Which procedure is used for descriptive statistical analysis in SAS?

The procedure used for descriptive statistical analysis in SAS is PROC MEANS. This procedure calculates various statistics such as mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, and other descriptive measures for numeric variables within a dataset. It provides a quick and simple way to summarize data, which is essential in exploratory data analysis.

PROC MEANS is particularly useful because it offers options for different statistics and can group data by specified categories to provide insights across subsets of the data. This makes it an invaluable tool for researchers and analysts who need to understand the basic characteristics of their datasets before conducting further analysis.

In contrast, PROC SGPLOT is focused on creating graphical representations of data rather than calculating statistics, PROC FORMAT is used primarily for defining custom formats for data display rather than statistical analysis, and PROC REPORT is designed for generating reports and outputting data in custom formats rather than performing actual data analysis. Therefore, PROC MEANS stands out as the correct choice for conducting descriptive statistical analysis.