Last week I described how to generate permutations in SAS. A related concept is the "combination." In probability and statistics, a combination is a subset of k items chosen from a set that contains N items. Order does not matter, so although the ordered triplets (B, A, C) and (C,
Some recent press articles question the value of big data while a book takes the opposite approach; I’ll choose the middle way. The New York Times article ‘Is Big Data an Economic Big Dud?’ questions the value of digital data and the resulting increase in the amount of data. This
"It's a floor wax, and a dessert topping" - this pretty much describes SAS/Graph! (bonus points if you know where this quote came from!) Some people think of SAS as just a quality control tool. Others think of it as just a sales & marketing tool. And yet others think
If breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day then why do so many of us skip it? Often it’s because we feel we don’t have enough time or we just aren’t hungry. However, taking a few quick minutes in the morning to "break the fast" can have
This is the last post in my recent series of articles on computing contours in SAS. Last month a SAS customer asked how to compute the contours of the bivariate normal cumulative distribution function (CDF). Answering that question in a single blog post would have resulted in a long article,
Although she’s an analyst, Anca Tilea estimates that she spends 80% of her time cleaning data. Tilea and co-author Deanna Chyn shared seven of their favorite methods for checking, cleaning and restructuring data. Attendees at MWSUG 2013 got a bonus tip: Ask SAS peers in one of the SAS Support
I’m here at MWSUG 2013 soaking up the regional experience. After spending a couple of days in Columbus, I’m seeing first-hand how much users care about working with SAS software and about being part of the SAS community. It’s been a great conference so far—-presentations are packed! Walking through the
When we announced the SAS Global Forum 2013 Best Contributed Paper winners on our blog, the response was huge! I asked the authors to comment on whether or not their paper topics had any broader applications. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Seems like these winning SAS findings are Swiss army
I've written several articles that show how to generate permutations in SAS. In the SAS DATA step, you can use the ALLPEM subroutine to generate all permutations of a DATA step array that contain a small number (18 or fewer) elements. In addition, the PLAN procedure enables you to generate
Your biggest problem with maps used to be learning how to fold a paper road map. Today, with the advent of GPS, Google Maps, and location-specific data, the bar has been raised! ... you now need to know how to plot your data on a map! Below are several examples of different kinds
A couple of weeks back we had a question on how to make a bar chart with stacked and clustered groups. User also wanted to display the value for each stacked segment below the bars. The article Bar Charts with Stacked and Cluster Groups shows how to create such a
I'm spoiled by the internet. I've grown so accustomed to being able to instantly find an answer to any query—no matter how obscure—that I am surprised when I don't find what I am looking for. The other day I was trying to find a mathematical result: a formula for the
My family are all Lord of the Rings Trilogy fans. As a novice in the world of SAS administration, I find discussing the SAS middle tier architecture a little like traveling through Middle Earth. For me, it’s new and fascinating terrain. And like other travelers, I would find it useful
Sometimes, your first impulse may not be correct, like trading in your practical sedan for a hot 2-seater. Other times, your first impulse is perfect, as in the examples below. Suppose the automobile data you wish to analyze resides in a CSV file. Naturally, your first impulse is to import
Like many other computer packages, SAS can produce a contour plot that shows the level sets of a function of two variables. For example, I've previously written blogs that use contour plots to visualize the bivariate normal density function and to visualize the cumulative normal distribution function. However, sometimes you
Recently, SAS released SAS Solutions OnDemand for academics. An academic user who is signed up for this can use the SAS Web Editor application to do all their data analysis over the web using a hosted server at SAS. This frees up the user from having to install the software on their own computers,
A couple of years ago I shared a method for copying any file within a SAS program. It was a simple approach, copying the file byte-by-byte from one fileref (SAS file reference) to another. My colleague Bruno Müller, a SAS trainer in Switzerland, has since provided a much more robust
There's an old expression "easy as pie." Have you ever tried to bake a pie??? ... It's not so easy, LOL! And neither is using pie charts correctly! :) Below are several examples of different kinds of pie charts you can create with SAS/GRAPH. And at the bottom of this
SAS 9 has supported calling R from the SAS/IML language since 2009. The interface to R is part of the SAS/IML language. However, there have been so many versions of SAS and R since 2009, that it is hard to remember which SAS release supports which versions of R. The
This week I read an interesting blog post that led to a discussion about specifying the frequencies of observations in a regression model. In SAS software, many of the analysis procedures contain a FREQ statement for specifying frequencies and a WEIGHT statement for specifying weights in a weighted regression. Theis
Like many of you teachers out there, I spent a lot of time recently preparing for the new school year. At home, it began with the therapeutic organization of children's rooms. As I sat amid in outgrown clothes, last year’s school work, and books to donate, I braced myself and
One of our readers asked if we could explain some of the thinking behind SAS’ recent decision to modify its support for US regional users groups. Over the past five to ten years, users have been telling SAS they need more targeted, more local and more immediate types of support, especially technical
SAS Data Management is a popular topic here on the SAS interwebs. You can find all types of information ranging from thought leadership to white papers to product details. At SAS Global Forum I sat down with Nancy Rausch, one of the principal R&D managers behind the SAS Data Management
Do you know how to create a bar chart using SAS, and when to use what kind of bar chart?!? If the answer doesn't come to you "easy as pie" then this blog is for you! Below are several examples of different kinds of bar charts you can create with SAS/GRAPH.
Please register and join SAS Product Manager Amy Peters on September 26 at 1:00 pm ET for a SAS Talks webinar: SAS 9.4: What's New for SAS Administrators. This SAS Talks webinar is laser-focused on enhancements and changes that will interest SAS administrators. Specifically, Amy will highlight how the new
Another summer has almost come and gone and fall is on its way bringing cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and colorful leaves. However, just because fall is knocking on our door doesn’t mean we have to stop enjoying our favorite summer produce. If you’re a home gardener or a frequent flyer
In a previous post, I showed how to solve differential equations in SAS by using the ODE subroutine in the SAS/IML language, which solves initial value problems. This article describes how to draw phase portraits for two classic differential equations: the equations of motion for the simple harmonic oscillator and
If you're a student or young professional, you're in luck! I've compiled a cheat-sheet of the grants, scholarships and mentorship programs offered at SAS Users Group conferences. Why attend a conference in the first place? Simple. You can increase your SAS knowledge, network with experienced SAS professionals and generally improve
Differential equations arise in the modeling of many physical processes, including mechanical and chemical systems. You can solve systems of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by using the ODE subroutine in the SAS/IML language, which solves initial value problems. This article uses the equations of motion for the classic simple
Creating bar charts with group classification is very easy using the SG procedures. When using a group variable, the group values for each category are stacked by default. Using the sashelp.prdsale data set and default STAT of SUM, here is the graph and the code. SGPLOT code: proc sgplot data=sashelp.prdsale;
