What type of variable is Date in the output dataset after executing the provided SAS program?

In SAS, a variable's type can either be character or numeric, and the length determines how much space is allocated for storing that variable. The distinction between these types is particularly important for understanding how SAS handles different types of data.

If the provided program formats the Date variable as a character string, then it would indeed be classified as a character variable with a specified length. A character variable represents textual data, and in this case, if it's noted that the length is 9 bytes, it suggests that the Date variable is likely being formatted in a way that takes up 9 bytes, often seen with date formats that include day, month, and abbreviated year (like DDMMMYY).

Understanding this, if the Date variable is intended to store dates in a readable format (for example, "01JAN2023"), 9 bytes would be sufficient to hold such a format. This means it will successfully meet the requirement for storing a textual representation of a date.

In contrast, numeric variables in SAS typically store dates as the number of days since a base date (which is January 1, 1960). So, when dealing with numeric dates, they generally require 8 bytes since SAS uses floating point representation for numbers. Therefore, the classification of