Understanding the Difference between MERGE and APPEND Statements in SAS

When working with SAS, it's important to distinguish between the MERGE and APPEND statements as they serve distinct purposes in data manipulation.

Focus Keyword: MERGE vs. APPEND in SAS

MERGE Statement:

The MERGE statement in SAS is used to combine datasets by merging them based on common variable values. It creates a new dataset that includes variables from both input datasets, aligning the observations based on the values of the specified key variables.

APPEND Statement:

On the other hand, the APPEND statement in SAS is used to stack datasets on top of each other, simply appending the observations from one dataset to another. This operation adds new observations to an existing dataset without merging or matching based on any key variables.

It's essential to understand the distinction between these two statements in SAS to choose the appropriate method for your data manipulation needs.