SAS programmers use the SAS/IML language for many different tasks. One important task is computing an integral. Another is optimizing functions, such as maximizing a likelihood function to find parameters that best fit a set of data. Last week I saw an interesting problem that combines these two important tasks.
Every year, conference organizers get this same request “I want to attend a SAS conference, but my travel funds are limited, what do you recommend?” This seems like a good opportunity to share some of the clever ways this year’s SAS conference leaders are helping you save on SAS Global
My teenage daughter is a self-appointed anglophile. She's a big fan of British movies and TV shows such as Doctor Who and Sherlock, and although she has not yet visited the UK (an injustice for which she blames her father), she considers the place to be her homeland. In an
For those of us in the United States, particularly those of us on the East Coast where SAS Global Forum 2014 will be held, it’s been a rough winter! Some mornings I wear so many layers that I feel like that Ralphie’s younger brother in the movie A Christmas Story--“I
A colleague sent me an interesting question: What is the best way to abort a SAS/IML program? For example, you might want to abort a program if the data is singular or does not contain a sufficient number of observations or variables. As a first attempt would be to try
Often we need to plot multiple response variables on Y axes by a common variable on X axis. When the response variables are very different in magnitudes or format, we prefer to plot the variables on separate Y (Left) and Y2 (Right) axes. Here is some sample data with three response
With all of us blogging, emailing and posting updates on social media, the amount of textual data is growing fast. So how do you make sense of all that big data? Dr. Goutam Chakraborty teaches a Business Knowledge Series course, Text Analytics and Sentiment Mining Using SAS, where you can
Michele Ensor recently posted a wonderful blog with a graph of the 2014 Winter Olympics medal count. I'm going to further refine that graph, making it an Olympic graph ... on steroids! :) Here is Michele's graph: First, let's give it a few simple cosmetic changes. I always like to have
Here’s my latest tip on how to apply conditional highlighting to a SAS Enterprise Guide report using the Summary Tables task. The Summary Tables task is a great way to point and click your way to creating simple or complex reports. Conditional highlighting is just one additional feature you can
My journey to SAS Global Forum each year resembles a Gartner “Hype Cycle”. Every year, I leave the conference with a million ideas about how I can take what I’ve learned back into my own practice and think (foolishly) that I should write a paper on this or that. Then there
In Part 1, we reviewed 3 nutrients that help stabilize moods: Folate, Omega 3 Fatty Acids and L-Theanine. Read further to learn 3 additional nutrients that have a positive impact on our moods and energy levels. 4. MAGNESIUM Magnesium is crucial for more than 300 body functions including anti-anxiety benefits.
My last blog post described three ways to add a smoothing spline to a scatter plot in SAS. I ended the post with a cautionary note: From a statistical point of view, the smoothing spline is less than ideal because the smoothing parameter must be chosen manually by the user.
Having served as conference chair for last year’s SAS Global Forum, I am so looking forward to just being a normal attendee at this year’s conference in Washington, DC. That’s right, I’ll have no speaking commitments, no interviewers, no responsibilities—just the privilege of selecting the content that is right for
Networking with other SAS users is what I love most about SAS Global Forum! At every conference, I look for ways to find those who share my interests or whose experience sheds new light on my use of SAS software. When I come across tips on networking, I always try
Like many SAS programmers, I use the Statistical Graphics (SG) procedures to graph my data in SAS. To me, the SGPLOT and SGRENDER procedures are powerful, easy to use, and produce fabulous ODS graphics. I was therefore surprised when a SAS customer told me that he continues to use the
Classification panels are a very popular visual representation of the data, where the data is gridded by class variables all in one graph. This makes it easy to compare and contrast the data by these class variables. The SGPANEL procedure makes this easy, and most of the time it is
IT support levels for different processes and business applications depend on many factors. So how are analytics projects generally supported? It's common for IT to view the implementation of advanced analytics as part of a production job or process, especially when analytic models are deployed into different operational systems that are
SAS administrators now have another tool to keep SAS users from straying off their permitted path: the LOCKDOWN system option. The option was introduced in "stealth mode" for SAS 9.4. In SAS 9.4M1, it became a true, documented option. For the official guide to creating "locked-down servers", see the SAS
Most SAS programmers would agree that they use the SET statement without giving much thought to the syntax, because it’s such a widely used statement of choice. We routinely name the expected data sets and possibly a few options, and away we go. A visit to the documentation can be
People who know me know that there’s one thing I hate at work – duplication of efforts. I’m not talking about working on a problem in a coordinated fashion. I’m talking about two or more people doing the same work, to answer the same question. Without coordination, there will be
Will you be attending the American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice in Tampa this week? If so, we want to invite you to set aside a few minutes to visit SAS Press in the exhibit hall and bring SAS Press your best book ideas. At this conference, we’re looking
In this interconnected world, it is more important than ever to understand not just details about your data, but also how its different parts are related to each other. Social networks reveal often surprising details about what people think about your product or services, how they are linked to other
SAS Environment Manager 2.1 (which was released with SAS 9.4 M1), has new features to make it easier to manage your SAS environment. For example, it now supports metadata clusters, and it has an improved method for handling access to the application. But the biggest change is in metadata access.
My previous post described how to use the "missing response trick" to score a regression model. As I said in that article, there are other ways to score a regression model. This article describes using the SCORE procedure, a SCORE statement, the relatively new PLM procedure, and the CODE statement.
I had the opportunity to moderate a roundtable discussion on risk management at the International Institute for Analytics’ (IIA) winter symposium in Orlando earlier this month. I set the stage for the session with a brief overview of my favorite risk approach, “Competing on Value”, by Mack Hannan and Peter
When the Apple Macintosh hit the market, analysts were not impressed. But Steve Jobs’ vision ended up transforming our lives. Apple is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and has become a global household name. Jobs’ ability to direct his organization to develop easy to use products not only met
Teacher pay, and the possibility of a raise, has been a hot topic in North Carolina lately. So I decided to look around and see if I could find any good data related to teacher salary, and then try to determine the best way to present that data graphically. I found that
Last week’s Winter Storm Pax closed schools, businesses and government here in the eastern US. Perhaps we were inspired by warm thoughts of America’s capital city in the spring. Perhaps spending so many days at home alone underscored the value of sharing information and insights with coworkers. Or, perhaps after
Last week's SAS Talks session, My Favorite SAS Enterprise Guide 5.1 Tricks, was remarkable in several ways. First, the featured presenter was Marje Fecht, who also serves as the conference chair for SAS Global Forum 2014. She's an avid SAS professional who loves to educate her fellow SAS users on
A fundamental operation in statistical data analysis is to fit a statistical regression model on one set of data and then evaluate the model on another set of data. The act of evaluating the model on the second set of data is called scoring. One of first "tricks" that I
