SAS Interview Questint

8/6/2019 SAS Interview Questint

1/23

1. What SAS statements would you code to read an

external raw data file to a DATA step? 2. How do

you read in the variables that you need? 3. Are youfamiliar with special input delimiters? How are

they used? 4. If reading a variable length file with

fixed input, how would you prevent SAS fromreading the next record if the last variable didnt

have a value? 5. What is the difference between an

informat and a format? Name three informats orformats. 6. Name and describe three SAS functions

that you have used, if any? 7. How would you code

the criteria to restrict the output to be produced? 8.What is the purpose of the trailing @? The @@?

How would you use them? 9. Under what

circumstances would you code a SELECT

construct instead of IF statements? 10. What

statement do you code to tell SAS that it is to writeto an external file? What statement do you code to

write the record to the file? 11. If reading anexternal file to produce an external file, what is the

shortcut to write that record without coding every

single variable on the record? 12. If youre notwanting any SAS output from a data step, how

would you code the data statement to prevent SAS

from producing a set? 13. What is the one

statement to set the criteria of data that can becoded in any step? 14. Have you ever linked SAS

code? If so, describe the link and any requiredstatements used to either process the code or thestep itself. 15. How would you include common or

reuse code to be processed along with your

statements? 16. When looking for data containedin a character string of 150 bytes, which function is

the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?

17. If you have a data set that contains 100variables, but you need only five of those, what is

the code to force SAS to use only those variable?

18. Code a PROC SORT on a data set containing

State, District and County as the primary variables,along with several numeric variables. 19. How

would you delete duplicate observations? 20. How

would you delete observations with duplicatekeys? 21. How would you code a merge that will

keep only the observations that have matches from

both sets. 22. How would you code a merge thatwill write the matches of both to one data set, the

Accenture 0 14
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non-matches from the left-most data set to a

second data set, and the non-matches of the right-

most data set to a third data set. 23. What is theProgram Data Vector (PDV)? What are its

functions? 24. Does SAS Translate (compile) or

does it Interpret? Explain. 25. At compile timewhen a SAS data set is read, what items are

created? 26. Name statements that are recognized

at compile time only? 27. Identify statementswhose placement in the DATA step is critical. 28.

Name statements that function at both compile and

execution time. 29. Name statements that areexecution only. 30. In the flow of DATA step

processing, what is the first action in a typical

DATA Step? 31. What is _n_?

1. What SAS statements would you code to read an

external raw data file to a DATA step? 2. How doyou read in the variables that you need? 3. Are you

familiar with special input delimiters? How arethey used? 4. If reading a variable length file with

fixed input, how would you prevent SAS from

reading the next record if the last variable didnthave a value? 5. What is the difference between an

informat and a format? Name three informats or

formats. 6. Name and describe three SAS functions

that you have used, if any? 7. How would you codethe criteria to restrict the output to be produced? 8.

What is the purpose of the trailing @? The @@?How would you use them? 9. Under whatcircumstances would you code a SELECT

construct instead of IF statements? 10. What

statement do you code to tell SAS that it is to writeto an external file? What statement do you code to

write the record to the file? 11. If reading an

external file to produce an external file, what is the

shortcut to write that record without coding everysingle variable on the record? 12. If youre not

wanting any SAS output from a data step, how

would you code the data statement to prevent SASfrom producing a set? 13. What is the one

statement to set the criteria of data that can be

coded in any step? 14. Have you ever linked SAScode? If so, describe the link and any required

statements used to either process the code or the

step itself. 15. How would you include common orreuse code to be processed along with your

Accenture 0 8
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statements? 16. When looking for data contained

in a character string of 150 bytes, which function is

the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?17. If you have a data set that contains 100

variables, but you need only five of those, what is

the code to force SAS to use only those variable?18. Code a PROC SORT on a data set containing

State, District and County as the primary variables,

along with several numeric variables. 19. Howwould you delete duplicate observations? 20. How

would you delete observations with duplicate

keys? 21. How would you code a merge that willkeep only the observations that have matches from

both sets. 22. How would you code a merge that

will write the matches of both to one data set, the

non-matches from the left-most data set to a

second data set, and the non-matches of the right-most data set to a third data set. 23. What is the

Program Data Vector (PDV)? What are itsfunctions? 24. Does SAS Translate (compile) or

does it Interpret? Explain. 25. At compile time

when a SAS data set is read, what items arecreated? 26. Name statements that are recognized

at compile time only? 27. Identify statements

whose placement in the DATA step is critical. 28.

