I'm currently at the SESUG conference with hundreds of SAS users. I've presented a few talks, and I've attended a few more. The presentation rooms can be large and dimly lit, and the projectors at these conference hotels are not always the brightest nor are they exactly "high def". To
There’s a lot of talk about the gap between the demand for analytics talent and the short supply. Jennifer Priestley of Kennesaw State led a panel at Analytics 2013 to discuss how universities are minding the gap. I caught up with her to ask what schools need to be doing
The third part of my data governance primer series addresses data quality analysis. Don’t even start a data quality analysis until you have completed the first two steps of your root cause analysis: investigate and prioritize any potential causative factors, then start your metadata assessment. Otherwise, you may be misled
SAS/IML programmers know that the VECDIAG matrix can be used to extract the diagonal elements of a matrix. For example, the following statements extract the diagonal of a 3 x 3 matrix: proc iml; m = {1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 8 9}; v = vecdiag(m); /* v = {1,5,9}
Another benefit of attending the Analytics conference is the SAS Training and SAS Certification exams offered before and after the conference. We interviewed an attendee who just finished the exam for his SAS Certified Predictive Modeler using SAS Enterprise Miner 7 credential. Here’s his advice for people interested in SAS Certifications.
The other day I showed how to check your data cardinality by using a simple SAS program. I also promised to provide a custom task that makes the process even easier within SAS Enterprise Guide. Today I'm delivering on that promise. I've just added the custom task to the support.sas.com
We are in the final countdown to the Analytics 2013 Conference to be held next week, October 21-22 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. There is a power-packed agenda for the conference, featuring four very strong keynote presentations from Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS; Ed Gaffin, Walt Disney World; Will Hakes,
This week's SAS tip is from Art Carpenter and his latest book Carpenter's Guide to Innovative SAS Techniques. A SAS user since 1977, Art is an integral and highly respected member of the user community. He's also the author of several outstanding SAS books--and you can explore them here. The following excerpt is from SAS
Der Anspruch des Konzeptes Business Intelligence ist, Entscheidungen auf Fakten zu stellen und bessere Entscheidungen zu treffen. In den Anfangszeiten von Business Intelligence hat man dabei eine Frage vernachlässigt: Welche Fähigkeiten und Unterstützung braucht man, um erfolgreich, effektiv und effizient mit Business Intelligence-Konzepten und Werkzeugen arbeiten zu können?
In my last post I discussed one of the important traits that I feel truly great data stewards possess – the ability to effect change. Today I want to talk about how you actually identify, train and nurture everyday workers into the role of data stewards. Most organisations don’t have
This article is about rotating matrices. No, I don't mean "rotation matrices," I mean rotating matrices. As in turning a matrix 90 degrees in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. I was reading a program written in MATLAB in which the programmer used a MATLAB function called ROT90, which rotates a
Although the NSA and news media have given metadata a bad name in the popular press, the fact remains that information about the nature of your data is extremely valuable. For example, I posted an article yesterday about data cardinality. Cardinality measures the uniqueness of values in a variable. Cardinality
This robin chick chirped away in my backyard on a glorious summer afternoon. While papa robin hovered above, the chick hopped on ground following Dad. Soon Dad disappeared after leading the chick to a tree where two gray squirrels smacked their lips at the sight of an easy lunch. Lifting
Welcome to another installment of my blog series Data Preparation and Data Quality on the Road. The main actors here are my two SAS books Data Preparation for Analytics Using SAS (DP) and Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS (DQ), who are allowed to accompany me to many conferences, SAS
As you've probably guessed, I'm a "visual" person - I like to see things (in a chart/graph/map) rather than just reading about them (in a data table and summary statistic). Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of statistics and analytics -- but I'm an even bigger fan of
If you have been reading the articles in this blog, you already know that the Graph Template Language (GTL) forms the underlying foundation for all graphs produced automatically from SAS analytical procedures and custom graphs created with the SG Procedures and the ODS Graphics Designer. SG procedures and Designer provide
Data cardinality is an important topic for for data analysis. In mathematical terms, cardinality is simply the number of elements in a set. But in data applications, cardinality signifies the number of unique values for a given field of data. Related terms include number of levels (thank you, PROC FREQ
On Kaiser Fung's Junk Charts blog, he showed a bar chart that was "published by Teach for America, touting its diversity." Kaiser objected to the chart because the bar lengths did not accurately depict the proportions of the Teach for America corps members. The chart bothers me for another reason:
The demand for SAS Certifications has never been bigger. The number of SAS Certifications awarded has doubled over the last three years and in August the program had its biggest month ever with 1,195 certifications awarded. Here’s another impressive stat. More than 59,000 SAS Certifications have been awarded since the
The Inside SAS Global Forum video series has been officially launched for 2014. Yes, the conference is still several months away, but it is not too soon to plan! Your first item of business: submit your proposal for content. Then next: register for the conference. Anna Brown and I provide
Should you ever guess on the SAT® or PSAT standardized tests? My son is getting ready to take the preliminary SAT (PSAT), which is a practice test for the SAT. A teacher gave his class this advice regarding guessing: For a multiple-choice questions, if you can eliminate one or two
My aunt Susanne is an elderly lady, who lives at the countryside and looks forward to celebrating her 80th birthday soon. Since the 1960's she has had a telephone connection with her fixed line provider. At that time, and for many years later, in the country where my aunt lives,
In this quarter's installment of the SAS/Foresight Webinar Series, Steve Morlidge will discuss his promising new approach to evaluating the "Avoidability of Forecast Error." Based on his article in the Summer 2013 issue of Foresight, and examined in a four-part series on The BFD blog (Part 1, Part 2, Part
With Data Stewards Day fast approaching I started to reminisce about the many data stewards I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past. What struck me was just how many people take on the role of data steward - but under the guise of conventional roles. For example,
This week's SAS tip is from Michael Tuchman and his innovative book PROC DOCUMENT by Example Using SAS. Michael's book fills an important gap. For instance, in her review of the book, SAS user and senior statistical analyst Wendi Wright said: "Currently, I believe PROC DOCUMENT is a highly underused procedure and after reading
Want to know the secrets to landing a job as an analytics professional? I went straight to the source – the expert speakers of Analytics 2013 to find out. Here’s some of their advice… What advice would you give students considering a job in analytics and those already in the
In my last blog post I described how to implement a "runs test" in the SAS/IML language. The runs test determines whether a sequence of two values (for example, heads and tails) is likely to have been generated by random chance. This article describes two applications of the runs test.
Is big data becoming too big to ignore? An increasing number of organizations seem to think so. As Matt Asay on ReadWriteWeb writes: According to a recent Gartner report, 64% of enterprises surveyed indicate that they're deploying or planning Big Data projects (emphasis mine). Yet even more acknowledge that they
While walking in the woods, a statistician named Goldilocks wanders into a cottage and discovers three bears. The bears, being hungry, threaten to eat the young lady, but Goldilocks begs them to give her a chance to win her freedom. The bears agree. While Mama Bear and Papa Bear block
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