Best SAS BI Interview Questions and Answers [LEARN NOW]

Last updated on 12th Nov 2021, Blog, Interview Questions

These SAS BI Interview Questions have been designed specially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your interview for the subject of SAS BI . As per my experience good interviewers hardly plan to ask any particular question during your interview, normally questions start with some basic concept of the subject and later they continue based on further discussion and what you answer.we are going to cover top 100 SAS BI Interview questions along with their detailed answers. We will be covering SAS BI scenario based interview questions, SAS BI interview questions for freshers as well as SAS BI interview questions and answers for experienced.

1. What is SAS Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS business intelligence has analytical capabilities like statistics, reporting, data mining, predictions, forecasting and optimization. They help in getting data in the format desired. It helps in improving quality of data.

2. Where to Use SAS Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS BI provides the information about an enterprise when needed. It provides this information in customized format. SAS BI integrates data across the enterprise and delivers the self-service reporting and analysis. This consumes less time for responding requests and for business uses to view the information. An integrated, flexible and robust presentation layer for SAS Analytics with full breadth is also offered by SAS BI. All these are integrated within the context of business for better and faster decision making.

3. What is Business Intelligence?

Ans:

As name suggests it’s the Intelligence one gains from the business; about the business. Typically it is achieved by various Data warehousing, Data mining and reporting tools and techniques. These tools and techniques help the system to provide right information to right people at right time and right format. So decision makers can more concentrate on their business of making decisions instead of wasting time in digging plies of enterprise data.

4. How SAS deals with Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS has developed end to end business intelligence solution named as SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. It enables the users to extract and transform enterprise wide data into fully integrated reporting warehouse, leading to more usable business data and more effective decision making.

With the way; the platform is structured and the way metadata (The metadata is explored in details at the below sections) is handled; it becomes feasible to represent the single version of truth to the intended users.SAS stores the data only once which and shares its metadata across all the applications dealing with that data which might be ETL tool trying to update that data or data mining tool trying to dig out that data for some ad-hoc queries or might be reporting tool producing monthly report for the business.

5. What is METADATA?

Ans:

Metadata is often referred as “data about data”; but I would like to say it as it is nothing but additional information of your data.Usually many applications which deal with the DATA need some basic information about it from their perspective; for example a database system where you are going to save the data needs to know how user wants the data to be saved? So when you fire a create table command on the database is nothing but you give that information to the database system. In more specific term you define the table structure which is gets recognized as tables Metadata.

In another example when some reporting application needs to produce the weekly report it needs the information about the fields on the report, format of those fields which are going to be represented to the user; what all database tables its going to deal with; in which library or schema they are located etc. etc. All those terms are referring nothing other than metadata.

So it is same with SAS as well; In the context of SAS; metadata is the information about all the resources used in the provision of BI. The name of the column rather than the actual values stored within it. Information about How to read in data from non SAS location. Description of report content rather than the actual report itself. Details of the access rights of all users. A description of the source and target tables used in data integration jobs; as well as details of all the transformations.

6. What is SAS Metadata Repository?

Ans:

It is the location where all this metadata is saved in some specific format.SAS stores its metadata in centralised repository; which in turn is managed by SAS Metadata Server. This metadata is then shared with all the applications under SAS Open Metadata Architecture. This helps SAS in achieving single storage of data and consistency of the information among all the applications using it.

7. What is SAS Enterprise Intelligence Architecture?

Ans:

8. What is SAS Application Server?

Ans:

SAS application server is a way of grouping together different logical servers.A logical server is nothing but a group of one or more servers. Might be a group of logical workspace servers; a group of many workspace servers.Or a logical stored process servers etc.On SAS Application servers these different types of logical servers are usually grouped together. Different logical servers taking part to form SAS application server are SAS Work space servers, SAS Stored process servers, SAS OLAP Server, SAS Grid Server, SAS Batch Server and SAS/Connect Server.

9. What are sas BI dashboard components?

Ans:

Datamodel, dashboard, indicator, ranges

10. Where are dashboard compnents are created and maintained?

Ans:

SAS BI dashboard web application

11. What are the component of range?

Ans:

Code interval,interval, label, color

12. How many display types availaible in sas BI dashboard?

Ans:

Eight.

