A statistical programmer read my article about the beta-binomial distribution and wanted to know how to compute the cumulative distribution (CDF) and the quantile function for this distribution. In general, if you know the PDF for a discrete distribution, you can also compute the CDF and quantile functions. This article
Social media has brought anniversary dates to the forefront. Every day, my view of Google Photos or Facebook shows me a collection of photos from exactly some number of years ago to remind me of how good things were back then. These apps are performing the simplest of date-based math
Here in the US, we're preparing to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Therefore this Thursday most families in the US will be having a big turkey dinner. Although I'm a bachelor guy and eat out all the time, I'm actually a pretty good cook - and I'd like to share with
I recently spent two days with an innovative communications customer explaining exactly what SAS analytics can do to help them take their advertising platform to a whole new level. Media meets data resulting in addressable advertising. SAS would essentially be the brain behind all their advertising decisions, helping them ingest
For the third installment of this series I visited Marlies van Sonsbeek (CEO) and Andrew Hagens (Chief Innovation Officer) of Finaps in their beautiful office in the south of Amsterdam. Company Overview Finaps is a young innovative company founded at the end of 2010 by two former ABN-Amro colleagues. Not
SAS Viya provides a robust, scalable, cloud-ready, distributed runtime engine. This engine is driven by CAS (Cloud Analytic Services), providing fast processing for many data management techniques that run distributive, i.e. using all threads on all defined compute nodes. Note: SAS Viya 3.5+ now supports the data set option APPEND=YES.
Many SAS users have inquired about SAS Cloud Analytic Services’ (CAS) Distributed Network File System (DNFS) of late, so let’s look at it further in this blog post. (Learn more about CAS.) The “NFS” in “DNFS” Let’s start at the beginning. The “NFS” in DNFS stands for “Network File System”
Just last week, Walmart announced that they'll be testing inventory management robots. These robots will cruise store aisles, scanning shelves to identify out-of-stock products and other issues. According Reuters, Walmart is testing these camera-equipped robots in a handful of stores, but plans to expand the test to 50 stores. We
This article shows how to simulate beta-binomial data in SAS and how to compute the density function (PDF). The beta-binomial distribution is a discrete compound distribution. The "binomial" part of the name means that the discrete random variable X follows a binomial distribution with parameters N (number of trials) and
Information Dashboards were the hot topic a few years ago, but the hype seems to have died down lately. A good dashboard is still a very useful way to summarize, analyze, and share data - so I thought I'd re-visit the topic, and try to improve an old dashboard. Did
Have you heard? The ODS Destination for PowerPoint Has a New Option It’s true. The ODS destination for PowerPoint now has the STARTPAGE= option, which provides you with greater control and flexibility when creating presentations. Added to the ODS POWERPOINT statement in SAS® 9.4TS1M4, the STARTPAGE= option enables you to
Improper payments continue to plague the federal government, though many actions are in motion to help turn the tide. The Trump Administration’s Building a Better America: A Plan for Fiscal Responsibility, released in July 2017, emphasizes reducing improper payments, currently estimated by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to total
We'll take a deeper dive into understanding item stores--the files in which compiled templates are stored--and ways in which you can access them. At the end, I will show you one of my new examples: displaying percentages in the Kaplan-Meier failure plot.
Blockchain technology and payment integrity in health care Blockchain technology has arrived in the health care space, bringing anticipation of revolutionary change in operational efficiency, data management, security, fraud prevention, disease prevention, and perhaps even in payments. While these are not new goals, I am ever the optimist. As almost
When I shared a status update a few months ago that I would spend my Sunday morning "trying to solve an asymmetric prize-collecting traveling salesman problem with uncertain data and side constraints" my colleagues knew that I wouldn't be working. Instead, I would spend my morning at an orienteering event,
This guide instructs you through the steps that set up a successful connection between SAS and a remote DB2 database via ODBC on Linux, without tears.
It's easier said than done to be a data-driven business, but the squeeze is worth the juice.
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day is Thursday, Nov. 16. On this day, five years ago, my mother-in-law was undergoing treatment for this disease that was discovered just six weeks prior. The whites of her eyes turning yellow was the first sign that something was wrong. After working in a neonatal intensive
As a SAS Viya user, you may be wondering whether it is possible to execute data append and data update concurrently to a global Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) table from two or more CAS sessions. (Learn more about CAS.) How would this impact the report view while data append or
Any look back at analytics in 2017 makes it clear that machine learning and artificial intelligence appear to be the ‘next big things’ that can solve just about any problem, from writing new hit songs to curing disease. Not one to buy into the hype, I became curious as to
Did you know that a SAS/IML function can recover from a run-time error? You can specify how to handle run-time errors by using a programming technique that is similar to the modern "try-catch" technique, although the SAS/IML technique is an older implementation. Preventing errors versus handling errors In general, SAS/IML
In the previous post, I discussed creating a 2D grid of spark lines by Year and Claim Type. This graph was presented in the SESUG conference held last week on SAS campus in the paper ""Methods for creating Sparklines using SAS" by Rick Andrews. This grid of sparklines was actually the
As the banking industry continues to combat increasing fraud challenges, payment fraud is growing exponentially. This growth stems from a shifting payment landscape with new and varied payment options. Globally, governments are introducing new initiatives like faster payments and real-time payments which compress turnaround times. These initiatives are altering the
SAS Visual Analytics 7.4 has added the support for date parameters. Recall from my first post, Using parameters in SAS Visual Analytics, a parameter is a variable whose value can be changed at any time by the report viewer and referenced by other report objects. These objects can be a
This year, CEO Jim Goodnight released our new “Core Values.” Authentic, Accountable, Curious, and Passionate were the words chosen to describe SAS, influence our work here, and showcase who we are as a company. While these values can and will certainly guide our actions in the workplace, I couldn’t help
Debugging is the bane of every programmer. SAS supports a DATA step debugger, but that debugger can't be used for debugging SAS/IML programs. In lieu of a formal debugger, many SAS/IML programmers resort to inserting multiple PRINT statements into a function definition. However, there is an easier way to query
Here's a Proc Print trick for grouped data. Suppose your data is divided into groups, such as males and females. You could sort by the grouping variable before printing, like this: Suppose you want to better emphasize the groups. You could add a BY statement, like this: OK, but, personally,
The 25th annual SESUG conference was held at in the SAS campus this week. I had the opportunity to meet and chat with many users and attend many excellent presentations. I will write about those that stood out (graphically) in my view. One excellent presentation was on "Methods for creating
I wish this were a blog about a new super-affordable airline, but instead capital flight is the illegal movement of money from its country of origin, transit or destination. This movement of money through facilitators is creating a hyper-breed of criminal enterprise using the regulations of the world’s financial systems
One of the great things about living in an area that has seasons is you get to see the leaves change colors in the fall. If you're a big fan of seeing the leaves at their peak, you could actually travel around the country and see the leaves at their
