SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231)

Base SAS is a (4GL) fourth-generation programming language for data access, analysis, data transformation, and reporting. It is incorporated with the SAS Platform. Base SAS is intended for foundational data manipulation, descriptive statistics, information storage, and retrieval, and report writing. The SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) certification is a program by SAS, which proves the skills and abilities of a candidate.

Benefits of SAS Credentials

• Earn recognition for your knowledge.
• Increase your value to your employer.
• Enhance your credibility as a SAS professional.
• Get a digital badge you can share.

Skills of a Base Programming Specialist

• Read and produce data files.
• Create fundamental detail and summary statements using Base SAS procedures.
• Manipulate and reconstruct data.
• Recognize and correct syntax and programming logic errors.

Exam Details 

The SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) exam is administered by SAS and Pearson VUE. The exam consists of 40-45 questions which are in the form of multiple-choice or short-answer questions. The candidate needs to obtain 725; uses a score range from 200 to 1,000 points. Also, the candidate will be given 135 minutes to complete the exam. The examination fee is USD 180 in India and most other countries. This exam is based on SAS 9.4 M5.

Scheduling the Exam

The candidate needs to register for the exam at Pearson VUE. The exam ID i.e A00-231 will be required while registering. The exam fee is $180 USD in India and most other countries.

Course Outline

SAS has divided the syllabus into various sections. The SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) exam includes its objectives and sub-topics. The detailed course outline is mentioned below:

Access and Create Data Structures: 20-25%

Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets.

• Use a DATA step to create a SAS data set from an existing SAS data set.

Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures.

• Use a LIBNAME statement to assign a library reference name to a SAS library.
• Investigate a library programmatically using the CONTENTS procedure.

Access data.

• Access SAS data sets with the SET statement.
• Use PROC IMPORT to access non-SAS data sources.
• Use the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine to read a Microsoft Excel workbook.xlsx file.

Combine SAS data sets.

• Concatenate data sets.
• Merge data sets one-to-one.
• Merge data sets one-to-many.

Create and manipulate SAS date values.

• Explain how SAS stores date and time values.
• Use SAS informants to read common date and time expressions.
• Use SAS date and time formats to specify how the values are displayed.

Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output.

• Use the WHERE statement in the DATA step to select observations to be processed.
• Subset variables to be output by using the DROP and KEEP statements.
• Use the DROP= and KEEP= data set options to specify columns to be processed and/or output.

Manage Data: 35-40%

Sort observations in a SAS data set.

• Use the SORT Procedure to re-order observations in place or output to a new dataset with the OUT= option.
• Remove duplicate observations with the SORT Procedure.

Conditionally execute SAS statements.

• Use IF-THEN/ELSE statements to process data conditionally.
• Use DO and END statements to execute multiple statements conditionally.

Use assignment statements in the DATA step.

• Create new variables and assign a value.
• Assign a new value to an existing variable.
• Assign the value of an expression to a variable.
• Assign a constant date value to a variable.

Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step.

• Change the names of variables by using the RENAME= data set option.
• Use LABEL and FORMAT statements to modify attributes in a DATA step.
• Define the length of a variable using the LENGTH statement.

Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements.

• Use the BY statement to aggregate by subgroups.
• Use first. and last. processing to identify where groups begin and end.
• Use the RETAIN and SUM statements.

Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values.

• Use SAS functions such as SCAN, SUBSTR, TRIM, UPCASE, and LOWERCASE to perform
• Use SAS numeric functions such as SUM, MEAN, RAND, SMALLEST, LARGEST, ROUND, and INT.
• Create SAS date values by using the functions MDY, TODAY, DATE, and TIME.
• Extract the month, year, and interval from a SAS date value by using the functions YEAR, QTR, MONTH, and DAY.
• Perform calculations with date and datetime values and time intervals by using the functions INTCK, INTNX, DATDIF and YRDIF.

Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa.

• Explain the automatic conversion that SAS uses to convert values between data types.
• Use the INPUT function to explicitly convert character data values to numeric values.
• Use the PUT function to explicitly convert numeric data values to character values.

Process data using DO LOOPS.

• Explain how iterative DO loops function.
• Use DO loops to eliminate redundant code and to perform repetitive calculations.
• Use conditional DO loops.
• Use nested DO loops.

