Learning SAS by Example

Chapter 26: Introducing the Structured Query Language

26.1  Introduction

26.2  Some Basics

26.3  Joining Two Tables (Merge)

26.4  Left, Right, and Full Joins

26.5  Concatenating Data Sets

26.6  Using Summary Functions

26.7  Demonstrating the ORDER Clause

26.8  An Example of Fuzzy Matching

26.9  Problems

 

26.1  Introduction

PROC SQL (structured query language—usually pronounced sequel) offers an alternative to the DATA step for querying and combining SAS data sets. There are some tasks that PROC SQL can perform much better and easier than the DATA step. Other tasks may be easier or more efficient using a DATA step. You may also be more familiar with SQL versus the DATA step or vice versa. The best advice is to learn both and use the tool that ...