3 SAS Viya Workbench use cases for SAS Users
Review these three cool use cases for SAS users, built using SAS Viya Workbench. SAS and Python for better working together!
Tag: SAS Programming
The correlation between two sets of variables
In a correlation analysis, it is common to consider the correlations between all pairs of numerical variables. That is, if there are k numerical variables, most people examine the complete k x k matrix of correlations. This matrix is symmetric and has 1s on the diagonal, so more than half of the
Automate the creation of a range attribute map in SAS
In SAS, range attribute maps enable you to specify the range of values that determine the colors used for graphical elements. There are various examples that use the GTL to define a range attribute map, but fewer examples that show how to use a range attribute map with PROC SGPLOT.
Run-time variations of the INPUT and PUT functions in SAS
The INPUT function and PUT function in SAS are used to apply informats and formats (respectively) to data. For both functions, you must know in advance which informat or format you want to apply. For brevity, let's consider only applying a format. To use the PUT function, you must know
Understand the PUT and INPUT functions in SAS
In SAS, the INPUT and PUT functions are powerful functions that enable you to convert data from character type to numeric type and vice versa. They work by applying SAS formats or informats to data. You cannot fully understand the INPUT and PUT functions without understanding formats and informats in
Interactive procedures in SAS
SAS software supports two kinds of procedures: interactive and non-interactive. Most SAS procedures are non-interactive. They begin with a PROC statement, include one or more additional statements, and end with a RUN statement. When SAS encounters the RUN statement, the procedure executes all statements, then exits. On the other hand,
Programming the formulas for an ANOVA in SAS
In practice, there is no need to remember textbook formulas for the ANOVA test because all modern statistical software will perform the test for you. In SAS, the ANOVA procedure is designed to handle balanced designs (the same number of observations in each group) whereas the GLM procedure can handle
Special missing values in SAS statistical tables
A previous article about how to display missing values in SAS prompted a comment about special missing values in ODS tables in SAS. Did you know that statistical tables in SAS include special missing values to represent certain situations in statistical analyses? This article explains how to interpret four special
Two ways to specify how SAS displays missing values
In statistical tables in SAS, a dot (.) represents a numerical missing value. Although a dot is the default symbol in SAS, other languages use other symbols. The R language prints the symbol NA, which stands for "not available." The MATLAB language uses NaN ("Not a Number"). In Python, many
Is SAS a programming language?
SAS has a programming language, but IS that all it is? Nope, but it still ranks high as a most marketable programming skill.
How to write a SAS macro to emulate recursion (and why you shouldn't)
There are two programming tools that I rarely use: the SAS macro language and recursion. The SAS macro language is a tool that enables you to generate SAS statements. I rarely use the SAS macro language because the SAS IML language supports all the functionality required to write complex programs,
How to define a SAS IML function that has no arguments
The SAS IML Language has a quirk with regards to functions that take no arguments. As discussed in the documentation, "modules with arguments are given a local symbol table." This is the usual behavior that programmers expect. However, the documentation goes on to state that "a module that has no
Implement five sampling methods in the SAS DATA step
In SAS, the easiest way to draw random sampling from data is to use PROC SURVEYSELECT or the SAMPLE function in SAS IML software. I have previously written about how to implement four common sampling schemes by using PROC SURVEYSELECT and the SAMPLE function. The DATA step in SAS is
Lengths and formats in SAS: the long and short of it
What's the difference between LENGTH and FORMAT in a SAS data set? This article shares the answer, with examples.
How to use keyword-value pairs when calling SAS IML subroutines
Just like the SAS DATA step, the SAS IML language supports both functions and subroutines. A function returns a value, so the calling syntax is familiar: y = func(x1, x2); /* the function returns one value, y */ In this syntax, the input arguments are x1 and x2. The
Display the largest values for each group
A previous article discusses the fact that there are often multiple ways in SAS to obtain the same result. This fact results in many vigorous discussions on online programming forums as people propose different (but equivalent) methods for solving someone's problem then argue why their preferred method is better than
A bootstrap confidence interval for an R-square statistic
A previous article discusses a formula for a confidence interval for R-square in a linear regression model (Olkin and Finn (1995) "Correlations redux", Psychological Bulletin) The formula is useful for large data sets, but should be used with caution for small samples. At the end of the previous article, I
Find the label of a variable in SAS
Sometimes labels for variables get "dropped" during data preparation and cleaning. One example is when data are transposed from "wide form" to "long form." For example, suppose a data set has three variables, X, Y, and Z, each with labels. If you transpose the data to long form, the new
Estimate a proportion and a confidence interval in SAS
A SAS programmer wanted to estimate a proportion and a confidence interval (CI), but didn't know which SAS procedure to call. He knows a formula for the CI from an elementary statistics textbook. If x is the observed count of events in a random sample of size n, then the
Pizza pi
Happy Pi Day! Every year on March 14th (written 3/14 in the US), people in the mathematical sciences celebrate all things pi-related because 3.14 is the three-decimal approximation to π ≈ 3.14159265358979.... Pi is a mathematical constant defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference (C) to its diameter (D).
A generalized Number-Word Game
I recently wrote about the Number-Word Game, which is an iterative algorithm that generates a sequence of natural numbers by using the lengths of the words for the numbers. In English, the words are "one", "two", "three", and so on. You can play the Number-Word Game in any alphabetic language
The Number-Word Game
Have you heard about the Number-Word Game? This is a simple game that has the following rules: Start with any positive integer. Write down the English word for the integer. Count the number of letters in the word. This gives a new positive integer. Go to (2). Repeat until a
Using colors to visualize groups in a bar chart in SAS
I sometimes see analysts overuse colors in statistical graphics. My rule of thumb is that you do not need to use color to represent a variable that is already represented in a graph. For example, it is redundant to use a continuous color ramp to represent the lengths of bars
Visualized: US Currency in circulation, past and present
This phenomenon has been in the news recently, so I've updated this article that I originally published in 2017. The paper currency in circulation in the US is mostly $100 bills. And not just by a little bit -- these account for 34% of the notes by denomination and nearly
SAS knows it's a leap year. Do you?
How to calculate a leap year in SAS - the easy way!
5 reasons to use VS Code for your SAS code projects
The SAS extension for VS Code supports SAS syntax and programming, and can connect to almost all SAS environments.
The name of the variable that contains the largest value in each row
A SAS programmer wanted to find the name of the variable for each row that contains the largest value. This task is useful for wide data sets in which each observation has several variables that are measured on the same scale. For example, each observation in the data might represent
9 for SAS9 – Top Tips for SAS 9 Programmers Moving to SAS Viya
Transitioning from SAS9 to SAS Viya can be uncertain for SAS programmers. Whether your organization is making the move and you’re curious about your current SAS analytical workflows, or you're contemplating moving to SAS Viya and concerned about its impact on your SAS expertise and programs. The hesitation is understandable.
How to split a large file into smaller chunks using SAS
Use SAS DATA step to split a large binary file into smaller pieces, which can help with file upload operations,
Blog posts from 2023 that deserve a second look
In a previous article, I presented some of the most popular blog posts from 2023. The popular articles tend to discuss elementary topics that have broad appeal. However, I also wrote many technical articles about advanced topics. The following articles didn't make the Top 10 list, but they deserve a