13. What are the types of interactive display types?

Ans:

• interactive summary chart and detail chart
• interactive summary chart and detail plot

14. Explain the concepts and capabilities of Business Intelligence?

Ans:

Business Intelligence is all about processes, skills, technologies, practices and applications used for supporting decision making.

• Business Intelligence applications could perform
• Centrally initiated by the business needs
• It includes decision support system, query reporting, OLAP, data mining, forecasting

15. Explain the Dashboard in the business intelligence?

Ans:

A dashboard in business intellgence allows huge data and reports to be read in a single graphical interface. They help in making faster decisions by replying on measurable data seen at a glance. They can also be used to get into details of this data to analyze the root cause of any business performance. It represents the business data and business state at a high level. Dashboards can also be used for cost control. Example of need of a dashboard: Banks run thousands of ATM’s. They need to know how much cash is deposited, how much is left etc.

Dashboard in business intelligence is used for rapid prototyping, cloning and deployment for all databases, operational applications or spread sheets through an organization.

A dashboard in BI allows an enterprise’s status/position, heading to, by using graphs, maps and chars. The drill-down and roll-over capabilities allows organizing things without revealing important information. It is fully customizable, including free-form design options. Dashboard consolidates vital statistics of business into an easy-to-read page.

16. Explain about SAS Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS business intelligence has analytical capabilities like statistics, reporting, data mining, predictions, forecasting and optimization. They help in getting data in the format desired. It helps in improving quality of data. SAS BI provides the information about an enterprise when needed. It provides this information in customized format. SAS BI integrates data across the enterprise and delivers the self-service reporting and analysis. This consumes less time for responding requests and for business uses to view the information. An integrated, flexible and robust presentation layer for SAS Analytics with full breadth is also offered by SAS BI. All these are integrated within the context of business for better and faster decision making.

17. Explain the concepts and capabilities of Business Object?

Ans:

A business object can be used to represent entities of the business that are supported in the design. A business object can accommodate data and the behavior of the business associated with the entity. A business object can be any entity of the development environment or a real person, place or process. Business objects are most commonly used and can be used in businesses with volatile needs.

18. What is broad cast agent?

Ans:

A broadcast agent allows automation of emails to be distributed. It allows reports to be sent to different business objects. It also users to choose the report format and send via SMS, fax, pagers etc. broadcast agents allows the flexibility to the users to receive reports periodically or not. They help to manage and schedule the documents.

19. What is a universe? Explain the types of universes in business objects?

Ans:

Mapping data in the database is done by semantic layer called Universe. It isolates the ultimate usage from complex structures of database. The universes are – Secured – Changes made in the universe can be exported. The other two are Personal and Shared.

20. What are the softwares and applications that are used most frequently used by SAS bi applications developers?

Ans:

• SAS AppDev Studio
• SAS A/F
• SAS/Internet

21. What are the applications primarily used by business analyst?

Ans:

22. How will you locate the SAS platform applications?

Ans:

Go to SAS >> All Programs>>SAS

23. How will you location SAS platform applications available from web browser?

Ans:

Start>>internet View the links stored as favorites in internet explorer

24. Why is the SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office not available in the SAS group from the Windows Start menu?

Ans:

The SAS add-in is a software component that is available from within Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power and Microsoft Word

25. What is the limit of the number of the rows and columns available in the worksheet?

Ans:

1 million rows and 16000 columns

26. What are several options for creating reports in Web Report Studio?

Ans:

There are three options

• Report wizard which consists of five steps
• Templates that contain report layout information
• Edit mode, which provide full control over all aspects of report creation

27. What is the primary data source for the WRS?

Ans:

Information maps

28. How many types of prompts are there?

Ans:

Four types:

• Dynamic prompts
• Cascading prompts
• Relative date/Time prompts
• Range prompts

29. How many types prompting framework can be broken down to?

Ans:

Design time: creating the framework to ask questions and have the results passed to the applicationRun time: Displaying the prompt in an application and processing the user input.