Name statements that function at both compile andexecution time. 29. Name statements that are

execution only. 30. In the flow of DATA stepprocessing, what is the first action in a typicalDATA Step? 31. What is _n_?

how we can call macros with in data step? Allianz 3 217

Hello, I have PROC SQLs results group by 3 fieldsand I use SUM and COUNT functions in SQL.

The problem is when I try to display my result

with PROC TABULATE. I am getting very big

numbers. I believe I make a mistake some where inTabulate. Here is my Proc Tabulate. PROC

TABULATE DATA=OUT04_05 FORMAT=12.;

CLASS YR CENTRE VISA / PRELOADFMTEXCLUSIVE; VAR NEWUSER FRAUD

TRANSFER AUTUSER REISSUE; TABLE

CENTRE ALL, (YR ALL)*VISA,(NEWUSER*F=COMMA12.

AUTUSER*F=COMMA12.

FRAUD*F=COMMA12.

TRANSFER*F=COMMA12.

0 5
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REISSUE*F=COMMA12.) /

MISSTEXT={LABEL='0'} PRINTMISS RTS=20;

FORMAT VISA VISAFMT.; KEYLABEL SUM= ' ' ALL = 'TOTAL'; LABEL YR = 'DATE

YEAR' NEWUSER = 'TOTAL NEW ACCT'

TRANSFER = 'TOTAL TRANSFER' FRAUD ='TOTAL FRAUD TRANSFER' AUTUSER =

'TOTAL AUTH USERS' REISSUE = 'TOTAL

REISSUE'; When I code it like :NEWUSER*N*F=COMMA12.

AUTUSER*N*F=COMMA12. I get same amount

numbers but to find a NEWUSER I useCOUNT(*) and to find AUTUSER I use

SUM(xxxx) function so both result shouldnt be

the same my problem is in this point. Could you

tell me where the problem in code is. How can I

display my result? TX.WHAT DIFFERRENCE DID YOU FIND

AMONG VERSION 6 8 AND 9 OF SAS.Genzyme 0 6

How do you debug and test your SAS programs?

What can you learn from the SAS log when

debugging? How do you test for missing values?

How would you create multiple observations froma single observation? What are some good SAS

programming practices for processing very large

data sets? Briefly describe 5 ways to do a "tablelookup" in SAS. Why is SAS considered self-

documenting? Are you sensitive to code walk-throughs, peer review, or QC review? What otherSAS features do you use for error trapping and

data validation? How does SAS handle missing

values in: assignment statements, functions, a

merge, an update, sort order, formats, PROCs?

0 3

How could you generate test data with no input

data?5 734

What is _n_? 9 724

In the flow of DATA step processing, what is the

first action in a typical DATA Step?2 347

Name statements that are execution only. 5 496

Name statements that function at both compile andexecution time.

2 265

Identify statements whose placement in the DATA

step is critical.Infosys 0 2

Name statements that are recognized at compile

time only?0 8
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5/23

At compile time when a SAS data set is read, what

items are created?2 200

Does SAS Translate (compile) or does itInterpret? Explain

Does SAS have a function for calculating factorials ?My Ans: Do not know.

Sugg Ans: No, but the Gamma Function does (x-1)!

What is the smallest length for a numeric and character

variable respectively ?

Ans: 2 bytes and 1 byte.

Addendum by John Wildenthal - the smallest legal length for a

numeric is OS dependent. Windows and Unix have a minimum length

of 3, not 2.

What is the largest possible length of a macro variable ?

Ans: Do not know

Addendum by John Wildenthal - IIRC, the maxmium length isapproximately the value of MSYMTABMAX less the length of the

name.

List differences between SAS PROCs and the SAS DATA

STEP.

