I am pleased to announce that the documentation for the IMLPlus language is now available online. Previously, this resource was available only from within the SAS/IML Studio application. This documentation can now be accessed by anyone, regardless of whether they have installed SAS/IML Studio. As I have described previously, IMLPlus
Back in 2012 I advocated man-dog love and introduced you to my foster dog Mikey. While an endearing little fellow, Mikey did have a bit of a fabric fetish, so his new family has neither curtains nor tablecloths. Mikey's fetish was discovered while still in foster, when he tore the skirt off
A SAS user asked an interesting question on the SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics Support Forum. The question is: Does PROC SGPLOT support a way to display the slope of the regression line that is computed by the REG statement? Recall that the REG statement in PROC SGPLOT fits and displays
I’m a huge movie buff. I love all kinds of movies but sports films are at the top of my list. Field of Dreams is one of my favorites not only because it’s a great story but also because, in my opinion, it has one of the best movie lines.
If you're using SAS Enterprise Guide and you're not using custom tasks, you're missing out! Custom tasks are new features you can plug in – features that weren't originally packaged with the software. (And contrary to the Pulp-O-Mizer poster that I created, they do not come FROM OUTER SPACE. Usually.)
David Loshin explains how to integrate MDM with your data warehouse.
In a previous post, I described how to write a Windows PowerShell script to connect to a SAS Metadata Server. In this post, I'll show an example of something useful that you can do after you've established that connection. Specifically, I'll show how to "ask" the SAS Metadata Server about
The SAS/IML language has a curious syntax that enables you to specify a "repetition factor" when you initialize a vector of literal values. Essentially, the language enables you to specify the frequency of an element. For example, suppose you want to define the following vector: proc iml; x = {1
The war of business forecasting ideas is being waged in the trenches of the online discussion groups. Where else can great disagreement be exacerbated (and sometimes even resolved) by often civilized discussion, with participants from across the globe? One of the popular groups for business forecasting practitioners is Demand Planning, Sales Forecasting,
SAS Integration Technologies provides a flexible platform to create all types of apps, from simple utilities to full-blown applications. As part of the research for my SAS Global Forum 2013 paper (Create Your Own Client Apps Using SAS Integration Technologies), I've been trying to invent some useful examples that you
This week's tip is from Robert Carver and his book Practical Data Analysis with JMP. If you're a JMP user, be sure to take a look at additional bonus content from the book. The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Robert Carver and his book "Practical Data Analysis with JMP". Copyright © 2010, SAS
I'm sure that most of you have seen the really cool interactive Baby Name Voyager, right? If not, go have a look and try it out (be sure to plug in your name, and the names in your family, and so on). Here's a screen-capture: That's a pretty cool application! ...
I have previously written about how to use the "table" distribution to generate random values from a discrete probability distribution. For example, if there are 50 black marbles, 20 red marbles, and 30 white marbles in a box, the following SAS/IML program simulates random draws (with replacement) of 1,000 marbles:
David Loshin discusses master data model requirements.
Suppose that you have a SAS/IML matrix and you want to set each element of a submatrix to zero (or any other value). There is a simple syntax that accomplishes this task. If you subscript a matrix and do not specify a row, it means "use all rows." So, for
This week's tip is from Michael Raithel and his classic book The Complete Guide to SAS Indexes. Michael has a wealth of SAS experience and is a frequent and sought-out speaker at SAS Global Forum and regional user group conferences. If you get the opportunity to hear him speak, don't
Recently, I was having lunch with a city council member who shared a litany of comments about the outstanding job the city and its staff does in all areas of city operations. She remarked on how little the public understands about all the city does and how efficiently it’s done.
What are the odds of winning the lottery? This seems like a simple question (and yes, there is a simple answer), but there are a few technical details to work out first... Which lottery? Let's say the Powerball Lottery. When? The number of balls used in the Powerball lottery has
If you are like me, you've experienced the following frustration. You are reading the SAS/STAT documentation, trying to understand some procedure or option, when you find an example that is very similar to what you need. "Great," you think, "this example will help me understand how the SAS procedure works!"
John D. Cook shared a picture of "pretty squiggles" on his blog, as well as a prose description of the mathematics behind it. I'm more of a programmer than a mathematician, but I've attempted to transcribe his description into a SAS program. I used DATA step to generate the point
PROC DOCUMENT makes your life easier by giving you the freedom from the pre-determined order in which SAS stores procedure output. You can also label, manage, and search your output so that it is at your fingertips when you need it. You can learn what a DOCUMENT does and get
David Loshin explains the technical requirements for MDM/DW integration.
Suppose you have an old jalopy that's perfectly reliable. Your jalopy gets you where you wanna go: no frills; no drama. Do you trade your old wheels in for a racecar that accelerates like crazy and corners like it's on rails? Or stick with what's old and comfortable? Your choice
In linear algebra, the I symbol is used to denote an n x n identity matrix. The symbol J (or sometimes 1) is used to denote an n x p matrix of ones. When the SAS/IML language was implemented, the I function was defined to generate the identity matrix. The J function was defined
Netflix has made a big splash in the news with its use of big data. By analyzing millions of data points about the viewing habits of its customers, the movie delivery giant used the insight it gained to devise the "perfect show". One of the defining characteristics of the show,
This week's SAS tip is from Frederick Pratter and his book Web Development with SAS by Example, Third Edition. The many real-world examples in the book guide lend it to being frequently excerpted on this blog! Previously featured tips include: Formatting XML documents, Configuring TCP security, and SQL pass-through. The following excerpt is from SAS
Editor Len Tashman's Preview of Foresight Foresight has always presented its methods-based articles as either tutorials, which introduce and illustrate a methodology in nontechnical language, or as case studies, with a focus on the practical issues and challenges in generating forecasts. We lead off this issue with two practical issues articles. First, Stephan
Compare it to predicting the economy. So concludes an ABC News Australia story by finance reporter Sue Lannin, entitled "Economic forecasts no better than a random walk." The story covers a recent apology by the International Monetary Fund over its estimates for troubled European nations, and an admission by the
Für einige der genannten Veranstaltungen haben wir ein kleines Kontingent an Freikarten: Bei Interesse bitte einfach anschreiben. Unter anderem ist SAS auf folgenden Events präsent:
I like to think that I have a graph for all occasions - Chinese New Year is no exception! ... The exact date of the Chinese New Year varies from year to year, because it's based on the lunar (moon) cycles. I thought it would be useful to create a
