This week's SAS tip is from Don Henderson and his book Building Web Applications with SAS/IntrNet. A SAS user since 1975, Don was one of the original developers for the SAS/IntrNet Application Dispatcher. The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Don Henderson and his book "Building Web Applications with SAS/IntrNet: A Guide to the
Goha, an Egyptian male folk character, has been often used to convey wise nuggets in the fashion of Aesop's Fables, with a satirical twist. So Goha was once found, at his wits end, looking for his donkey. A passer-by notices his befuddlement and the following dialogue ensues. - "Goha, what's
Dylan Jones (@dataqualitypro) explains why data migration should be a keystone of your data transformation.
The League of Analytic Heroes is growing. With the addition of each new member, we are better able to combat the chaos of big data. Illumino and Magnacomm are eager to welcome their newest team member. Keep your eyes on www.analyticheroes.com for his arrival. He's already got his eye on
You may have received the announcement that Carpenter’s Guide to Innovative SAS Techniques has just released as an eBook through the Apple iBookstore. Over the years, we’ve received feedback from SAS users that they would like more flexibility in how they purchase their SAS Press content. With Art’s book, we’re
Wouldn’t it be great if we could predict the future? As a kid, I liked to write sci-fi stories. I wrote stories about what the year 2000 would be like: flying cars, robots, and talking dogs. OK, I won’t admit what year I was actually writing these stories, but back
Detecting and preventing fraud isn't easy. Many tools and techniques are required, and while the digital age and advanced technologies have made fraud much easier in many ways, those same technologies have opened up new ways to combat it. One of those comes in the form of social network analysis,
What do SAS technology partners think about the “big data” craze? Is it real or hype? And if it's real, what skills do you need to embrace big data opportunities? At our upcoming events, Analytics 2012 and The Premier Business Leadership Series, you’ll get the opportunity to ask these questions of our partners in
Dear Miss SAS Answers, I have read through a few Dear Miss SAS Answers blog posts, but I cannot seem to find what I am looking for. I need to extract only the second duplicate from a whole list of duplicates per account number. Is there a way to
With the US presidential election looming, all eyes are on the Electoral College. In the presidential election, each state gets as many votes in the Electoral College as it has representatives in both congressional houses. (The District of Columbia also gets three electors.) Because every state has two senators, it
Last week I attended a meeting of the Toronto Area SAS Society. (Okay, I didn't just attend; I was a presenter as well.) This user group meeting contained a feature that I had never seen before: "Solutions to the Posed Problem". Weeks before the meeting, an "open problem" was posted
Avast Mateys! Did you know that International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up?!? (September 19) Here's the official website, if you'd like more info. And what better way to get into the spirit of things than to use SAS/GRAPH to plot some real pirate data - Arrrr!!! Here's
Contrary to popular belief, utility executives are ramping up for “big data” in a “big way.” This industry, which historically focused on operational technologies like pole-mounted hardware, is making a big shift to information technologies to support initiatives such as distribution optimization and fraud detection. We recently invited senior utility
Who says anyone is an expert at something? I definitely do not when it comes to SAS (well, anything for that matter). Each time I sit through a presentation at a conference I learn something new. During the SAS Western Users Conference, fondly know as WUSS, this month I learned
Ron Cody’s newest book, Cody's Collection of Popular SAS Programming Tasks and How to Tackle Them, is already getting high marks from early reviewers. Gerry Hobbs (West Virginia University), says, “This is an excellent book that deserves a place on every SAS professional’s bookcase.” Long-time SAS user Andrew T. Kuligowski
The ability to manage cross channel customer interactions is no doubt a critical part of business strategies. Business strategies that focus on continually improving customer loyalty, constantly reducing marketing costs, and always communicating consistently and efficiently with customers will always rely on managing cross channel customer interactions effectively. In order
If you use a word three times, it's yours. -Unknown When I was a child, my mother used to encourage me to increase my vocabulary by saying, "If you use a word three times, it's yours for life." I believe that the same saying holds for programming techniques: Use a
A week ago, SAS "wusses" got together in Long Beach, California for another successful WUSS conference. Personally, I really enjoy all SAS user conferences as it gives me an opportunity to see the creative ways in which SAS users are exploiting our software. One such case was the paper "Power
I recently read an excellent research report by the IAB and Forrester titled Digital Attribution Comes of Age (full disclosure, SAS was a sponsor). In the paper, they talked specifically about improved multichannel measurement, data driven decision making and media buying leverage for marketers. Attribution, for me, is the natural evolution of marketing mix modelling
Did you ever experience a time where you hear or see the same thing over and over again? Whether you chalk it up to coincidence, immersion or saturation, you clearly start seeing the same ideas or topics discussed in multiple places. Lately, I have been hearing about the topic of
Manfred Kiefer is a Globalization Specialist for SAS and the author of SAS Encoding: Understanding the Details. This week's tip is from his new book. In a review, Edwin Hart said "This book provides a very readable description of a topic that has long needed exposure: Why do my characters get
Government pensions at the state and local government level have come under attack in recent years over their viability. Much of this attack has been political and is being used to go after unions and pensioners who tend to support one party or another. State and local governments work hard to maintain viable
Collecting data quickly and efficiently is a focus for businesses regardless of their size. For small and mid-sized businesses, successfully managing data without being a burden on an understaffed and overworked IT department can be an added challenge. Plus, there is the added responsibility of making sure ACCURATE data is
I have returned safely from my trip to Long Beach, CA, and WUSS 2012! As always, it was a great conference. The opening session was really fun this year. Maura Stokes and Diane Hatcher from SAS gave the keynote in the form of a “presidential debate.” Maura’s platform was analytics; while
Out of the box, the simple bar graph uses the same color for each bar. A frequent request from users is to define a standard color palette for the dashboard indicators so distinct bars are the same color in each indicator or from refresh to refresh. With most dashboard tricks,
This article is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Simulating Data with SAS. Not every matrix with 1 on the diagonal and off-diagonal elements in the range [–1, 1] is a valid correlation matrix. A correlation matrix has a special property known as positive semidefiniteness. All correlation matrices are positive
Michele Burlew’s new book, SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy takes users through the newest look-up technique from SAS, one that has many still shaking their heads. “Not many DATA step programmers have used hash objects much,” Burlew says. “They seem scary because they operate a little differently from the SAS
I remarked in an earlier post (“BI and Better Decisions”) that, prior to joining SAS, while I understood analytics and performance management just fine, the phrase ‘business intelligence’ was not in my vocabulary”. Turns out I’m not the only finance professional so inflicted. I was invited last week to give a
This is a dramatic interpretation of an actual conversation I recently had with the CIO of one of North Carolina’s leading cities. We discussed his experience using data quality, data integration, business intelligence and analytics in the daily operation of the city. I may have taken some...well, a lot of
Robert Allison posted a map that shows the average commute times for major US cities, along with the proportion of the commute that is attributed to traffic jams and other congestion. The data are from a CEOs for Cities report (Driven Apart, 2010, p. 45). Robert use SAS/GRAPH software to