Ans: Procs are sub-routines with a specific purpose in mind and the

data step is designed to read in and manipulate data.

Does SAS do power calculations via a PROC?

Ans: No, but there are macros out there written by other users.

How can you write a SAS data set to a comma delimited file ?

Ans: PUT (formatted) statement in data step.

Submitted by Jack N Shoemaker

Email: [email protected]

1. Have you ever been to any user conferences? If so, which ones?

Do you remember any paper/presentation which stood out? If so,

why?

Answers: I use this to gauge experience and level of expertise. 12+

years of SAS experience on the resume, but no user activity raises red

flags. I can understand no SUGI or RSUG for financial reasons, butit's hard to justify no local meetings.

2. What editor do you use?

Answers: Emacs - hired on the spot. Kedit, UltarEdit, Xedit, vi, ISPF

are also acceptable answers. What I'm looking for is a sense that the

candidate can interact with the OS beyond SAS. Of course, Roger
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6/23

DeAngelis ([email protected]) is a DM bigot, but he has good reasons

for doing so. With that exception, I feel just using DM displays a lack

of intellectual curiosity about the rest of the OS which, to me, results

in low scores.

3. What was your favorite course in high school?

Good Answers: Music, geometry, algebra - in particular word

problems, calculus.

Questions submitted by Janet Stuelpner

What is the difference between a FUNCTION and a PROC?

Example: MEAN function and PROC MEANS

Answer: One will give an average across an observation (a row) andthe other will give an average across many observations (a column)

What are some of the differences between a WHERE and an IF statement?

Answer: Major differences include:

o IF can only be used in a DATA step

o Many IF statements can be used in one DATA

step

o Must read the record into the program data

vector to perform selection with IFo WHERE can be used in a DATA step as well as a

PROC.

o A second WHERE will replace the first unless

the option ALSO is used

o Data subset prior to reading record into PDV

with WHERE

Name some of the ways to create a macro variable

Answer:

o %leto CALL SYMPUT(....)

o when creating a macro example:

o %macro mymacro(a=,b=);

o in SQL using INTO


7/23

Questions submitted by Charles Patridge

1. Question: Describe 1 way to avoid using a series of "IF"

statements such as

if branch = 1 then premium = amount; else

if branch = 2 then premium = amount; elseif..... ; else

if branch = 20 then premium = amount;

Answer: Use a Format and the PUT function.

Or, use an SQL JOIN with a table of Branch codes.

Or, use a Merge statement with a table of Branch codes.

2. Question: When reading a NON SAS external file what is the

best way of reading the file?

Answer: Use the INPUT statement with pointer control - ex: INPUT

@1 dateextr mmddyy8. etc.3. Question: How can you avoid using a series of "%INCLUDE"

statements?

Answer: Use the Macro Autocall Library.

4. Question: If you have 2 sets of Format Libraries, can a SAS

program have access to both during 1 session?

Answer: Yes. Use the FMTSEARCH option.

5. Question: Name some of the SAS Functions you have used.

Answer: Looking to see which ones and how many a potential

candidate has used in the past.

6. Question: Name some of the SAS PROCs you have used.

Answer: Looking to see which ones and how many a potentialcandidate has used in the past, as well as what SAS products he/she

has been exposed to.

7. Question: Have you ever presented a paper to a SAS user

group (Local, Regional or National)?

Answer: Checking to see if candidate is willing to share ideas, proud

of his/her work, not afraid to stand up in front of an audience, can

write/speak in a reasonable clear and understandable manner, and

finally, has mentoring abilities.

Interview questions for a SAS data support manager by Ron Fehd of CDC AtlantaGA USA [email protected]

Question: How would you check the uniqueness of a data set?

i.e. that the data set was unique on its primary key (ID). suppose there

were two Identifier variables: ID1, ID2

answer:


8/23

1. proc FREQ order = FREQ;

tables ID;

shows multiples at top of listing

2. Or, compare number of obs of original data set

and data after

proc SORT nodupsor is that

proc SORT nodupkey

3. use first.ID in data step to write non-unique to

separate data set if first.ID and last.ID then output

UNIQUE; else output DUPS;

Author: Roland Rashleigh-BerryEmail: [email protected]

The following code illustrates the scope of macro variables. If you

applyfor a job writing SAS macros you may be quizzed on this so it isuseful toknow it.

