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Book Description

The SAS® Certified Specialist Prep Guide: Base Programming Using SAS® 9.4 prepares you to take the new SAS 9.4 Base Programming -- Performance-Based Exam. This is the official guide by the SAS Global Certification Program.

This prep guide is for both new and experienced SAS users, and it covers all the objectives that are tested on the exam.

New in this edition is a workbook whose sample scenarios require you to write code to solve problems and answer questions. Answers for the chapter quizzes and solutions for the sample scenarios in the workbook are included. You will also find links to exam objectives, practice exams, and other resources such as the Base SAS® glossary and a list of practice data sets. Major topics include importing data, creating and modifying SAS data sets, and identifying and correcting both data syntax and programming logic errors. All exam topics are covered in these chapters:

  • Setting Up Practice Data
  • Basic Concepts
  • Accessing Your Data
  • Creating SAS Data Sets
  • Identifying and Correcting SAS Language Errors
  • Creating Reports
  • Understanding DATA Step Processing
  • BY-Group Processing
  • Creating and Managing Variables
  • Combining SAS Data Sets
  • Processing Data with DO Loops
  • SAS Formats and Informats
  • SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values
  • Using Functions to Manipulate Data
  • Producing Descriptive Statistics
  • Creating Output
  • Practice Programming Scenarios (Workbook)

Table of Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Accessibility Features of the Prep Guide
  4. How to Prepare for the Exam
  5. Chapter 1: Setting Up Practice Data
    1. Chapter 1: Setting Up Practice Data
      1. Accessing Your Practice Data
    2. Chapter 2: Basic Concepts
      1. Getting Started
      2. The Basics of the SAS Language
      3. SAS Libraries
      4. Referencing SAS Files
      5. SAS Data Sets
      6. Chapter Quiz
    3. Chapter 3: Accessing Your Data
      1. SAS Libraries
      2. Viewing SAS Libraries
      3. Chapter Quiz
    4. Chapter 4: Creating SAS Data Sets
      1. Referencing an External Data File
      2. The IMPORT Procedure
      3. Reading and Verifying Data
      4. Using the Imported Data in a DATA Step
      5. Reading a Single SAS Data Set to Create Another
      6. Reading Microsoft Excel Data with the XLSX Engine
      7. Creating Excel Worksheets
      8. Writing Observations Explicitly
      9. Chapter Quiz
    5. Chapter 5: Identifying and Correcting SAS Language Errors
      1. Error Messages
      2. Correcting Common Errors
      3. Chapter Quiz
    6. Chapter 6: Creating Reports
      1. Creating a Basic Report
      2. Selecting Variables
      3. Identifying Observations
      4. Sorting Data
      5. Generating Column Totals
      6. Specifying Titles and Footnotes in Procedure Output
      7. Assigning Descriptive Labels
      8. Using Permanently Assigned Labels
      9. Chapter Quiz
    7. Chapter 7: Understanding DATA Step Processing
      1. How SAS Processes Programs
      2. Compilation Phase
      3. Execution Phase
      4. Debugging a DATA Step
      5. Testing Your Programs
      6. Chapter Quiz
    8. Chapter 8: BY-Group Processing
      1. Definitions
      2. Preprocessing Data
      3. FIRST. and LAST. DATA Step Variables
      4. Chapter Quiz
    9. Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Variables
      1. Creating Variables
      2. Modifying Variables
      3. Specifying Lengths for Variables
      4. Subsetting Data
      5. Transposing Variables into Observations
      6. Using SAS Macro Variables
      7. Chapter Quiz
    10. Chapter 10: Combining SAS Data Sets
      1. How to Prepare Your Data Sets
      2. Methods of Combining SAS Data Sets: The Basics
      3. One-to-One Reading: Details
      4. Concatenating: Details
      5. Match-Merging: Details
      6. Match-Merge Processing
      7. Renaming Variables
      8. Excluding Unmatched Observations
      9. Chapter Quiz
    11. Chapter 11: Processing Data with DO Loops
      1. The Basics of DO Loops
      2. Constructing DO Loops
      3. Nesting DO Loops
      4. Iteratively Processing Observations from a Data Set
      5. Conditionally Executing DO Loops
      6. Chapter Quiz
    12. Chapter 12: SAS Formats and Informats
      1. Applying SAS Formats and Informats
      2. The FORMAT Procedure
      3. Defining a Unique Format
      4. Associating User-Defined Formats with Variables
      5. Chapter Quiz
    13. Chapter 13: SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values
      1. SAS Date and Time Values
      2. Reading Dates and Times with Informats
      3. Example: Using Dates and Times in Calculations
      4. Displaying Date and Time Values with Formats
      5. Chapter Quiz
    14. Chapter 14: Using Functions to Manipulate Data
      1. The Basics of SAS Functions
      2. SAS Functions Syntax
      3. Converting Data with Functions
      4. Manipulating SAS Date Values with Functions
      5. Modifying Character Values with Functions
      6. Modifying Numeric Values with Functions
      7. Nesting SAS Functions
      8. Chapter Quiz
    15. Chapter 15: Producing Descriptive Statistics
      1. The MEANS Procedure
      2. The FREQ Procedure
      3. Chapter Quiz
    16. Chapter 16: Creating Output
      1. The Output Delivery System (ODS)
      2. Creating HTML Output with ODS
      3. Creating PDF Output with ODS
      4. Creating RTF Output with ODS
      5. Creating EXCEL Output with ODS
      6. The EXPORT Procedure
      7. Chapter Quiz
  6. Chapter 17: Practice Programming Scenarios
    1. Chapter 17: Practice Programming Scenarios
      1. Scenario 1
      2. Scenario 2
      3. Scenario 3
      4. Scenario 4
      5. Scenario 5
      6. Scenario 6
      7. Scenario 7
      8. Scenario 8
      9. Scenario 9
      10. Scenario 10
  7. Appendix 1: Chapter Quiz Answer Keys
    1. Appendix 1: Chapter Quiz Answer Keys
      1. Chapter 2: Basic Concepts
      2. Chapter 3: Accessing Your Data
      3. Chapter 4: Creating SAS Data Sets
      4. Chapter 5: Identifying and Correcting SAS Language Errors
      5. Chapter 6: Creating Reports
      6. Chapter 7: Understanding DATA Step Processing
      7. Chapter 8: BY-Group Processing
      8. Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Variables
      9. Chapter 10: Combining SAS Data Sets
      10. Chapter 11: Processing Data with DO Loops
      11. Chapter 12: SAS Formats and Informats
      12. Chapter 13: SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values
      13. Chapter 14: Using Functions to Manipulate Data
      14. Chapter 15: Producing Descriptive Statistics
      15. Chapter 16: Creating Output
    2. Appendix 2: Programming Scenario Solutions
      1. Scenario 1
      2. Scenario 2
      3. Scenario 3
      4. Scenario 4
      5. Scenario 5
      6. Scenario 6
      7. Scenario 7
      8. Scenario 8
      9. Scenario 9
      10. Scenario 10
  8. Index
  9. Additional Resources