During SAS Global Forum 2018, I sat down with four SAS users to get their take on what makes a SAS user. Read through to find valuable tips they shared and up your SAS game.

She is the Code Doctor and probably the only SAS user who owns a SAS tattoo. Respect! In my next interview, I turn to generous SAS user who shares her knowledge freely. Read on for order, logic and magic from Louise Hadden.

Louise Hadden

I have used SAS my entire adult life – much longer than the years I have owned a car! I love the capacity for order and logic, and the ability to access and present data in so many ways. I love to solve problems. I like to be challenged.

I like to think of new ways to solve old problems. I like talking to people about SAS and I like listening to people who talk about SAS.

In the conference setting, I seek at least one tip I can take home from my experiences.

Among many other things, at SAS Global Forum 2018:

1. I learned about using CSS stylesheets in the recently deployed Excel destination in Chevell Parker’s “Deep Dive” presentation.
2. I learned about creating Powerpoint slides with custom backgrounds in the ODS Powerpoint destination. The presentation was a SAS demo by an amazing technical support staff person and SAS author who I have consulted frequently with PROC REPORT questions, Jane Eslinger, and it incorporated information on several newer SAS reporting capabilities. She sought out my opinion and we’re going to Webex later this month.
3. I talked extensively to Sanjay Matange, who is a SAS developer with a wonderful blog, Graphically Speaking. I enjoy discovering new possibilities. I have long wanted to annotate images on maps, and that now looks like a possibility with the new PROC SGMAP procedure – not in an annotate step but as a procedural option. I find that so exciting.
4. I should also say that I took a pre-conference seminar & learnt MAGIC=101 / 102 / 103 procedural options in PROC SQL. It gives you more information in the log – another tip I took home from the conference.

That’s something I love about SAS conferences, talking to SAS developers, with whom we have unparalleled access to. SAS developers and technical support staff really care about SAS users and their challenges and what they want or need to do in their work. They share their expertise willingly and seek and approach challenges the way I do.

I also like to share my tips with people, and hope they take home something from my presentations that can inspire them. Collaboration is a powerful bonding agent. Being at a conference with like-minded people from all walks of life is an elixir like no other. I am an active member of a number of SAS groups, and have posted most of my papers on sascommunity.org (which is now read only – I’m searching for a new home for my papers – any thoughts?).

I must confess I haven’t seen a SAS tattoo before. Have you? Do you know anyone else that sports a cool SAS tattoo? Plus the generous list of takeaways she provided with all the papers she has written makes Louise a user to be admired. Now your turn dear reader. Do you maybe have any ideas to help Louise now with where to store her papers?

About Louise Hadden

Louise Hadden is a Lead Programmer Analyst with Abt Associates Inc., in the Division of Health and Environment. Louise has presented as a contributed and invited speaker at in-house, local, regional, national and global conferences since 1997 (SUGI 22!) for which she created her first SAS/Graph® maps. She loves a good SAS reporting challenge and spends her spare time enthusiastically traveling, reading voraciously and volunteering at a local animal shelter, walking and photographing dogs.

Read all the posts in this series:
Part 1: Richann Watson
Part 2: Deanna Schreiber-Gregory
Part 3: Louise Hadden
Part 4: Josh Horstman