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,
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
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
What's the difference between LENGTH and FORMAT in a SAS data set? This article shares the answer, with examples.
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
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 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
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
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
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).
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
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
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
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
How to calculate a leap year in SAS - the easy way!
The SAS extension for VS Code supports SAS syntax and programming, and can connect to almost all SAS environments.
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
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.
Use SAS DATA step to split a large binary file into smaller pieces, which can help with file upload operations,
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
In 2023, I wrote 90 articles for The DO Loop blog. My most popular articles were about SAS programming, data visualization, and statistics. In addition, several "general interest" articles were popular, including my article for Pi Day and an article about AI chatbots. If you missed any of these articles,
Sometimes it is helpful to display a table of statistics directly on a graph. A simple example is displaying the number of observations and the mean or median on a histogram. In SAS, the term inset is used to describe a table that is displayed on a graph. This article
It has been more than a decade since SAS 9.3 changed the default ODS destination from the old LISTING destination to more modern destinations such as HTML. One of the advantages of modern output destinations is support for Unicode symbols, superscripts, subscripts, and for formatting text by using boldface, italics,
Part of the power of the SAS ODS system is the ability to visualize data by using ODS templates. An ODS template describes how to render data as a table or as a graph. A lot of papers and documentation have been written about how to define a custom template
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, video presentations and webcasts have become a regular routine for many of us. On days that I will be using my webcam, I wear a solid-color shirt. If I don't plan to be on camera, I can wear a pinstripe Oxford shirt. Why the difference?
SAS expert Leonid Batkhan presents the %embed macro function as a way to embed both “foreign” and SAS native code from a file into a SAS program, preventing clutter in your code.
Recently, I learned about an elementary programming assignment called the FizzBuzz program. Some companies use this assignment for the first round of interviews with potential programmers. A competent programmer can write FizzBuzz in 5-10 minutes, which leaves plenty of time to discuss other topics. If an applicant can't complete the
A previous article discusses how to compute the union, intersection, and other subsets of a pair of sets. In that article, I displayed a simple Venn diagram (reproduced to the right) that illustrates the intersection and difference between two sets. The diagram uses a red disk for one set, a
The fundamental operations on sets are union, intersection, and set difference, all of which are supported directly in the SAS IML language. While studying another programming language, I noticed that the language supports an additional operation, namely the symmetric difference between two sets. The language also supports query functions to
A data analyst wanted to estimate the correlation between two variables, but he was concerned about the influence of a confounding variable that is correlated with them. The correlation might affect the apparent relationship between main two variables in the study. A common confounding variable is age because young people
