You can specify a BY statement with PROC SURVEYMEANS to obtain separate analyses on observations in groups that are 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 you specify more than one BY statement, only the last one specified is used.

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 NOTSORTED or DESCENDING option in the BY statement for the SURVEYMEANS procedure. 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 (in Base SAS software).

Note that using a BY statement provides completely separate analyses of the BY groups. It does not provide a statistically valid domain (subpopulation) analysis, where the total number of units in the subpopulation is not known with certainty. You should use the DOMAIN statement to obtain domain analysis. For more information about subpopulation analysis for sample survey data, see Cochran (1977).

For more information about BY-group processing, see the discussion in SAS Language Reference: Concepts. For more information about the DATASETS procedure, see the discussion in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.