30. What Is Sas Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS business intelligence has analytical capabilities like statistics, reporting, data mining, predictions, forecasting and optimization. They help in getting data in the format desired. It helps in improving quality of data

31. Where to Use Sas Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS BI provides the information about an enterprise when needed. It provides this information in customized format. SAS BI integrates data across the enterprise and delivers the self-service reporting and analysis. This consumes less time for responding requests and for business uses to view the information. An integrated, flexible and robust presentation layer for SAS Analytics with full breadth is also offered by SAS BI. All these are integrated within the context of business for better and faster decision making.

32. What Is Business Intelligence?

Ans:

As name suggests it’s the Intelligence one gains from the business; about the business. Typically, it is achieved by various Data warehousing, Data mining and reporting tools and techniques.These tools and techniques help the system to provide right information to right people at right time and right format. So, decision makers can more concentrate on their business of making decisions instead of wasting time in digging plies of enterprise data.

33. How Sas Deals With Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS has developed end to end business intelligence solution named as SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. It enables the users to extract and transform enterprise wide data into fully integrated reporting warehouse, leading to more usable business data and more effective decision making.

With the way; the platform is structured and the way metadata (The metadata is explored in details at the below sections) is handled; it becomes feasible to represent the single version of truth to the intended users. SAS stores the data only once which and shares its metadata across all the applications dealing with that data which might be ETL tool trying to update that data or data mining tool trying to dig out that data for some ad-hoc queries or might be reporting tool producing monthly report for the business.

34. What Is Metadata?

Ans:

Metadata is often referred as “data about data”; but I would like to say it as it is nothing but additional information of your data.Usually many applications which deal with the DATA need some basic information about it from their perspective; for example, a database system where you are going to save the data needs to know how user wants the data to be saved? So, when you fire a create table command on the database is nothing but you give that information to the database system. In more specific term you define the table structure which is gets recognized as tables Metadata,

In another example when some reporting application needs to produce the weekly report it needs the information about the fields on the report, format of those fields which are going to be represented to the user; what all database tables it’s going to deal with; in which library or schema they are located etc. etc. All those terms are referring nothing other than metadata.

So, it is same with SAS as well; In the context of SAS; metadata is the information about all the resources used in the provision of BI. The name of the column rather than the actual values stored within it. Information about How to read in data from non-SAS location. Description of report content rather than the actual report itself. Details of the access rights of all users. A description of the source and target tables used in data integration jobs; as well as details of all the transformations.

35. What Is Sas Metadata Repository?

Ans:

It is the location where all this metadata is saved in some specific format. SAS stores its metadata in centralised repository; which in turn is managed by SAS Metadata Server. This metadata is then shared with all the applications under SAS Open Metadata Architecture. This helps SAS in achieving single storage of data and consistency of the information among all the applications using it.

36. What Is Sas Enterprise Intelligence Architecture?

Ans:

It is platform designed for Business intelligence solution. It has got different parts or tiers. The metadata sits alongside these tiers and works as glue to stick all these layers together.

37. Where Are Dashboard Components Are Created And Maintained?

Ans:

sas BI dashboard web application

38. Explain About Sas Business Intelligence?

Ans:

SAS business intelligence has analytical capabilities like statistics, reporting, data mining, predictions, forecasting and optimization. They help in getting data in the format desired. It helps in improving quality of data.

SAS BI provides the information about an enterprise when needed. It provides this information in customized format. SAS BI integrates data across the enterprise and delivers the self-service reporting and analysis. This consumes less time for responding requests and for business uses to view the information. An integrated, flexible and robust presentation layer for SAS Analytics with full breadth is also offered by SAS BI. All these are integrated within the context of business for better and faster decision making.

39. Explain The Concepts And Capabilities Of Business Object?

Ans:

A business object can be used to represent entities of the business that are supported in the design. A business object can accommodate data and the behavior of the business associated with the entity. A business object can be any entity of the development environment or a real person, place or process. Business objects are most commonly used and can be used in businesses with volatile needs.

40. What Is Broad Cast Agent?

Ans:

A broadcast agent allows automation of emails to be distributed. It allows reports to be sent to different business objects. It also users to choose the report format and send via SMS, fax, pagers etc. broadcast agents allow the flexibility to the users to receive reports periodically or not. They help to manage and schedule the documents.

