Commonly Asked SAS Interview Questions with Answer (ST) : 6 - 10

Ques (ST) 6 : What is SAS Stored Process and what are the uses of it ?

Ans : SAS Stored Process is a SAS code or program which is stored on a server and could be executed by many SAS applications. 

SAS Stored Process is described by metadata and gives effective method for change control management as program is saved on server. 

Stored Processes can be centrally managed and maintained which provides the facility to update the program and at the same time all SAS clients which invokes the program would get result from updated version of code.

We can use SAS Stored Process for the following :

1. To build web applications
2. Analytics
3. Web reporting
4. To deliver result package to clients or to Middle tier
5. To publish results
6. Centrally management of program
7. To enhance the security of program and data

Ques (ST) 7 : What are the Inputs and Outputs for SAS Stored Process ?

Ans : SAS Stored Process could access any SAS data source or external file to create SAS dataset, files and all other data targets supported by SAS.

INPUTS to SAS Stored Process :

1. SAS Data sources
2. External files

OUTPUTS from SAS Stored Process :

1. External files
2. SAS Datasets
3. Catalogs
4. E-mails
5. Result packages
6. ODS outputs

Ques (ST) 8 : What are the SAS Web Clients for SAS Stored Process ?

Ans : We can access or execute SAS Stored Process by following SAS Web Clients :

1. SAS Web Report Studio
2. SAS Information Delivery Portal
3. Stored Process Web Application

Ques (ST) 9 : What are the servers on which SAS Stored Processes are hosted ?

Ans : SAS Stored Processes can be hosted by two types of servers :

1. SAS Stored Process Server
2. SAS Workspace Server

Ques (ST) 10 : What is your preferred method to work on (Create) SAS Stored Processes ?

Ans : For me, SAS Enterprise Guide is the preferred method to work on SAS Stored Processes because it gives the facility to create, register and test stored processes in one interface.

SAS Data Integration Studio also gives a point and click interface for creating and registering Stored Process.

• SAS Stored Processes must be .sas file in SAS.

SAS DI Certification Notes For A00-260

If you are preparing for SAS DI Certification (A00 -260), the following notes could help you to clear it

• For register table wizard in SAS Data Integration Studio, Metadata for the selected physical table or tables would be stored in the specified SAS folder location which is specified in the wizard


• If we register the metadata for an ODBC data source, it would involves registering a server definition that points to the ODBC data source and a library accessing this server definition


• SAS Data Integration Studio is dependent on an administration function which is setting up of SAS Application Servers


• The ability to deploy a SAS Data Integration Studio job as a web service or a SAS Stored process requires an additional set up that would be performed in SAS Management Console


• The metadata for the library tables is NOT defined as a part of new library wizard


• Use the New User Written External file wizard to register an external file with the following structure like : First, Second, Third and fourth line contains following information respectively : First name, Last name, Address and Phone number


• In SAS DI Studio, COBOL Copybook is NOT an available option from the file - new menu choice under External file grouping


• System DSN is not specific to an individual user, Anyone with permission to access the data source can use it


• The Return Code check transformation can be added to the job flow immediately following the Extract and Sort transformation - The Status handling tab in each of the Return Code Check Transformations properties can then establish the desired status handling


• While writing postcode in the Precode and Postcode tab of the Transpose Transformation in SAS DI Studio &SYSLAST allows us to reference the transformation output table regardless of the actual physical name for the target table


• Ampersand Sign (&) on the top left corner of any transformation denotes that, that object has a defined parameter


• With the help of Data Validation Transformation, we can create a job that checks condition for our data before the data would be loaded into a data warehouse. This job should be able to  detect error conditions such as missing data or duplicate data and take appropriate action like registering error conditions in log etc.


• In SAS DI Studio, we can create three type of expression by using the Expression Builder window in Where Tab of SAS Extract Transformation which are : SAS Expression, SQL Expression and a Constant