What is a common use of the OUTPUT statement in a DATA step?

The OUTPUT statement in a DATA step is primarily used to explicitly write observations to a dataset. When processing data within a DATA step, the OUTPUT statement allows users to control when and what observations are written to the specified dataset. This statement can be used multiple times within the same DATA step, enabling the writing of multiple observations based on certain conditions or calculations made earlier in the step.

For example, if you have a DATA step that processes data and generates multiple records based on different criteria or calculations, you can use the OUTPUT statement after each calculation or conditional check to ensure that those observations are properly saved to the new dataset being created.

This functionality provides significant flexibility in how data is managed and allows for more complex data manipulations. Therefore, the ability to write observations to a new dataset is a foundational feature that is essential for efficient data handling in SAS.