41. How Many Types Prompting Framework Can Be Broken Down To?

Ans:

• Design time: creating the framework to ask questions and have the results passed to the application
• Run time: Displaying the prompt in an application and processing the user input

42. What are the features of SAS?

Ans:

The following are the features of SAS:

• Strong Data Analysis Abilities. Strong Data Analysis Ability is the first feature of SAS software and programming language.
• Flexible 4 Generation Programming Language (4GL)
• SAS Studio.
• Support for Various Data Format.
• Management.
• Report Output Format.
• Data Encryption Algorithms.

43. Mention few capabilities of SAS Framework.

Ans:

44. What is the function of output statement in a SAS Program?

Ans:

You can use the OUTPUT statement to save summary statistics in a SAS data set. This information can then be used to create customized reports or to save historical information about a process.

• You can use options in the OUTPUT statement to
• Specify the statistics to save in the output data set,
• Specify the name of the output data set, and
• Compute and save percentiles not automatically computed by the CAPABILITY procedure.

45. What is the function of Stop statement in a SAS Program?

Ans:

Stop statement causes SAS to stop processing the current data step immediately and resume processing statement after the end of current data step.

46. What is the difference between using drop = data set option in data statement and set statement?

Ans:

If you don’t want to process certain variables and you do not want them to appear in the new data set, then specify drop = data set option in the set statement.Whereas If want to process certain variables and do not want them to appear in the new data set, then specify drop = data set option in the data statement.

47. Given an unsorted data set, how to read the last observation to a new data set?

Ans:

We can read the last observation to a new data set using end= data set option.

For example:

Ans:

data work.calculus;

set work.comp end=last;

If last;

run;

Where calculus is a new data set to be created and comp is the existing data set. last is the temporary variable (initialized to 0) which is set to 1 when the set statement reads the last observation.

48. What is the difference between SAS functions and procedures?

Ans:

Functions expect argument values to be supplied across an observation in a SAS data set whereas a procedure expects one variable value per observation.

For example:

Ans:

• data average ;
• set temp ;
• avgtemp = mean( of T1 – T24 ) ;
• run ;

Here arguments of mean function are taken across an observation. The mean function calculates the average of the different values in a single observation.

• proc sort ;
• by month ;
• run ;
• proc means ;
• by month ;
• var avgtemp ;
• run ;

49. What are the differences between sum function and using “+” operator?

Ans:

SUM function returns the sum of non-missing arguments whereas “+” operator returns a missing value if any of the arguments are missing.

50. What are the differences between PROC MEANS and PROC SUMMARY?

Ans:

PROC MEANS produces subgroup statistics only when a BY statement is used and the input data has been previously sorted (using PROC SORT) by the BY variables.

PROC SUMMARY automatically produces statistics for all subgroups, giving you all the information in one run that you would get by repeatedly sorting a data set by the variables that define each subgroup and running PROC MEANS. PROC SUMMARY does not produce any information in your output. So you will need to use the OUTPUT statement to create a new DATA SET and use PROC PRINT to see the computed statistics.

51.What would be the result of the following SAS function (given that 31 Dec, 2000 is Sunday)?

Ans:

• Weeks = intck (‘week’,’31 dec 2000’d,’01jan2001’d);
• Years = intck (‘year’,’31 dec 2000’d,’01jan2001’d);
• Months = intck (‘month’,’31 dec 2000’d,’01jan2001’d);

Here, we will calculate the weeks between 31st December, 2000 and 1st January, 2001. 31st December 2000 was a Sunday. So 1st January 2001 will be a Monday in the same week. Hence, Weeks = 0Years = 1, since both the days are in different calendar years.Months = 1 ,since both the days are in different months of the calendar.

52. Suppose the variable address stores the following expression:

Ans:

53. What is the length assigned to the target variable by the scan function?

Ans:

200

54. Name few SAS functions?

Ans:

Scan, Substr, trim, Catx, Index, tranwrd, find, Sum.

55. What is the work of tranwrd function?

Ans:

TRANWRD function replaces or removes all occurrences of a pattern of characters within a character string.

