SAS Base Certification

Introduction

2009-01-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

Certification candidates are required to provide two forms of identification at the testing center, including one photo identification such as a driver's license or a valid passport. Both forms must display the candidate's signature. Candidates should plan to arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled exam time. Candidates arriving more than 15 minutes late are not guaranteed exam availability or a refund. To maintain the security of the test environment, candidates are not permitted to bring reference materials of any kind into the testing center. Prometric exam centers don’t allow bringing cell phone, bags or other personal belongings inside the exam center, you will have to leave them outside in your car or keep them in a locker if it is available at your exam center. It might be a good idea to carry a sweater or a jacket, in case you start feeling cold. There are no breaks so candidates are required to complete exam in one stretch, so might want to use bathroom before you start your exam. For more information on how to register check out SAS Global Certification program on SAS website.

First thing after you read your question is to ask yourself, which topic the author is trying to test. Once you figure that out, read all the choices carefully before choosing an answer. If you are uncertain on some answers, you can mark them and move onto the next question. At the end of the exam you can come back to them and change your answer. The tips and tricks illustrated in this paper will improve chances of getting the answer right even if you don’t know the correct answer. I highly recommend buying sample questions from SAS website, so that you get familiar with type of questions asked and software interface used by the test engine.

All questions asked are multiple choice questions, in which there is one and only one correct answer. At your exam center you will be provided with a scratch paper, work out the question on this paper instead of just doing it in your head. You may also see some direct questions on a SAS function, procedure or system option. Exam authors want to see if you are keeping up with the new additions to the SAS software, so they might throw some new SAS function or options introduced in the latest version.

Table 1:

	SAS Base Programming Exam	SAS Advance Programming Exam
Number of Questions	70 multiple-choice questions	65 multiple-choice questions
# Correct answers to pass	Must answer 46 correctly to pass	Must answer 42 correctly to pass
Time	2 hours to complete exam	2 hours to complete exam
≈ Time/Question	1.71 min/question	1.84 min/question
Topics covered (For complete list visit SAS website)	Accessing Data, Creating Data Structures, Managing Data, Generating Reports and Handling Errors.	Accessing Data Using SQL, Macro Processing and Advanced Programming Techniques.
Sample Test	Available on SAS website.	Available on SAS website.

TOPICS FOR SAS BASE PROGRAMMING EXAM

2008-12-28T13:29:00.003-05:00

TRAINING AND PREPARATION:

SAS offers specifically designed packages of instructor lead courses that are tailored to the requirements of individual certification tracks. But if these excellent training resources are beyond your budget, there are still other options. One can practically prepare for the certification exam just by reading paper published in different SAS conference. Majority of the papers given below will cover the topics tested by certification exam and might give more information than required. It’s always good to be over prepared than under prepared.

Accessing Data
Use FORMATTED, LIST and COLUMN input to read raw data files	The Power of SAS! Input Statements: Imelda C. Go
Use INFILE statement options to control processing when reading raw data files	The SAS INFILE and FILE Statements: Steven First
Use various components of an INPUT statement to process raw data files including column and line pointer controls, and trailing @ controls	The Input Statement: Where It's @ : Ronald Cody
Combine SAS data sets using the DATA step	Get it together: Combining data with SAS^®MERGE, UPDATE, and SET : Mel Widawski
Creating Data Structures
Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets	A Hands-On Introduction to SAS® DATA Step Programming :Debbie Buck
Create and manipulate SAS date values	Looking for a Date? A Tutorial on Using SAS® Dates and Times: Arthur L. Carpenter
Use DATA Step statements to export data to standard and comma delimited raw data files	The Little SAS Book – Chapter 9 Exporting Your Data.
Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output	Programming with the KEEP, RENAME, and DROP Data Set Options: Stephen Philp WHERE vs. IF Statements: Knowing the Difference in How and When to Apply: Sunil Gupta
Managing Data
Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures	PROC CONTENTS and DATASETS from SAS Documentation.
Sort observations in a SAS data set	The SORT Procedure: Beyond the Basics: Britta Kelsey Bassett
Conditionally execute SAS statements	UTILIZING CONDITIONAL LOGIC TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY: Karla E. Atwell
Use assignment statements in the DATA step	How SAS Thinks : Neil Howard
Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step	SAS®'s Various Varying Variables, or 1000+ Ways to Manipulate SAS Variables: Paul A. Choate
Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements	The Power of the BY Statement: Paul Choate
Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values	An Introduction to SAS Function-ality: Deb Cassidy
Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa	INPUT and PUT function from SAS Documentations.
Process data using DO LOOPS	Do Which? Loop, Until or While? A Review Of Data Step And Macro Algorithms: Ronald J. Fehd
Process data using SAS arrays	Arrays Made Easy: An Introduction to Arrays and Array Processing: Steve First and Teresa Schudrowitz,
Generating Reports
Generate list reports using the PRINT and REPORT procedures	A Gentle Introduction to the Powerful REPORT Procedure: Ben Cochran
Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures	Proc FREQ –What's it really good for? Theresa Gordon and Monique Eleby
Enhance reports through the use of labels, SAS formats, user-defined formats, titles, footnotes and SAS System reporting options	SAS Documentation on following topics: Label statement/ dataset option, label option in proc print, title and footnote statement and proc report options like headline, headskip etc.
Generate HTML reports using ODS statements	Creating HTML Output with Output Delivery System Kirk Paul Lafler
Handling Errors
Identify and resolve programming logic errors	Errors, Warnings, and Notes (Oh My) A Practical Guide to Debugging SAS Programs Susan J. Slaughter and Lora D. Delwiche
Recognize and correct syntax errors
Examine and resolve data errors

