SAS Certified Professional Prep Guide

Using the EXCEPT Set Operator

A Brief Overview

The set operator EXCEPT does both of the following:

• selects unique rows from the first table (the table specified in the first query) that are not found in the second table
• overlays columns

Figure 4.1 EXCEPT Set Operator Relationship

Example: Using the EXCEPT Operator Alone

Suppose you want to display the unique rows in table Col1 that are not found in table Col2. The PROC SQL set operation that includes the EXCEPT operator, the tables Col1 and Col2, and the output of the set operation are shown below.

proc sql;
   select *
      from certadv.col1 except select * from certadv.col2; ...