Question

When the NOFMTERR system option is in effect, what happens when SAS encounters a format it can't locate?

a. SAS creates the format in the default work.formats directory and continues processing.
b. SAS substitutes the $w. or w. format and continues processing.
c. SAS stops processing and writes an error message to the log.
d. SAS skips processing at that step and continues with the next step, and writes a note to the log.

Answer 1

When the NOFMTERR option is active, SAS uses the default $w. or w. format for character or numeric variables respectively and continues with program execution.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the NOFMTERR system option is in effect and SAS encounters a format it can't locate, the correct answer is: b. SAS substitutes the $w. or w. format and continues processing. The NOFMTERR option instructs SAS to handle missing formats without stopping the program execution.

Instead of generating an error that halts processing, SAS uses a default format based on the data type (character or numeric) to represent the data. For character variables, the default format is $w., and for numeric variables, it is w., with w representing the width of the variable.