SAS Learning Post

Programming Tips

Strengthen your programming skills with tips and techniques from the experts

Wake county census block map, shaded by population

Robert AllisonMarch 14, 2013 1

Census block maps in SAS

I've heard many customers ask "Can SAS do/use/handle census block maps?" My answer was "of course!" ... but I never really had any examples to show/prove that. Well, now I do! :) First, you need to locate & download the shape files for the census blocks you're interested in plotting. For

English

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonFebruary 6, 2013 2

A SAS graph for the Chinese New Year

I like to think that I have a graph for all occasions - Chinese New Year is no exception! ... The exact date of the Chinese New Year varies from year to year, because it's based on the lunar (moon) cycles. I thought it would be useful to create a

English

Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Charu ShankarFebruary 4, 2013 11

A database professional’s best friend

To optimize a Structured Query Language (SQL), the database professional must befriend this order and perhaps even embrace it. Who is your best friend? I’m talking about the order in which SQL processes your statements. Simply put, in what order does SQL do your work? (From my previous post you

English

Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Andy RavennaJanuary 30, 2013 4

An easy way to find variables in common to data sets

Over the holidays I was having a discussion with my cat, Ms. Trixie Lou. A question that often arises during the first programming class is the following: how do I find the variables that are in common to these two or three data sets? As it turns out, Ms. Trixie

English

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Angela HallJanuary 21, 2013 0

Maintaining prompt selections in multiple Web Report Sections (v4.3)

SAS Technical Support has a wonderful how-to guide for using one set of prompt values across multiple sections of a Web Report Studio report. This works great in 4.2, however there is one additional item that I discovered in a 4.3/9.3 install. With the addition of PROC STP and SAS

English

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 17, 2013 3

A neat new trick to trim your macro variables in 9.3

SAS macro variables are a great way to store a calculated value, so you can use it later in your code. They are not just limited to the data step -- you can also use macro variables in title statements, axis statements, etc. By default, the macro variable will be padded with

English

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 9, 2013 26

How to handle percent (%) values in SAS

Being that 2013 is the International Year of Statistics, I wanted to make sure everyone knows how to handle my favorite statistic - percent (%) - in SAS! I often see data in spreadsheets/csv/etc that purport to represent "percents"... but you have to be a bit careful when working with

English

Advanced Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Angela HallNovember 5, 2012 2

Cleaner OLAP cube physical folder structures

Each spring and fall, I start clearing out the kid's small clothes, old toys, etc. It can sometimes go too far and reach into my "digital pack-rat" issues. (Wait, what does that mean? Well, just ask the person who last week requested detail on a project I worked 3 years

English

Advanced Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Angela HallOctober 29, 2012 3

So many autoexecs; three tips for BI administrators

BASE SAS users are already familiar with the autoexec file. This is a .sas file that typically resides in the installation folder of the SAS executable. Instructions for setting it up in UNIX, Windows, and other environments is readily available on the SAS website. In SAS BI configurations there are

English

Advanced Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Angela HallOctober 15, 2012 0

Go on a date with SAS BI Dashboard, part 2

Last week I provided the steps for how to go on a date, at least by using dynamic prompts in BI Dashboard. Now that you have seen how to create them, lets discuss making them smarter. For this example, the customer is asking for two prompts to affect a single

English

Blogs

Blogs

Programming Tips