Using PROC SGPANEL, what is the effect of the “by” statement?

The “by” statement in PROC SGPANEL is specifically designed to divide the data into separate panels based on the levels of the categorical variables provided. When this statement is utilized, it creates individual panels for each level of the specified variable, allowing for a clear and comparative visualization of data across different categories.

This functionality is particularly useful for presenting data in a way that highlights variations or trends within the subsets of the data. For instance, if you have a dataset categorized by "Region" and you're using the “by” statement with this variable, PROC SGPANEL will generate multiple panels, each representing a specific region. This facilitates the analysis of how certain metrics differ from one region to another.

In contrast, the other choices pertain to different operations that do not align with the functionality of the “by” statement in PROC SGPANEL. While sorting and filtering can be part of data preparation in SAS, they are not the direct outcome of utilizing the “by” statement within this procedure.