SAS Certification Prep Guide, 5th Edition

Testing Your Programs

Limiting Observations

Remember that you can use the OBS= option in the SET statement to limit the number of observations that are read or created during the execution of the DATA step.

data work.limitobs;
  set cert.invent (obs=10);
  total=instock+backord;
run;

When processed, this DATA step creates the Work.LimitObs data set with variables but with only 10 observations.

Example: Viewing Execution in the SAS Log

You can view the execution process in the SAS log. Use the PUTLOG statement to print the PDV in the SAS log. This enables you to view the execution process as the control goes from one record to the next. You can also place the PUTLOG statement before the FORMAT statement to see how the variables are being ...