Over the past six months, my free time was devoted to training. This impacted my blog posting frequency but the training helped me successfully complete the inaugural Raleigh Ironman 70.3 in June. When thinking back through how this happened, I noticed many parallels to successfully implementing software for organizations. If
There are many techniques for generating random variates from a specified probability distribution such as the normal, exponential, or gamma distribution. However, one technique stands out because of its generality and simplicity: the inverse CDF sampling technique. If you know the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a probability distribution, then
How do you like your sandwich? On rye, whole wheat or white bread? What fillings and dressings do you like? You probably think I’ve gone completely crazy and I don’t blame you. What does food have to do with SAS, you say? Loads -- as you’ll find out with this
SAS Global Forum is a three-day, education-focused and energy-packed conference – created by SAS users, for SAS users. Next year’s event will be in Washington D.C., March 23-26. Featuring the best and brightest SAS users and experts from all over the globe, SAS Global Forum 2014 offers the SAS community the chance
We’ve all seen those climactic movie scenes, where the hero of the story figures out how to “save the day” with only minutes to spare. Imagine a rogue CIA operative dashing into a situation room with the last-ditch information that averts nuclear war – and, as always, succeeding. Nothing says
ODS graph styles provide users with an easy way to control things such as the colors and fonts used in a graph, freeing the user from having to specify these properties in their code. A lot of thought was given to picking colors that work well together, and look good. The
I love tables. As a writer, there's nothing more satisfying to me than distilling complicated information into neat rows and columns. That's one of the features that caught my eye in SAS User ID and Password Usage Rules. The other is its potential usefulness for SAS administrators who manage SAS
In a previous article I discussed how to bin univariate observations by using the BIN function, which was added to the SAS/IML language in SAS/IML 9.3. You can generalize that example and bin bivariate or multivariate data. Over two years ago I wrote a blog post on 2D binning in
You’ve probably caught on by now that I live in the DC-metro area and suffer daily through the misery of congestion. Before I even reach for my keys, I check for the latest information from regional transportation agencies, especially Metro, to devise my plan of attack. Going way beyond the
In the first two posts in this series, Seeing the Light: How SMBs are Using Data and Insights to Get Ahead, I shared the motivations that prompted three SMBs to replace spreadsheets and intuition with a more sophisticated, analytics-driven approach to run their businesses. In the second, I discussed the
It is often useful to partition observations for a continuous variable into a small number of intervals, called bins. This familiar process occurs every time that you create a histogram, such as the one on the left. In SAS you can create this histogram by calling the UNIVARIATE procedure. Optionally,
Last week, I presented some highlights of the new features for SG Procedures and GTL in SAS 9.4. Now, let us dig in a bit deeper. For a plot without a GROUP role, setting an attributes was always easy with SG procedures. All you need to do to set bar color
Did you know that more than 30,000 Americans die in traffic accidents every year? Interestingly, the U.S. import of mangoes from Brazil is found to be highly correlated with this fatality rate, as shown in the graph below. But are mango imports a good indicator of the future traffic fatality
This week's SAS tip is from Lauren Haworth, Cynthia L. Zender, and Michele Burlew's book Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond. This example-driven book includes broad coverage of some of the best features of ODS. To learn more about the book and the authors, visit our Web catalog to read
To say that I'm excited about the SAS 9.4 release is an understatement! For example, did you know that in SAS 9.4, you can write SAS/Graph output directly to a Powerpoint slide?!? This is definitely an item that was on my "wish list," and will no doubt make life a
SAS® 9.4--Enable, simplify and innovate with more deployment options! July 10 marked the beginning of the "SAS 9.4 Era"--the next step in the evolution of SAS. This newest platform release offers product enhancements galore, more deployment choices than ever, simplified administration and more. I thought you might find it useful
SAS 9.4 releases today with a ton of new features. As eloquently stated by Craig Rubendall, the driving themes are "Enable. Simplify. Innovate". The same sentiment applies to the ODS Graphics, with a ton of new features for the SG Procedures, GTL and ODS Graphics Designer. In the next few articles,
I don’t think people typically think of administration as a fun thing, but it really was fun talking to SAS administrators at SAS Global Forum this year. There seemed to always be a crowd around the administration demo station. We had quite a few super demos and papers, and we
Most of us will have at least a few road trips this summer (some longer than others). Traveling in the car doesn’t mean you have to give up your healthy habits. It just takes a little planning.
Are you still using the old RANUNI, RANNOR, RANBIN, and other "RANXXX" functions to generate random numbers in SAS? If so, here are six reasons why you should switch from these older (1970s) algorithms to the newer (late 1990s) Mersenne-Twister algorithm, which is implemented in the RAND function. The newer
I’ve got a book recommendation for you – it came recommended to me and did not disappoint. “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, by Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman is actually a psychologist (Professor emeritus at Princeton Univ), and his Nobel Prize winning work on decision theory will also remind
SAS 9.3 already has smooth (anti-aliased) lines in SAS/GRAPH device=png output, and in SAS 9.4 you will also get smooth lines in your device=gif output (and gif animations)! Woo-hoo!!! Here are a couple of simple examples to demonstrate: The first example is device=gif Proc Gmap output. If you look very closely, you'll notice that
The DELETE procedure is probably the most well-known and most-used SAS procedure that isn't actually documented or officially supported. That is, that was the case before the release of SAS 9.4, when PROC DELETE returns with more features than ever -- including a production-quality status. In his SAS Global Forum
Being an author can be a tough gig. Lots of writing, reviews, edits, cover approvals…the list goes on and on. But often the good times outweigh the tough times. And we’re so lucky that many of our authors have written more than one book for SAS Press. One such author
“How can we begin to make sense of the unstructured data, when we still don’t make the most of our structured data?” said the exasperated senior manager from a large retail firm. One of the great pleasures of my job is the relationship with students that continues after class has
Tried, tested and true -- I’m sure you already practice some, if not all, of these efficient techniques to save resources. I recently shared these 10 techniques with the Wisconsin Illinois SAS users group in Milwaukee. The conference ran smoothly under the incredibly able guidance of Dr. LeRoy Bessler. I’ll
Four authors. Four papers. One set of data. The month of August and the 2014 Call for Content are just around the corner, and this seems like a good time to share a little inspiration and innovation. The Foundations and Fundamentals paper section at SAS Global Forum 2013 featured a four-part
Every programming language has an IF-THEN statement that branches according to whether a Boolean expression is true or false. In SAS, the IF-THEN (or IF-THEN/ELSE) statement evaluates an expression and braches according to whether the expression is nonzero (true) or zero (false). The basic syntax is if numeric-expression then do-computation;
Conventional or Organic? That is the question. Research varies about whether organic foods are healthier than conventional foods. However, one of the biggest arguments for buying organic is in regards to pesticide exposure. Convincing evidence is revealing that the pesticides we eat, drink and inhale are stored in our bodies
If, like me, you have children who are old enough to vote, you may have noticed what I have noticed. They’re different. They seem permanently connected to their friends via social media, rarely watch the news or read a paper, and they have many transient interests that seem to follow
