Class variables

• can be character or numeric.
• classify data into groups or categories.
• have only a few distinct values, in most cases. (PROC TABULATE prints each value of a class variable.)

It makes sense to compute a frequency count on a class variable. For example, you can use a variable such as Department as a class variable to find the number of employees in each department. Or you can specify Sex as a class variable to find the number of females and males.

PctInsured (percentage insured) and Company (insurance company) below are class variables. Notice that their values form headings for the table.