A SAS customer asks: How do I use SAS to generate multiple samples of size N from a multivariate normal distribution? Suppose that you want to simulate k samples (each with N observations) from a multivariate normal distribution with a given mean vector and covariance matrix. Because all of the
A sugar packet at a local Chinese restaurant had this wisdom to share, “Experience is what you get, when you don’t get what you want.” With that profound thought in mind, I’m sharing some of my worse speaking experiences so you can make your SAS Global Forum presentation better.
ODS statements are global SAS statements. As such, you can put them anywhere in your SAS program. For maximum readability, many SAS programmers agree that most ODS statements should appear outside procedures in "open" SAS code. For example, most programmers agree that the following statements should appear outside of procedures:
Last week I wrote about how you can use the Discrete Attributes Map to ensure that group values with specific names are represented in the graph with specific colors or other visual attributes such as marker symbol or line pattern. This attributes map also supports a special keyword "OTHER" which can be used to
There’s always plenty to learn at PharmaSUG, which is one reason it draws attendees not only from the US and Canada, but from countries such as Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico and the UK. Learning Highlights Technical Keynote Address: "CDISC Standards: Now and To Come" from Wayne
A few weeks ago I found myself in a room full of fellow transportation geeks (a term I use with great respect) at the annual American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Washington Briefing. One panel in particular really got the room buzzing with talk about the transportation
SAS software benefits from the high performance of solid state drives (SSD), whether it is in the form of flash memory cards or hard-drive form-factor SSDs. The following general points should be considered when planning SSD storage for SAS usage:
I was recently asked how to compute the difference between two density estimates in SAS. The person who asked the question sent me a link to a paper from The Review of Economics and Statistics that contains several examples of this technique (for example, see Figure 3 on p. 16
You created a graph of Response over Time by Severity where Severity has three levels, "Severe", "Moderate' and "Mild". How do you ensure that "Severe" is always red in your graph, regardless of the data order? Normally, when creating any graph with a GROUP role, the distinct group values are assigned the style
In a previous article, I described how to use Windows PowerShell to connect to a remote SAS Workspace, run a SAS program, and retrieve the results. In that example, the only results I retrieved were the SAS log and SAS listing (text) output, if any. When you run a SAS
SAS and the Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA) recently teamed up to create the first-of-its-kind training for professionals in the warranty management field. In this Q&A, GWSCA president and course instructor G. Terry Hawkins, shares information about the course and the benefits for students. Why did SAS and
The Data Scientist has been called the sexiest job of the 21st century. And, 2013 is the International Year of Statistics. With all this focus and attention, it’s no longer What NOT to wear at SAS Global Forum but WHAT DO YOU WEAR? Fashion trends for 2013 have been getting
Did you know that your ODS style might result in changing the color ramp for contour plots and heat maps? For example, the default style in SAS 9.3 is HTMLBlue. Let's create a contour plot in the HTML destination by running an example adapted from the documentation for the RSREG
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 monumental guide is packed with a wide-array of techniques and examples. As SAS programmer Christine Iodice said, "This book is one-stop shopping for all your ODS needs!"
Don’t worry! This is not an excerpt from a romantic love letter. The title of this blog post is an allusion to my talk on "Missing Values", at the A2013 conference in June in London. There is not much time for emotions: dealing with missing values in analysis is not
Welcome to Part 2 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series…have you heard this one before? Educators serving high-achieving students are often concerned that their students’ entering achievement level makes it more difficult for them to show growth. “How can my students show growth if they are already earning high
For many organizations, having traceability for members of staff accessing and leveraging customer data is a key requirement. There is the obvious security focus when leadership teams think about traceability, but there are additional uses for audit data within the organization: Using it to identify potentially broken work practices and
In statistics, distances between observations are used to form clusters, to identify outliers, and to estimate distributions. Distances are used in spatial statistics and in other application areas. There are many ways to define the distance between observations. I have previously written an article that explains Mahalanobis distance, which is
If you’re a new SAS user, you may already be aware that SAS has created specific training and support materials to help you get started with SAS, such as our Getting Started with SAS introductory courses page. However, if you’re not 100 percent sure about all of the first steps that
I thoroughly agree with Tricia Aanderud on what it takes to Create Engaging SAS Global Forum Presentations! Here are a few more tips based on my own experience: First, let's look at what it takes to publish, and present. Good title. Good abstract, written about five months in advance. Oh, the
Today is Diabetes Alert Day. The purpose of Diabetes Alert Day is to bring attention to the rising incidence of diabetes in the US and to alert folks to take action NOW to prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Preventing diabetes equates to blood glucose management which
“It’s not about how much money you make but to work on stuff that matters," according to Tim O’Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media. At the recent Tools of Change conference, Tim O’Reilly mentioned during his keynote that writers tend to be motivated to work on “stuff that matters.” Through SAS
Are you a new SAS user who isn't sure where to begin? Have no fear, because you're not alone. Here at SAS, we often receive questions from people who need help getting started with the software. Getting Started with SAS is the topic of a SAS Talks session that I
It is easy to use the SGPLOT procedure in SAS to plot the graph of a well-behaved continuous function: just create a data set of the (x,y) values on some domain and use the SERIES statement to connect the points. However, to plot the graph of a discontinuous function correctly
A frequent question we get from users is how to create a box plot with custom whiskers lengths. Some want to plot the 10th and 90th percentile, while other want the 5th and 95th percentiles. The VBOX statement in the SGPLOT procedure does not provide for custom whiskers. Also, unlike GTL,
Revenge of the Nerds was so 1980s. Now it's a new world order: math geeks and athletes are working together. I'm not talking just about what happens when data nerds observe, analyze, and predict sports outcomes -- as they do in March Madness with their "bracketology". That's compelling, but your
A big part of "winning" these days (be it sports or a business) is performing analytics better than your competition. This is demonstrated in awe-inspiring fashion in the book (and movie) "Moneyball." And on that topic, I'd like to show you a few ways SAS can be used to analyze sports data
Personally, I love studies. They help put things into context, and when done well, provide an independent and hopefully unbiased view of the forces that shape our lives. They are also a great way to see government funds used in strange ways. For example, the new NIOSH (National Institute for
You can create SAS publication channels based on topics (3rd Quarter Results), organization (Business Unit X), user audience (new product release), or any other category. Once defined, authorized users can subscribe to the channels and automatically receive information whenever it is published.
Someone recently asked a question on the SAS Support Communities about estimating parameters in ridge regression. I answered the question by pointing to a matrix formula in the SAS documentation. One of the advantages of the SAS/IML language is that you can implement matrix formulas in a natural way. The
