What does the PROC step allow you to do with a data set?

The PROC step in SAS is primarily used to perform utility operations on a data set. This step allows users to execute various procedures that can analyze, summarize, and report on the data without altering the original data set. For example, procedures such as PROC PRINT, PROC MEANS, and PROC FREQ are used to create reports and statistical summaries, making it a powerful tool for data exploration and analysis.

While options related to reading in raw data, defining variables, and manipulating data are important aspects of data processing in SAS, they are specifically handled in other steps. The DATA step is where you would typically read in raw data directly, define variables, and perform manipulations before any analysis or reporting is done with PROC steps. Therefore, the utility of the PROC step lies in its ability to carry out various analytical tasks efficiently on existing datasets.