Master data model requirements
David Loshin discusses master data model requirements.
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The book writing business: Sanjay Matange explains how becoming an author helped his career
Last month, I talked to Emmett Cox about finding time to write his Wiley and SAS Business Series book. Like Emmett, many of our authors were already tops in their field when they became a SAS Press author. Sanjay Matange, Senior Software Manager in SAS R&D, was already quite well-known
Empty subscripts: How to fill rows and columns of a matrix
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
SAS author's tip: Creating a composite index for a new SAS table
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
Old ways of local government communication not enough in today’s tech-driven world
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?
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
Documenting statistics: A trip down memory lane
SAS is celebrating the International Year of Statistics. Thinking about the importance of statistics in our lives and in my professional life, takes me for a moment down memory lane. I came to SAS a LONG time ago because I had a Master’s degree in Statistics and SAS wanted someone
How to access any program or data set that appears in the SAS/STAT documentation
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!"
Mathematical squiggles in SAS
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
3 ways PROC DOCUMENT can make your life easier
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
Technical requirements for MDM/DW Integration
David Loshin explains the technical requirements for MDM/DW integration.
Time to trade in your jalopy macro?
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
How the J function got its name
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
If Netflix had used my viewing history to create its new show
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,
SAS author's tip: SAS/ACCESS interface to Microsoft SQL server
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
Guest Blogger: Len Tashman previews Winter 2013 issue of Foresight
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
How to make weather forecasting look good
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
SAS-Termine 2013 - Highlights
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:
A SAS graph for the Chinese New Year
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
Find variables common to multiple data sets
Last week the SAS Training Post blog posted a short article on an easy way to find variables in common to two data sets. The article used PROC CONTENTS (with the SHORT option) to print out the names of variables in SAS data sets so that you can visually determine
Business forecasting effectiveness at the APICS Triangle Chapter (February 12)
If you happen to be in Raleigh, NC next Tuesday evening, please come out for the APICS Triangle Chapter professional development meeting, 6:00-8:00 pm. While I can't make any promises about the caliber of the evening's speaker (me), you are assured a good meal and good conversation with representatives from
A database professional’s best friend
To optimize a Structured Query Language (SQL), the database professional must befriend this order and perhaps even embrace it. Who is your best friend? I’m talking about the order in which SQL processes your statements. Simply put, in what order does SQL do your work? (From my previous post you
Hats and apps on tap for my #SASGF13
When I travel to San Francisco in April for SAS Global Forum 2013, it will make my 12th time to attend the international SAS users group conference, and my 7th consecutive year. A lot of people assume that I automatically go every year, but the truth is that SAS employees
Simulate discrete variables by using the "Table" distribution
I wanted to write a blog post about the "Table distribution" in SAS. The Table distribution, which is supported by the RAND and the RANDGEN function, enables you to specify the probability of selecting each of k items. Therefore you can use the Table distribution to sample, with replacement, from
Why "soft skills" are so important in analytics....and how to learn them
How many analytical projects have foundered due to lack of problem definition and other soft skills? As my SAS colleague Sascha Schubert writes, people and process matter, in addition to great technology. Great technology is a great first step, but having the right people following the right process is critically important.
SAS author's tip: Outlier detection with ARIMA(X) models
This week's tip is from Gerhard Svolba and his book Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS. Gerhard is a product manager and pre-sales consultant at SAS in Austria, where he specializes in analytics and customer intelligence. Visit his author page to learn more about him and his work. The following excerpt is
5 things you'll learn how to do with Implementing CDISC Using SAS
For decades, researchers and programmers have used SAS to analyze, summarize, and report clinical trial data. Now Chris Holland and Jack Shostak have written the first comprehensive book on applying clinical research data and metadata to the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards. What does this mean for you—the
Tracking tornadoes with SAS
We had some fierce wind storms all across the United States yesterday, which even spawned some tornadoes! It looks like we weathered the storm OK here in Cary (but I still need to run out to the lake and make sure my pontoon/houseboat is still there, agh!). Anyway ... as with other
Tracking progress in your program with SAS Enterprise Guide: another trick
I've got a new trick that you can use to track progress in a long-running SAS program, while using SAS Enterprise Guide. I've previously written about the SYSECHO statement and how you can use it to update the Task Status window with custom messages. SYSECHO is a "global" statement in
An easy way to find variables in common to data sets
Over the holidays I was having a discussion with my cat, Ms. Trixie Lou. A question that often arises during the first programming class is the following: how do I find the variables that are in common to these two or three data sets? As it turns out, Ms. Trixie