1 /* RECOMMENDATION: Have global macro variables startand end with an2 underscore exclusively and then no confusion willever arise. Declare3 all other macro variables as local at the start ofthe macro before4 using them and then they will never overwrite thoseof the same name

5 outside the macro. */6789 options nodate nonotes;10111213 %*- scope of macro variables examples;141516 %*- using the same macro variable inside another

macro overwrites it;

1718 %let a=5;1920 %macro testa;21 %let a=99;22 %mend testa;23 %testa;2425 %put >> a was 5 and now a=&a;>> a was 5 and now a=99


9/23

2627282930 %*- declaring the same named macro variable local

preserves its contents;3132 %let b=4;3334 %macro testb;35 %local b;36 %do b=1 %to 10;37 %end;38 %mend testb;39 %testb;4041 %put >> b was 4 and now it is still the same b=&b;>> b was 4 and now it is still the same b=44243

444546 %*- "call symputing" creates a global macro variableif not declared local;4748 %macro testc;49 data _null_;50 call symput('c',put(9,1.));51 run;52 %mend testc;53 %testc;5455 %put >> c was created by a "symput" and it is stilldefined outside c=&c;>> c was created by a "symput" and it is still defined outsidec=95657585960 %*- but "call symput" will write to a local macro

variable if it is declared;6162 %let d=2;6364 %macro testd;65 %local d;

66 data _null_;67 call symput('d',put(7,1.));68 run;69 %mend testd;70 %testd;7172 %put >> d was 2 and it is still the same d=&d;>> d was 2 and it is still the same d=27374


10/23

757677 %*- declaring a macro variable as global will notchange its contents;7879 %let e=5;8081 %global e;8283 %put >> e was 5 and it is still the same e=&e;>> e was 5 and it is still the same e=58485868788 %*- macro variables created in a macro are local toit only;89 %*- unless you a) "symput" it in the example

previously....;90

91 %macro testf;92 %let f=5;93 %mend testf;94 %testf;9596 %put >> f=&f does not exist;WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference F not resolved.>> f=&f does not exist979899100101 %*- .... or b) declare it as global before you use it;102103 %macro testg;104 %global g;105 %let g=5;106 %mend testg;107 %testg;108109 %put >> g=&g exists;>> g=5 exists110111112113 %*- but you are not allowed to declare it as globalif you have;

114 %*- already used it as local. The following willcause an ERROR;115116 %macro testh;117 %let h=8;118 %global h;119 %mend testh;120 %testh;ERROR: Attempt to %GLOBAL a name (H) which exists in a localenvironment.


11/23

Author: Girish Patel

Email: [email protected]

Frequently Asked Interview Questions

Several of the frequently asked job interview questions may sound familiar.

Although these questions are not technical, they are used to size up the

candidate and reveal his priorities and values.You will find a couple of

questions designed for either employees or contractors at the end of the list.

Carefully considering your answers to these questions will provide practice

and insure that your responses are well thought out.

1. Why are you leaving your current job?

2. What do you know about our company?

3. In your current job, what do you like most and least?

4. What are your strengths or strong points?5. What are your weaknesses?

6. Tell me about yourself

7. Why do you want to work for us?

8. What about this job do you find most and least

attractive?

9. Why should we hire you? What do you have to offer?

10. What's your greatest accomplishment in your career?

11. What's the most difficult decision you ever had to make

in your career?

12. If I talked to your manager, what 3 adjectives would

he/she use to describe you?13. How do you keep abreast of new developments in

Information Technology?

14. What new skills or capabilities have you developed over

the past year?

15. How would you describe your work style?

16. Why do you think you would like this position?

Company?

17. When can you start work?

18. Do you work best independently or with a team?

19. Why have you changed jobs so often?

20. What is the longest length of time you have worked onone job or project?

21. How do you feel about working overtime?

22. How do you feel about providing on-call support?

23. How long will it take you to learn our environment and

start producing?

