Over the holidays I was having a discussion with my cat, Ms. Trixie Lou. A question that often arises during the first programming class is the following: how do I find the variables that are in common to these two or three data sets? As it turns out, Ms. Trixie
Tag: tips and tricks
Wondering why technology is such a big deal and why working with SAS will be in demand forever? The great blackout of Toronto in 2003 proved that so well. We could barely survive without electricity for a whole day. While breakdowns make us acutely aware of our dependence, technology also
There are some situations where you need to create a new data item based on different conditions. To do this, you need to use the CASE statement available in the Expression Editor window. Watch SAS Instructor, Lynn Matthews, give a step-by-step tutorial. You can learn about this topic and more
One of my students emailed me, asking how to easily reset SAS system options. He was looking for a one-liner solution, just like you get with graphic options: GOPTIONS RESET; While there isn't a RESET keyword for the OPTIONS statement, you can save your options settings before making changes using
When working with "big data" you usually have too many points to view in a plot, and end up subsetting or summarizing the data. But now, in SAS 9.3, you have an alternative! For example, the following scatter plot of 10,000+ points is just a visual "blob": But using a new
In the previous episode, we built our own custom SAS function - a masterful trick indeed. Gordon Keener, a developer here at SAS, responded exuberantly "You think that's cool? - try THIS!" and proceeded to demonstrate prodigious powers with the SAS by using a custom function in a custom informat
A SAS user (who lives in the the US) emailed me a question about SAS functions. He was reading UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) datetime values from server logs, and to make future calculations and comparisons easier, he wanted to transform the value to local datetime. The INTNX() function worked great, but
Several years ago, my husband and I were remodeling our first house together. We decided we wanted to have cable television upstairs. Being young, foolish and lacking in disposable income, we decided to do it ourselves. My husband said he would run the cable through the attic and drop it
The 25 boys I teach on Sundays loved these cupcakes I baked for them for Easter… the sugared peeps had them completely satisfied. I love my tea or coffee laced with sugar. I think you‘d all agree that it is always more pleasant to meet a nice customer service person
In the Star Wars movie, Obi-wan could just wave his hand, mutter a few words, and the stormtroopers would "move along". How the power of the Force makes ridding yourself of problematic characters so much easier! I recently was invited to become an alternate instructor for Ron Cody’s SAS Business