In previous articles, I've shared tips about how you can work with SAS and ZIP files without requiring an external tool like WinZip, gzip, or 7-Zip. I've covered: How to create ZIP files with ODS PACKAGE ZIP (available since SAS 9.2) How to "unzip" and read ZIP files using FILENAME
On a recent CBS Sunday Morning episode Dr. Phil McGraw of “Dr. Phil” fame was featured. During the segment he talked about shifting his focus from golf to tennis. To paraphrase, he said golf drove him crazy because he couldn’t bear down, run faster, sweat harder and be better. I
In my previous blog post I talked about how the rapid and varied growth of data calls for states to consider an enterprise analytics program, in the form of a Center of Analytics. This entry, first posted as an article on Government Executive's Route Fifty, gives the most important success
This is my second article about voice of customer analysis; you can find the first here. The first time we discussed that a simple sentiment polarity score was a rather a narrow view. This time we will examine a more insightful approach, using voice of customer analysis to monitor customers’ opinions
In der Vergangenheit hat sich die Agilität von BI-, Big Data- und Analytics- Anwendungen (Datenarchitekturen) als Erfolgsfaktor für Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichsten Branchen erwiesen. Gerade die Integration neuer Datenquellen in bestehende DWH-Architekturen und die daraus resultierenden Anpassungen resultieren in langwierigen Entwicklungsprozessen.
I took my first Uber ride recently. I was with a colleague and we were going into the office before dawn to finish a presentation we were making later that morning. As our Uber driver accelerated to merge onto the interstate, we heard a high-pitched whine and smelled hot metal
I've been doing some investigation into Apache Spark, and I'm particularly intrigued by the concept of the resilient distributed dataset, or RDD. According to the Apache Spark website, an RDD is “a fault-tolerant collection of elements that can be operated on in parallel.” Two aspects of the RDD are particularly
There’s been quite a lot of chatter lately about my Boston Red Sox and their recent shift ‘away’ from using analytics or ‘sabermetrics,’ as data science is often referred to in baseball (Jeff Passan, one of my favorite baseball writers, chimes in here – Forbes also commented that the Sox are
Have you ever found a graph of some interesting information, but the graph was difficult to understand (or even misleading). I strive to fix those graphs - this time it's a graph of US immigration data... I found the following immigration graph on the flowingdata website - it's a screen-capture of
Last week I showed how to create dummy variables in SAS by using the GLMMOD procedure. The procedure enables you to create design matrices that encode continuous variables, categorical variables, and their interactions. You can use dummy variables to replace categorical variables in procedures that do not support a CLASS
April 7, 2003 will go down in the history books for me. The streets of Syracuse, New York, were abuzz. I was a junior television major, and our men’s basketball team had just won its first NCAA basketball title. Our three-seed Orangemen had bested #2 Kansas in New Orleans, but the
With the upcoming appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice, I wondered just how liberal and conservative previous justices have been. I found some data, and tried my hand at creating a graph to help visualize it... In my quest for data, I came upon an article on the NYTimes
Data quality has always been relative and variable, meaning data quality is relative to a particular business use and can vary by user. Data of sufficient quality for one business use may be insufficient for other business uses, and data considered good by one user may be considered bad by others.
One of the first things SAS programmers learn is that SAS data sets can be specified in two ways. You can use a two-level name such as "sashelp.class" which uses a SAS libref (SASHELP) and a member name (CLASS) to specify the location of the data set. Alternatively, you can
Have you ever been in a meeting in which a presenter is showing content on a web page -- but the audience can't read it because it's too small? Then a guy sitting in the back of the room yells, "Control plus!". Because, as we all know (right?), "Ctrl+" is
The 88th Annual Academy Awards are coming up. Twitter will be on high alert Sunday night to hear who takes home the gold Oscar. To celebrate in our own special way, we want to highlight some of our amazing followers. Without further ado, here are our award-winning posts from the last year: Best
Companies in nearly every industry – from retailers and manufacturers to commercial airlines and health care providers – are all waking up to the opportunities in the Internet of Things. If you're still trying to understand how analyzing IoT data could benefit your business, read a few of the articles
When I was a kid, I remember being fascinated by the first moon landing. I probably won't ever get to explore the moon in person, but perhaps creating an interactive moon map is the next best thing! Before we get started, I wanted to share a couple of photos my co-worker
In a recent blog I wrote about how big data is a game changer for the insurance industry. But the question that is often asked “What is big data”? Many people associate big data with the 4 V’s: Volume – The sheer size of data that is produced. Velocity –
In transportation, when an asset is standing still, it is losing money. The same can be said for your business strategy: when you are standing still, you are not innovating or taking advantage of new ways to enhance efficiency or drive profitability. This is true in all industries. In the
In “Explaining statistical methods to the terrified & disinterested: A focus on metaphors”, I discuss the usefulness of metaphors for explaining abstract statistical concepts to non-technical readers. This is an approach taken in my new SAS Press book, Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS®, since many readers of this level
When the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking go on record warning about the dangers of AI, it’s probably prudent to take notice. However, before rushing off into full panic mode, some definitions and perspective would be in order. The type of artificial intelligence Musk and Hawking are referring
SAS programmers sometimes ask, "How do I create a design matrix in SAS?" A design matrix is a numerical matrix that represents the explanatory variables in regression models. In simple models, the design matrix contains one column for each continuous variable and multiple columns (called dummy variables) for each classification
I had the opportunity to interview an award-winning, fast-moving, consumer packaged goods (CPG) company in the early 2000’s. They were recognized as one of the best supply chain companies in the United States by all of the major retailers and their CPG peers. Indeed, it seemed every time a new
I recently presented a webinar (via the IAIDQ) on the topic of 7 Habits of Effective Data Quality Leaders. To prepare, I looked back at the many interviews of leading data quality practitioners I had undertaken over the years. A common trait among all these interviews stood out – they
If you're a worrier, you know there's a chance you could get bitten by a shark, or hit by a piece of falling satellite debris - these events are both possible, but not probable. Getting injured by a lawn mower, on the other hand, is something that could easily happen. With
There's a lot of chatter about analytics in the information security space. That’s actually a massive understatement. Analytics is a common buzzword, and if everyone's talking it, but how do you cut through all the noise? Who is doing what when it comes to analytics? It can be difficult to tell. As part of
A dummy variable (also known as indicator variable) is a numeric variable that indicates the presence or absence of some level of a categorical variable. The word "dummy" does not imply that these variables are not smart. Rather, dummy variables serve as a substitute or a proxy for a categorical
Asylum seekers not causing headaches for the UK’s Home Office may be hard to imagine. There are regular scare stories about asylum seekers and budget cuts, amid rising concerns over immigration and the strain its putting on the national infrastructure. But it needn’t mean headaches for policy makers and officials.
Last week I described how to use PROC IOMOPERATE to list the active SAS sessions that have been spawned in your SAS environment. I promised that I would share a custom task that simplifies the technique. Today I'm sharing that task with you. How to get the SAS Spawned Processes
