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Let's call the whole thing off

By Chris Hemedinger on The SAS Dummy June 11, 2010 Topics | Programming Tips

What do you do when you and your spouse are both SAS users, but one of you likes to point-and-click and the other really likes to write SAS programs? Is it possible to share a SAS environment, or are these irreconcilable differences that can lead only to a nasty custody battle over the data sets you've produced together?

It doesn't have to end badly. Mark Stevens shares a poignant anecdote on the SAS Training Post.

At SAS, we can JOIN much more than tables. In the words of an anonymous SAS poet:

data Marriage (Keep=Wife Happy);
  merge programmer non_programmer;
run;

About Author

Chris Hemedinger
Director, SAS User Engagement

+Chris Hemedinger is the Director of SAS User Engagement, which includes our SAS Communities and SAS User Groups. Since 1993, Chris has worked for SAS as an author, a software developer, an R&D manager and a consultant. Inexplicably, Chris is still coasting on the limited fame he earned as an author of SAS For Dummies.

6 Comments

Mark Stevens on June 11, 2010 9:34 am

Ah, the geeky goodness of a code joke, I love it. And thanks for the trackback, Chris.
Chris on June 11, 2010 9:37 am

Credit to Elizabeth C. for finishing out the programmer poem with the essential MERGE.
John Johnson on June 11, 2010 10:17 am

WARNING: No BY in MERGE statement.

Unexpected results may occur.
Phil Holland on June 13, 2010 4:57 pm

BY mutual_tolerance;

or

BY mutual_cooperation;
Howard Lethbridge on June 23, 2010 9:49 am

Try adding

BY hook_or_by_crook;

else you might get premature termination.
PJ Welsh on July 1, 2010 4:49 pm

You forgot:

data marriage(keep=marriage happy
drop=husband);