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Rick WicklinJune 27, 2022 0

Recently, I needed to solve an optimization problem in which the objective function included a term that involved the quantile function (inverse CDF) of the t distribution, which is shown to the right for DF=5 degrees of freedom. I casually remarked to my colleague that the optimizer would have to

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJune 13, 2022 5

Detect palindromes and rotational palindromes in SAS

A palindrome is a sequence of letters that is the same when read forward and backward. In brief, if you reverse the sequence of letters, the word is unchanged. For example, 'mom' and 'racecar' are palindromes. You can extend the definition to phrases by removing all spaces and punctuation marks

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Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJune 1, 2022 2

Random assignment of subjects to groups in SAS

A common question on SAS discussion forums is how to randomly assign observations to groups. An application of this problem is assigning patients to cohorts in a clinical trial. For example, you might have 137 patients that you want to randomly assign to three groups: a control group, a group

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMay 25, 2022 0

How much does a bootstrap estimate depend on the random number stream?

Many modern statistical techniques incorporate randomness: simulation, bootstrapping, random forests, and so forth. To use the technique, you need to specify a seed value, which determines pseudorandom numbers that are used in the algorithm. Consequently, the seed value also determines the results of the algorithm. In theory, if you know

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Rick WicklinMay 16, 2022 0

How to unroll frequency data

In categorical data analysis, it is common to analyze tables of counts. For example, a researcher might gather data for 18 boys and 12 girls who apply for a summer enrichment program. The researcher might be interested in whether the proportion of boys that are admitted is different from the

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Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMay 4, 2022 0

Bootstrap estimates for nonlinear regression models in SAS

In The Essential Guide to Bootstrapping in SAS, I note that there are many SAS procedures that support bootstrap estimates without requiring the analyst to write a program. I have previously written about using bootstrap options in the TTEST procedure. This article discusses the NLIN procedure, which can fit nonlinear

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMay 2, 2022 0

Simulate the null distribution for a hypothesis test

Recently, I wrote about Bartlett's test for sphericity. The purpose of this hypothesis test is to determine whether the variables in the data are uncorrelated. It works by testing whether the sample correlation matrix is close to the identity matrix. Often statistics textbooks or articles include a statement such as

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Rick WicklinApril 25, 2022 0

Two perspectives on numerical integration

To a numerical analyst, numerical integration has two meanings. Numerical integration often means solving a definite integral such as \(\int_{a}^b f(s) \, ds\). Numerical integration is also called quadrature because it computes areas. The other meaning applies to solving ordinary differential equations (ODEs). My article about new methods for solving

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinApril 20, 2022 0

Use a heat map to visualize an ordinal response in longitudinal data

Recently, I showed how to use a heat map to visualize measurements over time for a set of patients in a longitudinal study. The visualization is sometimes called a lasagna plot because it presents an alternative to the usual spaghetti plot. A reader asked whether a similar visualization can be

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinApril 6, 2022 2

A differential equation for quantiles of a distribution

The graph to the right is the quantile function for the standard normal distribution, which is sometimes called the probit function. Given any probability, p, the quantile function gives the value, x, such that the area under the normal density curve to the left of x is exactly p. This

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