Date:         Thu, 27 Jun 2002 12:23:38 -0700
Reply-To:     "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: SAS V8 Core Concept Certification
Comments: To: Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <sd1b0802.071@firsthealth.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 12:41 PM 6/27/2002 -0600, Jack Hamilton wrote:
>I agree completely with Paul's conclusion.
>
>Here's a question which I haven't heard the answer to, but perhaps
>someone else has:
>
>What percentage of SAS developers has passed the certification exams?


Hmmm ... a 100% in my case <vbg> ... but I tell you it was close, b/c so
many of the inane questions had to do w/ "what happens in this case" where
the cases were, as Sig has pointed out, slop, newbie-type, "let the
compiler guess", code that I would never have employed.

And to paraphrase Puddin', Po' me is too old to be taken' tests <g>.




>--
>JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
>Manager, Technical Development
>METRICS Department, First Health
>West Sacramento, California USA
>
>
> >>> "Dorfman, Paul" <Paul.Dorfman@BCBSFL.COM> 06/27/2002 9:59 AM >>>
>SVN,
>
>Let us cut the semantics and go for the substance. The main assumption
>in
>the question is that the variable is NEW. Now formal logic tells that
>by
>choosing answer (b) you assert that
>
>1) The variable's first reference in the DATA step ALWAYS determines
>the
>length of a new variable.
>2) The length of the variable's first value NEVER determines the length
>of a
>new variable.
>
>This is utter nonsense. Consider
>
>96   data _null_ ;
>97      retain var var '123' var '456789' ;
>98      len = vlength (var) ;
>99      put var= len=;
>100  run ;
>var=456 len=3
>
> From which it is evident that in this particular case,
>
>1) The first reference to VAR does not determine its length. In fact,
>NO
>reference to VAR in this step determines its length.
>2) The compiler uses the first literal value of VAR to determine its
>length.
>
>
>One could go into further ramblings like what the 'first reference'
>constitute, and what is the difference between the retain and run-time
>assignments, and so on ad naseum, but if nothing else, it just
>demonstrates
>yet another time how mindless multiple-choice-based exams are - being
>designed not with the quality of testing in mind (which is impossible
>without human interaction), but rather for the convenience of the
>examiners.
>In a human-to-human exam (an interview, say), it is easy to establish
>whether the examinee understands the issue without useless arguing
>about
>definitions and concentrating on the essence.
>
>If SI really wanted to test if one can really program in SAS ("SAS
>Professional"), they would make the examinee solve SAS programming
>problems
>and write SAS programs - and that with full access to SAS
>documentation,
>rather than answer a bunch of (often obscure and simply moronic)
>multiple-choice questions,
>
>Kind regards,
>==================
>Paul M. Dorfman
>Jacksonville, FL
>==================
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: smith van nada [mailto:smithvannada@YAHOO.COM]
> >
> > This is called creating a new variable using
> > assignment statement. Variable Takes the length of the
> > value assigned.
> >
> > see answer c :
> > Which of the following does not determine the length
> > >of a new variable?
> > >
> > >a. the variable's first reference in the DATA step
> > >b. the length of the variable's first value
> > >c. the assignment statement
> > >d. the LENGTH statement
> > >
> > >The Answer is (b).
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > SVN
> >
> > --- Ace <b.rogers@VIRGIN.NET> wrote:
> > > On 27 Jun 02 10:36:48 GMT,  smithvannada@yahoo.com
> > > (smith van nada)
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >For a Character variable the first value of the new
> > > >variable will never assign the length.
> > > >for example:
> > > >
> > > >data new;
> > > >input name $ age ;
> > > >cards;
> > > >Godwin 35
> > > >smithvannada 25
> > > >jerry 52
> > > >;
> > >
> > > <snip>
> > > Unfortunately, you're extrapolating too far. In the
> > > above code, it's
> > > the INPUT statement that assigns a length to the
> > > variable (default of
> > > 8 for a char var) rather then the first 'value' read
> > > in from CARDS.
> > >
> > > Try:
> > >
> > > data test;
> > > x = '1234567890' ;
> > > y = '1234';
> > > run;
> > >
> > > Variable X will have length 10, Y will be 4.
>
>
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