In a previous post, I described how to write a Windows PowerShell script to connect to a SAS Metadata Server. In this post, I'll show an example of something useful that you can do after you've established that connection. Specifically, I'll show how to "ask" the SAS Metadata Server about
There was a lot of talk last year about What not to wear at SAS Global Forum and although informative and fun we didn’t necessarily help with what IS in style. Since 2013 is the year of Statistics we are going to focus our fashion series a little more on
The SAS/IML language has a curious syntax that enables you to specify a "repetition factor" when you initialize a vector of literal values. Essentially, the language enables you to specify the frequency of an element. For example, suppose you want to define the following vector: proc iml; x = {1
SAS Integration Technologies provides a flexible platform to create all types of apps, from simple utilities to full-blown applications. As part of the research for my SAS Global Forum 2013 paper (Create Your Own Client Apps Using SAS Integration Technologies), I've been trying to invent some useful examples that you
This week's tip is from Robert Carver and his book Practical Data Analysis with JMP. If you're a JMP user, be sure to take a look at additional bonus content from the book. The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Robert Carver and his book "Practical Data Analysis with JMP". Copyright © 2010, SAS
I'm sure that most of you have seen the really cool interactive Baby Name Voyager, right? If not, go have a look and try it out (be sure to plug in your name, and the names in your family, and so on). Here's a screen-capture: That's a pretty cool application! ...
So your paper abstract has been accepted to present at SAS Global Forum? Better get to writing it! Do not put it off or delay. Remember you have a paper AND a presentation to put together. Depending on how you plan to write the paper, you may have some SAS
So let’s get down to it, what exactly do we mean by data in SAS? We hear all about “big data”, tiny data, datasets, metadata, OLAP, relational data, but what do I really need to know when it comes to SAS?
I have previously written about how to use the "table" distribution to generate random values from a discrete probability distribution. For example, if there are 50 black marbles, 20 red marbles, and 30 white marbles in a box, the following SAS/IML program simulates random draws (with replacement) of 1,000 marbles:
~ contributed by Debbie Buck for the SAS Global Users Group Executive Board The SAS Global Users Group Executive Board is currently soliciting applications from individuals interested in applying for the position of Conference Chair for SAS Global Forum 2015 to be held in Dallas, TX, April 26-29. The deadline
Suppose that you have a SAS/IML matrix and you want to set each element of a submatrix to zero (or any other value). There is a simple syntax that accomplishes this task. If you subscript a matrix and do not specify a row, it means "use all rows." So, for
Yes, it’s February 15 and plenty of people celebrated yesterday for obvious reasons; Valentine’s Day. But today, SAS Global Forum is celebrating for other reasons. It’s not about flowers, candy and love notes for us this week– it’s about content, content and more content. That’s right – we’re celebrating today
Recently, I was having lunch with a city council member who shared a litany of comments about the outstanding job the city and its staff does in all areas of city operations. She remarked on how little the public understands about all the city does and how efficiently it’s done.
SAS Code for your Valentine - just in case you forgot to get flowers, chocolate or other tokens of affection for the big day yesterday.
What are the odds of winning the lottery? This seems like a simple question (and yes, there is a simple answer), but there are a few technical details to work out first... Which lottery? Let's say the Powerball Lottery. When? The number of balls used in the Powerball lottery has
I am a big fan of SAS Management Console. This is the central location where you can perform many of your SAS administration tasks. One of the most important tasks of a SAS Administrator is making sure data is available to the right people when they need it. Most of
February is Heart Month First the bad news, heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women. Now the good news, heart disease is preventable and controllable. Chews Strategically will focus on the health of your heart for the month of February so tune in and learn
If you are like me, you've experienced the following frustration. You are reading the SAS/STAT documentation, trying to understand some procedure or option, when you find an example that is very similar to what you need. "Great," you think, "this example will help me understand how the SAS procedure works!"
John D. Cook shared a picture of "pretty squiggles" on his blog, as well as a prose description of the mathematics behind it. I'm more of a programmer than a mathematician, but I've attempted to transcribe his description into a SAS program. I used DATA step to generate the point
The Graph Template Language (GTL) provides you the ability to create complex graphical layouts. We have seen how to create a regular grid of cells based on one or more classification variables using the SGPANEL procedure. Each cell contains the same type of plot. This topic was covered in Dan's article on
Suppose you have an old jalopy that's perfectly reliable. Your jalopy gets you where you wanna go: no frills; no drama. Do you trade your old wheels in for a racecar that accelerates like crazy and corners like it's on rails? Or stick with what's old and comfortable? Your choice
There are many different ways to do something; my approach is all about breaking a problem into smaller problems. I try as much as possible to stay away from developing something that can only serve a purpose in one problem. I achieve this by keeping things modular. Each tool should
In linear algebra, the I symbol is used to denote an n x n identity matrix. The symbol J (or sometimes 1) is used to denote an n x p matrix of ones. When the SAS/IML language was implemented, the I function was defined to generate the identity matrix. The J function was defined
Netflix has made a big splash in the news with its use of big data. By analyzing millions of data points about the viewing habits of its customers, the movie delivery giant used the insight it gained to devise the "perfect show". One of the defining characteristics of the show,
Were you at SAS Global Forum last spring? Dr. Goodnight sat down at a computer console and personally demonstrated the cool things that SAS® Visual Analytics Explorer can do? Take a look at his demo, and then imagine working in a drag-and-drop, point and click environment with billions of rows
I like to think that I have a graph for all occasions - Chinese New Year is no exception! ... The exact date of the Chinese New Year varies from year to year, because it's based on the lunar (moon) cycles. I thought it would be useful to create a
The SAS Metadata Server holds all of the metadata for a given SAS EBI installation. For most SAS administrators, the sole view into the Metadata Server is through SAS Management Console. This is a very limited perspective out of the box, as much of the metadata is not surfaced by
Last week the SAS Training Post blog posted a short article on an easy way to find variables in common to two data sets. The article used PROC CONTENTS (with the SHORT option) to print out the names of variables in SAS data sets so that you can visually determine
To optimize a Structured Query Language (SQL), the database professional must befriend this order and perhaps even embrace it. Who is your best friend? I’m talking about the order in which SQL processes your statements. Simply put, in what order does SQL do your work? (From my previous post you
Recently a reader chimed in with a question on the Do Loop article by Rick Wicklin on how to create a bar chart with percent statistics. Rick used SAS 9.3 and the reader wanted to do the same with SAS 9.2. For the basic (non-grouped) bar chart, the process is the
