Has anyone ever broken up with you, and left you thinking "Wow, I didn't see that coming!" In hindsight, maybe you could have seen it coming. At least from a statistical perspective. Let's dive into this topic with some lighthearted discussion, and plot some Facebook data... When it comes to
One aspect of high-quality information is consistency. We often think about consistency in terms of consistent values. A large portion of the effort expended on “data quality dimensions” essentially focuses on data value consistency. For example, when we describe accuracy, what we often mean is consistency with a defined source
In the classic textbook by Johnson and Wichern (Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Third Edition, 1992, p. 164), it says: All measures of goodness-of-fit suffer the same serious drawback. When the sample size is small, only the most aberrant behaviors will be identified as lack of fit. On the other hand,
This is the 2nd installment of the "Getting Started" series, and the audience is the user who is new to the SG Procedures. It is quite possible that an experienced users may also find some useful nuggets here. One of the most popular and useful graph types is the Bar
In the DATA step, the WHERE statement and the IF statement (a.k.a. the "subsetting IF") have similar functions. In many scenarios, they produce identical results. But new SAS programmers are taught early on that these two statements work very differently, and in important ways. To understand the differences, it helps
Using the DATASETS procedure, we can easily modify SAS variable attributes such as name, format, informat and label: proc datasets library=libref; modify table_name; format var_name date9.; informat var_name mmddyy10.; label var_name = 'New label'; rename var_name = var_new_name; quit; We cannot, however, modify fixed variable attributes such as variable type
This year’s Polish SAS Forum conference gathered more than 900 enthusiasts of the use of analytics for the generation of innovation. The business session in the Customer Intelligence domain was focused on the methods of meeting the challenge of maximization of revenue while keeping the customers satisfied. Market leaders highlighted
In my previous post, I showed you how to change the titles in graphs produced by analytical procedures; today I will show you how to remove subtitles that procedures display on some output pages. The following step creates output that contains a SAS title ('Illustrate the CIF Plot'), a PROCTITLE
Suppose you are using SAS Studio and the statistical task you need to perform is not a supported option or feature in SAS. I know that sounds almost impossible because the statistical tasks in SAS Studio are so awesome. But, just in case you need to tweak a program or
Longevity research represents facts and figures related to one's accumulation of years on this planet. Hawaiians top the charts in the US with a life expectancy of 80 years while, believe it or not, DC represents the lowest at 72 years. NC, although known for delicacies like sweet tea and barbeque,
Somewhere in my past I encountered a panel of histograms for small random samples of normal data. I can't remember the source, but it might have been from John Tukey or William Cleveland. The point of the panel was to emphasize that (because of sampling variation) a small random sample
Like most of marketers, I find myself reflecting on the evolution of brands. In an increasingly digital world, what is the role of the brand and how can marketers drive more effective customer engagement through Customer Analytics? The last edition of BRANDY16 in Milan brought together diverse speakers and attendees, and generated plenty for
Teacher preparation programs have received some pretty harsh criticism in recent years. For example… “If there was any piece of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education.” –Reid Lyon, National Institute of Health “By almost any standard, many if not most of the
Maybe programming isn’t quite as dangerous as a lightsaber battle, but if you think using SAS to turn data into action feels a little bit like magic, you should know that nobody is better at harnessing “the Force” of DS2 than SAS Jedi Mark Jordan. Mark has a resume that
If you consider yourself as a visualization expert, you strive to create graphs that set you apart from the data analysts and statisticians. Graphs that merely plot the data in a clear/concise manner aren't enough for you. You want your graphs to also be intuitive, easy to read, and provide
In the first three articles of the series we drilled down to Data Management and Data Quality as the basis for fraud detection analytics, to Business Rules and Watch lists techniques that play always a crucial role for claim handlers and fraud investigators and to Advanced Analytics which add a
Our world is now so awash in data that many organizations have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to available data to support operational, tactical and strategic activities of the enterprise. Such a data-rich environment is highly susceptible to poor-quality data. This is especially true when swimming in data lakes –
A SAS customer asked how to use background colors and a dashed line to emphasize the forecast region for a graph that shows a time series model. The task requires the following steps: Use the ATTRPRIORITY=NONE option on the ODS GRAPHICS statement to make sure that the current ODS style
People say that the world has changed, but I think it'd be more accurate to say that people that have changed the world. Social media, big data, big analytics, internet of things … whether you're an executive, a data scientist, or a student, when you hear these buzzwords, you have
We all know that when customers are interested in a new product or service that you offer, digital channels are most often their first, and probably unique, point of interaction. What if every time customers interacted with you, they got exactly what they needed, with minimal effort? Marketers should use
Anyone know what's the number two form of economic crime, in terms of losses? Believe it or not, it's procurement fraud. I grew up in a small town south of “Big D” and in my neck of the woods having two first names is, well, normal. So, when Will Farrell’s character,
With fall comes cooler weather and, of course, football. Lots of football. Often times there will be two NFL games on that my husband wants to watch at the same time. Instead of flipping back and forth between two television stations, he can watch both games simultaneously, thanks to the
Cooperation and information sharing between tax authorities around the world can help ensure that taxpayers pay the right amount of tax to the right jurisdictions. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an agreement between countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to collect and share data from their financial institutions annually. This remarkable achievement
There are several ways to buy data, and even more companies who are willing to sell it. By annual subscription or by the drink, third-party data vendors promise they can solve your identity theft and non-compliance problems. It’s as simple as signing a contract, and letting the data tap begin
Recently, my fellow SAS blogger Rick Wicklin wrote a post showing how to graph the ages of all the US presidents. And Chris Hemedinger showed how to create a bar chart showing the number of presidents having each of the 12 zodiac signs. Both are interesting graphs, but I wanted to
At SAS, we've worked hard to transform ourselves into an analytical marketing organization. And it's an ongoing journey. As new tools and data sources appear, we'll continue to grow, change and improve. As the leader of this effort, I wish there had been a how-to guide available when we started
A hot button issue this election season was the need to determine the eligibility of people for various government programs like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare and Medicaid, or entry into the United States as a migrant refugee. “Look, we’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of
There are no limitations for what you can accomplish. That’s the message Keith Poston from the Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences imparted to 300 middle and high school students, teachers and parents assembled this week at the museum for the fourth STEM Career Showcase for Students
It's that time of year again where almost 50 million Americans travel home for Thanksgiving. We'll share a smorgasbord of turkey, stuffing and vegetables and discuss fun political topics, all to celebrate the ironic friendship between colonists and Native Americans. Being part Italian, my family augments the 20-pound turkey with pasta –
At a conference last week, a presenter showed SAS statements that compute the logarithm of a probability density function (PDF). The log-PDF is a a common computation because it occurs when maximizing the log-likelihood function. The presenter computed the expression in SAS by using an expression that looked like y
