SAS Learning Post
Technical tips and tricks from SAS instructors, authors and other SAS experts.![Visualizing evidence of a black hole, with a gif animation](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/starmap-702x336.gif)
Hopefully you know that a gif animation can be used for more than just showing a cartoon animal doing cute tricks! Being a savvy data-meister, I'm sure you are also aware that you can use gif animations to see how data changes over time. But perhaps you didn't know you could
![SAS author’s tip: Useful secret options](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/Mason_cover1.jpg)
In honor of the 2012 Olympics, this week’s SAS tip is from award-winning UK author Phil Mason and his book In the Know...SAS Tips and Techniques from Around the Globe, Second Edition. SAS user Ron Fehd proclaimed Phil Mason "one of the SAS user community's famous creative tinkerers--the SAS user version
![Finding patterns in big data with SAS/GRAPH](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/big_data_circle.png)
When working with "big data" you usually have too many points to view in a plot, and end up subsetting or summarizing the data. But now, in SAS 9.3, you have an alternative! For example, the following scatter plot of 10,000+ points is just a visual "blob": But using a new
![The best excuse ever for taking a break from writing](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/michael_house3.jpg)
Think that you have a good excuse for not completing that SAS users group conference paper, technical article, or SAS Press book chapter? Well, whatever your excuse is, I’ve got a bigger one. Really! Things at the office are so busy that you need to take work home? I can
![SAS author's tip: Selecting the right-sized tree](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/Sarma_Covertree.jpg)
Economist and statistician Kattamuri Sarma and his book Predictive Modeling with SAS Enterprise Miner are the source for this week's SAS tip. In a review of the book, SAS user Andrea Wainwright-Zimmerman said "The content is wonderful, clear, and thorough." If you're using SAS Enterprise Miner, I'd invite you to visit Kattamuri Sarma's
![SAS author's tip: Define variables once](https://blogs.sas.com/content/sastraining/files/2012/07/Shostak_poolcover1.jpg)
Jack Shostak is the Associate Director of Statistics at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. A SAS user since 1985, Jack has two SAS books under his belt with a third on the way. This week's SAS tip is from Shotak's SAS Programming in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The following excerpt is from SAS Press