The SAS Dummy
A SAS® blog for the rest of us![How to scrape data from a web page using SAS](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2017/12/htmlcode-442x336.png)
The internet is rich with data, and much of that data seems to exist only on web pages, which -- for some crazy reason -- are designed for humans to read. When students/researchers want to apply data science techniques to analyze collect and analyze that data, they often turn to
![Computing a date from the past (or future) with SAS](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2015/04/153781677.jpg)
Social media has brought anniversary dates to the forefront. Every day, my view of Google Photos or Facebook shows me a collection of photos from exactly some number of years ago to remind me of how good things were back then. These apps are performing the simplest of date-based math
![Reading and writing GZIP files with SAS](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2017/10/Iomega_ZIP-100_parallel_port_printer_pass-through-4495.jpg)
SAS 9.4 Maintenance 5 includes new support for reading and writing GZIP files directly. GZIP files, usually found with a .gz file extension, are a different format than ZIP files. Although both are forms of compressed files, a GZIP file is usually a compressed copy of a single file, whereas
![Using FILENAME ZIP and FINFO to list the details in your ZIP files ZIP deets](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2017/09/zipfeat.png)
It's time to share another tip about working with ZIP files in SAS. Since I first wrote about FILENAME ZIP to list and extract files from a ZIP archive, readers have been asking for more. Specifically, they want additional details about the files that are contained in a ZIP, including
![Using Notepad++ as your SAS code editor](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2017/08/codesample2.png)
News flash: My favorite SAS code editor is SAS Enterprise Guide. However, my favorite general purpose text editor is Notepad++, and I often find myself using that tool for viewing SAS log files and for making small modifications to SAS programs. Judging from the popularity of this SAS Support Communities
![Code debugging and program history in SAS Enterprise Guide](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/files/2017/08/chris_and_joe-702x336.png)
SAS programmers have high expectations for their coding environment, and why shouldn't they? Companies have a huge investment in their SAS code base, and it's important to have tools that help you understand that code and track changes over time. Few things are more satisfying as a SAS program that