The PARAMETERS statement defines additional parameters that are not specified in your models. You can specify more than one PARAMETERS statement. The parameters can be followed by an equal sign and a number list. The values of the numbers list are assigned as initial values to the preceding parameters in the parameters list. For example, each of the following statements assigns the initial values ALPHA=.5 and BETA=-.5 for the parameters used in SAS programming statements:

parameters alfa beta=.5 -.5;
parameters alfa beta (.5 -.5);
parameters alfa beta .5 -.5;
parameters alfa=.5 beta (-.5);

The number of parameters and the number of values do not have to match. When there are fewer values than parameter names, either the RANDOM= or START= option is used. When there are more values than parameter names, the extra values are dropped. Parameters listed in the PARAMETERS statement can be assigned initial values by program statements or by the START= or RANDOM= option in the PROC CALIS statement.

Do not confuse the PARAMETERS statement with the VAR statement. While you specify the parameters of the model in the PARAMETERS statement, you specify analysis variables in the VAR statement. See the VAR statement for more details.

Caution:The OUTMODEL= or OUTRAM= data sets do not contain any information about the PARAMETERS statement or the SAS programming statements.