What is the Program Data Vector (PDV)? What are its functions?

Answer Posted / raj

It is a logical area in memory where SAS builds a data set,
one observation at a time. When a program executes, SAS
reads data values from the input buffer or creates them by
executing SAS language statements. The data values are
assigned to the appropriate variables in the program data
vector. From here, SAS writes the values to a SAS data set
as a single observation.
Along with data set variables and computed variables, the
PDV contains two automatic variables, _N_ and _ERROR_. The
_N_ variable counts the number of times the DATA step
begins to iterate. The _ERROR_ variable signals the
occurrence of an error caused by the data during execution.
The value of _ERROR_ is either 0 (indicating no errors
exist), or 1 (indicating that one or more errors have
occurred). SAS does not write these variables to the output
data set.

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