24. Can you pick up a new skill without formal training?

25. What hours do you prefer to work?
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


12/23

26. What did you do on your current job yesterday?

For Interviewers to ask Potential Employees

1. What are your short and long-term goals?

2. How long do you plan to work here if you are hired?3. What new skills or capabilities do you want to develop

over the next year?

4. How will employment with us contribute to your career

plans?

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

For Interviewers to ask Potential Contractors

1. Have you ever been let go before your contract ended,

why?

2. Would you consider a permanent position with us in thefuture?

3. Why do you want a employee position?

4. Why did you leave a salaried position and start

consulting?

Ask the Interviewer questions

It is common for a interviewer to ask do you have any questions? Questions

will probably arise during the course of the interview, nevertheless, it's

beneficial to have a couple of pertinent questions already prepared. At theend of this list, you will find questions appropriate for employees and for

contractors.

1. What are the responsibilities of the job?

2. What qualifications are you looking for to fill this job?

3. Is this position best performed independently or closely

with a team?

4. What are the skills and qualities of your best

programmer/analyst?

5. Ask about the system/project described to you:

What phase of the system development life cycle are they in?Are they on schedule?

Are the deadlines tight, aggressive or relaxed?

6. What qualities and/or skills of your worst

programmer/analyst or contractor would you like to see

changed?

7. What would you like to see your newly hired achieve in

3 months? 6 months?


13/23

8. How would describe the tasks I would be performing on

a average day?

9. How are program specifications delivered; written or

verbal? Do I create my own after analysis and design?

10. How do I compare to the other candidates you've

interviewed?11. How would you describe your ideal candidate?

12. When will you make a hiring decision?

13. When would you like for me to start?

14. When may I expect to hear from you?

15. What is the next step in the interviewing process?

16. Why are you looking to fill this position? Did the

previous employee leave or is this a new position?

17. What are the key challenges or problems I will face in

this position?

18. What extent of end-user interface will the position

entail?

For Employees to Interviewers

1. What are the chances for advancement or increase in

responsibilities?

2. What is your philosophy on training?

3. What training program does the company have in place

to keep up to date with future technology?

4. Where will this position lead in terms of career paths

and future projects?

For Contractors to Interviewers

1. What is the length of this contract?

2. What length of time will this position progress from

temp to perm?

3. Is the length of this contract fixed or will it be

extended?

4. What is the ratio of contractors to employees working

on the system/project?

More SAS Interview Questions submitted by SumitVery Basic

What SAS statements would you code to read an external raw data file to

a DATA step?

How do you read in the variables that you need?

Are you familiar with special input delimiters? How are they used?


14/23

If reading a variable length file with fixed input, how would you prevent

SAS from reading the next record if the last variable didn't have a value?

What is the difference between an informat and a format? Name three

informats or formats.

Name and describe three SAS functions that you have used, if any?

How would you code the criteria to restrict the output to be produced?

What is the purpose of the trailing @? The @@? How would you use

them?

Under what circumstances would you code a SELECT construct instead

of IF statements?

What statement do you code to tell SAS that it is to write to an external

file? What statement do you code to write the record to the file?

If reading an external file to produce an external file, what is the shortcut

to write that record without coding every single variable on the record?

If you're not wanting any SAS output from a data step, how would you

code the data statement to prevent SAS from producing a set?

What is the one statement to set the criteria of data that can be coded in

any step?

Have you ever linked SAS code? If so, describe the link and any required

statements used to either process the code or the step itself.

How would you include common or reuse code to be processed along with

your statements?

When looking for data contained in a character string of 150 bytes, which

function is the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?

If you have a data set that contains 100 variables, but you need only five

of those, what is the code to force SAS to use only those variable?

Code a PROC SORT on a data set containing State, District and County

as the primary variables, along with several numeric variables.

How would you delete duplicate observations?

How would you delete observations with duplicate keys?

How would you code a merge that will keep only the observations that

have matches from both sets.

How would you code a merge that will write the matches of both to one

data set, the non-matches from the left-most data set to a second data set,

and the non-matches of the right-most data set to a third data set.

Internals

What is the Program Data Vector (PDV)? What are its functions?

Does SAS 'Translate' (compile) or does it 'Interpret'? Explain.