What would be the value of month at the end of data step execution and how many observations would be there?

Ans:

Value of month would be 13

No. of observations would be 1

57. How do dates work in SAS data?

Ans:

Data is central to every data set. In SAS, data is available in tabular form where variables occupy the column space and observations occupy the row space.

SAS treats numbers as numeric data and everything else falls under character data. Hence SAS has two data types numeric and character.

Apart from these, dates in SAS are represented in a special way compared to other languages.

58. What is the use of the %include statement?

Ans:

%INCLUDE statement reads an entire file into the current SAS program you are running and submits that file to the SAS System immediately.

59. How do you use the do loop if you don’t know how many times you should execute the do loop?

Ans:

We can use ‘do until’ or ‘do while’ to specify the condition.

60. What is the difference between do while and do until?

Ans:

An important difference between the DO UNTIL and DO WHILE statements is that the DO WHILE expression is evaluated at the top of the DO loop. If the expression is false the first time it is evaluated, then the DO loop never executes. Whereas DO UNTIL executes at least once.

61. How do you specify the number of iterations and specific condition within a single do loop?

Ans:

This iterative DO statement enables you to execute the DO loop until Sum is greater than or equal to 20000 or until the DO loop executes 10 times, whichever occurs first.

62. What are the parameters of Scan function?

Ans:

This is how the scan function is used.

• scan(argument,n,delimiters)
• Here, argument specifies the character variable or expression to scan,
• n specifies which word to read, and
• delimiters are special characters that must be enclosed in single quotation marks.

63. Explain how merging helps to combine data sets.

Ans:

Merging combines observations from two or more SAS data sets into a single observation in a new data set.A one-to-one merge, shown in the following figure, combines observations based on their position in the data sets. You use the MERGE statement for one-to-one merging.

64. Consider the following SAS Program:

Ans:

• data concat;
• set a b;
• run;

where format of variable Revenue in dataset a is dollar10.2 and format of variable Revenue in dataset b is dollar12.2 .

65. What is interleaving in SAS?

Ans:

Interleaving combines individual, sorted SAS data sets into one sorted SAS data set. For each observation, the following figure shows the value of the variable by which the data sets are sorted. You interleave data sets using a SET statement along with a BY statement.In the following example, the data sets are sorted by the variable Year. We can sort and then join the datasets on Year with the below code.

66. I have a dataset concat having variable a b & c. How to rename a b to e & f?

Ans:

We will use the following code to rename a b to e f

data concat(rename=(a=e b=f));

set concat;

run;

67. What are the scrubbing procedures in SAS?

Ans:

The scrubbing procedures in SAS are Proc Sort with nodupkey option. It will eliminate duplicate values.

68. How many observations would be there at the end of data step execution?

Ans:

12

69. What Is the Limit of The Number of The Rows and Columns Available in The Worksheet?

Ans:

1 million rows and 16000 columns

70. How Many Types Prompting Framework Can Be Broken Down To?

Ans:

Design time: developing the framework to ask questions and feature the results handed to the application Run time: Displaying the prompt in a utility and processing the person enter.

71. What is PDV?

Ans:

The logical area in the memory is represented by PDV or Program Data Vector. At the time, SAS creates a database of one observation at a time. An input buffer is created at the time of compilation which holds a record from an external file. The PDV is created following the input buffer creation.

72. What are the data types does SAS contain?

Ans:

The data types in SAS are Numeric and Character.

73. Which statement does not perform automatic conversions in comparisons?

Ans:

In SAS, the “where” statement does not perform automatic conversions in comparisons.

74. What is a method to debug and test your SAS program?

Ans:

You can debug and test your SAS program by using Obs=0 and systems options to trace the program execution in log

75. What is the difference between nodupkey and nodup options?

Ans:

The difference between the NODUP and NODUPKEY is that NODUP compares all the variables in our dataset while NODUPKEY compares just the BY variables

76. Name validation tools used in SAS

Ans:

For DataSet : Data set name/ debug Data set: Name/stmtchk

For SAS Macros variables: Options: mprint mlogic symbolgen

77. What is the use of function Proc summary?

Ans:

The syntax of proc summary is the same as that of proc means. It computes descriptive statistics on numeric variables in the SAS dataset.

