| options | comment lines | actions |
| -A (-M) | // label (modification) | - automatic generation of variable names and formats (SAS informats) - parsing of labels and possibly modifications on comment lines |
| -U (-M) | // variable format (modification) | - automatic generation of labels - parsing of variable names, (in)formats and possibly modifications on comment lines |
| -A -U (-M) | // (modification) | parsing of modifications, if there are any |
| -H | // (variable) (label) (format) modification | only modifications are parsed; using option -M is no longer necessary |