Statistical Analysis for Education and Psychology Researchers

0047 12 run;

0048 NOTE: The PROCEDURE COMPARE used 0.66

seconds.

Figure 3.4: Log file for the PROC

COMPARE programme

0001 PROC COMPARE OUTPUT

0002

0003 COMPARE Procedure

0004 Comparison of WORK.CHILD1 with WORK.CHILD2

0005 (Method=EXACT)

0006

0007 Comparison Results for Observations

0008

0009 _OBS_1=4 _OBS_2=4:

0010 Variable Base Value Compare Diff. % Diff

0011 AGEYRS 10.000000 11.000000 1.000000 10.000000

0012

0013 _OBS_1=7_OBS_2=7:

0014 Variable Base Value Compare Diff. % Diff

0015 RAVEN 1.000000 3.000000 2.000000 200.000000

0016

0017 NOTE: Values of the following 2 variables compare unequal:

AGEYRS

Figure 3.5: Output for the PROC

COMPARE programme

Interpretation

It is recommended practice to always consult the Log file first to check whether there are
any errors attributable to mistakes in the analysis programme (variables you think you
may have created but have not, or errors due to mistyping of variables or commands). If
there is a programme compilation error, SAS provides a diagnostic note of this in the log
file. For example, the following is a portion of a log file with a diagnostic error.

0010 ERROR: Physical file does .not exist,

a:\child1.day.

0019 NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this

step because of errors.

0020 WARNING: The data set WORK.CHILD1 may be

incomplete. When this step.

0021 was stopped there were 0 observat ions and 5 var

iables.

Initial data analysis 43