Next let's look at the individual statements in our sample program. SAS programs are made up of SAS statements. A SAS statement has two important characteristics:

• It usually begins with a SAS keyword.
• It always ends with a semicolon.

As you've seen, a DATA step begins with the keyword DATA, and a PROC step begins with the keyword PROC. Our sample program contains a DATA statement, a SET statement, a RUN statement, a PROC PRINT statement, and another RUN statement.