SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming for SAS 9, Third Edition

General Form of SAS Functions

Arguments, Variable Lists, Arrays

To use a SAS function, specify the function name followed by the function arguments, which are enclosed in parentheses.

General form, SAS function:

function-name(argument-1<,argument-n>);

where arguments can be

• variables, mean(x,y,z)
• constants, mean(456,502,612,498)
• expressions, mean(37*2,192/5,mean(22,34,56))

Note:Even if the function does not require arguments, the function name must still be followed by parentheses (for example, function-name()).

When a function contains more than one argument, the arguments are usually separated by commas.

function-name(argument-1,argument-2,argument-n)

However, for some functions, variable lists and arrays can also ...