Question

The data sets and both contain a variable named Blue, and Blue is not the BY variable. Which program prevents the values of the variable Blue from being overwritten when you merge the two data sets?

a.
data ;
merge (keep=blue)
;
by fabric;
run;
b.
data ;
merge (blue=navy)
;
by fabric;
run;
c.
data ;
merge (rename=(blue=navy))
;
by fabric;
run;

Answer 1

The correct SAS code option to prevent the variable 'Blue' from being overwritten during merging of two data sets is option C, which uses the rename= option within the merge statement to change the name of the variable.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking about how to prevent overwriting the values of a variable named Blue when merging two data sets in a statistical programming environment, likely SAS. The correct SAS code that prevents the values of the variable Blue from being overwritten during the merge, while renaming it, is:

c. data ; merge (rename=(blue=navy)) ; by fabric;run;

This code uses the rename= option in the merge statement to change the name of the variable Blue to Navy in the output data set. This will prevent any conflict with variables of the same name in the merging datasets as 'Blue' from both data sets would retain their original values under new names.