Making information accuracy BAU
Dylan Jones (@dataqualitypro) shares an example of why data quality should be a business-as-usual practice.
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Turn off ODS when running simulations in SAS
In my article "Simulation in SAS: The slow way or the BY way," I showed how to use BY-group processing rather than a macro loop in order to efficiently analyze simulated data with SAS. In the example, I analyzed the simulated data by using PROC MEANS, and I use the
Using fast food prices as an index of purchasing power
I recently read an interesting article in The Economist, where they describe "The Big Mac index." This is an index they invented as a lighthearted guide to compare currencies in different countries. In their article they create a multi-panel display (similar to a dashboard) where they compare the index for several countries using
Timing performance improvements due to vectorization
Last week I discussed a program that had three nested loops that used scalar operations in the innermost loop. I mentioned that this program was not vectorized, and would therefore be slow in a matrix language such as SAS/IML, MATLAB, or R. I then went through a series of steps
Export and download any file from SAS Enterprise Guide
Last week I alluded to some very useful applications of the Copy Files task. This is one of them. If you have SAS Enterprise Guide 7.13 or later, the Copy Files task is in the Tasks->Data menu. In earlier versions, you'll have to download/install the task as a custom task.
Ways to multiply in the SAS/IML language
For programmers who are learning the SAS/IML language, it is sometimes confusing that there are two kinds of multiplication operators, whereas in the SAS DATA step there is only scalar multiplication. This article describes the multiplication operators in the SAS/IML language and how to use them to perform common tasks
Special steps for installing the custom tasks that you download
Recent versions of SAS Enterprise Guide (version 5.1 and later) use Microsoft .NET 4.0, which enforces additional security requirements before running custom task DLLs that you download from the Web, including those that you download from support.sas.com. Because these task DLLs are downloaded from the (big and scary) Internet, the
Value-added myth busting, Part 4: Value-added models cannot measure growth of students who have missing data or are highly mobile
Students with missing test scores are often highly mobile students and are more likely to be low-achieving students. It is important to include these students in any growth/value-added model to avoid selection bias, which could provide misleading growth estimates to districts, schools and teachers that serve higher populations of these
An FTP-style task in SAS Enterprise Guide: user-driven fixes
A few months ago I released the Copy Files task for use with SAS Enterprise Guide. The task allows you to transfer any files between your PC and a SAS Workspace session, much like an FTP process. It doesn't rely on FTP though; it uses a combination of SAS code,
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 fascinating Facebook article that included a U.S. county map showing which NFL (U.S. football) team had the most 'likes' in each county (based on ~35 million
Top 3 reasons to learn PROC TEMPLATE
We’re just coming back from SAS Global Forum, and what a show! SAS Books was there to provide users with the highest-quality resources for learning SAS, and our users were there to tell us what new books they were most looking forward to reading. Kevin Smith's PROC TEMPLATE Made Easy:
How to vectorize computations in a matrix language
Last week someone posted an interesting question to the SAS/IML Support Community. The problem involved four nested DO loops and took hours to run. By transforming several nested DO loops into an equivalent matrix operation, I was able to reduce the run time to about one second. The process of
Use regression for a univariate analysis? Yes!
I've conducted a lot of univariate analyses in SAS, yet I'm always surprised when the best way to carry out the analysis uses a SAS regression procedure. I always think, "This is a univariate analysis! Why am I using a regression procedure? Doesn't a regression require at least two variables?"
A three-panel visualization of a distribution
At a recent conference, I talked with a SAS customer who told me that he was using an R package to create a three-panel visualization of a distribution. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the name of the package, and he has not returned my e-mails, so the purpose of today's article
SAS Enterprise Guide: for all of the hats that you wear, you're covered
Even though it's been around for well over a decade, SAS Enterprise Guide was still a hot topic among attendees at SAS Global Forum this year. In the Technology Connection -- the big session on Monday morning -- SAS R&D staff used the conference agenda content to demonstrate the power
Customers and connectivity
David Loshin (@davidloshin) discusses the importance of social media analytics.
Forecasting webinars
"Why Should I Trust Your Forecasts?" now available on-demand The SAS / Foresight webinar series had a rousing kickoff on April 24, with Paul Goodwin asking (and answering) the question, "Why Should I Trust Your Forecasts?" The webinar is now available for free on-demand review . Be sure to stick
Guest Blogger: Len Tashman previews Spring 2013 issue of Foresight
Editor Len Tashman's Preview of Foresight For a look at articles in the Spring issue of Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, here is editor Len Tashman's preview: Kevin Foley is an IIF–Certified Forecaster with over 15 years of consultant experience in defense and aerospace companies. Drawing on this
Compute confidence intervals for percentiles in SAS
PROC UNIVARIATE has provided confidence intervals for standard percentiles (quartiles) for eons. However, in SAS 9.3M2 (featuring the 12.1 analytical procedures) you can use a new feature in PROC UNIVARIATE to compute confidence intervals for a specified list of percentiles. To be clear, percentiles and quantiles are essentially the same
See SAS (=Stark Industries) in Iron Man 3
When you work at headquarters of the leader in advanced analytics software, you never know who you'll encounter in the lobby. It might be celebrity statistician (and New York Times FiveThirtyEight blogger) Nate Silver, of The Signal and the Noise and election forecasting fame. It might be Donald Wheeler, giant
Als Business Analyst bereits jetzt die Zukunft erleben! Ein Blogbeitrag über Vollbeschäftigung #afa
Ein Beitrag zur Blogparade der FAZ "Vollbeschäftigung in Deutschland – was bedeutet das?" Deutschland steuert mit großen Schritten auf die Vollbeschäftigung zu: Die Babyboomer, die den Arbeitsmarkt gefüllt haben, gehen nach und nach in Rente. Gleichzeitig wachsen immer weniger junge Leute nach. Was bedeutet das? Wie wird sich Deutschland verändern?
Data visualization can help state transportation leaders drive infrastructure improvements
In my last blog, I discussed the growing commitment among governors to infrastructure investment, and to coming up with innovative ways to find dollars to fund the needed improvements to the transportation network. I heard it over and over again during the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in January
Getting schooled on measurement
Are your data quality metrics making the important measurable instead of making the measurable important?
SAS Global Forum shows "Strength in Numbers"
What a conference so far... SAS Global Forum is now in full swing, and the two big sessions (Opening Session last night, and the Tech Session this morning) have been packed with impressive material. The attendees I've spoken with have been suitably impressed and enthused. You can view the sessions
Understanding local and global variables in the SAS/IML language
The TV show Cheers was set in a bar "where everybody knows your name." Global knowledge of a name is appealing for a neighborhood pub, but not for a programming language. Most programming languages enable you to define functions that have local variables: variables whose names are known only inside
Where to start with overloading
Dylan Jones (@dataqualitypro) explains how data overloading occurs -- and how to find a better solution.
The new book on my desk
In my constant effort to keep pace with Chris Hemedinger, I am pleased to announce the availability of my new book, Simulating Data with SAS. Chris started a tradition for SAS Press authors to post a photo of themselves with their new book. Thanks to everyone who helped with the
SAS Global Forum Take-Out: Fast food for your SAS appetite
SAS Global Forum is like a BIG buffet of SAS knowledge, all served up in just a few days. There are so many good presentations and activities, but you cannot fit them all on your plate. You have to choose. To make the choices easier, the SAS Global Forum committee
How to overlay a custom density curve on a histogram in SAS
I've previously described how to overlay two or more density curves on a single plot. I've also written about how to use PROC SGPLOT to overlay custom curves on a graph. This article describes how to overlay a density curve on a histogram. For common distributions, you can overlay a
