Which statement is true about the CATS function in SAS?

The CATS function in SAS is designed to concatenate character strings while automatically stripping both leading and trailing blanks from the input. This is essential for producing tidy output, ensuring that any unnecessary spaces before or after the actual content are removed.

When using CATS, you can input multiple strings, and the function will concatenate them into a single string without any extra spaces that might have been present at the beginning or end. This capability is significant in data preparation and cleaning, where precise string formatting is often required for further analysis or reporting.

The other choices do not accurately describe the functionality of the CATS function, as it does not merely trim leading blanks, nor does it remove all whitespace—it focuses specifically on leading and trailing spaces as part of its operation. Additionally, the assumption that it does not modify the input string is incorrect since it actively processes the strings to produce a modified concatenated output.