SAS Institute SAS Certified Associate: Programming Fundamentals Using SAS 9.4 A00-215 Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (September 2025)

In SAS, iterative DO statements are used to repeat a block of statements a specified number of times. These DO statements have a specific syntax that includes initializing a variable, setting an ending value, and specifying an increment (or decrement). The syntax generally follows the pattern: DO variable = start TO end BY increment;

Let’s evaluate each option provided:

A) Do 100 to 1200 by 100;This statement is syntactically incorrect because it lacks a variable to iterate over. An iterative DO loop must specify a variable that will take on each value in the specified range. The correct form should be something like do i = 100 to 1200 by 100;.

B) Do num = 1.1 to 1.9 by 0.1;This statement is valid. It initializes the variable num at 1.1 and increments by 0.1 until it reaches 1.9. This is a typical use of the iterative DO loop for non-integer increments.

C) Do year = 2000 to 2016 by 2;This statement is also valid. It initializes year at 2000 and increments by 2, going through values like 2002, 2004, etc., up to and including 2016. This is a standard use for iterating over years or other sequentially numbered items.

D) Do reverse = 10 to 1 by -1;This statement is valid. It initializes reverse at 10 and decrements by 1 until it reaches 1. Using negative increments is a legitimate approach for counting downwards.

References

SAS 9.4 Statements: Reference, "DO Statement."

SAS Support: DO Loop Documentation

Understanding how to properly format DO loops in SAS is fundamental for effectively managing repetitive tasks in your data analysis. Mistakes like those seen in option A can lead to syntax errors, preventing your code from executing. Always ensure that your loops are correctly structured and that each component of the loop is clearly defined.

Option C is correct. The set statement is used within a DATA step to read an existing SAS data set. In this case, set sashelp.shoes; reads the SASHELP.SHOES data set, and data work.total; specifies the creation of a new data set named TOTAL in the WORK library. The options A, B, and D are incorrect because they either use the wrong syntax or are not proper statements for reading an input data set and creating an output data set.

References:

SAS 9.4 documentation on the DATA step.

The correct answer is D. This option uses the PROC PRINT procedure, which is used to print SAS data sets. The format statement within PROC PRINT temporarily assigns a format to a variable for the duration of the PROC PRINT step. Here is how it works:

data=sashelp.shoes; tells SAS which dataset to print.

Format sales comma12.; temporarily assigns a comma format to the sales variable, making it easier to read, especially if the numbers are large. The comma12. format adds commas for thousands, millions, etc., and displays the number in a field that is 12 characters wide.

The format is only applied for the duration of the PROC PRINT step and does not permanently change the dataset.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

Option A attempts to use a PROC FORMAT step, which is for creating custom formats, not for assigning formats to variables in a dataset.

Option B uses a DATA step which could permanently assign the format to the sales variable if it were syntactically correct (it should be set sashelp.shoes; instead of Set sashelp,sheoes;).

Option C mentions PROC CONTENTS which displays metadata about variables in a dataset and does not have the capability to assign formats.

References:

SAS 9.4 documentation for the PROC PRINT statement: SAS Help Center: PROC PRINT

The correct syntax for a conditional if-then block in SAS that includes a do group for executing multiple statements is:

if condition then do;

statement1;

statement2;

end;

In Option B, the syntax if age<13 then do; opens a do group, and age_Cat='Pre-teen'; and account='No Social Media'; are the two statements inside the do group, followed by an end; statement to close the group. However, there is a typo with the use of dashes instead of equal signs for assignment in the variable statements which seems to be an error, so technically, none of the provided options has the correct syntax without an error. The correct syntax should use equal signs (=) for assignment within the do group:

if age<13 then do;

age_Cat='Pre-teen';

account='No Social Media Allowed';

end;

References:

SAS documentation on conditional processing with IF-THEN/ELSE statements, SAS Institute.

The correct answer is C. The DATA step and PROC PRINT steps ran without errors. In the SAS log shown, there is a clear error in the PROC SORT step because of the use of an incorrect option by ascending Increase which caused the "Variable ASCENDING not found" error. However, the DATA step completed successfully, as indicated by the "NOTE" that follows it, confirming that 56 observations were read from the SASHELP.SHOES data set where Region is Africa. Additionally, the PROC PRINT step also completed successfully, indicated by the "NOTE" at the bottom of the log which confirms that 56 observations were read from the WORK.AFRICA data set, implying the PROC PRINT step executed without issue.

A is incorrect because the error in PROC SORT did not cause the program to stop; SAS continued processing the next steps. B is incorrect because the PROC SORT step did not run successfully. D is incorrect because the PROC PRINT step did not fail; it ran successfully.

References:

SAS documentation on error messages.

Understanding the SAS log and error messages.

When defining custom formats in SAS, it's important to adhere to the correct syntax, which includes ending format names with a period. In the submitted program, the format $convert is defined without a period at the end of the format name in the VALUE statement. This is likely causing an error since format names in the VALUE statement should always end with a period. Option C correctly identifies that adding a period to the end of the format name on the VALUE statement will allow SAS to properly recognize and apply the custom format to the Answer variable when the PROC PRINT step is executed.

The program provided in the question seems to have formatting errors, but based on the information provided, the suggested change is to add a period to make it $convert. which would correctly apply the format.

The other options would not resolve the issue of applying the custom format:

A. Changing the case of the unformatted values will not help if the format is not correctly specified.

B. The comma does not seem to be the issue based on the context given.

D. The dollar sign is correct and necessary for character formats; removing it would cause the format to be invalid for character data.

References:

SAS 9.4 documentation for the FORMAT procedure: SAS Help Center: PROC FORMAT

Data set options in SAS, such as KEEP= (to specify variables to keep in a dataset) and RENAME= (to change the names of variables in a dataset), have specific rules for their usage:

A. The options must be placed in parentheses - This is correct. When specifying dataset options in SAS, they must be enclosed in parentheses immediately following the dataset name, without any spaces in between.

D. The options are placed after the data set name - This is also correct. Dataset options follow the dataset name and are enclosed in parentheses to modify how SAS reads or writes the dataset in that step.

Option B is incorrect because data set options are allowed in both DATA and PROC steps, provided they are relevant to the procedure being used. Option C is incorrect because data set options can be applied to both input and output datasets, depending on the context and specific operation being performed.

References: SAS 9.4 Language Reference: Concepts.

To rename a variable when reading a dataset in SAS, you use the rename= option inside the parentheses following the dataset's name in the set statement. The correct syntax for renaming the variable 'Name' to 'StudentName' is: rename=(oldname=newname). Therefore, the correct option is A, which correctly places the old variable name 'Name' first, followed by an equal sign, and then the new variable name 'StudentName'. The parentheses enclose the rename operation, and it is correctly nested within the set statement.

References:

SAS documentation on the RENAME= data set option, SAS Institute.

The correct answer is A: Ods excel='c:\report.xlsx' style=analysis;. This syntax is correct for the ODS EXCEL statement in SAS, where you specify the path and filename, followed by the 'style' option to apply a specific style template to the output Excel file. The 'style=analysis' is used to set the output appearance according to the 'ANALYSIS' style template provided by SAS. Option B is syntactically incorrect and does not use the 'style' option correctly. Option C incorrectly places a slash which is not syntactically valid in this context, and Option D misses the equals sign and quotes which are necessary for correct syntax in SAS.References:

SAS documentation on ODS EXCEL statement: SAS Support: ODS EXCEL Statement

The PROC SORT statement that specifies the sort variable is: BY

The BY statement in PROC SORT is used to specify the variable(s) by which the data should be sorted.