SAS base programming referencing a SAS data set

Question

Which of the following programs correctly references a SAS data set named SalesAnalysis that is stored in a permanent SAS library?

A) 
data saleslibrary.salesanalysis;
set mydata.quarter1sales;
if sales>100000;
run;

B)
data mysales.totals;
set sales_99.salesanalysis;
if totalsales>50000;
run;

C)
proc print data=salesanalysis.quarter1;
var sales salesrep month;
run;

D)
proc freq data=1999data.salesanalysis; 
tables quarter*sales;
run;

My answer is (a. data saleslibrary.salesanalysis) but the solutions says Correct answer: (b. set mydata.quarter1sales),the explaination goes : "Librefs must be 1 to 8 characters long, must begin with a letter or underscore, and can contain only letters, numbers, or underscores. After you assign a libref, you specify it as the first element in the two-level name for a SAS file."

However the question asks for SalesAnalysis, so is the solution wrong? I am wondering if "saleslibrary.salesanalysis" is the original library + file name and "mydata.quarter1sales" is the library name +file name for output data?

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Reeza Reeza · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-22T18:29:54

The correct answer is B.

A -> the libname reference is too long, it can only be 8 characters.
B -> Does refer to the data set in question.
C -> Again, not referring to salesAnalysis as a data set but a library
D -> Library name is incorrect, it cannot start with a number.

The format to reference a SAS data set is

 LIBNAME.dataSetName;

Where libname follows the rules in the question and data set name rules are also correctly applied.

SAS base programming referencing a SAS data set

2 Answers