CAT and CARDS (?)

[RinaGreen]

Hi,

Still being new in SAS, I am just wondering what CAT means in SAS? When it is needed? When to use it? Is it used just with CARDS? I inherited somebody’s code and struggle with it!

For ex.

CAT='ALL'
CARDS;
lines of data


Thanks in advance,

Rina

 

[ChrisW75]

I would say that CAT is just a variable in this case and will be set for each record.

CAT is also the name of a new function in SAS v9 used to concatenate strings, so watch out for that, it may cause an issue if you upgrade to v9.

 

[klaz2002]

Perhaps not. If there are no parens () after the word cat, I believe SAS leaves it alone.
Klaz

 

[ChrisW75]

Yeah. SAS V9 has been spitting out a number of odd messages compared to V8 though. It's a little more fussy, as you say, should be OK, but it's something to be aware of.
BTW, the CAT function is AWESOME, specifically, CATX.