Four more tips about hash tables
Now is your chance to learn even more about SAS hash tables with four additional articles on the subject.
Tag: SAS Programming
Simplify data preparation using SAS data templates
My New Year's resolution: “Unclutter your life” and I hope this post will help you do the same. Here I share with you a data preparation approach and SAS coding technique that will significantly simplify, unclutter and streamline your SAS programming life by using data templates. Dictionary.com defines template as
Top posts from The DO Loop in 2018
Last year, I wrote more than 100 posts for The DO Loop blog. Of these, the most popular articles were about data visualization, SAS programming tips, and statistical data analysis. Here are the most popular articles from 2018 in each category. Data Visualization Visualize repetition in song lyrics: In one
Five SAS programming language features you should be using
Good news -- the SAS program that you wrote and put into production 10 years ago still works. Hey, it's SAS, so you probably take that for granted. But are those techniques from 2008 still the best way to accomplish your task? SAS 9.4, first released in 2013 and now
Select ODS tables by using wildcards and regular expressions in SAS
You might know that you can use the ODS SELECT statement to display only some of the tables and graphs that are created by a SAS procedure. But did you know that you can use a WHERE clause on the ODS SELECT statement to display tables that match a pattern?
Check out the SAS Student Series during winter break
SAS is launching the SAS Student Series, which bundles thousands of dollars’ worth of training and certification materials into an affordable package for university students and recent graduates.
Customize your CASL code with built-in and user-defined functions
This blog post outlines how to create your own CAS functions using the CAS Language. It also includes a partial list of both CASL built-in and common functions for reference.
A trick to plot groups in PROC SGPLOT
A useful feature in PROC SGPLOT is the ability to easily visualize subgroups of data. Most statements in the SGPLOT procedure support a GROUP= option that enables you to overlay plots of subgroups. When you use the GROUP= option, observations are assigned attributes (colors, line patterns, symbols, ...) that indicate
Five things you (probably) don’t know you can do with a hash table
Hash tables are a very powerful and flexible data structure. Most SAS applications of hash tables focus on just one of their many powerful facilities: table lookup. Hash tables are a fantastic table lookup tool and their use for that should never be diminished. However, hash tables can do so
Cumulative values - "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way..."
In many movies, there is often a scene where the star says "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way" (and the hard way usually involves quite a bit of pain). So it is with interrogations ... and so it is with writing SAS code! Today I'm
Meaningful names for columns of a design matrix
A programmer recently asked a question on a SAS discussion forum about design matrices for categorical variables. He had generated a design matrix by using PROC GLMMOD and wanted to use the design columns in a subsequent procedure. However, the columns were named COL1, COL2, COL3,..., so he couldn't tell
SAS administrators tip: Automatically deleting old SAS logs
SAS batch jobs can generate many log files that accumulate over time. In this post, we present a SAS program that cleans up old log files on your system.
What DS2 can do for the DATA step
The Base SAS DATA step has been a powerful tool for many years for SAS programmers. But as data sets grow and programmers work with massively parallel processing (MPP) computing environments such as Teradata, Hadoop or the SAS High-Performance Analytics grid, the data step remains stubbornly single-threaded. Welcome DS2 –
Using %IF-%THEN-%ELSE in SAS programs
SAS programmers have long wanted the ability to control the flow of their SAS programs without having to resort to complex SAS macro programming. With SAS 9.4 Maintenance 5, it's now supported! You can now use %IF-%THEN-%ELSE constructs in open code. This is big news -- even if it only
Custom Maps in SAS Visual Analytics: My Neighborhood
The Geo Map Visualization has several built-in geographical units, including country and region names and codes, US state names and codes, and US zip codes. You can also define your own geographic units. This paper describes how to identify any geographic point of interest, or collection of points, on a map to create custom maps in SAS.
Threads and CAS DATA Step
Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) is really exciting. It’s open, multi-threaded and distributed. And, best of all for SAS programmers, it’s SAS. You can even run DATA Step in CAS. Here's more on how DATA Step work in a multi-threaded, distributed context.
Changing font size in SAS
When making a new piece of code, I like to use the smallest font I can read. This lets me fit more text on the screen at once. When presenting code to others, especially in a classroom setting, I like to make the font large enough to see from the back of the room. Here’s how I change font size in SAS in our three programming interfaces.
Video: New random number generators in SAS
My 2018 SAS Global Forum paper was about "how to use the random-number generators (RNGs) in SAS." You can read the paper for details, but I recently recorded a short video that summarizes the main ideas in the paper. In particular, the video gives an overview of the new RNGs
6 ways to use the _NULL_ data set in SAS
In SAS, the reserved keyword _NULL_ specifies a SAS data set that has no observations and no variables. When you specify _NULL_ as the name of an output data set, the output is not written. The _NULL_ data set is often used when you want to execute DATA step code
6 easy ways to specify a list of variables in SAS
The SAS language provides syntax that enables you to quickly specify a list of variables. SAS statements that accept variable lists include the KEEP and DROP statements, the ARRAY statement, and the OF operator for comma-separated arguments to some functions. You can also use variable lists on the VAR statements
Position items in a grid
In a recent blog post, Chris Hemedinger used a scatter plot to show the result of 100 coin tosses. Chris arranged the 100 results in a 10 x 10 grid, where the first 10 results were shown on the first row, the second 10 were shown on the second row, and so
"Wide" versus "Tall" data: PROC TRANSPOSE v. the DATA step
Datasets can present themselves in different ways. Identical data can bet arranged differently, often as wide or tall datasets. Generally, the tall dataset is better. Learn how to convert wide data into tall data with PROC TRANSPOSE.
Deleting global macro variables
Do you periodically delete unneeded global macro variables? You should! Deleting macro variables releases memory and keeps your symbol table clean. Learn how the macro language statement that deletes global macro variables and about the %DELETEALL statement that can be a life saver for macro programmers.
When a variable is not a variable
SAS variables are variables in the statistics sense, not the computer programming sense. SAS has what many computer languages call “variables,” it just calls them “macro variables.” Knowing the difference between SAS variables and SAS macro variables will help you write more flexible and effective code.
Jedi @ SASGF: Working with Big Data in SAS
The SAS Jedi Mark Jordan presents his SAS Global Forum 2018 paper "Working with Big Data in SAS"
How to use FIRST.variable and LAST.variable in a BY-group analysis in SAS
My article about the difference between CLASS variables and BY variables in SAS focused on SAS analytical procedures. However, the BY statement is also useful in the SAS DATA step where it is used to merge data sets and to analyze data at the group level. When you use the
The difference between CLASS statements and BY statements in SAS
When I first learned to program in SAS, I remember being confused about the difference between CLASS statements and BY statements. A novice SAS programmer recently asked when to use one instead of the other, so this article explains the difference between the CLASS statement and BY variables in SAS
Demystifying SAS Certification (Part 3): To the finish
Want to see my newly minted certified professional badge? Scroll down to take a peek. Yes, I managed to successfully complete the Base SAS Programmer certification exam… with, ahem, flying colors I might add. Here are my tips to tackle the Base SAS certification exam: 1. Get clear on the
Demystifying SAS Certification (Part 2): Write it down
Do you know what the #1 fear in North America is? Most people say fear of public speaking or fear of death, but you may just want to consider this new fear upping the charts - the fear of writing a SAS Certification exam! The real test begins before even
Let SAS write batch scripts for you
If Necessity is the mother of Invention, then, perhaps, the father of Automation is Laziness. Automation is all about convenience, comfort, and productivity. Why do it yourself if you can devise something to do it for you! In my previous post Running SAS programs in batch under Unix/Linux, we learned