Diagnosing and Avoiding Errors

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INFILE statement options: SAS Language Reference: Dictionary contains information about using the MISSOVER and STOPOVER options in the INFILE statement as debugging tools. The MISSOVER option prevents a SAS program from going past the end of a line to read values with list input if it does not find values in the current line for all INPUT statement variables. Then SAS assigns missing values to variables for which no values appear on the current input line. The STOPOVER option stops processing the DATA step when an INPUT statement using list input reaches the end of the current record without finding values for all variables in the statement. Then SAS sets _ERROR_ to 1, stops building the data set, and prints an incomplete data line.
Program data vector and input buffer: Introduction to DATA Step Processing and Starting with Raw Data: The Basics contain information about the program data vector and the input buffer.
The SAS log: SAS Language Reference: Concepts contains complete reference information about the SAS log.
SAS output: SAS Language Reference: Concepts contains complete reference information about SAS output.
Your SAS session: Other sections provide more information about your SAS session. Directing SAS Output and the SAS Log discusses warnings, notes, and error messages and presents debugging guidelines.