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Programming Tips

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerJune 24, 2016 9

Assign a SAS library to a different path depending on your OS

One thing that we have a lot of at SAS: installations of SAS software that we can run. I have SAS for Windows on my laptop, and I have access to many centralized instances of SAS that run on Linux and Windows servers. (I also have access to mainframe SAS,

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerMay 15, 2016 2

Ad-hoc reporting with SAS: Tips for the e-mail jockey

What's the most common data reporting mechanism? Is it web-based reporting? PDFs? How about spreadsheets? Maybe, but in my experience many reports are delivered using a less-scalable and transient mechanism: e-mail. I'm a data steward at SAS. Specifically, I look after the operational data around our blogging program and our

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerApril 6, 2016 8

Boaty McBoatface is on the run

I know what you're thinking: two "Boaty McBoatface" articles within two weeks? And we're past April Fool's Day? But since I posted my original analysis about the "Name our ship" phenomenon that's happening in the UK right now, a new contender has appeared: Poppy-Mai. The cause of Poppy-Mai, a critically

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerMarch 25, 2016 7

And it's Boaty McBoatface by an order of magnitude

In a voting contest, is it possible for a huge population to get behind a ridiculous candidate with such force that no other contestant can possibly catch up? The answer is: Yes. Just ask the folks at NERC, the environmental research organization in the UK. They are commissioning a new

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerMarch 4, 2016 8

Add files to a ZIP archive with FILENAME ZIP

In previous articles, I've shared tips about how you can work with SAS and ZIP files without requiring an external tool like WinZip, gzip, or 7-Zip. I've covered: How to create ZIP files with ODS PACKAGE ZIP (available since SAS 9.2) How to "unzip" and read ZIP files using FILENAME

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerFebruary 28, 2016 16

The zoomiest new feature in SAS Enterprise Guide 7.12

Have you ever been in a meeting in which a presenter is showing content on a web page -- but the audience can't read it because it's too small? Then a guy sitting in the back of the room yells, "Control plus!". Because, as we all know (right?), "Ctrl+" is

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerFebruary 20, 2016 9

A custom task to list and stop your SAS sessions

Last week I described how to use PROC IOMOPERATE to list the active SAS sessions that have been spawned in your SAS environment. I promised that I would share a custom task that simplifies the technique. Today I'm sharing that task with you. How to get the SAS Spawned Processes

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerFebruary 4, 2016 15

Sorting data in SAS: can you skip it?

TL;DR The next time that you find yourself writing a PROC SORT step, verify that you're working with the SAS Base engine and not a database. If your data is in a database, skip the SORT! The details: When to skip the PROC SORT step Many SAS procedures allow you

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerNovember 23, 2015 11

Using the ODS statement to add layers in your ODS sandwich

The ODS statement controls most aspects of how SAS creates your output results. You use it to specify the destination type (HTML, PDF, RTF, EXCEL or something else), as well as the details of those destinations: file paths, appearance styles, graphics behaviors, and more. The most common use pattern is

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Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerOctober 28, 2015 7

Copy SAS variable names to the clipboard in SAS Enterprise Guide

I recently met SAS user "CSC" at the Analytics 2015 conference. It might be generous to say that he's an avid user of SAS Enterprise Guide; it's probably more accurate to say that he's now accustomed to the tool and he's once again productive. But he still misses some features

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