A couple of weeks back I described q way to create a Schedule Chart using the SGPLOT procedure. In that case, I used the HIGHLOW plot to draw bar segments, both for a single and grouped case. A natural extension is to create one with links between each segment. So,
SAS has been used to track the spread of many things, such as wild animals, tornadoes, and money launderers -- but this time I'm using it to track the spread of Walmart stores across the U.S. over time! Since its start in the 1960s, Walmart has grown to be the largest
I was looking at someone else's SAS/IML program when I saw this line of code: y = sqrt(x<>0); The statement uses the element maximum operator (<>) in the SAS/IML language to make sure that negative value are never passed to the square root function. This little trick is a real
Okay, given the title of this article, I might be overselling the content a bit. Read on to see if your life will be transformed. I've just returned from SESUG, and this question came up during one of the presentations. While this tip might seem basic, it was news to
Many people today just use their computer to play Angry Birds or post pictures of their most recent meal on Facebook ... but what would some of the great minds of the past have done with a computer?... For example, Charles Minard was creating impressive information graphics without a computer over 100 years ago,
SAS conferences are amazing events, with great presentations, keynote talks, classes and workshop, experts from the SAS Institute, networking opportunities and so much more! With so many things to do and so much happening at once, SAS conferences can be overwhelming. Plan to get the most out of your conference
If you've ever tried to use PROC FREQ to create a frequency table of two character variables, you know that by default the categories for each variable are displayed in alphabetical order. A different order is sometimes more useful. For example, consider the following two-way table for the smoking status
I am happy to report that my new book "Getting Started with the Graph Template Language in SAS" is now shipping. A colleague suggest it would be useful to post some articles with the same theme of "Getting started". I thought that was a great idea, and decided to start a new
Reacting to the demand in the rapidly changing environment of an emergency department can be a major challenge. Frequent mismatches between patient need and the health care professionals available to provide that care can result in significant human and financial costs. Analytics 2013 Orlando presenters, Kevin Armstrong of Vanderbilt University
Anne Hawley’s "Introduction to Statistics” professor asked the class what percentage of students at St. Lawrence University in New York state were smokers. Although the answer (according to a survey of students) was closer to 10 percent, most of the class guessed a much higher number, possibly due to the fact
Stick to the basics. Did you ever get that advice? Two of the papers at MidWest SAS Users Group 2013 used that most fundamental of SAS processing concepts—the Program Data Vector—to show why users might encounter unexpected errors in their DATA step programs. In The Secret Life of DATA STEP,
SAS has had a good week. No. 1 in Analytics The company remains No. 1 in advanced analytics -- per IDC and Forrester, not just according to marketers like me. And we remain committed to innovation. Our data visualization offering, SAS Visual Analytics, is now used by more than 500
In SAS Grid Manager environments, SAS administrators must often set up separate configurations based on a mix of requirements for departments, client applications and user roles. To accomplish this in previous SAS releases, administrators must define multiple SAS Application Server contexts, each with its own grid server definition and associated options.
This graph certainly makes it clear! I can see right through your lies! Clearly, you know what you're talking about! We need more transparency in our organization! What was that all about, you might ask?!? ... I was just getting all the obvious puns out of the way, so I
Ginger is one of those spices that is good in anything! Sweet or savory. Ginger has a sweet, pungent spicy kick to it. You can find ginger fresh in the produce section of most stores, or as the dried ground spice. But, if you’ve never cooked with fresh ginger, you
A challenge for statistical programmers is getting data into the right form for analysis. For graphing or analyzing data, sometimes the "wide format" (each subject is represented by one row and many variables) is required, but other times the "long format" (observations for each subject span multiple rows) is more
Imagine working in partnership with someone who gives you only part of the information you need to do your job. Need to call a supplier to place an order? OK, here are the first three letters of the company name. Want to see how much profit a store made on a
I'm currently at the SESUG conference with hundreds of SAS users. I've presented a few talks, and I've attended a few more. The presentation rooms can be large and dimly lit, and the projectors at these conference hotels are not always the brightest nor are they exactly "high def". To
There’s a lot of talk about the gap between the demand for analytics talent and the short supply. Jennifer Priestley of Kennesaw State led a panel at Analytics 2013 to discuss how universities are minding the gap. I caught up with her to ask what schools need to be doing
Analytics, to me, has always been about continuous education and giving people the chance to learn new insights. The SAS Day at Houston CityCentre earlier this month is a shining example. Hosted by the Department of Statistics as Texas A&M University, the event showed how analytics guides decisions across many
SAS/IML programmers know that the VECDIAG matrix can be used to extract the diagonal elements of a matrix. For example, the following statements extract the diagonal of a 3 x 3 matrix: proc iml; m = {1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 8 9}; v = vecdiag(m); /* v = {1,5,9}
Another benefit of attending the Analytics conference is the SAS Training and SAS Certification exams offered before and after the conference. We interviewed an attendee who just finished the exam for his SAS Certified Predictive Modeler using SAS Enterprise Miner 7 credential. Here’s his advice for people interested in SAS Certifications.
Last week Bruno asked about creating a Schedule Chart using SG Procedures. To me, such projects are very interesting and challenging...How much mileage can we get out of the current set of SGPLOT procedure features to create a visual that was not part of the original requirements? The clear choice for
The other day I showed how to check your data cardinality by using a simple SAS program. I also promised to provide a custom task that makes the process even easier within SAS Enterprise Guide. Today I'm delivering on that promise. I've just added the custom task to the support.sas.com
We are in the final countdown to the Analytics 2013 Conference to be held next week, October 21-22 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando. There is a power-packed agenda for the conference, featuring four very strong keynote presentations from Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS; Ed Gaffin, Walt Disney World; Will Hakes,
This article is about rotating matrices. No, I don't mean "rotation matrices," I mean rotating matrices. As in turning a matrix 90 degrees in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. I was reading a program written in MATLAB in which the programmer used a MATLAB function called ROT90, which rotates a
Although the NSA and news media have given metadata a bad name in the popular press, the fact remains that information about the nature of your data is extremely valuable. For example, I posted an article yesterday about data cardinality. Cardinality measures the uniqueness of values in a variable. Cardinality
This robin chick chirped away in my backyard on a glorious summer afternoon. While papa robin hovered above, the chick hopped on ground following Dad. Soon Dad disappeared after leading the chick to a tree where two gray squirrels smacked their lips at the sight of an easy lunch. Lifting
From what I've seen, the energy industries appear to be at a tipping point in their interest and adoption of advanced analytics. If there's any question about how analytics can be used to benefit these industries, consider a few examples:. How much demand for electricity will there be and when?
As you've probably guessed, I'm a "visual" person - I like to see things (in a chart/graph/map) rather than just reading about them (in a data table and summary statistic). Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of statistics and analytics -- but I'm an even bigger fan of
