Question-76: Why does SAS XLSX engine does not support RANK proc?

Answer: The XLSX engine allows data to be read in sequence and not randomly. And RANK proc required data to be read randomly to order the data, hence while reading the data RANK proc or any other which need data to be read randomly are not supported.

Question-77: In the DATA Step what is the implicit Output and explicit output?

Answer: As we know SAS Data step runs in a loop, hence, at the end of each iteration there is an implicit output statement which writes data to the Dataset which is generated in the current data step. If we explicitly put output statement in the Data step it means then it overrides the automatic output and SAS adds observation to a data set only when an explicit OUTPUT statement is executed. Once you use an OUTPUT statement to write an observation to any one data set, however, there is no implicit OUTPUT statement at the end of DATA step. We can use the OUTPUT statement alone as part of an IF-THEN or SELECT or DO-LOOP processing.

Question-78: When and where the OUTPUT statement writes the observation?

Answer: SAS DATA step output statement tells the SAS to write current observation to a SAS data set immediately, not the end of the DATA step. If you are not providing any name of the DATA set then output statement would write data in the data sets which is listed in the DATA statement.

Question-79: What delimited file by default read by the IMPORT proc?

Answer: By default, IMPORT proc reads delimited files as varying record length files.

Question-80: While importing fixed length file how to use IMPORT proc?

Answer: If your external file has fixed length format, then use the OPTIONS statement before the PROC IMPORT statement that includes the RECFM=F and LRECL=options.