Naming things revisited
David Loshin recommends enforcing governed standards to help avoid conflicting analytical results.
English
Learning to speak like a local, in North Carolina
A lot of tourists flock to North Carolina. We have beaches, wreck diving, and lighthouses. We have the Great Smoky Mountains with whitewater kayaking, colorful fall leaves, and snow skiing. We have hot air balloon festivals & Scottish highland games. Oh, and some of the best barbecue you've ever tasted! But
Flip it. Flip it good.
A SAS user needed to convert a program from MATLAB into the SAS/IML matrix language and asked whether there is a SAS/IML equivalent to the fliplr and flipud functions in MATLAB. These functions flip the columns or rows (respectively) of a matrix; "LR" stands for "left-right" and "UD" stands for
Addressing consent management in GDPR
When we talk about consent management for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of the key considerations is “consent for a purpose.” It might have been sufficient in the past to provide a form with a single generic consent check box and store the fact that consent was
Clinical graphs: Waterfall plot ++
Waterfall plots have gained in popularity as a means to visualize the change in tumor size for subjects in a study. The graph displays the reduction in tumor size in ascending order with the subjects with the most reduction on the right. Each subject is represented by a bar classified by
Controlling Stored Process Execution through Request Initialization Code Injection
Recently, I was working with a client who had a unique problem. He needed a way to cancel a stored process from executing in cases where the stored process wasn’t registered to the matching Metadata folder-structure for its selected server context. For example, if a stored process was stored under
Dr. Tao Hong funds IIF "Best Energy Paper" Award
IIF Tao Hong Award Dr. Tao Hong is a friend, former SAS colleague, former SAS basketball league opponent, a major contributor to SAS Energy Forecasting software, and now Associate Professor at UNC Charlotte. When he isn't raining three-pointers on me on the basketball court, Tao is Director of the Big
Big data and artificial intelligence are mainstream and (not) mundane
I hate my title, but I’m going to stick with it. In spite of it, I hope I can encourage you to pay attention to the current automation revolution and actively contribute to augmention-fueled innovation. If everyone understands those terms and actively tries to stay on top of how they
Which states rely the most on federal funds?
I recently saw an interesting PEW study showing the percent of each state's revenue that came from federal funds. They had some pretty nice graphs ... but just like jell-o, there's always room for more graphs, eh! Let's start with the map. Their map had an informative title, a reasonable gradient
The midfield of innovation
July 16, 1950, Rio de Janeiro. Jules Rimet, the creator of the soccer world championship, walks through a long dark subway that runs under one of the most famous soccer fields in the world, loaded with poetry, energy and the magic of football: the Maracanà. Above his head, he can
Advanced ODS Graphics: Equated Axes and the Aspect Ratio
When displaying maps, geometric shapes (such as circles), or results of certain analyses, it is important to equate axes. This post illustrates options in PROC SGPLOT that enable you to equate axes.
Open recent files with fewer clicks in SAS Enterprise Guide
I use SAS Enterprise Guide every day, and for a wide variety of tasks. As a result, I have a huge collection of project files (EGP files) and SAS program files. I have always relied on the "recently used" list in the File menu to provide me with quick access
SAS Visual Analytics 8.1: Configuring prompts with different source data
In a previous blog, I describe how there are a few new features related to report and page prompts in SAS Visual Analytics 8.1; namely the ability to configure cascading prompts in VA 8.1: Cascading Prompts as Report and Page Prompts. In this blog, I will cover how to configure prompts, either
Icelandic in-laws and inventory management: digital supply chain innovations
“I do not like this modern technology,” said my father-in-law. “It is making people too lazy. Things are too easy now.” He was referring to my grocery order. I was sitting in his kitchen in Reykjavik, Iceland, the day before my return to the United States. I had just explained
DIY Microwave Popcorn {Popped to Perfection}
Close your eyes and envision opening a bag of popcorn just out the microwave, watching the steam escape and inhaling the unforgettable aroma of delicious, buttery popcorn. Does your mouth immediately start to water? Does your mind wander to childhood memories? Now, where’s the popcorn?!
