More than a month ago I wrote a first article in response to an interesting article by Charlie H. titled Top 10 most powerful functions for PROC SQL. In that article I described SAS/IML equivalents to the MONOTONIC, COUNT, N, FREQ, and NMISS Functions in PROC SQL. In this article,
The Spring 2011 issue of Foresight is now available. Here is Editor Len Tashman's preview: For forecasters, “being wrong” is the expectation; the hope is that we’re not too wrong. But admitting to our failures is never easy. The Spring 2011 issue leads off with Marcus O’Connor’s book review of
SAS Enterprise Guide is best known as an interactive interface to SAS, but did you know that you can use it to run batch-style programs as well? SAS Enterprise Guide has always offered an automation object model, which allows you to use scripting languages (such as VBScript or Windows PowerShell)
At the SAS analyst event in Steamboat, CO, in March, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight shared some interesting stats with attendees: Even in 2010's tough economy, SAS experienced 5.2 percent worldwide growth in US dollars. On top of that, SAS is still building new facilities, still winning workplace awards, and this
SAS is very pleased to co-host a Webinar with HealthScape Advisors on May 4, 2011 at 1:00pm ET, produced by AHIP. This Webinar will highlight the role that customer intelligence can play in helping health insurance plans manage the challenges of healthcare reform, and is titled: Manage the Challenges of
The most common way to read observations from a SAS data set into SAS/IML matrices is to read all of the data at once by using the ALL clause in the READ statement. However, the READ statement also has options that do not require holding all of the observations in
Congratulations to Curt Hinrichs and Chuck Boiler! Their book, JMP Essentials: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for New Users, has won an Award of Distinguished Technical Communication in this year’s International Summit Awards presented by the Society for Technical Communication. The award goes to a project that “applies the principles of
In last week's article on how to create a funnel plot in SAS, I wrote the following comment: I have not adjusted the control limits for multiple comparisons. I am doing nine comparisons of individual means to the overall mean, but the limits are based on the assumption that I'm
There is a confluence of events happening this month that give us a great opportunity to spotlight one of the most complex and fascinating markets you can find anywhere: healthcare and life sciences (HLS for short). HLS includes all the industries that relate to caring for the health of individuals,
Greg Nelson and Neil Howard presented a lunchtime keynote talk at SAS Global Forum, and they produced this video, "Revenge of the Semi-Colon People", to go along with it. The video features many people from the SAS community, including customers and SAS employees. Watch it and see if you know
I am a thinker by nature; always pondering my choices so that I make the most informed decisions. So for me, the Three R’s of SAS Training aren’t “Reading, wRiting and ‘aRithmetic”, they are Reason, Reflect and Ruminate which allows me time to gather information from others and provide the
The log transformation is one of the most useful transformations in data analysis. It is used as a transformation to normality and as a variance stabilizing transformation. A log transformation is often used as part of exploratory data analysis in order to visualize (and later model) data that ranges over
I've been walking around the last few days with what looks like a dollop of chocolate syrup or grape jelly on my chin. Alas, it is just a bruise from getting elbowed in the mouth at basketball last Thursday night. (Church leagues may be the only dirtier place to play
They’re smart, technically savvy, and accessible. Yes, I am biased but SAS Press authors are a uniquely gifted brain trust for SAS and JMP users. Besides getting to know them from their white papers, books, or author pages—you can interact with them in a variety of places. Here’s a quick
As a B2B marketing organization that promotes market-leading business analytics software and services, we at SAS have encountered the challenges that stem from our customer’s changing buy-cycle habits, as more and more turn to online channels for their research, evaluation, and consideration phases. We talk about these challenges in the
Director of Business Strategy for the Orlando Magic, Anthony Perez, recently spoke at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference on how analytics is molding the NBA - both on and off the court. The Orlando Magic is currently one of the top teams in the NBA, and that is no
Walking to work this sign caught my eye. I was moved as I’m sure you will be too – to see the lot of students universally. Like most folks, I’ve played different roles in life. Of them I would say that my part-time student role was the most challenging. My
One of the advantages of programming in the SAS/IML language is its ability to transform data vectors with a single statement. For example, in data analysis, the log and square-root functions are often used to transform data so that the transformed data have approximate normality. The following SAS/IML statements create
When I encounter an ERROR, WARNING, or NOTE in my SAS log that I don't understand, my first recourse is to ask my friend (we'll call him "Google") what it could mean. I copy the entire message (or at least 5 or 6 consecutive words from it) into the search
Last week I showed how to create a funnel plot in SAS. A funnel plot enables you to compare the mean values (or rates, or proportions) of many groups to some other value. The group means are often compared to the overall mean, but they could also be compared to
A major news item this week is the New York Department of Health's labeling of childen's games like Kickball, Wiffleball, Freeze Tag, Red Rover, and Steal the Bacon as dangerous. (Apparently Spin the Bottle, Truth or Dare, and Doctor are still ok?) Is this the continuing wussification of American youth?
This is a guest post from Jodi Blomberg, a Principal Technical Architect at SAS. She has over 12 years of experience in data mining and mathematical modeling, and has developed analytic models for many government agencies including child support enforcement, insurance fraud, intelligence led policing, supply chain logistics and adverse
As I mentioned yesterday, some users create portal applications to bypass a second authentication step from the Portal to a Stored Process (via a URL Display Portlet). New in SAS 9.2, there is a STPRun directive that allows you to just complete one single step (create a URL display portlet)
In our last installment, we learned that some information is not really necessary. When facilities management dyed the toilet water purple to remind us it is non-potable, it didn't affect my earlier decision not to drink out of the toilet. Sometimes the information we receive as forecasters is not really
Last week I presented the GSR algorithm, a statistical model of a riffle shuffle. In the model, a deck of n cards is split into two parts according to the binomial distribution. Each piece has roughly n/2 cards. Then cards are dropped from the two stacks according to the number
The goal of enterprise risk management (ERM) is to eliminate the siloed approach to identifying, monitoring and managing risk practices throughout an organization. By applying a consistent approach to ERM policies and procedures through a clearly delineated organizational risk hierarchy, organizations can mitigate risk and identify new business opportunities. Insurers
In 9.2, the right-mouse click functionality is not available by default. To switch back to this (which for STP developers in a DEV environment is essential to our productivity), SAS has provided the following note: http://support.sas.com/kb/39/292.html As you can see, out-of-the-box, all SAS STP developers will need to do is
No, not for a country music recording deal. Trust me, no one wants to hear me sing…I can’t carry a tune in a bucket (but I can throw out some unusual “Southernisms”). I’m headed to Nashville, May 8-11, for the annual PharmaSUG conference. PharmaSUG is the Pharmaceutical Industry SAS® Users
Remember the old Reese’s peanut butter cup advertisement? Two people are walking down the street – one eating peanut butter, the other chocolate – they run into each other and the chocolate and the peanut butter get mixed up. They sample the new concoction and marvel at the wonderful mixture
In a previous post, I showed how to read data from a SAS data set into SAS/IML matrices or vectors. This article shows the converse: how to use the CREATE, APPEND, and CLOSE statements to create a SAS data set from data stored in a matrix or in vectors. Creating
