I always learn something new when I attend SAS Global Forum, and it often results from an informal conversations in The Quad or in a hallway. Last week a SAS customer described a scenario that he wanted to implement as part of an analysis of some genetic data. To oversimplify
SGF 2015 was a blast with a focus on Visual Analytics, SAS Studio, Hadoop and more. Graphs were everywhere, and it was a banner year for ODS Graphics with over 15 papers and presentations by users on creating graphs using SG Procedures, GTL and Designer. Dan Heath, Prashant Hebbar, Scott
In recent releases of SAS, you can use Output Delivery System graphics or 'ODS graphics on' to produce nice graphical output for most of the analytic procedures. These default graphs are nice, but when you want your graphs to look "a certain way" SAS also lets you create your own custom graphs!
Actually, luck had little to do with it. The twenty two recipients of Student Scholarship and Junior Professional Awards are attending the Pharmaceutical Industry SAS Users Group (PharmaSUG) from May 17-20 because of their qualifications. This marks the fifth year that PharmaSUG has offered these special programs, which are funded
Over the past year and a half, there has been a subtle shift in media attention from big data analytics to what is referred to as the Internet of Things, or IoT for short. The shift in focus is not intended to diminish the value of big data platforms and
I've written about how to use the FILENAME ZIP method to read and update ZIP files in your SAS programs. The ZIP method was added in SAS 9.4, and its advantage is that you can accomplish more in SAS without having to launch external utilities such as WinZip, gunzip, or
A common task in data analysis is to locate observations that satisfy multiple criteria. For example, you might want to locate all zip codes in certain counties within specified states. The SAS DATA step contains the powerful WHERE statement, which enables you to extract a subset of data that satisfy
Everything’s bigger in Texas and that definitely held true at SAS Global Forum 2015. The conference was bigger and busier than ever, especially for the education industry. There were so many amazing presentations and announcements, that you may have missed a few -- here are the highlights. We had a several customer presentations on SAS Visual
I’m headed to Orlando, May 17- 20, for the annual PharmaSUG conference. PharmaSUG is the Pharmaceutical Industry SAS Users Group, consisting of professionals worldwide in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries who use SAS software in their work. I will be at the SAS Publications booth in the demo room and
We have all heard the old joke about the person who sidles up to a doctor at a party and describes in great detail a medical problem a "friend" is having in order to get free medical advice. It could just as easily be a person buttonholing an accountant for
Once you have assessed the types of reporting and analytics projects and activities are to be done by the community of data analysts and consumers and have assessed their business needs and requirements for performance, you can then evaluate – with confidence – how different platforms and tools can be combined to satisfy
Data governance and data virtualization can become powerful allies. The word governance is not be understood here as a law but more as a support and vision for business analytics application. Our governance processes must become agile the same way our business is transforming. Data virtualization, being a very versatile
Everyone loves a “mental health” day, one of those days when we get to relax and escape from the everyday worries and stresses of life. Imagine the challenge of dealing with true mental health issues everyday – especially as a child or youth where mental health issues can cause isolation,
I was surprised to find that the size of the U.S. federal government is smaller today, than in the past many decades - let's graph it out, so it's easy to analyze... The way I got started on this little adventure was via Jishai's graph on dadaviz.com. Here's a snapshot
Have you noticed how your smart phone seems to know everything about you? Where you live, where you work, and even how long your daily commute will take! A lot of that information is generated by your daily activities while using your connected devices. There is much to be found by analyzing the
New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg made a new-year's resolution to learn code. Apple’s Steve Jobs said, “I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.” President Barrack Obama said, "Don't just buy a new video game, make one.
On Monday, SAS announced the beginning of a new era with its Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions OEM partnership. This is the first time SAS has provided its technology for an equipment manufacturer to wrap into its solution to help retail customers gain the benefits of advanced analytics. We always ask
I was privileged with the opportunity to present a couple of papers at SAS Global Forum 2015 in Dallas, Texas this year. While there, I was also excited to attend presentations with new and inventive approaches for working with the administration and architecture of SAS solutions. This is a collection
In my previous post I used junk drawers as an example of the downside of including more data in our analytics just in case it helps us discover more insights only to end up with more flotsam than findings. In this post I want to float some thoughts about a two-word concept
Last week I attended SAS Global Forum 2015 in Dallas. It was packed with almost 5,000 attendees. I learned many interesting things at the conference, including the fact that you need to arrive EARLY to the statistical presentations if you want to find an empty seat! It was gratifying to
The primary objective of many discrete-event simulation projects is system investigation. Output data from the simulation model are used to better understand the operation of the system (whether that system is real or theoretical), as well as to conduct various "what-if"-type analyses. However, I recently worked on another model
By now, we have all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Industrial Internet. Across industries, organizations are attempting to instrument and measure all critical business systems and assets in an effort to drive improved production and service delivery. It is estimated that by 2020, companies will spend
Did you ever wish you could master SAS/GRAPH, and create graphs and maps that were customized exactly like you wanted them? Then this free eBook is for you! Probably the most memorable book for me was the Necronomicon in the Army of Darkness movie. How many of you liked that
Less than a year ago, the country’s attention was on Dallas after the first Ebola patient died. Not only is that where this project begins, but also where it was presented at SAS Global Forum in Dallas. Sharat Dwibhasi and his classmates Dheerj Jami and Shivkanth Lanka from Oklahoma State
@philsimon says that, yes, we can learn a great deal.
I was at a Saturday team-building workshop two weeks ago with folks from a non-profit I work with, and in a small group we were invited to write down 5 questions to ask each other. I received a total of 15 but only had to answer 2 (so it was
If you’re one of the hundreds of SAS users registered for PharmaSUG, scheduled for May 17-20 in Orlando, you should give extending your stay some serious thought. In just a few hours, you can set yourself apart with a professional certification from SAS! SAS is offering something no theme park
Hadoop, in-memory analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, data visualization— topics that are dominating the analytics airwaves. SAS is innovating in all these areas, rapidly developing new products and functionality to meet the needs of today’s analytic environment. During this year’s Technology Connection session, SAS Global Forum 2015
In April, the free trial of SAS Data Loader for Hadoop became available globally. Now, you can take a test drive of our new technology designed to increase the speed and ease of managing data within Hadoop. The downloads might take a while (after all, this is big data), but I think you’ll
Did you know that if you have set multiple titles in SAS, that there is an easy way to remove them? For example, suppose that you've written the following statements, which call the TITLE statement to set three titles: title "A Great Big Papa Title"; title2 "A Medium-sized Mama Title";