At compile time when a SAS data set is read, what items are created?

Name statements that are recognized at compile time only?

Identify statements whose placement in the DATA step is critical.

Name statements that function at both compile and execution time.

Name statements that are execution only.

In the flow of DATA step processing, what is the first action in a typical

DATA Step?


15/23

What is _n_?

Base SAS

What is the effect of the OPTIONS statement ERRORS=1?

What's the difference between VAR A1 - A4 and VAR A1 -- A4?

What do the SAS log messages "numeric values have been converted to character" mean? What are the implications?

Why is a STOP statement needed for the POINT= option on a SET

statement?

How do you control the number of observations and/or variables read or

written?

Approximately what date is represented by the SAS date value of 730?

How would you remove a format that has been permanently associated

with a variable??

What does the RUN statement do?

Why is SAS considered self-documenting?

What areas of SAS are you most interested in?

Briefly describe 5 ways to do a "table lookup" in SAS.

What versions of SAS have you used (on which platforms)?

What are some good SAS programming practices for processing very

large data sets?

What are some problems you might encounter in processing missing

values? *In Data steps? Arithmetic? Comparisons? Functions? Classifying

data?

How would you create a data set with 1 observation and 30 variables

from a data set with 30 observations and 1 variable?

What is the different between functions and PROCs that calculate the

same simple descriptive statistics?If you were told to create many records from one record, show how you

would do this using arrays and with PROC TRANSPOSE?

What are _numeric_ and _character_ and what do they do?

How would you create multiple observations from a single observation?

For what purpose would you use the RETAIN statement?

What is a method for assigning first.VAR and last.VAR to the BY group

variable on unsorted data?

What is the order of application for output data set options, input data

set options and SAS statements?

What is the order of evaluation of the comparison operators: + - * / **

( ) ?

Testing, debugging

How could you generate test data with no input data?

How do you debug and test your SAS programs?

What can you learn from the SAS log when debugging?

What is the purpose of _error_?

How can you put a "trace" in your program?


16/23

Are you sensitive to code walk-throughs, peer review, or QC review?

Have you ever used the SAS Debugger?

What other SAS features do you use for error trapping and data

validation?

Missing valuesHow does SAS handle missing values in: assignment statements,

functions, a merge, an update, sort order, formats, PROCs?

How many missing values are available? When might you use them?

How do you test for missing values?

How are numeric and character missing values represented internally?

General

What has been your most common programming mistake?

What is your favorite programming language and why?

What is your favorite operating system? Why?

Do you observe any coding standards? What is your opinion of them?What percent of your program code is usually original and what percent

copied and modified?

Have you ever had to follow SOPs or programming guidelines?

Which is worse: not testing your programs or not commenting your

programs?

Name several ways to achieve efficiency in your program. Explain trade-

offs.

What other SAS products have you used and consider yourself proficient

in using?

FunctionsHow do you make use of functions?

When looking for contained in a character string of 150 bytes, which

function is the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?

What is the significance of the 'OF' in X=SUM(OF a1-a4, a6, a9);?

What do the PUT and INPUT functions do?

Which date function advances a date, time or date/time value by a given

interval?

What do the MOD and INT function do?

How might you use MOD and INT on numerics to mimic SUBSTR on

character strings?

In ARRAY processing, what does the DIM function do?

How would you determine the number of missing or nonmissing values in

computations?

What is the difference between: x=a+b+c+d; and x=SUM(a,b,c,d);?

There is a field containing a date. It needs to be displayed in the format

"ddmonyy" if it's before 1975, "dd mon ccyy" if it's after 1985, and as 'Disco

Years' if it's between 1975 and 1985. How would you accomplish this in data

step code? Using only PROC FORMAT.


17/23

In the following DATA step, what is needed for 'fraction' to print to the

log? data _null_; x=1/3; if x=.3333 then put 'fraction'; run;

What is the difference between calculating the 'mean' using the mean

function and PROC MEANS?

PROCsHave you ever used "Proc Merge"? (be prepared for surprising

answers..)

If you were given several SAS data sets you were unfamiliar with, how

would you find out the variable names and formats of each dataset?

