Question

Given the SAS data set AGES: AGES AGE

The variable AGE contains character values. The following SAS program is submitted: data subset; set ages; where age > 12; run; How many observations are written out to the data set SUBSET?
a) 0
b) 1
c) 12
d) It depends on the content of the AGES dataset.

Answer 1

The number of observations written out to the data set SUBSET after executing the given SAS program depends on the character content of the AGE variable in the AGES dataset, as the comparison is done lexicographically.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the outcomes of submitting a SAS program with a WHERE statement that filters based on a character variable, specifically an AGES dataset that contains a variable AGE in character format. The program attempts to filter the dataset based on the ages greater than 12. The correct answer is that it depends on the content of the AGES dataset. This is because the WHERE statement is comparing character values to a numeric literal, which will result in a comparison based on the ASCII values of the characters rather than numeric comparison. Thus, the outcome will depend on what character values are stored in the AGE variable and how they compare lexicographically to the string '12'.