Restructure SAS data sets with PROC TRANSPOSE.

• Select variables to transpose with the VAR statement.
• Rename transposed variables with the ID statement.
• Process data within groups using the BY statement.
• Use PROC TRANSPOSE options (OUT=, PREFIX= and NAME=).

Use macro variables to simplify program maintenance.

• Create macro variables with the %LET statement
• Use macro variables within SAS programs.

Error Handling: 15-20%

Identify and resolve programming logic errors.

• Use the PUTLOG Statement in the Data Step to help identify logic errors.
• Use PUTLOG to write the value of variable, formatted values, or to write values of all variables.
• Use PUTLOG with Conditional logic.
• Use temporary variables N and ERROR to debug a DATA step.

Recognize and correct syntax errors.

• Identify the characteristics of SAS statements.
• Define SAS syntax rules including the typical types of syntax errors such as misspelled keywords, unmatched quotation marks, missing semicolons, and invalid options.
• Use the log to help diagnose syntax errors in a given program.

Generate Reports and Output: 15-20%

Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure.

• Modify the default behavior of PROC PRINT by adding statements and options.

Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures.

• Produce one-way and two-way frequency tables with the FREQ procedure.
• Enhance frequency tables with options (NLEVELS, ORDER=).
• Use PROC FREQ to validate data in a SAS data set.
• Calculate summary statistics and multilevel summaries using the MEANS procedure
• Enhance summary tables with options.
• Identify extreme and missing values with the UNIVARIATE procedure.

Enhance reports system user-defined formats, titles, footnotes, and SAS System reporting options.

• Use PROC FORMAT to define custom formats.
• Use the LABEL statement to define descriptive column headings.
• Control the use of column headings with the LABEL and SPLIT=options in PROC PRINT output.

Generate reports using ODS statements.

• Identify the Output Delivery System destinations.
• Create HTML, PDF, RTF, and files with ODS statements.
• Use the STYLE=option to specify a style template.
• Create files that can be viewed in Microsoft Excel.

Export data

• Create a simple raw data file by using the EXPORT procedure as an alternative to the DATA step.
• Export data to Microsoft Excel using the SAS/ACCESS XLSX engine.

Exam Policies 

The candidate should visit the SAS official website for understanding the terms and policies. The exam terms and policies include various important information such as age requirements and policies concerning minors, candidate identification, and authentication, rights and responsibilities, Confidentiality and agreements, etc.

Preparatory Guide for SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) Exam

The preparation steps which are essential in order to successfully pass the SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) exam. We provide you with a preparatory guide with expert learning resources and practise test to boost your chances. These include official learning resources and practice test to improve your preparation. Lets get started with the study guide.

SAS Official Website 

Visiting the SAS official website is an important step while preparing for the SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) exam. The official site offers a lot of reliable information and sources which are very helpful in preparing for the exam. The resources such as study guide, documentation, sample papers, flashcards, whitepapers, sample questions,  faqs, etc. The candidate can find all such important things on the official page. 

SAS Training Program 

Training programs are a very necessary step in the preparation of such exams as the SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231). SAS offers its own training programs on its various examinations and certifications. 

SAS Programming 1: Essentials

SAS Programming 2: Data Manipulation Techniques

Flashcards 

Studying flashcards will test the candidate’s knowledge about the SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) exam with quiz-style printable flashcards. And, the study flashcards highlight the most critical learning points from the SAS Base Programming Specialist study guide. CLICK HERE for flashcards!

Books and Guides

The next step in the preparatory guide should be books and study guides. The candidate needs to find those books which are enriched with information. Finding a good book may be a difficult task, but in order to gather knowledge and skills, the candidate has to find, read, and understand. The candidate can find more SAS books here!

Join a Study Group 

Joining a group study will also be beneficial for the candidate. It will encourage them to do more hard work. Also, studying in the group will help them to stay connected with the other people who are on the same pathway as them. Also, the discussion of such study groups will benefit the students in their exams.

Practice Test 

Most importantly, candidates have to try their hands-on practice tests. Practice tests are the one who secures the candidate about their preparation. The practice test will help the candidates to recognize their vulnerable areas so that they can work on them. There are many practice tests available on the internet nowadays, so the candidate can choose which they want.