Robert Allison
Robert Allison RSS
The Graph Guy!

Robert has worked at SAS for over 20 years, and is perhaps the foremost expert in creating custom graphs using SAS/GRAPH. His educational background is in Computer Science, and he holds a BS, MS, and PhD from NC State University. He is the author of several conference papers, has won a few graphic competitions, and has written a book (SAS/GRAPH: Beyond the Basics).

Recent Posts

Visualizing NFL fans on a map, based on Facebook ‘like’ data

Are you an NFL fan, or curious about analyzing social media data? -- Well, in either case, this blog's for you! I recently read a ... Read More

Creating fancy 'infographics' with SAS

I haven't seen an official definition of 'infographic' that I really like ... but in my mind it's something 1/2 way between data visualization & ... Read More

Basketball tournaments, Moneyball, and sports analytics

A big part of  "winning" these days (be it sports or a business) is performing analytics better than your competition.  This is demonstrated in awe-inspiring fashion ... Read More

Census block maps in SAS

I've heard many customers ask "Can SAS do/use/handle census block maps?" My answer was "of course!" ... but I never really had any examples to ... Read More

Death and taxes (a visual analysis)

It's said that the only things you can't avoid are Death and Taxes ... Well, in this blog, I'm going to avoid the "Death" one ... Read More

SAS analysis of the #1 most popular baby names

I'm sure that most of you have seen the really cool interactive Baby Name Voyager, right?  If not, go have a look and try it out ... Read More

What are the odds of ... winning the lottery?

What are the odds of winning the lottery?  This seems like a simple question (and yes, there is a simple answer), but there are a ... Read More

A SAS graph for the Chinese New Year

I like to think that I have a graph for all occasions - Chinese New Year is no exception! ... This year, the Chinese New ... Read More

Tracking tornadoes with SAS

We had some fierce wind storms all across the United States yesterday, which even spawned some tornadoes! It looks like we weathered the storm ... Read More

A neat new trick to trim your macro variables in 9.3

SAS macro variables are a great way to store a calculated value, so you can use it later in your code.  They are not just limited to ... Read More