OUTPUT Statement

OUTPUT OUT= SAS-data-set <options> ;

You use the OUTPUT statement to save a design in an output data set. By default, the saved design is the best design found. You specify the data set name as follows:

OUT=SAS-data-set

gives a name for the output data set. The OUT= data set is required in the OUTPUT statement.

The following options can be used:

BLOCKNAME=variable-name

specifies the name to be given to the blocking variable in the output data set. The default name is BLOCK. You can use this option in conjunction with a STRUCTURE= option in the BLOCKS statement. See Example 14.7 for an example.

NUMBER=design-number

selects a design to output by specifying its design-number. Designs are ordered by the value of the efficiency criterion that is being optimized. Thus, a design-number of 1 corresponds to the best design found, a design-number of 2 corresponds to the second best design, and so on. The default design-number is 1. To modify the number of designs created, see the ITER= option.

Alternatively, you can specify one of the following:

NUMBER=DBEST

selects the design that has the highest D-efficiency value.

NUMBER=ABEST

selects the design that has the highest A-efficiency value.

NUMBER=GBEST

selects the design that has the highest G-efficiency value.

NUMBER=VBEST

selects the design that has the minimum average standard error for prediction.

These options can be used to find designs that are efficient for more than one criterion For example, you can use the default CRITERION=D option in the GENERATE statement with the NUMBER=GBEST option in the OUTPUT statement to find the D-optimal design that has maximal G-efficiency. In fact, this is the best way to use the OPTEX procedure to find G-efficient designs; see the section G- and I-optimality for more details.