Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Programming Certification Practice Exam

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What is necessary for the correct functioning of BY-group processing?

Data must be indexed or sorted.
Data must be sorted only.
Data must be correctly formatted.
Data can be unordered.

The correct answer is: Data must be indexed or sorted.

For BY-group processing to function correctly in SAS, it is essential for the data to be indexed or sorted. This requirement stems from the way SAS handles BY-group statements. When using these statements, SAS divides the dataset into groups based on the values of one or more variables specified in the BY statement. To achieve this separation effectively, the data must be arranged in order according to those variables. Indexing can also facilitate the efficient retrieval of the relevant records, making BY-group processing both quicker and more efficient. Without this ordering, SAS might not accurately group the observations together, potentially leading to incorrect analysis or output. This structured approach ensures that all observations corresponding to a specific group are processed in one go, allowing for accurate calculations and statistics within each group. Incorrectly formatted data or unordered datasets would not meet the structural requirements for efficient BY-group processing. Additionally, while correct formatting is important for data manipulation and analysis, it does not specifically address the needs of BY-group processing. Hence, sorting or indexing is a critical factor for achieving the intended results when applying BY-group processing in SAS.