Question

Using Ranges (tiers) in PROC FORMAT: use tiers with the first lower than 5 and second 5-10, and third over 10 with no gaps in range. What tier will a missing value return?

Answer 1

In PROC FORMAT in SAS, a missing value does not match any numeric range such as those described with tiers below 5, 5-10, and above 10, and will return as a missing value unless a specific format for missing values is set.

Step-by-step explanation:

When using PROC FORMAT in SAS to create ranges (tiers), typically values must fall within the specified ranges to return a formatted value. The ranges you've described are: first tier for values lower than 5, second tier for values between 5 and 10, and third tier for values over 10, with no gaps between these ranges. In the case of a missing value, which is represented by a period (.) in SAS, it does not fall into any of the defined numeric ranges. Therefore, unless a specific format has been defined for missing values, a missing value will not match any of the provided tiers and will simply return as a missing value in the output.