The DO Loop
Statistical programming in SAS with an emphasis on SAS/IML programs
As a general rule, when SAS programmers want to manipulate data row by row, they reach for the SAS DATA step. When the computation requires column statistics, the SQL procedure is also useful. When both row and column operations are required, the SAS/IML language is a powerful addition to a
Suppose you want to find observations in multivariate data that are closest to a numerical target value. For example, for the students in the Sashelp.Class data set, you might want to find the students whose (Age, Height, Weight) values are closest to the triplet (13, 62, 100). The way to
Simulation studies are used for many purposes, one of which is to examine how distributional assumptions affect the coverage probability of a confidence interval. This article describes the "zipper plot," which enables you to compare the coverage probability of a confidence interval when the data do or do not follow
I often claim that the "natural syntax" of the SAS/IML language makes it easy to implement an algorithm or statistical formula as it appears in a textbook or journal. The other day I had an opportunity to test the truth of that statement. A SAS programmer wanted to implement the
About once a month I see a question on the SAS Support Communities that involves what I like to call "computations with combinations." A typical question asks how to find k values (from a set of p values) that maximize or minimize some function, such as "I have 5 variables,
One of my favorite magazines, Significance, printed an intriguing image of a symmetric matrix that shows repetition in a song's lyrics. The image was created by Colin Morris, who has created many similar images. When I saw these images, I knew that I wanted to duplicate the analysis in SAS!