What SAS PROCs have you used and consider yourself proficient in

using?

How would you keep SAS from overlaying the a SAS set with its sorted

version?

In PROC PRINT, can you print only variables that begin with the letter

"A"?

What are some differences between PROC SUMMARY and PROC

MEANS?

PROC FREQ:

*Code the tables statement for a single-level (most common) frequency.

*Code the tables statement to produce a multi-level frequency.

*Name the option to produce a frequency line items rather that a table.

*Produce output from a frequency. Restrict the printing of the table.

PROC MEANS:

*Code a PROC MEANS that shows both summed and averaged output of

the data.

*Code the option that will allow MEANS to include missing numeric data to

be included in the report.*Code the MEANS to produce output to be used later.

Do you use PROC REPORT or PROC TABULATE? Which do you

prefer? Explain.

Merging/Updating

What happens in a one-on-one merge? When would you use one?

How would you combine 3 or more tables with different structures?

What is a problem with merging two data sets that have variables with

the same name but different data?

When would you choose to MERGE two data sets together and when

would you SET two data sets?Which data set is the controlling data set in the MERGE statement?

How do the IN= variables improve the capability of a MERGE?

Explain the message 'MERGE HAS ONE OR MORE DATASETS

WITH REPEATS OF BY VARIABLES".


18/23

Simple statistics

How would you generate 1000 observations from a normal distribution

with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 20. How would you use PROC

CHART to look at the distribution? Describe the shape of the distribution.

How do you generate random samples?

Customized Report Writing

What is the purpose of the statement DATA _NULL_ ;?

What is the pound sign used for in the DATA _NULL_?

What would you use the trailing @ sign for?

For what purpose(s) would you use the RETURN statement?

How would you determine how far down on a page you have printed in

order to print out footnotes?

What is the purpose of using the N=PS option?

Macro

What system options would you use to help debug a macro?

Describe how you would create a macro variable.

How do you identify a macro variable?

How do you define the end of a macro?

How do you assign a macro variable to a SAS variable?

For what purposes have you used SAS macros?

What is the difference between %LOCAL and %GLOBAL?

How long can a macro variable be? A token?

If you use a SYMPUT in a DATA step, when and where can you use the

macro variable?

What do you code to create a macro? End one?

Describe how you would pass data to a macro.

You have five data sets that need to be processed identically; how would

you simplify that processing with a macro?

How would you code a macro statement to produce information on the

SAS log? This statement can be coded anywhere.

How do you add a number to a macro variable?

If you need the value of a variable rather than the variable itself, what

would you use to load the value to a macro variable?

Can you execute a macro within a macro? Describe.

Can you a macro within another macro? If so, how would SAS know

where the current macro ended and the new one began?

How are parameters passed to a macro?

Pharmaceutical Industry

Describe the types of SAS programming tasks that you performed:

Tables? Listings? Graphics? Ad hoc reports? Other?

Have you been involved in editing the data or writing data queries?

What techniques and/or PROCs do you use for tables?


19/23

Do you prefer PROC REPORT or PROC TABULATE? Why?

Are you involved in writing the inferential analysis plan? Tables

specifications?

What do you feel about hardcoding?

How experienced are you with customized reporting and use of DATA

_NULL_ features?How do you write a test plan?

What is the difference between verification and validation?

Intangibles

What was the last computer book you purchased? Why?

What is your favorite all time computer book? Why?

For contractors:

*Will it bother you if the guy at the next desk times the frequency and

duration of your bathroom/coffee breaks on the grounds that 'you are getting

paid twice as much as he is'?

*How will you react when, while consulting a SAS documentation manual to

get an answer to a problem, someone says: 'hey, I thought you were supposed

to know all that stuff already, and not have to look it up in a book!'

*Can you continue to write code while the rest of the people on the floor

where you work have a noisy party to which you were not invited?

Non-Technical

Can you start on Monday?

Do you think professionally?

*How do you put a giraffe into the refrigerator? Correct answer: Open therefrigerator door, put the giraffe in, and close the door. This question tests

whether or not the candidate is doing simple things in a complicated way.

