In a previous article, I showed how to simulate data for a linear regression model with an arbitrary number of continuous explanatory variables. To keep the discussion simple, I simulated a single sample with N observations and p variables. However, to use Monte Carlo methods to approximate the sampling distribution
To properly evaluate (and improve) forecasting performance, we recommend our customers use a methodology called Forecast Value Added (FVA) analysis. FVA lets you identify forecasting process waste (activities that are failing to improve the forecast, or are even making it worse). The objective is to help the organization generate forecasts
SAS® Federation Server provides a central, virtual environment for administering and securing access to your data. It also allows you to combine data from multiple sources without moving or copying the data. SAS Federation Server Manager, a web-based application, is used to administer SAS Federation Server(s). Data privacy is a
I usually create very technical maps, to display data spatially - and they usually have a certain look. They're clear, crisp, and to the point. I typically only use color to represent the data, and I choose a font that is simple and easy to read (such as arial). But
Did you know that January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month in the United States? If not, you may not know that researchers estimate that human trafficking is a global industry with revenues from $51 to $99 billion annually, up from $32 billion just a few years ago. In this case,
You have all seen, or perhaps even created, some really bad graphics: Cluttered, confusing, too small, incomprehensible. Or worse, the author may have committed one of the three unforgivable sins of data visualization by deceptively distorting a map, truncating the axis so as to misrepresent the data, or used double
PROC SGPLOT writes a graph template and uses it to create a graph. You can edit the template and then create a modified graph.
Recently, SAS shipped the fourth maintenance of SAS 9.4. Building on this foundation, SAS Studio reached a new milestone, its 3.6 release. All editions have been upgraded, including Personal, Basic and Enterprise. In this blog post, I want to highlight the new features that have been introduced. In subsequent posts
If you are a SAS programmer and use the GROUP= option in PROC SGPLOT, you might have encountered a thorny issue: if you use a WHERE clause to omit certain observations, then the marker colors for groups might change from one plot to another. This happens because the marker colors
I’ve had several meetings lately on data management, and especially integration, where the ability to explore alternatives has been critical. And the findings from our internet of things (IoT) early adopters survey confirms that the ecosystem nature of data sources in IoT deployments means we need to expand the traditional
Preview of the Winter 2017 issue of Foresight Foresight begins the new year with our 44th issue since the journal began publishing in 2005, and in this Winter 2017 collection we’re showcasing a broad range of incisive and entertaining pieces. We’re looking at new research on the effectiveness of collaboration
In my last post I described "4 adaptability attributes for analytical success," and in the past I've discussed the strategic role analytics play in helping organizations succeed now and into the future. Now I'd like to discuss three attributes that define a powerful analytics environment: Speed Accuracy Scalability [NOTE: Any
Throughout life we are bound to grieve many things but often may not realize when we are grieving. I am not referring to the grief felt after the death of a loved one. This post is not meant to equate these losses to the experience of the death of a
I've been working on a pilot project recently with a client to test out some new NoSQL database frameworks (graph databases in particular). Our goal is to see how a different storage model, representation and presentation can enhance the usability and ease of integration for master data indexes and entity
SAS® Viya™ 3.1 represents the third generation of high performance computing from SAS. Our journey started a long time ago and, along the way, we have introduced a number of high performance technologies into the SAS software platform: In-Database processing where SAS data quality and analytical processing occur within the
Recently a colleague told me Google had published new, interesting data sets at BigQuery. I found a lot of Reddit data as well, so I quickly tried running BigQuery with these text data to see what I could produce. After getting some pretty interesting results, I wanted to see if
Tell me if you’ve heard this before: Your company hired (or re-titled) a talented data scientist and they have great skills and no data. Or they're marginalized by IT because they're misunderstood. They're offered “cleansed” data that will fit into the hardware provisioned. What they want is “all” relevant data
Are you one of those people who get easily bored at amusement parks? Would you like something to do while your friends/family are waiting in line for a ride? Perhaps I have an alternate idea, to keep you busy - survey markers! When surveyors are measuring and marking areas for
We’ve become a lower carb household in the past few years due to family health history and genetics that strongly encourage it. As a result, our decades-old breakfast of eating cereal with milk went out with the trash leaving the challenge of finding low carb, nutrient-dense options.
This article shows how to simulate a data set in SAS that satisfies a least squares regression model for continuous variables. When you simulate to create "synthetic" (or "fake") data, you (the programmer) control the true parameter values, the form of the model, the sample size, and magnitude of the
Editor's note (10/25/17): You can practice what you learned in class with 15 hours of Free virtual lab time when you attend the in-person or Live Web Applied Analytics Using SAS Enterprise Miner class. Register now. Are you interested in taking an advanced course on the machine learning topic of Neural Networks? Does text
Historically, tax havens have been a key tool for tax evaders to store and hide unreported and untaxed money. I would agree with most observers that the Panama papers (11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial information for more than 214,488 offshore entities) are just the tip of the tax
In a previous blog, Random Sampling: What's Efficient?, I discussed the efficiency of various techniques for selecting a simple random sample from a large SAS dataset. PROC SURVEYSELECT easily does the job: proc surveyselect data=large out=sample method=srs /* simple random sample */ rate=.01; /* 1% sample rate */ run; Note:
We are a few months away from SAS Global Forum in Orlando. You might think that the conference kicks off Sunday night at opening session, but there are plenty of weekend activities before then and I’d like to highlight one of them: SAS certification exam sessions. Isn’t now a great
I review some fundamental principles of creating axis tables along with graphs that have TYPE=LINEAR or TYPE=DISCRETE axes.
The SAS analytical documentation has a new look. Beginning with the 14.2 release of the SAS analytical products (which shipped with SAS 9.4m4 in November 2016), the HTML version of the online documentation has moved to a new framework called the Help Center. The URL for the online documentation is
Editor's note: The following post is from Xiaoyuan Zhang, presenter at an upcoming Insurance and Finance User Group (IFSUG) webinar. Learn more about Xiaoyuan Zhang. As a business user with limited statistical skills, I don’t think I could build a credit scorecard without the help of SAS Enterprise Miner. As you
I continue to find the concept of explaining analytics through storytelling intriguing. As I have written before, at first blush this did not seem immediately clear to me. The advice to use storytelling appeared somewhat vague, trite and without substance. More importantly, it seemed to conflict with the rigor required
I remember my grandparents talking about how hard things were for them growing up. They would say, “Things were so bad that we had to walk uphill, both ways, in the freezing snow to get to school.” It was always hard for me to relate to these statements because the
"They'll eat you out of house & home! Their food bill will put you in the poor house! ... And they never gain an ounce!" - That's what my friends say about their teenage sons. They're probably exaggerating a little, but since it's a recurring theme, there's probably some truth
