Final answer:
The correct answer regarding the BY statement in SAS's PROC PRINT is that it groups the report by the specified columns. It is not responsible for sorting and can include more than one column.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer to the question about the BY statement in a reporting procedure such as PROC PRINT is "c. The BY statement groups the report by the specified columns." In SAS, the BY statement is used to group observations in your data set according to the values of one or more variables. It does not sort the data; the data must be sorted by the BY variables before using the BY statement, or you can use the PROC SORT procedure to sort the data.
Misconceptions may arise regarding the BY statement. It is important to know that the BY statement does not need to be the first statement after the PROC statement, and you can specify more than one column in the BY statement. However, the report must be sorted by those columns in the BY statement for the grouping to be correctly processed in the report.