The SAS Dummy
A SAS® blog for the rest of us![Learning SAS programming for R users](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/12/diagbeta.png)
TL; DR Free training from SAS: "SAS Programming for R Users." Check the available Live Web offerings and register for one that fits your schedule. Or use the free e-Learning version and learn at your own pace. The complete course materials are on the SAS Software GitHub space and you
![Reading data with the SAS JSON libname engine](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/12/whosinspace.png)
JSON is the new XML. The number of SAS users who need to access JSON data has skyrocketed, thanks mainly to the proliferation of REST-based APIs and web services. Because JSON is structured data in text format, we've been able to offer simple parsing techniques that use DATA step and
![Using the DATA step debugger in SAS Enterprise Guide](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/11/listallout.png)
In my earlier post about WHERE and IF statements, I announced that the DATA step debugger has finally arrived in SAS Enterprise Guide. (I admit that I might have buried the lead in that post.) Let's use this post to talk about the new debugger and how it works. First,
![Debugging the difference between WHERE and IF in SAS](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/11/debuggutter.png)
In the DATA step, the WHERE statement and the IF statement (a.k.a. the "subsetting IF") have similar functions. In many scenarios, they produce identical results. But new SAS programmers are taught early on that these two statements work very differently, and in important ways. To understand the differences, it helps
![Zodiac signs of US Presidents](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/11/signspres.png)
Rick Wicklin showed us how to visualize the ages of US Presidents at the time of their inaugurations. That's a pretty relevant thing to do, as the age of the incoming president can indirectly influence aspects of the president's term, thanks to health and generational factors. As part of his
![The Copy Files task is going legit (and moving)](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2016/11/copyfilespf.png)
I've supplied dozens of custom tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide, but the Copy Files task is easily the most popular. The Copy Files task allows you to capture "file transfer" steps inside your process flow, so that you can automate any file upload and download operations between your PC and