Stops executing statements at the current point in the DATA step
and returns to a predetermined point in the step.
Valid: |
in a DATA step
|
Category: |
Control
|
Type: |
Executable
|
The
RETURN statement causes execution to stop at the current point in the DATA
step, and returns control to a previous DATA step statement.
The point to which SAS returns depends
on the order in which statements are executed in the DATA step.
The RETURN statement is often used with the
When RETURN causes a return to the beginning of the
DATA step, an implicit OUTPUT statement writes the current observation to
any new data sets (unless the DATA step contains an explicit OUTPUT statement,
or REMOVE or REPLACE statements with MODIFY statements). Every DATA step has
an implied RETURN as its last executable statement.
In this example, when the values of X and Y are the
same, SAS executes the RETURN statement and adds the observation to the data
set. When the values of X and Y are not equal, SAS executes the remaining
statements and then adds the observation to the data set.
data survey;
input x y;
if x=y then return;
put x= y=;
datalines;
21 25
20 20
7 17
;
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