Manipulating Data: Elements of the DATA Step Language

In the SAS DATA step, you can manipulate data by instructing SAS what to do. However, SAS understands only instructions given in its own tongue. The DATA step language (SAS DSL) is simple and powerful, its syntax is crisp and highly readable, and it is easy to learn. In this presentation, we will try to introduce the basics of speaking SAS. Just like in any language, a valid SAS phrase contains meaningful expressions that follow an intelligible sequence. These two principal parts will be considered one at a time: 1. Expressions basic blocks from which statements are built: Constants VariablesArraysAssignment and SumOperatorsFunctions. 2. Control Flow the order of execution of instructions: Conditional execution-Branching-Repetition. The presentation should provide an idea about the overall structure and main building blocks of the language used in the SAS DATA step. Some aspects (functions, specific statements) will be touched just briefly as part of the big picture and covered in detail in other Intro to SAS presentations.