Creating SAS datasets
You will make up your own names for your SAS datasets and variables. These names must conform to these rules: no longer than 8 characters, start with a letter, and contain only letters, numbers, or underscores (_). SAS is not case-sensitive. You can use capital or lowercase letters in your SAS variables. However, when you specify filenames (as you do with the include and file SAS commands), you must type it exactly as it exists in UNIX. The DATA step The data step is used to describe and modify your data. Within the data step you tell SAS how to read the data and generate or delete variables and observations. The data step transforms your raw data into a SAS dataset. There are four statements that are commonly used in the DATA Step DATA statement names the dataset INPUT statement lists names of the variables CARDS statement indicates that data lines immediately follow. INFILE statement indicates that data is in a file and the name of the file. Generally, the data s