidth.pdf'; ** cellpadding puts a bit more white space around; ** the long text, making it easier to read;          proc report data=makelong nowd      style(report)={cellpadding=6pt};      title '2) Use CELLWIDTH attribute for PDF to adjust size of LONGVAR cell';      column name longvar1 longvar2;      define name /order;      define longvar1 / display             style(column)={cellwidth=2in};      define longvar2 / display             style(column)={cellwidth=4in};      compute after name;        line ' ';      endcomp;      run; ods _all_ close; title; ... View more

Using a regular expression with prxchange() is for sure a very powerful way of modifying a string. Considering that it's such a simple text pattern and the question is asked in the "Getting started" forum using a function like TRANSTRN() is also acceptable. data _null_;   myVariable='name=j** ney';   myVariable=TRANSTRN(myVariable,'**','*');   put myVariable=; run; ... View more

I just changed my proposal. Sorry about the other version. OBS= only works for input datasets, it doesn't work with output datasets. -PG ... View more

If you are asked that question in an interview (or real life) you need to respond with some questions so you can figure out what they want. Do they want to match every obversation in A with every observation in B that has the same account number? What about account numbers that only occur in A or B? Do they want to pair them up in order within the account numbers?  What happens if there are not the same number of observations in both A and B for a particular account number. Once you have the answers to those questions you can begin to build a strategy for "merging" them. But in general SQL will be much more useful language for coding that than a data step using the MERGE statement. ... View more