78. What Proc glm does?

Ans:

Proc glm performs simple and multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVAL), analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance and repeated measure analysis of variance.

79. What is SAS informats?

Ans:

SAS INFORMATS are used to read, or input data from external files known as Flat Files ASCII files, text files or sequential files). The informat will tell SAS on how to read data into SAS variables.

80. Name types of category in which SAS Informats are placed

Ans:

SAS informats are placed in three categories,

• Character Informats : $INFORMATw
• Numeric Informats : INFORMAT w.d
• Date/Time Informats: INFORMAT w.

81. What function CATX syntax does?

Ans:

CATX syntax concatenates character strings remove trailing and leading blanks and inserts separators.

82. What is the use of PROC gplot?

Ans:

PROC gplot has more options and can create more colorful and fancier graphics.

83. What is PROC in SAS?

Ans:

In SAS, PROC steps analyze and process data in the form of an SAS data set. It controls a library of routines that perform tasks on SAS data set options such as sorting, summarizing and listing.

84. What is the SAS data set?

Ans:

A SAS data set is a file consisting of two parts.

• A descriptor portion
• A data portion

85. List out some key concept of SAS

Ans:

Some key concept of SAS includes,

• SORT procedure
• Missing values
• KEEP=, DROP= dataset options
• Data step logic
• Reset to missing, or the RETAIN statement
• Log
• FORMAT procedure for creating value formats
• Data types
• IN= dataset option

86. What is the difference between INPUT and INFILE?

Ans:

INFILE	INPUT
INFILE statement is used to identify an external file	INPUT statement is used to describe your variables

87. State the difference between INFORMAT and FORMAT?

Ans:

• INFORMAT: To indicate SAS that a number should be read in a particular format
• FORMAT: To indicate SAS how to print the variables

88. What is factor analysis?

Ans:

Factor analysis is a common term used for a family of statistical techniques associated with the reduction of a set of observable variables in terms of a small number of latent factors. The main goal of factor analysis is data reduction and summarization.

89. How you can read the variables that you need?

Ans:

You read the variables using input statement with column /line pointers, informats and length specifiers.

90. How SAS treats the DSD delimiters?

Ans:

When you define DSD, SAS treats two consecutive delimiters as a missing value and removes quotation marks from character values.

91. What is the good SAS programming practices for processing large data sets?

Ans:

The good SAS programming practices for processing large data sets is to sort them once using firstobs= and obs=.

92. How to include or exclude specific variables in a data set?

Ans:

To include or exclude specific variables in a data set you can use DROP, KEEP Statements and Data set Options.

93. How SUBSTR function works in SAS?

Ans:

The SUBSTR function is used to abstract substring from a character variable.

94. What SAS features do you use to check errors and data validation?

Ans:

To check errors, use the Log, and for data validation use things like Proc Freq, Proc Means or sometimes Proc print to see how data looks.

95. What are the ways to do a “table lookup” in SAS?

Ans:

There are five ways to do a “table lookup” in SAS which include:

• PROC SQL
• Match Merging
• Direct Access
• Format Tables
• Arrays

96. How will you generate test data with no input data?

Ans:

You will generate test data with no input data using “put” statement and “Data Null”.

97. What are the difference between CEIL and FLOOR functions in SAS?

Ans:

The “floor” returns the greatest integer less than/equal to the argument. Whereas the “ceil” function returns the smallest integer greater than/equal to the argument.

98. What are the difference between SAS functions and procedures?

Ans:

The difference between SAS functions and procedures is that

• Procedures expect one variable value per observation
• Functions expect values to be supplied across an observation

99. How to remove duplicates using PROC SQL?

Ans:

To remove duplicates using PROC SQL use following step,

Proc SQL noprint;

Create Table inter.merged1 as

Select distinct * from inter.readin ;

Quit;

100. What are common programming errors committed in SAS

Ans:

Common programming errors committed in SAS are,

• Missing semicolon
• Not checking log after submitting program
• Not using debugging techniques
• Not using Fsview option vigorously