Which procedure is typically used to compute descriptive statistics?

The procedure that is typically used to compute descriptive statistics is PROC MEANS. This versatile procedure provides essential summary statistics for numeric data, such as mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, and the number of non-missing values. It can be used for both the entire dataset and for grouped data, depending on how it is applied.

PROC MEANS offers a range of options that allow the user to customize the output, such as specifying which statistics to compute, and it can also handle missing values in the data effectively, providing accurate calculations. This is especially useful in descriptive statistics where understanding the central tendency and variability of data is crucial.

In contrast, PROC CONTENTS is primarily used to obtain metadata about a dataset, such as variable names, types, and attributes. PROC PRINT is meant for displaying the contents of a dataset in a tabular format, and it does not perform any statistical calculations. Lastly, PROC STRUCTURE is not a commonly recognized procedure in SAS for descriptive statistics. Thus, PROC MEANS stands out as the appropriate choice for computing descriptive statistics.