1.4 What Is a SAS Data Set?

A SAS data set can be thought of as a rectangular object (or data table) where rows are different observations and columns are different variables. In some cases, such as with longitudinal or repeated measures data, rows can be the same subject measured at different times. Data can be entered as part of a SAS program using DATALINES (or CARDS if you like using statements from ancient SAS history).

data test;
  input X Y @@;
  datalines;
1 2 3 2 5 7
;
run;