Jim Simon
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Principal Technical Training Consultant

Jim Simon is a principal instructor, course author, and curriculum manager for SAS Education. Jim has a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s degree from California State University at Northridge. Prior to joining the SAS Irvine office in 1988, Jim was an instructor at Ventura College and a SAS programmer at The Medstat Group in Santa Barbara. Jim’s areas of specialization include the DATA step, application development, web enablement, and the SAS macro language. A native of Southern California, Jim enjoys anything in the warm California sun. On weekends, Jim loves jumping in his Corvette, turning up the stereo, and cruising Pacific Coast Highway, top down, South to Laguna Beach or North to his old home town of Santa Barbara.

Recent Posts

Coding in the fast lane with data-driven macro calls

Jim Simon|March 11, 201312110
The simple PRINT macro below prints a selected dataset: %macro print(data=&syslast,obs=5); proc print data=&data(obs=&obs); title "%upcase(&data)"; run; %mend print; Suppose you ... Read More

Time to trade in your jalopy macro?

Jim Simon|February 11, 201325939
Suppose you have an old jalopy that's perfectly reliable.  Your jalopy gets you where you wanna go: no frills; no drama. Do you trade your ... Read More

Don’t let your macros crash and burn

Jim Simon|December 4, 201212660
Your macro just crashed and burned.  So, what's the problem?  Let’s take a look: The text OR in the code above was misinterpreted as a ... Read More

SAS 9.3 macro SQL trick

Jim Simon|November 15, 201235854
Suppose you need to create a numbered series of macro variables, one macro variable per row, from an SQL query. Suppose you magically know in advance ... Read More

Macro programmers: watch out for the Dead Man's Curve!

Jim Simon|October 22, 201240696
In my previous blog post, I mentioned that I love the power of the SAS macro language and the power of my yellow Corvette. Now, ... Read More

The SAS Macro Language: Powerful as a Corvette!

Jim Simon|September 27, 201229562
I love the power of my Corvette and the power of the SAS macro language.  That is why, for the past 12 months, when not ... Read More

DATALINES Step Boundary

Jim Simon|July 6, 201240994
Know your step boundaries! Will the DATA Step below execute as is? data a; infile 'c:\temp\myfile.txt'; input x y z; No.  A RUN ... Read More

A time-saving coding tip: leverage the SAS macro facility

Jim Simon|February 28, 201248143
Hi!  My name is Jim.  I’m a SAS instructor based in Irvine, CA.  I spend a lot of time each year teaching students in CA and across ... Read More