What does the CHAR function do in SAS?

The CHAR function in SAS is used to return a single character from a given string based on a specified position. When you provide a string and a position number to the CHAR function, it extracts and returns the character that corresponds to that position. For example, if you have a string "SAS" and you ask for the character at position 2, the function will return "A". This function is particularly useful for extracting specific characters from larger strings, which can be integral in data manipulation and analysis tasks.

The other answer choices pertain to different functionalities that are not related to the CHAR function. For instance, returning the length of a string is handled by the LENGTH function, while the ASCII value of a character can be obtained using the ASCII function. Converting a string to uppercase is accomplished using the UPCASE function, rather than CHAR. Understanding these distinctions is vital to effectively using SAS functions in programming and data analysis.