Which statement is used to combine multiple datasets in SAS?

The statement that is used to combine multiple datasets in SAS is the MERGE statement. This statement allows you to combine two or more datasets based on a common variable, also known as a key variable. When using MERGE, the datasets you are working with must be sorted by the key variable for the combination to work properly. The result is a new dataset that contains the variables from both datasets, matched according to the values of the key variable.

In scenarios where you need to bring together different records based on one or more common identifiers, MERGE is essential. It performs a horizontal concatenation, aligning records side by side where the key values match.

While APPEND is another valid method used in SAS for combining datasets, it is specifically designed to stack datasets on top of each other rather than merge them by key. This means APPEND does not focus on matching records based on a common variable but rather adds the observations from one dataset to the end of another.

Options like COMBINE and JOIN don’t exist in the same context within SAS for combining datasets in the way that MERGE does. COMBINE is not a recognized statement in SAS for this purpose, and JOIN is typically associated with SQL operations, not the direct syntax used in SAS programming