![Finite-difference derivatives in SAS](https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/files/2014/08/heatmapcubic.png)
Many applications in mathematics and statistics require the numerical computation of the derivatives of smooth multivariate functions. For simple algebraic and trigonometric functions, you often can write down expressions for the first and second partial derivatives. However, for complicated functions, the formulas can get unwieldy (and some applications do not