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Ron CodyFebruary 21, 2017 5

What?!? You mean a period (.) isn't the only SAS numeric missing value? Well, there are 27 others: .A .B, to .Z and ._ (period underscore). Your first question might be: "Why would you need more than one missing value?" One situation where multiple missing values are useful involves survey data. Suppose

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Programming Tips

Jim SimonJanuary 23, 2017 2

Stratified random sample: What's efficient?

In a previous blog, Random Sampling: What's Efficient?, I discussed the efficiency of various techniques for selecting a simple random sample from a large SAS dataset. PROC SURVEYSELECT easily does the job: proc surveyselect data=large out=sample method=srs /* simple random sample */ rate=.01; /* 1% sample rate */ run; Note:

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Ron CodyJanuary 3, 2017 3

Character to Numeric Conversion in SAS

How many of you have been given a SAS data set with variables such as Age, Height, and Weight and some or all of them were stored as character values instead of numeric? Probably EVERYONE! Yes, we all know how to do the old "swap and drop" (rename and convert), but

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

SAS JediDecember 28, 2016 6

SAS Jedi Christmas - SAS 9.4 M4 DS2 Do Loop Upgrade

This SAS Jedi is very excited about the SAS 9.4 M4 release, which brought many wonderful gifts just in time for Christmas. So in the interest of extending the Christmas spirit, I'm going to blog about some of my favorites! I've long loved the SAS DO statement variant which allows

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Ron CodyDecember 27, 2016 7

SAS Temporary Arrays, Not Just for Experts

SAS temporary arrays are an underutilized jewel in the SAS toolbox. I find that many beginning to intermediate SAS programmers are not familiar with temporary arrays. The good news is that there is nothing complicated about them and they are very useful. First of all, what is a temporary array?

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Art CarpenterDecember 7, 2016 5

Using the SAS Macro Language to Create Portable Programs

As technology expands, we have a similarly increasing need to create programs that can be handed off – to clients, to regulatory agencies, to parent companies, or to other projects – and handed off with little or no modification needed by the recipient. Minimizing modification by the recipient often requires

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyNovember 23, 2016 1

Editing the SAS Code Generated by the One-Way Frequencies Statistics Task

Suppose you are using SAS Studio and the statistical task you need to perform is not a supported option or feature in SAS. I know that sounds almost impossible because the statistical tasks in SAS Studio are so awesome. But, just in case you need to tweak a program or

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Programming Tips

BrennaNovember 21, 2016 0

SAS Jedi and DS2 Guru: Mark Jordan

Maybe programming isn’t quite as dangerous as a lightsaber battle, but if you think using SAS to turn data into action feels a little bit like magic, you should know that nobody is better at harnessing “the Force” of DS2 than SAS Jedi Mark Jordan. Mark has a resume that

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Charu ShankarNovember 3, 2016 11

The difference between the Subsetting IF and the IF—THEN—ELSE—IF statement

My river walk last week turned into a spectacular fall show. But if it rains this week in San Antonio, like the weatherman predicts, what will I do? In the coming days, I’ll be presenting at two user groups, one in eastern Canada in Halifax, and the other all the

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips | Students & Educators

Charu ShankarOctober 26, 2016 5

What comes shipped free with Base SAS 9.4?

Like unexpectedly seeing this beautiful bird in nature, SAS has tons of free goodies you might be surprised to encounter as you explore your software. A user asked me how to find products licensed at their workplace and that's how this informative blog got started. While individual organizations may have

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