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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMarch 15, 2023 2

Fitting a distribution to an expert's opinion: An application of the metalog distribution

Most homeowners know that large home improvement projects can take longer than you expect. Whether it's remodeling a kitchen, adding a deck, or landscaping a yard, big projects are expensive and subject to a lot of uncertainty. Factors such as weather, the availability of labor, and the supply of materials,

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMarch 13, 2023 1

Use the metalog distribution in SAS

A previous article describes the metalog distribution (Keelin, 2016). The metalog distribution is a flexible family of distributions that can model a wide range of shapes for data distributions. The metalog system can model bounded, semibounded, and unbounded continuous distributions. This article shows how to use the metalog distribution in

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMarch 8, 2023 6

How Newton calculated pi to 16 decimal places

Happy Pi Day! Every year on March 14th (written 3/14 in the US), people in the mathematical sciences celebrate "all things pi-related" because 3.14 is the three-decimal approximation to π ≈ 3.14159265358979.... Modern computer methods and algorithms enable us to calculate 100 trillion digits of π. However, I think it

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMarch 6, 2023 0

The variance of the sums of variables

Undergraduate textbooks on probability and statistics typically prove theorems that show how the variance of a sum of random variables is related to the variance of the original variables and the covariance between them. For example, the Wikipedia article on Variance contains an equation for the sum of two random

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinFebruary 20, 2023 2

Simulate from a bounded distribution that has a specified mean

A SAS programmer asked for help to simulate data from a distribution that has certain properties. The distribution must be supported on the interval [a, b] and have a specified mean, μ, where a < μ < b. It turns out that there are infinitely many distributions that satisfy these

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinFebruary 8, 2023 5

A random walk inside a heart

SAS programmers love to make special graphs for Valentine's Day. In fact, there is a long history of heart-shaped graphs and love-inspired programs written in SAS! Last year, I added to the collection by showing how a ball bounces on a heart-shaped billiards table. This year, I create a similar

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinFebruary 6, 2023 3

How to use Git to share SAS programs

This article is about how to use Git to share SAS programs, specifically how to share libraries of SAS IML functions. Some IML programmers might remember an earlier way to share libraries of functions: SAS/IML released "packages" in SAS 9.4m3 (2015), which enable you to create, document, share, and use

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinFebruary 1, 2023 0

Colorblind-safe palettes in SAS

SAS supports the ColorBrewer system of color palettes from the ColorBrewer website (Brewer and Harrower, 2002). The ColorBrewer color ramps are available in SAS by using the PALETTE function in SAS IML software. The PALETTE function supports all ColorBrewer palettes, but some palettes are not interpretable by people with color

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 30, 2023 1

Tips for making colorblind-safe statistical graphs

Did you know that about 8% of the world's men are colorblind? (More correctly, 8% of men are "color vision deficient," since they see colors, but not all colors.) Because of the "birthday paradox," in a room that contains eight men, the probability is 50% that at least one is

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 25, 2023 0

Write to the log from SAS IML programs

I previously discussed how to use the PUTLOG statement to write a message from the DATA step to the log in SAS. The PUTLOG statement is commonly used to write notes, warnings, and errors to the log. This article shows how to use the PRINTTOLOG subroutine in SAS IML software

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