You can specify a BY statement with PROC DISCRIM to obtain separate analyses on observations in groups defined by the BY variables. When a BY statement appears, the procedure expects the input data set to be sorted in order of the BY variables.

If your input data set is not sorted in ascending order, use one of the following alternatives:

• Sort the data by using the SORT procedure with a similar BY statement.

• Specify the BY statement option NOTSORTED or DESCENDING in the BY statement for PROC DISCRIM. The NOTSORTED option does not mean that the data are unsorted but rather that the data are arranged in groups (according to values of the BY variables) and that these groups are not necessarily in alphabetical or increasing numeric order.

• Create an index on the BY variables by using the DATASETS procedure.

For more information about the BY statement, see SAS Language Reference: Concepts. For more information about the DATASETS procedure, see the Base SAS Procedures Guide.

If you specify the TESTDATA= option and the TESTDATA= data set does not contain any of the BY variables, then the entire TESTDATA= data set is classified according to the discriminant functions computed in each BY group in the DATA= data set.

If the TESTDATA= data set contains some but not all of the BY variables, or if some BY variables do not have the same type or length in the TESTDATA= data set as in the DATA= data set, then PROC DISCRIM displays an error message and stops.

If all BY variables appear in the TESTDATA= data set with the same type and length as in the DATA= data set, then each BY group in the TESTDATA= data set is classified by the discriminant function from the corresponding BY group in the DATA= data set. The BY groups in the TESTDATA= data set must be in the same order as in the DATA= data set. If you specify the NOTSORTED option in the BY statement, there must be exactly the same BY groups in the same order in both data sets. If you omit the NOTSORTED option, some BY groups can appear in one data set but not in the other. If some BY groups appear in the TESTDATA= data set but not in the DATA= data set, and you request an output test data set by using the TESTOUT= or TESTOUTD= option, these BY groups are not included in the output data set.