A SAS developer writes a macro that calls %SYSFUNC(CATS(prefix,&suffix)) to build a variable name dynamically. What does the CATS function do in this context?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Here's the deal: CATS concatenates the literal 'prefix' with the resolved value of &suffix after stripping leading and trailing blanks from each argument. You use %SYSFUNC to call this DATA step function inside a macro expression.
Full Explanation
The option saying CATS concatenates 'prefix' and resolved &suffix after stripping leading and trailing blanks from each argument is correct. CATS means Concatenate and Strip, producing a compact string. %SYSFUNC lets you call this DATA step function in a macro expression. The numeric-to-character option is wrong: CATS does not specifically convert numeric to character, though CAT/CATS can handle numeric args automatically. The macro-variable-existence option is wrong: CATS is a string function, not a defined-variable check; %SYMEXIST does that. The external C-language option is wrong: CATS is native SAS.