On most Mondays I blog about a function, programming technique, or resource that is useful for programmers who are getting started with SAS software. Recently I learned that my colleagues in the SAS education division have been hard at work developing a series of short videos that explain basic tasks
The 2014 SAS Global Forum will be the launch pad I use to blast off for SAS exploration! Since being introduced to SAS software, I have been driven to continually evolve as a SAS programmer through the development of my abilities and the discovery of new techniques. Winning the SAS
Another year, another conference! This year I am really looking forward to attending SAS Global Forum 2014. I am, of course, looking forward to seeing familiar faces and making new acquaintances at the networking events. This year the session content is spectacular and I will be in as many sessions
SAS Global Forum starts for me in the fall of the prior year. This is when you submit your ideas for papers and then wait patiently for many months to learn if it was selected. I enjoy writing and presenting ideas, so here are my topics and what inspired them.
In the Breaking Bad TV series, Walter White has an impressive lab where he secretly makes the illegal drug methamphetamine (meth). Wouldn't it be cool to use SAS to show the locations of all the clandestine meth labs in the US?!? Let's do it!... In this blog, I show you
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
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
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
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
