Which function would you use to retrieve the current time in SAS?

The function to retrieve the current time in SAS is TIME(). This function specifically returns the current time as a SAS time value, which is the number of seconds since midnight. This is crucial when you need the exact time of day for calculations or when logging events that happen at specific times.

The other functions serve different purposes. DATE() retrieves the current date in SAS date value, which counts the number of days since January 1, 1960. TODAY() is synonymous with DATE(), as it also returns the current date. DAY() is not a function used to retrieve the date or time in SAS; instead, it is often associated with extracting the day from a date value when combined with other functions.

Therefore, when the need arises to specifically obtain the current time of day, TIME() is the appropriate function to use.