Seit 37 Jahren liefert SAS Innovationen im Bereich Analytics. Alle zwei bis drei Jahre stehen größere Renovierungen in der Plattform ins Haus - und dieses Jahr ist es wieder soweit. SAS verschafft der Unternehmens-IT mit der neuen Version seiner Business-Analytics-Plattform SAS 9.4 eine neue Basis für analytische Anwendungen. Grundlage hierfür
Do you have dozens (or even hundreds) of SAS data sets that you want to read into SAS/IML matrices? In a previous blog post, I showed how to iterate over a series of data sets and analyze each one. Inside the loop, I read each data set into a matrix
I travel to many conferences throughout the year, and I’ve heard a lot of keynote speeches. Many of them stick with me for a few hours. But one speech I heard three years ago stuck with me for weeks. And then I heard it again at a regional conference. I
Agile Business Intelligence ist aktuell in aller Munde. Ziel ist stets, Anforderungen des Fachbereiches schneller zu erfüllen, als dies mit herkömmlichen Entwicklungsverfahren möglich erscheint. Was jedoch unter agiler BI zu verstehen ist und wie sich diese Verfahren von den im Data Warehousing etablierten Vorgehensweisen unterscheiden, darüber herrscht im Markt wenig
From an Enterprise Guide user's perspective, a SAS library is a library. Whether it was defined in the autoexec or in the metadata or by magic, it is there for them to use with no issues. However, there is a difference as metadata defined libraries do not behave in the
One of my favorite features of SAS/IML 12.1 (released with 9.3m2) is that the USE and CLOSE statements support reading data set names that are specified in a SAS/IML matrix. The IMLPlus language in SAS/IML Studio has supported this syntax since the early 2000s, so I am pleased that this
This week's SAS tip is from Michele Burlew and her latest book SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy. Michele is the author of several extremely helpful SAS books. Visit her author page to read free chapters and for additional bonus content. The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Michele
The truncated normal distribution TN(μ, σ, a, b) is the distribution of a normal random variable with mean μ and standard deviation σ that is truncated on the interval [a, b]. I previously blogged about how to implement the truncated normal distribution in SAS. A friend wanted to simulate data
We’ve just published Decision Trees for Analytics Using SAS Enterprise Miner by Barry de Ville and Padraic Neville. Filled with many figures and examples, this comprehensive book has garnered strong early user reviews. We invited the authors to share a few words about their new book. Neville had this to
In previous versions of SAS, if you wanted to experiment with creating U.S. maps in Proc GMAP, there wasn't any good sample data available. Unless you had your own data available, you probably ended up using the maps.us x/y points as your DATA= ... which is sort of a nonsense
Each major SAS release contains new products and hundreds of new features and enhancements. So how do you discover the ones that will make the most difference for you? For SAS 9.4, the Publications team wants to help. For many years, Publications has produced a What’s New book that provides
This article describes how to implement the truncated normal distribution in SAS. Although the implementation in this article uses the SAS/IML language, you can also implement the ideas and formulas by using the DATA step and PROC FCMP. For reference, I recommend the Wikipedia article on the truncated normal distribution.
Over the past six months, my free time was devoted to training. This impacted my blog posting frequency but the training helped me successfully complete the inaugural Raleigh Ironman 70.3 in June. When thinking back through how this happened, I noticed many parallels to successfully implementing software for organizations. If
There are many techniques for generating random variates from a specified probability distribution such as the normal, exponential, or gamma distribution. However, one technique stands out because of its generality and simplicity: the inverse CDF sampling technique. If you know the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a probability distribution, then
How do you like your sandwich? On rye, whole wheat or white bread? What fillings and dressings do you like? You probably think I’ve gone completely crazy and I don’t blame you. What does food have to do with SAS, you say? Loads -- as you’ll find out with this
ODS graph styles provide users with an easy way to control things such as the colors and fonts used in a graph, freeing the user from having to specify these properties in their code. A lot of thought was given to picking colors that work well together, and look good. The
In a previous article I discussed how to bin univariate observations by using the BIN function, which was added to the SAS/IML language in SAS/IML 9.3. You can generalize that example and bin bivariate or multivariate data. Over two years ago I wrote a blog post on 2D binning in
You’ve probably caught on by now that I live in the DC-metro area and suffer daily through the misery of congestion. Before I even reach for my keys, I check for the latest information from regional transportation agencies, especially Metro, to devise my plan of attack. Going way beyond the
Die politische Steuerung hat einen ernsthaften Verlust an Zustimmung in der Bevölkerung zu verzeichnen: Die fortschreitende Abnahme der Wahlbeteiligung ist nur eine, wenngleich wohl die präsenteste, Auswirkung dieser Entwicklung. Zuweilen wird das schwindende Vertrauen von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in die Politik mit einer grundsätzlichen Abnahme des allgemeinen politischen Interesses in
It is often useful to partition observations for a continuous variable into a small number of intervals, called bins. This familiar process occurs every time that you create a histogram, such as the one on the left. In SAS you can create this histogram by calling the UNIVARIATE procedure. Optionally,
Did you know that more than 30,000 Americans die in traffic accidents every year? Interestingly, the U.S. import of mangoes from Brazil is found to be highly correlated with this fatality rate, as shown in the graph below. But are mango imports a good indicator of the future traffic fatality
This week's SAS tip is from Lauren Haworth, Cynthia L. Zender, and Michele Burlew's book Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond. This example-driven book includes broad coverage of some of the best features of ODS. To learn more about the book and the authors, visit our Web catalog to read
To say that I'm excited about the SAS 9.4 release is an understatement! For example, did you know that in SAS 9.4, you can write SAS/Graph output directly to a Powerpoint slide?!? This is definitely an item that was on my "wish list," and will no doubt make life a
SAS Forecast Server (release 12.3) is now shipping, and includes the new SAS Time Series Studio GUI. Time Series Studio (TSS), was released as "experimental" last August in 12.1, and is now in production. TSS provides an additional interface in Forecast Server, for time series data mining, exploration, and data preparation.
Are you still using the old RANUNI, RANNOR, RANBIN, and other "RANXXX" functions to generate random numbers in SAS? If so, here are six reasons why you should switch from these older (1970s) algorithms to the newer (late 1990s) Mersenne-Twister algorithm, which is implemented in the RAND function. The newer
SAS 9.3 already has smooth (anti-aliased) lines in SAS/GRAPH device=png output, and in SAS 9.4 you will also get smooth lines in your device=gif output (and gif animations)! Woo-hoo!!! Here are a couple of simple examples to demonstrate: The first example is device=gif Proc Gmap output. If you look very closely, you'll notice that
Mercifully, we have reached the final installment of Q&A from the June 20 Foresight-SAS webinar, "Forecast Value Added: A Reality Check on Forecasting Practices." As a reminder, a recording of the webinar is available for on-demand review, and the Foresight article (upon which the webinar was based) is available for free
The DELETE procedure is probably the most well-known and most-used SAS procedure that isn't actually documented or officially supported. That is, that was the case before the release of SAS 9.4, when PROC DELETE returns with more features than ever -- including a production-quality status. In his SAS Global Forum
Being an author can be a tough gig. Lots of writing, reviews, edits, cover approvals…the list goes on and on. But often the good times outweigh the tough times. And we’re so lucky that many of our authors have written more than one book for SAS Press. One such author
“How can we begin to make sense of the unstructured data, when we still don’t make the most of our structured data?” said the exasperated senior manager from a large retail firm. One of the great pleasures of my job is the relationship with students that continues after class has