MEMORIZE USING ACRONYMS/FIGURES

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If you don’t use PROC SQL that often then you might tend to forget some of the commands, try to create figure or some acronym you can remember to associate with this kind of information.

FIGURE 1: Statements used in PROC SQL to create/delete table or to manipulate table rows/columns.

CREATE TABLE : To create a table DROP TABLE: To delete a table
		ALTER…DROP: To delete a column	ALTER …ADD: To add a column	ALTER … MODIFY: To update a column
	DELETE FROM: To delete a row
	INSERT INTO: To add a row
	UPDATE ... SET: To update a row

FIGURE 2: Sequence in which clauses appear in a SELECT statement of PROC SQL.

So	Few	Workers	Get	Home	On-time
SELECT	FROM	WHERE	GROUP BY	HAVING	ORDER BY

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

2008-12-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

SAS certification author will correct the error in one answer choice but then introduce another error. So when you select you answer make sure that none of the other answer choices can be the correct answer.

Q. The SAS DATA SET temp has 100 observation and v1, v2, v3 and v4 variables. Which SAS DATA STEP writes only the variables v1, v2 and v3 to both SAS data sets One and Two?

A. DATA one two;

SET temp;

KEEP v1 v2 v3

RUN;

B. DATA one (keep v1 v2 v3) two;

SET temp (keep = v1 v2 v3);

RUN;

C. DATA one two;

SET temp (keep v1 v2 v3);

RUN;

D. DATA one two;

SET temp (keep = v1 v2 v3);

RUN;

This looks like an easy question but if you don’t pay attention, you might choose A as your answer without realizing that a semicolon is missing in the KEEP statement. You might choose B or C as your answer without realizing an equal to sign is missing in KEEP dataset option. The last choice D is the correct answer, as it does not have any syntax error and does what the questions is asking. So before you pick any answer, rule out all other options before making it your final choice.

PROCESS OF ELIMINATION (POE)

2008-12-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

Following illustration will show how POE will improve your changes of guessing the right answer.

Q. The following SAS program is submitted.

DATA one;

ARRAY g[4,3] (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12);

RUN;

What is the value of element g (3, 2)?

A. 8

B. 10

C. 1

D. 12

Now, just by looking at the data we know that element g (3, 2) should be somewhere in the middle of the array definition. Lets now look at the answer choices, A can be the answer as it is somewhere in the middle and so can choice B. But when you look at choice C and D, and you know g (3, 2) cannot be extreme left or right values, so now you can remove these obviously two wrong choices. Now you are left with choice A and B, now you can make an educated guess and choose either A or B as your answer.

Sometime adding new line or spaces in your question can make finding answer easy. In our above example suppose the array was declared as

ARRAY g [4, 3] (1, 2, 3,

4, 5, 6,

7, 8, 9,

10, 11, 12);

It is intuitive to understand here that there are 4 rows and 3 columns and question is asking for element in 3^rd row and 2^nd column which is 8.

TIPS FOR ACING THE EXAM

2008-12-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here is list of all important tips to remember before appearing for the certification exam.

1> If you encounter a question for which don’t have any idea about its answer, don’t be afraid to apply Process-Of-Elimination (POE) and remove one or more obviously wrong choices. After that you have higher chances of getting your answer right.

