SAS basic syntax

Like any other programming language, the SAS language has its own syntax rules to create SAS programs. T he three components of any SAS scenario - declarations, variables, and datasets - follow the following syntax rules.

SAS statement

• Statements can start and end anywhere. T he sign at the end of the last line marks the end of the statement.
• Many SAS statements can end each statement with a half sign on the same line.
• Space can be used to separate components in SAS program statements.
• SaS keywords are case insenso sensitive.
• Each SAS program must end with a run statement.

The name of the SAS variable

The variables in the SAS represent a column in the SAS dataset. T he variable name follows the following rules.

• It can have up to 32 characters.
• It cannot contain spaces.
• It must start with the letters A to Z (case insensication) or underscores.
• Numbers can be included, but not as the first character.
• The variable name is case insenso sensitive.

Cases

# Valid Variable Names
REVENUE_YEAR
MaxVal
_Length

# Invalid variable Names
Miles Per Liter	#contains Space.
RainfFall%      # contains special character other than underscore.
90_high		# Starts with a number.

SAS dataset

The DATA statement tag creates a new SAS dataset. The rules for creating a DATA set are as follows.

• A word after the DATA statement represents the name of a temporary dataset. T his means that the dataset is deleted at the end of the session.
• The dataset name can be prefixed with the library name, which makes it a permanent dataset. T his means that the dataset still exists after the session ends.
• If the SAS dataset name is omitted, SAS creates a temporary dataset that contains names generated by SAS, such as - DATA1, DATA2, and so on.

Cases

# Temporary data sets.
DATA TempData;
DATA abc;
DATA newdat;

# Permanent data sets.
DATA LIBRARY1.DATA1
DATA MYLIB.newdat;

SAS file extension

The results of SAS programs, data files, and programs are saved in Windows with various extensions.

• .sas - It represents an SAS code file that can be edited using the SAS editor or any text editor.
• :: .log - It represents the SAS log file, which contains errors, warnings and data set details for the submitted SAS program.
• :: .mht / .html - it represents the SAS results file.
• .sas7bdat - It represents an SAS data file that contains the SAS dataset, including variable names, labels, and calculations.

Comments in SAS

Comments in SAS code are specified in two ways. T he following are the two formats.

Information; The type of comment

Comments in the form of messages; Y ou cannot include a sign or mismatched quotation marks in it. A dditionally, there should be no reference to any macro statements in such comments. I t can span multiple lines and can be of any length: H ere's an example of a one-line comment:

* This is comment ;

Here's an example of a multi-line comment:

* This is first line of the comment
* This is second line of the comment;

/ s message s / type comments

Comments in the form of / messages are used more frequently and cannot be nested. B ut it can span multiple lines and can be any length. H ere's an example of a one-line review:

/* This is comment */

Here's an example of a multi-line comment:

/* This is first line of the comment
* This is second line of the comment */