As I write my first blog entry for SAS State and Local Government, I thought it would be prudent to provide a little personal background. I grew up in a family of artists- with 5 musicians, 2 painters, 1 sculptor, 1 dancer, and 1 composer. I studied business, became a
Many people know that the SGPLOT procedure in SAS 9.2 can create a large number of interesting graphs. Some people also know how to create a panel of graphs (all of the same type) by using the SGPANEL procedure. But did you know that you can also create a panel
I’m an avid reader and was not happy when ebook prices went from $3-4 to $9-12. However, being in publishing at SAS, I realize a book is priced based on its value and not the format. Shifting the cost from paper to digital is not as easy as you might
I recently had the privilege of working with Dr. Lane Mills, Associate Professor in the Educational Leadership program at East Carolina University, on a whitepaper about creating a data driven culture. It was great getting to know Dr. Mills on a professional and personal level as we having many conversations
I hope that the following statement is not too controversial...but here it goes: Microsoft Excel is not a database system. That is, I know that people do use it as a database, but it's not an application that supports the rigor and discipline of managing data in the same way
As editor of the SAS Business Report, I constantly analyze what’s “clicking” for readers and what’s not. So far in 2011, the following articles have been the biggest hitters: Advanced Analytics for the Modern Business Analyst SAS Placed in Leaders Quadrant for BI Top Five Big Ideas in Analytical Data
This article shows how to randomly access data in a SAS data set by using the READ POINT statement in SAS/IML software. I have previously discussed how to use the READ NEXT and READ CURRENT statements to sequentially access each observation in a SAS data set from PROC IML. Reading
We are very pleased to co-sponsor a terrific Webcast with PharmExec Magazine on May 19 at 2:00pm ET (available on demand afterward) titled, Customer Intimacy – the Pharma Challenge. This is our opportunity to zero in on an industry with dynamics so complex that customer analytics holds great promise. Like
Andrew Ratcliffe posted a fine article titled "Inadequate Mends" in which he extols the benefits of including the name of a macro on the %MEND statement. That is, if you create a macro function named foo, he recommends that you include the name in two places: %macro foo(x); /** define
Are you one of those enviable people who have pretty much always known what you wanted to do? Or did you meander through a variety of dreams or career changing moves to become the professional that you are now? This may be too heavy for a Monday afternoon blog post,
A fundamental operation in data analysis is finding data that satisfy some criterion. How many people are older than 85? What are the phone numbers of the voters who are registered Democrats? These questions are examples of locating data with certain properties or characteristics. The SAS DATA step has a
“Our performance last month was 46.” Oh, you don’t have to thank me, I was just doing my job. Not very well, I might add. 46? 46 what? Or 46 who’s? Without context, 46 is just a number, just data. In context, perhaps that’s 46 out of 48 (not too
For years I've been making presentations about SAS/IML software at conferences. Since 2008, I've always mentioned to SAS customers that they can call R from within SAS/IML software. (This feature was introduced in SAS/IML Studio 3.2 and was added to the IML procedure in SAS/IML 9.22.) I also included a
Dear SAS users and excellent blog readers, this week's sort of randomly selected tip comes from esteemed SAS author Art Carpenter. Many of you are probably familiar with Art's work and may have had the pleasure of hearing him speak at a user group conference. He's a great communicator and
The following is an entry reposted from a blog focused on healthcare and life sciences called A Shot in the Arm, by my friend and colleague Jason Burke. In it, he describes the creation of The Center for Health Analytics and Insights, and the contributing factors that made it both
In the health care field, the impact of fraud, waste and abuse on payers -- whether insurance companies, government agencies or self-insured employers -- is enormous. Fraud losses weaken a payer’s financial position, with fraud loss estimates rivaling net income. Fraud losses feed the escalating care cost curve, undermining a
When Charlie H. posted an interesting article titled "Top 10 most powerful functions for PROC SQL," there was one item on his list that was unfamiliar: the COALESCE function. (Edit: Charlie's blog no longer exists. The article used to be available at http://www.sasanalysis.com/2011/01/top-10-most-powerful-functions-for-proc.html) Ever since I posted my first response,
With a US political season approaching, we will hear – once again – a rising tide of voices decrying manufacturers moving jobs overseas. However, National Association of Manufacturers and Manufacturing Institute research proves that most US-based manufacturers that build overseas do so to gain entrance into emerging markets, and that
I discovered QR codes just a few months ago. As I did research to find out more about them, one of the first articles I came across spoke about the fact that QR codes had basically run their course and their time had come and gone. Darn, another trend I
Last week the Flowing Data blog published an excellent visualization of the flight patterns of major US airlines. On Friday, I sent the link to Robert Allison, my partner in the 2009 ASA Data Expo, which explored airline data. Robert had written a SAS program for the Expo that plots
Are we oversimplifying customer segmentation and treatment strategies? SAS Marketing Director Jonathan Hornby thinks so. He also believes customer lifetime value should include an understanding of sentiment, influence and the value of collaboration with your customers. In fact, if you're not factoring these items into your customer segmentations, you're probably
It's a simple task to use SAS to compute the number of weekdays between two dates. You can use the INTCK function with the WEEKDAY interval to come up with that number. diff = intck('WEEKDAY', start_date, end_date); If you want to compute the number of working days between two dates,
When I was at the annual SAS Global Forum conference, I had the pleasure of discussing statistical programming and SAS/IML software with dozens of SAS customers. I was asked at least ten times, "How do I get started with SAS/IML software?" or "How can I learn PROC IML?" Here is
On this morning’s commute, I spotted the first bookmobile that I’ve seen in years. I don’t have children or any reason to actively look for bookmobiles—but was pleasantly surprised to see one. Besides reminding me of long summer days when school was out, the bookmobile was the only way to
Is there even such a thing as a typical day anymore? We travel. We write. We tweet. We meet. We code. We coach. We manage. We lead. We all go in so many different directions, that it's hard to really picture a normal day the way you might quaintly envision
In a recent blog post, I discussed how excited I was to tour Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD). After that tour, I remembered a Youtube video that I saw at an education conference that shows how bored students are, because they have to power down at school. I was thinking,
This blog post shows how to numerically integrate a one-dimensional function by using the QUAD subroutine in SAS/IML software. The name "quad" is short for quadrature, which means numerical integration. You can use the QUAD subroutine to numerically find the definite integral of a function on a finite, semi-infinite, or
I recently conducted a financial planning exercising to focus on savings – after all, college tuition rates are climbing and by the time my son goes to school in 18 years or so, I may be looking at $60,000 a year for a public university. Now is the time to
A midsize regional health insurer with approximately 3,000 employees across 10 locations in the Western United States created a role for a business continuity manager (BCM) reporting to the chief operating officer. In this organization, the enterprise risk management (ERM) functions, established in 2004, are owned by the chief legal
Dear readers, I’m trying out something new that I hope you’ll like. Once a week, for the next couple of months, I’ll post a short excerpt or tip from one of our books. To make things fun, I’m going to randomly select the book by walking into the SAS Press
