SAS Interview Questions and Answers- Part 5

LISTEN TO THE SAS FAQs LIKE AN AUDIOBOOK

SAS Interview Questions and Answers- Part 5

SAS is one of the most important tools in clinical research and the pharmaceutical industry. From creating trial summaries to running statistical reports, SAS helps companies analyze large amounts of medical data.

If you’re preparing for a job interview in the pharma or healthcare analytics space, it’s important to know how SAS is applied in this field. This page features commonly asked SAS interview questions specific to pharma roles—like clinical trial data, CDISC standards, and adverse event reporting. Each question is followed by a clear answer to help you prepare quickly and effectively.

Whether you’re applying to a contract research organization (CRO), a pharmaceutical company, or a public health agency, this guide will help you walk into your interview feeling prepared and professional. Familiarizing yourself with these questions could be your first step toward landing a rewarding job in healthcare analytics.

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The block I/O method is used to copy blocks of data.

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The max() function is a built-in function used to find the maximum value among a set of values or elements.

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The LEFT function in a SAS program is used to remove trailing spaces from a character string. It’s commonly used to clean up character variables by eliminating any extra spaces that might be present at the end of the text. This function is particularly useful when dealing with data where spaces could affect comparisons, concatenations, or other operations.

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A VAR statement is commonly used in PROCs (procedures) to specify the variables you want to analyze or manipulate. The VAR statement allows you to select specific variables from your dataset for processing or analysis.

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The LABEL statement in SAS is used to assign labels or descriptive names to variables, which are then used in various SAS outputs, reports, and analyses. Labels provide more meaningful and informative descriptions of variables compared to the variable names themselves, making it easier for users to understand the data without having to refer back to a data dictionary or code documentation.

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SAS Graph is a component of the SAS is widely used for data analysis, statistical modeling, and visualization. SAS Graph specifically focuses on creating high-quality, data-driven graphical visualizations. It provides a range of tools and features to generate various types of graphs and charts, enabling users to effectively communicate and present their data findings.

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Linear regression refers to a statistical approach that predicts the value of a variable Y based on a value of another variable X, wherein X is known as a predictor variable, whereas Y is known as the criteria variable.

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The LIBNAME statement is used to assign a library reference to a specific physical location or folder on your computer or network. It’s a crucial statement for data management and accessing external data sources within your SAS programs.

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Proc Summary is a procedure in the SAS (Statistical Analysis System) software used for summarizing and analyzing data. It’s commonly used for generating descriptive statistics for numerical variables within a dataset.

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PROC GLM is a procedure in SAS (Statistical Analysis System), which stands for “General Linear Models.” It’s used for performing various types of linear modeling and analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques. This procedure allows users to analyze data using linear regression, analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance, and more.

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The term “CATX syntax” is used to concatenate (join) the values of multiple variables or strings with a specified separator.

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You can utilize DROP and KEEP statements along with dataset options to include or exclude specific variables in a data set.

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Following are the ways to do “table lookup” in SAS:

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

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In order to create a permanent SAS data set, you need to follow these steps:

  • Assign an engine and library.
  • Create the data and ensure to assign both the library and data set name to make the data set permanent.

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The PROC MEANS produce the following default statistics:

  • STD DEV
  • MEAN
  • MIN
  • MAX
  • N

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A one-to-one merge is appropriate when both datasets in the merge operation are organized by ID, and every entry in one dataset corresponds to a relevant entry in the other dataset. If there is a lack of correspondence between observations, then a matching merge becomes more suitable.

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The Infile statement is used for reading in the external data file.

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PROC Transpose is used for converting rows into columns in the dataset.

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The PROC Reg is used to perform regression analysis in the data set.

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The PROC Print in SAS Program is used to print the content of a data set.