Random segments and broken sticks
A classical problem in elementary probability asks for the expected lengths of line segments that result from randomly selecting k points along a segment of unit length. It is both fun and instructive to simulate such problems. This article uses simulation in the SAS/IML language to estimate solutions to the
Machine learning best practices: combining lots of models
This is the third post in my series of machine learning techniques and best practices. If you missed the earlier posts, read the first one now, or review the whole machine learning best practices series. Data scientists commonly use machine learning algorithms, such as gradient boosting and decision forests, that automatically build
Programming tips from experienced SAS users
Trivial Pursuit, Justin Bieber and Timbits. Some pretty great things have come from Canada, eh? Well, you can go ahead and add expert SAS programmers to that impressive list. In this video, six Canadian SAS programmers, with more than 115 years of SAS programming experience between them, share some of their favorite, little-known SAS programming tips. You're sure to discover a new trick or
SAS guidebook empowers government agencies to use analytics for good
Too much to do and not enough time to do it. That's a common refrain in government, but an important one because of the critical role government plays in the lives of so many. In a new book from SAS, A Practical Guide to Analytics for Governments: Using Big Data
23 MSAs account for 1/2 of US GDP!
When it comes to economic activity, a handful of the largest metropolitan areas in the US account for lion's share. In 2013, the top 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) accounted for 50% of the total US Gross Domestic Product (GDP). I recently came across a map created by Alexandr Trubetskoy
Data privacy concerns in the age of big data
Jim Harris considers whether we can save private data in the age of big data.
The Jedi Goodbye: Helping Young Children with Separation Anxiety
Beginning a new school year can be hard for little ones. Whether it is being dropped off the first day of preschool, starting kindergarten, going to a new school or getting a new teacher, young children can experience stress. A lot of times this stress presents itself as separation anxiety – not
Lollipop Charts
Recently, while reading up on Wilkinson and Cleveland Dot plots, I saw this excellent article by Xan Gregg on the topic. I also saw some interesting examples of Lollipop Charts, kind of a dot plot with statistics along with a drop line, maybe more suitable for sparse data. I thought
With AI, marketing is needed but marketers might not be
In the first half of 2017 and in my only domain – which is marketing – an announcement set the tone for a major change. How not to be stunned when “Coca-Cola ditches global CMO role in leadership shake-up”? If there is only one product you can find anywhere on
Difference operators as matrices
For a time series { y1, y2, ..., yN }, the difference operator computes the difference between two observations. The kth-order difference is the series { yk+1 - y1, ..., yN - yN-k }. In SAS, the DIF function in the DATA step computes differences between observations. The DIF function
Selecting the top n% and bottom n% of observations from a data set
SAS® offers several ways that you can find the top n% and bottom n% of data values based on a numeric variable. The RANK procedure with the GROUPS= option is one method. Another method is The UNIVARIATE procedure with the PCTLPTS= option. Because there are several ways to perform this
You can teach an old dog new tricks: SAS Studio
I've been a SAS programmer for 26 years and counting. I started with the Display Management System (DMS) interface into SAS, which today is referred to as the window environment (and yes, I have used the command line interface as well, which is still available today). DMS consisted of three initial
Discounted Certification Exams at SAS Analytics Experience 2017
SAS is hosting the premier analytics conference in the world September 18-20 in Washington DC, and supplementing the event with discounted training and certification exams at SAS Analytics Experience 2017. These offerings will be held before and after the event. As at other SAS events, we will be offering certification exams at
Risks to US employment - automation and offshoring
Employment - that's been a hot topic here in the US lately. Many of the manufacturing jobs we had in past decades are gone now, and it would be great if there was a crystal ball to predict which jobs might be at risk of disappearing in the future. The
Machine learning best practices: detecting rare events
This is the second post in my series of machine learning best practices. If you missed it, read the first post, Machine learning best practices: the basics. As we go along, all ten tips will be archived at this machine learning best practices page. Machine learning commonly requires the use of