Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Programming Certification Practice Exam 2025 – The All-in-One Guide to Master Your Certification!

The procedure used to sort a dataset in SAS is PROC SORT. This procedure is specifically designed for sorting datasets in ascending or descending order based on one or more variables. It allows you to specify a dataset to be sorted, the variables to utilize for sorting, as well as options for handling duplicates and specifying the sort order.

When using PROC SORT, the dataset is read and rearranged in memory according to the specified sort criteria. After the sorting process is completed, the sorted dataset can be output either to a new dataset or can overwrite the original dataset if specified.

The other options listed do not exist as standard SAS procedures for sorting datasets. PROC ORDER, PROC SORTDATA, and PROC ARRANGE are not recognized procedures in SAS for this purpose. The clear, established functionality of PROC SORT makes it the correct choice for sorting datasets effectively within the SAS programming environment.