How to use a data catalog to get more value from your data lake
David Loshin explains how to set up a data catalog that will help you get more value from a data lake.
English
Learn SAS from wherever you are: Live Web classes go global
My daughter is a junior in high school, and for almost every semester she’s taken an online course as part of her studies. This semester she’s taking Spanish 3, an advanced level course where every word of instruction is spoken in Spanish. Each morning she joins the class from our
Fun with ODS Graphics: Eclipse animation (part 2)
This example shows how to create two coordinated range attribute maps and use them in creating an animated gif of the eclipse.
Machine learning best practices: Manage the temporal effect
This is the sixth post in my series of machine learning best practices. If you've come across the series for the first time, you can go back to the beginning or read the whole series. Aristotle was likely one of the first data scientists who studied empiricism by learning through
Using Notepad++ as your SAS code editor
News flash: My favorite SAS code editor is SAS Enterprise Guide. However, my favorite general purpose text editor is Notepad++, and I often find myself using that tool for viewing SAS log files and for making small modifications to SAS programs. Judging from the popularity of this SAS Support Communities
When's the next total solar eclipse?
The U.S. was really fortunate in having the recent total solar eclipse pass through so many of its states! This gave lots of people an opportunity to see it, with just a short (or moderate) drive. I think a little kid spoke for all of us when they said "Let's
PSD2: How new European payment regulations could elevate fraud risk
The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is a new European-wide regulation that requires European banks to make it easier to share customer transaction and account data (where the customer has given their consent) with third party providers, and it's the current hot topic across the payments industry in Europe. As
Learn neural networks and more at Analytics Experience 2017
What’s your favorite time of day? For me, it’s the morning with a cup of coffee, just as the sun starts to appear on the horizon, emitting a pleasant warm glow. My least favorite part of the day? Mornings without coffee when that same big ball of light makes a
How to prepare for a SAS Certification Exam
I have been working in the field of Professional Certification and Licensure for roughly 10 years. In that time, I've worked with and observed close to 40 IT certification programs and there has been a recurring question I've encountered at each stop. While it is often phrased differently, it means mostly the same
Data Visualisation Standards
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION STANDARDS is an organisation defining international standards in business communication and presenting proposals relating to designing easy-to-understand business reports and presentations.
Are utilities fighting the last war?
There is an expression in the military that goes something like this: Military leaders train and prepare for the next war using available information, which typically means they're planning for the last (previous) war -- and that's a recipe for disaster. So what does this have to do with utilities
Prep Once, Eat All Week
No time to prepare healthy meals during the week? Find yourself eating out more often than you’d like or skipping meals altogether because you don’t have food in the fridge? Wondering how to make eating real, whole food easier? Batch cooking is your new secret weapon!
Guest blogger: Chris Gray on forecasting vs. budgeting
In this guest blogger post, Chris Gray of Gray Research weighs in on the discussion of forecasting vs. budgeting. Chris Gray on Forecasting vs. Budgeting Generally I agree with Steve Morlidge’s points about the differences between forecasts (or sales plans) and budgets, and the fact that they are unlikely to
The arithmetic-geometric mean
All statisticians are familiar with the classical arithmetic mean. Some statisticians are also familiar with the geometric mean. Whereas the arithmetic mean of n numbers is the sum divided by n, the geometric mean of n nonnegative numbers is the n_th root of the product of the numbers. The geometric
Forecasting vs. budgeting in S&OP
Chris Gray of Gray Research is a longtime contributor to the practice of Sales and Operations Planning. He is author of several books on S&OP, software selection, and other supply chain related areas, including Sales and Operations Planning Standard System (2007). In 2006 he co-authored Sales & Operations Planning –
Help us generate tomorrow’s conservationists
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) invests in education and training to create the next generation of conservation leaders from around the world. These leaders go on to have a powerful influence on the fate of the world’s most biodiverse and vulnerable places. While scores of leaders benefit from WWF’s support, many
Always save your code when creating a stored compiled macro
The stored compiled macro facility enables you to compile and save your macro definition in a permanent catalog in a library that you specify. The macro is compiled only once. When you call the macro in the current and subsequent SAS® sessions, SAS executes the compiled code from the macro
Self-service data preparation gives fast access to the data you need
Get on with your day faster by taking a self-service approach to data preparation.
Can you see these spots (after viewing the eclipse)?
Hopefully if you're viewing the eclipse today, you'll be using one of the safe methods that won't harm your eyes! ... But if you're somewhat of a trickster, here's an optical illusion you can send your friends after the eclipse, that might make them wonder (just for a second) if
6 tips for timing the performance of algorithms
When you implement a statistical algorithm in a vector-matrix language such as SAS/IML, R, or MATLAB, you should measure the performance of your implementation, which means that you should time how long a program takes to analyze data of varying sizes and characteristics. There are some general tips that can
Fun with ODS Graphics: Eclipse animation
Motivated by Ted Conway's post on creating a sequence of graphs showing the Solar Eclipse, I thought it would be fun to extend his code and create a gif animation. I used a frame count to 81, and used the printerpath feature to create the animation using SGPLOT with BY
Code debugging and program history in SAS Enterprise Guide
SAS programmers have high expectations for their coding environment, and why shouldn't they? Companies have a huge investment in their SAS code base, and it's important to have tools that help you understand that code and track changes over time. Few things are more satisfying as a SAS program that
Tips and Tricks: Managing long category values
Long category values occur frequently in real world use cases. This can happen with graphs for analysis of clinical research data, and also for graphs showing survey data where the question asked may be long (even a paragraph). Managing such long categories on the x or y axis is always
Making the sas.servers script look pretty
This blog post provides the steps for applying color and an easy-to-read layout to make the sas.servers script look cute and even fun!
PSD2: Understanding the new payments regulation in Europe
The revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) has been a focal point for the financial services industry over the last couple of years and its adoption is set to revolutionise the payment ecosystem in Europe. New entrants, innovative technologies and increased regulation are already posing major challenges to traditional banks
SAS Viya sharing credentials for database access
SAS Viya deployments use credentials for accessing databases and other third-party products that require authentication. In this blog post, I will look at how this sharing of credentials is implemented in SAS Environment Manager. In SAS Viya, domains are used to store the: Credentials required to access external data sources. Identities
10 Things I'm Learning
Next week I will be facing two major milestones in my life. I turn 55 ...and the next day I take my only son to college. These simultaneous occurrences have led me to some soul searching. At times like this I often turn to my favorite authors/speakers for insight and
Mapping out the next robot invasion!
Robots - everyone has probably been fascinated by the idea of robots at one time or another. From the early science fiction robots (such as Klaatu's robot Gort) to the mid-1980s movie robots (like Johnny 5), they have been portrayed in many different ways in fiction. These days, with the
Load Data into SAS Viya via REST API
In this blog post I am going to cover the example of importing data into SAS Viya using Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) actions via REST API. For example, you may want to import data into a CASLib via REST API. This means you can perform an import of data outside
At the end of the day, it’s all about analytics-driven forecasting
Analytics-driven forecasting means more than measuring trend and seasonality. It includes all categories of methods (e.g. exponential smoothing, dynamic regression, ARIMA, ARIMA(X), unobserved component models, and more), including artificial intelligence, but not necessarily deep learning algorithms. That said, deep learning algorithms like neural networks can also be used for demand forecasting,