2> Like in any certification exam, attention to details is very important, read your question properly and all answer choices before deciding your answer. Look for some obvious mistakes like missing semicolon, or missing alias name in FROM clause. You can flag questions for which you are not certain and come back to them after you have answered all the questions. Read all the answer choices and see what is different in each answer choice. By doing this you will be able to rule out some of the choices and also understand what knowledge author is try to test.

3> Create a table or diagram or acronym to remember some key concepts and syntax.

Base SAS 1

2006-12-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
set sasuser.employees;
if 2 le years_service le 10 then
amount = 1000;
else if years_service gt 10 then
amount = 2000;
else
amount = 0;
amount_per_year = years_service / amount;
run;
Which one of the following values does the variable AMOUNT_PER_YEAR contain if an employee has been with the company for
one year?
A. 0
B. 1000
C. 2000
D. . (missing numeric value)
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 2

2006-12-20T16:50:00.000-05:00

Base SAS 3

2006-12-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file AMOUNT are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
$1,234
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'amount';
input @1 salary 6.;
if _error_ then description = 'Problems';
else description = 'No Problems';
run;
Which one of the following is the value of the DESCRIPTION variable?
A. Problems
B. No Problems
C. ' ' (missing character value)
D. The value can not be determined as the program fails to execute due to errors.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 4

2006-12-20T16:47:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file NAMENUM are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
Joe xx
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'namenum';
input name $ number;
run;
Which one of the following is the value of the NUMBER variable?
A. xx
B. Joe
C. . (missing numeric value)
D. The value can not be determined as the program fails to execute due to errors.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 5

2006-12-20T16:46:00.001-05:00

The contents of the raw data file AMOUNT are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
$1,234
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'amount';
input @1 salary 6.;
run;
Which one of the following is the value of the SALARY variable?
A. 1234
B. 1,234
C. $1,234
D. . (missing numeric value)Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 6

2006-12-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Which one of the following statements is true regarding the SAS automatic _ERROR_ variable?
A. The _ERROR_ variable contains the values 'ON' or 'OFF'.
B. The _ERROR_ variable contains the values 'TRUE' or 'FALSE'.
C. The _ERROR_ variable is automatically stored in the resulting SAS data set.
D. The _ERROR_ variable can be used in expressions or calculations in the DATA step.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 7

2006-12-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

Which one of the following is true when SAS encounters a data error in a DATA step?
A. The DATA step stops executing at the point of the error, and no SAS data set is created.
B. A note is written to the SAS log explaining the error, and the DATA step continues to execute.
C. A note appears in the SAS log that the incorrect data record was saved to a separate SAS file for further examination.
D. The DATA step stops executing at the point of the error, and the resulting DATA set contains observations up to that point.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 8

2006-12-20T16:43:00.000-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
data work.totalsales (keep = monthsales{12} );
set work.monthlysales (keep = year product sales);
array monthsales {12} ;
do i=1 to 12;
monthsales{i} = sales;
end;
run;
The data set named WORK.MONTHLYSALES has one observation per month for each of five years for a total of 60 observations.
Which one of the following is the result of the above program?
A. The program fails execution due to data errors.
B. The program fails execution due to syntax errors.
C. The program executes with warnings and creates the WORK.TOTALSALES data set.
D. The program executes without errors or warnings and creates the WORK.TOTALSALES data set.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 9

2006-12-20T16:42:00.001-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
data work.totalsales;
set work.monthlysales(keep = year product sales);
retain monthsales {12} ;
array monthsales {12} ;
do i = 1 to 12;
monthsales{i} = sales;
end;
cnt + 1;
monthsales{cnt} = sales;
run;
The data set named WORK.MONTHLYSALES has one observation per month for each of five years for a total of 60 observations.
Which one of the following is the result of the above program?
A. The program fails execution due to data errors.
B. The program fails execution due to syntax errors.
C. The program runs with warnings and creates the WORK.TOTALSALES data set with 60 observations.
D. The program runs without errors or warnings and creates the WORK.TOTALSALES data set with 60 observations.Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 10

2006-12-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
data work.january;
set work.allmonths (keep = product month num_sold cost);
if month = 'Jan' then output work.january;
sales = cost * num_sold;
keep = product sales;
run;
Which variables does the WORK.JANUARY data set contain?
A. PRODUCT and SALES only
B. PRODUCT, MONTH, NUM_SOLD and COST only
C. PRODUCT, SALES, MONTH, NUM_SOLD and COST only
D. An incomplete output data set is created due to syntax errors.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 11

