In this example, three plants are nested within four pots, which are nested within three houses. The FACTORS
statement requests a random permutation of the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to choose Houses randomly. The second step requests a random permutation of the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 for each of those first three numbers
to randomly assign Pots to Houses. Finally, the FACTORS
statement requests a random permutation of 1, 2, and 3 for each of the 12 integers in the second set of permutations. This
last step randomly assigns Plants to Pots. The following statements produce Output 74.2.1:
title 'Hierarchical Design'; proc plan seed=17431; factors Houses=3 Pots=4 Plants=3 / noprint; output out=nested; run; proc print data=nested; run;
Output 74.2.1: A Hierarchical Design
| Hierarchical Design |
| Obs | Houses | Pots | Plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 10 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 11 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 12 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 13 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 14 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 15 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 16 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 19 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 20 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 21 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 22 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 23 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 24 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 26 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 27 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 28 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| 29 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 30 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 32 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 33 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 34 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 35 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 36 | 3 | 3 | 1 |