Question

Which program correctly references the automatic macro variable SYSDATE?

a.
title "June Totals as of &sysdate";
data ;
set ;
if month=6 and year=2008;
run;
b.
title "June Totals as of sysdate";
data ;
set ;
if month=6 and year=2008;
run;

Answer 1

The correct way to reference the automatic macro variable SYSDATE in a SAS program is to use an ampersand before the variable name, as in option a: title "June Totals as of &sysdate".

Step-by-step explanation:

The automatic macro variable SYSDATE is used in SAS to represent the current date, and it needs to be referenced correctly within a SAS program to produce the desired output. The correct option that references the SYSDATE variable is:

a. title "June Totals as of &sysdate";
data ;
set ;
if month=6 and year=2008;
run;

Here, the ampersand (&) is used to signify that "sysdate" is a macro variable. Without the ampersand, as seen in option b, "sysdate" would be treated as a text string rather than a variable.