SAS A00-231 Exam Syllabus
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Before starting your A00-231 exam preparation, it is recommended to review the complete SAS 9.4 Base Programming - Performance-Based Exam syllabus and carefully go through the exam objectives listed below. Once you understand the exam structure and objectives, you should practice using our free A00-231 questions. We also provide premium A00-231 practice test, fully updated according to the latest exam objectives, to help you accurately assess your preparedness for the actual exam.
SAS A00-231 Exam Objectives
| Section | Weight | Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Access and Create Data Structures | 20 to 25% | Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets. • Use a DATA step to create a SAS data set from an existing SAS data set. Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures. • Use a LIBNAME statement to assign a library reference name to a SAS library. • Investigate a library programmatically using the CONTENTS procedure. Access data. • Access SAS data sets with the SET statement. • Use PROC IMPORT to access non-SAS data sources. o Read delimited and Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) files with PROC IMPORT. o Use PROC IMPORT statement options (OUT=, DBMS=, REPLACE) o Use the GUESSINGROWS statement. o Use the DELIMITER statement. • Use the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine to read a Microsoft Excel workbook.xlsx file. Combine SAS data sets. • Concatenate data sets. • Merge data sets one-to-one. • Merge data sets one-to-many. Create and manipulate SAS date values. • Explain how SAS stores date and time values. • Use SAS informats to read common date and time expressions. • Use SAS date and time formats to specify how the values are displayed. Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output. • Use the WHERE and IF statements in the DATA step to select observations to be processed. • Subset variables to be output by using the DROP and KEEP statements. • Use the DROP= and KEEP= data set options to specify columns to be processed and/or output. |
| Manage Data | 35 to 40% | Sort observations in a SAS data set. • Use the SORT Procedure to re-order observations in place or output to a new dataset with the OUT= option. • Remove duplicate observations with the SORT Procedure. Conditionally execute SAS statements. • Use IF-THEN/ELSE statements to process data conditionally. • Use DO and END statements to execute multiple statements conditionally. Use assignment statements in the DATA step. • Create new variables and assign a value. • Assign a new value to an existing variable. • Assign the value of an expression to a variable. • Assign a constant date value to a variable. Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step. • Change the names of variables by using the RENAME= data set option. • Use LABEL and FORMAT statements to modify attributes in a DATA step. • Define the length of a variable using the LENGTH statement. Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements. • Use the BY statement to aggregate by subgroups. • Use first. and last. processing to identify where groups begin and end. • Use the RETAIN and SUM statements. Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values. • Use SAS functions such as SCAN, SUBSTR, TRIM, COMPRESS, UPCASE, and LOWCASE to perform tasks such as the tasks shown below. o Replace the contents of a character value. o Remove unwanted characters from strings. o Search a character value and extract a portion of the value. o Convert a character value to upper or lowercase. • Use SAS numeric functions such as SUM, MEAN, RAND, SMALLEST, LARGEST, ROUND, and INT. • Create SAS date values by using the functions MDY, TODAY, DATE, and TIME. • Extract the month, year, and interval from a SAS date value by using the functions YEAR, QTR, MONTH, and DAY. • Perform calculations with date and datetime values and time intervals by using the functions INTCK, INTNX, and YRDIF. • Use variable lists to efficiently reference multiple variables (OF operator, :,-,--). Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa. • Explain the automatic conversion that SAS uses to convert values between data types. • Use the INPUT function to explicitly convert character data values to numeric values. • Use the PUT function to explicitly convert numeric data values to character values. Process data using DO LOOPS. • Explain how iterative DO loops function. • Use DO loops to eliminate redundant code and to perform repetitive calculations. • Use conditional DO loops. • Use nested DO loops. Restructure SAS data sets with PROC TRANSPOSE. • Select variables to transpose with the VAR statement. • Rename transposed variables with the ID statement. • Process data within groups using the BY statement. • Use PROC TRANSPOSE options (OUT=, PREFIX= and NAME=). Use macro variables to simplify program maintenance. • Create macro variables with the %LET statement. • Use macro variables within SAS programs. • Use the macro variable name dot delimiter (.) |
| Error Handling | 15-20% | Identify and resolve programming logic errors. • Use the PUTLOG Statement in the Data Step to help identify logic errors. • Use PUTLOG to write the value of a variable, formatted values, or to write values of all variables. • Use PUTLOG with Conditional logic. • Use temporary variables N and ERROR to debug a DATA step. Recognize and correct syntax errors. • Identify the characteristics of SAS statements. • Define SAS syntax rules including the typical types of syntax errors such as misspelled keywords, unmatched quotation marks, missing semicolons, and invalid options. • Use the log to help diagnose syntax errors in a given program. |
| Generate Reports and Output | 15 to 20% | Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure. • Modify the default behavior of PROC PRINT by adding statements and options such as o use the VAR statement to select and order variables. o calculate totals with a SUM statement. o select observations with a WHERE statement. o use the ID statement to identify observations. o use the BY statement to process groups. o use the NOOBS and LABEL options. Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures. • Produce one-way and two-way frequency tables with the FREQ procedure. • Enhance frequency tables with options (NLEVELS, ORDER=). • Use PROC FREQ to validate data in a SAS data set. • Calculate summary statistics and multilevel summaries using the MEANS procedure. o WAYS, CLASS, VAR, OUTPUT statements • Enhance summary tables with options. • Identify extreme and missing values with the UNIVARIATE procedure. Enhance reports using user-defined formats, titles, footnotes, and SAS System reporting options. • Use PROC FORMAT to define custom formats. o VALUE statement o CNTLIN= option • Use the LABEL statement to define descriptive column headings. • Control the use of column headings with the LABEL and SPLIT=options in PROC PRINT output. Generate reports using ODS statements. • Identify the Output Delivery System destinations. • Create HTML, PDF, RTF, XLSX, and PPTX files with ODS statements. • Use the STYLE=option to specify a style template. • Generate comma separated value (CSV) files with ODS statements. Export data • Create a simple raw data file by using the EXPORT procedure as an alternative to the DATA step. o Control the export file format with common DBMS identifiers: (csv, jmp, tab, dlm). • Export data to Microsoft Excel using the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine |
| Official Information | https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/foundation-tools/base-programming-specialist.html#exam-details |
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