SAS Support Communities

Because the variable length is already defined by the set statment as in the original data set. When it will be 12? if the length statment come before the set statament. So order is very important here. And if you have practicing SAS programming  you will know that if you run this programe you will get a warning. WARNING: Length of character variable jobcode has already been set. Use the LENGTH statement as the very first statement in the DATA STEP to declare the length of a character variable. And not 8 for two reasons the one mentioned above plus this length is not defined any where in the data step or the original data and it is char not number. where if it is number the max length is 8. ... View more

Are you sure that the column txn exists in table1 and table2?   Also, what you trying to do exactly? ... View more

I understand all what you said. I was once working for SAS partner and yes we was forced to take the exams. I think that was good for the company profile with SAS. From my experience I advise you after carefully studying "Base Programming Prep Guide" and solve all the exercises at the end of each chapter. To spend good amount of time on the exam questions online because it will really make difference in passing the exam. I met people really understand and practiced all the topics in the exam and yet not able to pass it. And also people with years of experience in SAS and almost hardly pass the exam too. And I am sure that you figured out after solving some questions this time that it is almost the same questions you saw in the exam and even not updated from years. And sorry to say that but I met people not fully aware of the exams topics, without experience, and very hardly can write job or task in SAS. But they got > 90% in the exam, as they went through the exam dump several times and studied what the exam tricks and focus points. Regarding it focus on reading from file or text, I cannot say this is bad thing, as this is very important in academia and research where many dataset are in this form. Even if it is not in industry. And even making practicing and testing easier and less time consuming.    But the general advice _based on myself and colleges experience_ spend time on the online previous questions or take SAS Certification Practice Exam: Base Programming for SAS 9. What I hope in the future and as SAS expand their certifications set to improve the exams and make beta versions to the test and get people feedback and maybe experienced SAS community members could be good for that.   Regarding SAS for real world situations i think other gave you good advices and i post about that in the future too.   All the best   ... View more

data test; input yy; sasdate=mdy(1,1,yy); format sasdate year.; datalines; 70 ; run; ... View more

data test; input DOB $ ; dt = input('01/'!!DOB,ddmmyy10.); format dt mmyys. ; datalines; 3/2011 ; run; ... View more