*How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator? Incorrect answer: Open

the refrigerator door, put in the elephant, and close the door. Correct

answer: Open the refrigerator door, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant,

and close the door. This question tests your foresight.

*The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals in the world

attend except one. Which animal does not attend? Correct answer: The

elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator, remember? This tests if you arecapable of comprehensive thinking.

*There is a river notoriously known for it's large crocodile population. With

ease, how do you safely cross it? Correct answer: Simply swim across. All of

the crocodiles are attending the Lion King's animal conference. This

questions your reasoning ability.


20/23

Open-ended questions

Describe a time when you were really stuck on a problem and how you

solved it.

Describe the function and utility of the most difficult SAS macro that you

have written.

Give me an example of ..Tell me how you dealt with ...

How do handle working under pressure?

Of all your work, where have you been the most successful?

What are the best/worst aspects of your current job?

If you could design your ideal job, what would it look like?

How necessary is it to be creative in your work?

If money were no object, what would you like to do?

What would you change about your job?if u want u read

particular

variables in thedata step by

using input

statement

0 Vijai

Bhaskar

Answer if u read priticular variablesin data by using keep and

drop statements

0 Ram

Answer Using with Var statment we canread the required variable.

0 Harsha

QuestionWhat SAS statements would youcode to read an external rawdata file to a DATA step?

RankAnswer

Posted By

Question Submitted By :: SasGuru

I also faced this Question!! ALL Interview .com

Answer INFILE statement 0 Jothi Sankar
http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aid


21/23

and

INPUT statement

Answer INFILE AND INPUT STATEMENTS

EX;

DATA EMP;

INFILE 'E:\ABC\EMPLOYEE.TXT'

MISSOVER;

INPUT VAR1 VAR 2....VARN;

RUN;

0 Mohan Reddy

Answer using proc import,infile andinput

0 Sivanjaneyulu

Answer using infile and inputstatements must it is possible

to

clean and get the data into in

u r environment....

some body says using proc

import using proc import it is

not

possible to clean and get the

data in u r

environment..................it

will take as it is

0 God

Answer whenever the data in .txt .datformat we can directly us

infile and input statements.

but incase of .xls

it is not possible to read

excel data file directly

through

infile input.

we have to use:

0 G.jyotshna
http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/


22/23

wizard

DDE(dynamic data exchange)

proc import (its best one)

(in projects we go for proc

import only)

after reading into sas session

we will go for cleaning.

Answer input & infile

0 Venki

Question

There is a river notoriouslyknown for it?s large crocodile

population. With ease, how doyou safely cross it?

RankAnswer

Posted By

Question Submitted By :: Anup Nair

This Interview Question Asked @ Oracle


Answer Correct answer: Simply swimacross. All of the crocodiles

are attending the Lion King?s

animal conference. This

questions your reasoning

ability.

0 Anup Nair

Question

The Lion King is hosting ananimal conference. All theanimals in the world attendexcept one. Which animal doesnot attend?

RankAnswer

Posted By




Answer The elephant. The elephant isin the refrigerator,

remember? This tests if you are

capable of comprehensive

thinking.

0 Anup Nair
http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aid


23/23

QuestionHow do you put an elephant inthe refrigerator? Rank

Answer

Posted By

Question Submitted By :: Anup NairThis Interview Question Asked @ Oracle


Answer Incorrect answer: Open therefrigerator door, put in the

elephant, and close the door.

Correct answer: Open the

refrigerator door, take out the

giraffe, put in the elephant,

and close the door. This

question tests your foresight.

0 Anup Nair

QuestionHow do you put a giraffe intothe refrigerator? Rank

Answer

Posted By




AnswerOpen the refrigerator door, put

the giraffe in, and close

the door. This question tests

whether or not the candidate

is doing simple things in a

complicated way.

0 Anup Nair

Question Do you think professionally? RankAnswer

Posted By

Question Submitted By :: Anup NairThis Interview Question Asked @ Oracle


Answer as long as it is logical.
http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://history.back%28%29/http://history.back%28%29/http://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aidhttp://www.allinterview.com/showqa/SAS/page10.html#aid%23aid

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SAS Interview Questint