2006-12-20T16:41:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file CALENDAR are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
01012000
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'calendar';
input @1 date mmddyy10.;
if date = '01012000'd then event = 'January 1st';
run;
Which one of the following is the value of the EVENT variable?
A. 01012000
B. January 1st
C. . (missing numeric value)
D. The value can not be determined as the program fails to execute due to errors.Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 12

2006-12-20T16:39:00.000-05:00

A SAS program is submitted and the following SAS log is produced:
2 data gt100;
3 set ia.airplanes
4 if mpg gt 100 then output;
22 202
ERROR: File WORK.IF.DATA does not exist.
ERROR: File WORK.MPG.DATA does not exist.
ERROR: File WORK.GT.DATA does not exist.
ERROR: File WORK.THEN.DATA does not exist.
ERROR: File WORK.OUTPUT.DATA does not exist.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name,
a quoted string, (, ;, END, KEY, KEYS, NOBS, OPEN, POINT, _DATA_, _LAST_, _NULL_.
ERROR 202-322: The option or parameter is not recognized and will be ignored.
5 run;
The IA libref was previously assigned in this SAS session.
Which one of the following corrects the errors in the LOG?
A. Delete the word THEN on the IF statement.
B. Add a semicolon at the end of the SET statement.
C. Place quotes around the value on the IF statement.
D. Add an END statement to conclude the IF statement.
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 13

2006-12-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file SIZE are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
72 95
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'size';
input @1 height 2. @4 weight 2;
run;
Which one of the following is the value of the variable WEIGHT in the output data set?
A. 2
B. 72
C. 95
D. . (missing numeric value)
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 14

2006-12-20T16:37:00.000-05:00

A SAS PRINT procedure output of the WORK.LEVELS data set is listed below:
Obs name level
1 Frank 1
2 Joan 2
3 Sui 2
4 Jose 3
5 Burt 4
6 Kelly .
7 Juan 1
The following SAS program is submitted:
data work.expertise;
set work.levels;
if level = . then
expertise = 'Unknown';
else if level = 1 then
expertise = 'Low';
else if level = 2 or 3 then
expertise = 'Medium';
else
expertise = 'High';
run;
Which of the following values does the variable EXPERTISE contain?
A. Low, Medium, and High only
B. Low, Medium, and Unknown only
C. Low, Medium, High, and Unknown only
D. Low, Medium, High, Unknown, and ' ' (missing character value)Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 15

2006-12-20T16:33:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file EMPLOYEE are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
Ruth 39 11
Jose 32 22
Sue 30 33
John 40 44
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'employee';
input employee_name $ 1-4;
if employee_name = 'Ruth' then input idnum 10-11;
else input age 7-8;
run;
Which one of the following values does the variable IDNUM contain when the name of the employee is "Ruth"?
A. 11
B. 22
C. 32
D. . (missing numeric value)
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 16

2006-12-20T16:32:00.000-05:00

The contents of the raw data file EMPLOYEE are listed below:
--------10-------20-------30
Ruth 39 11
Jose 32 22
Sue 30 33
John 40 44
The following SAS program is submitted:
data test;
infile 'employee';
input employee_name $ 1-4;
if employee_name = 'Sue' then input age 7-8;
else input idnum 10-11;
run;
Which one of the following values does the variable AGE contain when the name of the employee is "Sue"?
A. 30
B. 33
C. 40
D. . (missing numeric value)
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 17

2006-12-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
libname sasdata 'SAS-data-library';
data test;
set sasdata.chemists;
if jobcode = 'Chem2'
then description = 'Senior Chemist';
else description = 'Unknown';
run;
A value for the variable JOBCODE is listed below:
JOBCODE
chem2
Which one of the following values does the variable DESCRIPTION contain?
A. Chem2
B. Unknown
C. Senior Chemist
D. ' ' (missing character value)
Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 18

2006-12-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

The following SAS program is submitted:
libname sasdata 'SAS-data-library';
data test;
set sasdata.chemists;
if jobcode = 'chem3'
then description = 'Senior Chemist';
else description = 'Unknown';
run;
A value for the variable JOBCODE is listed below:
JOBCODE
CHEM3
Which one of the following values does the variable DESCRIPTION contain?
A. chem3
B. Unknown
C. Senior Chemist
D. ' ' (missing character value)Click Comment link to get answer

Base SAS 19

2006-12-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

Which one of the following ODS statement options terminates output being written to an HTML file?
A. END
B. QUIT
C. STOP
D. CLOSE
Click Comment link to get answer