figure out your programming logic errors via data step：通过数据步计算出你的编程逻辑错误精品.pdfVIP

Figure Out Your Programming Logic Errors via DATA Step Debugger Wuchen Zhao, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA ABSTRACT Programming errors can be categorized into syntax errors and logic errors. Syntax errors can be easily fixed ® because these types of errors can be detected by SAS during the DATA step compilation phase and SAS will stop the program to generate an error report in the log window. Unlike syntax errors, logic errors are difficult to be found and/or corrected since programs with logic errors often operate correctly but result in unexpected results. One of the useful tools to repair logic errors is to utilize DATA Step Debugger, which allows you to see the contents of the Program Data Vector (PDV) during the DATA step execution. With the debugger running, you will be able to monitor and update data values by using data debugging commands which will help you to understand where the problem is so that you will be able to fix the error. This paper will illustrate some debugging techniques by using DATA Step Debugger. INTRODUCTION A logic error, sometimes called a semantic error, is an error that does not terminate your program abnormally; however, the error will generate unexpected output. This type of error is a programmer’s worst nightmare. Logic errors in the SAS language are often related to understanding how the DATA step and PDV work during the DATA step execution phase. Logic errors can be corrected by reviewing and inspecting the contents of the PDV during each iteration of the execution phase. One way to view the contents in the PDV is to use the PUT _ALL_ statement in the program, which will result in SAS listing the PDV contents in the SAS log. A better approach is to invoke DATA Step Debugger (DSD) by adding the DEBUG option to the DATA statement. Once the DATA step is invoked, you will be able t