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Learn SAS

Learn about the latest tips, tutorials, upcoming events and certifications

Analytics | Data Visualization | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinAugust 15, 2018 0

Optimization with nonlinear constraints in SAS

This article shows how to perform an optimization in SAS when the parameters are restricted by nonlinear constraints. In particular, it solves an optimization problem where the parameters are constrained to lie in the annular region between two circles. The end of the article shows the path of partial solutions

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Learn SAS | SAS Events | Students & Educators

Andy RavennaAugust 14, 2018 0

Announcing the AnalyticsX Hackathon: Are you up for it?

Even though I’ve worked at SAS for nearly 30 years, I still get excited when great things come together for our customers! This year we are hosting the very first hackathon at our Analytics Experience conference in San Diego - the AnalyticsX Hackathon. Analytics Experience is in its third year

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonAugust 10, 2018 0

Survey says! .... US voters are _________.

Elections are in the news again, therefore I have been on the lookout for interesting graphs. I recently found some graphs of the Census Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration Supplement data, and tried to improve them. Follow along if you're interested in voter data, or creating better graphs!

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Don HendersonAugust 9, 2018 0

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

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Data Management | Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonAugust 8, 2018 0

Fact checking a reddit post about GDP

I peruse many different websites to get my news, and I always keep an eye out for good (or bad) presentations of data. I recently saw a posting on reddit claiming "U.S. GDP is greater than the total of all others combined." This news seemed too good to be true

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips | SAS Events

Lexi HawksAugust 2, 2018 0

How SAS Viya uses REST APIs to integrate with Python

SAS Viya has opened an entirely new set of capabilities, allowing SAS to analyze on cloud technology in real-time. One of the best new features of SAS Viya is its ability to pair with open source platforms, allowing developers the freedom of language and implementation to integrate with the power

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Learn SAS | Students & Educators

Amy ShepherdAugust 1, 2018 0

My time at SAS as an intern…

Amy Shepherd, a recent graduate from The University of Nottingham, has spent the summer as an intern at SAS UK. As a last task we have asked her to share her final thoughts on what it's been like to undertake an internship. My time here at SAS has been varied to say the least, I arrived

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Learn SAS | Machine Learning

Susan KahlerAugust 1, 2018 0

Top three video resources for machine learning newbies

Several weeks ago, I wrote about practical advice from a Chief Data Scientist in my blog “From Aristotle to Pi: Practical advice from a chief data scientist.” Now I want to offer my advice as a newbie trying to navigate through machine learning concepts and how to code them. Over

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinAugust 1, 2018 0

Which variables are in the final selected model?

When you use a regression procedure in SAS that supports variable selection (GLMSELECT or QUANTSELECT), did you know that the procedures automatically produce a macro variable that contains the names of the selected variables? This article provides examples and details. A previous article provides an overview of the 'SELECT' procedures

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 30, 2018 0

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

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Jane EslingerJuly 25, 2018 0

Fun with Dots in PROC REPORT

You should play a little. Add dots. Add color. Your PROC REPORT output does not have to be boring. As a matter of fact, it can be both functional and appealing. Any Unicode value will do, but this blog shows how to use the Unicode value for a dot (filled

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Joe FurbeeJuly 25, 2018 0

Using RStudio with SAS Viya

Getting started with SAS Viya and RStudio -- making the connection, and submitting my first commands via CAS actions.

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 23, 2018 0

How to use the %BOOT and %BOOTCI macros in SAS

Since the late 1990s, SAS has supplied macros for basic bootstrap and jackknife analyses. This article provides an example that shows how to use the %BOOT and %BOOTCI macros. The %BOOT macro generates a bootstrap distribution and computes basic statistics about the bootstrap distribution, including estimates of bias, standard error,

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerJuly 20, 2018 0

SAS code golf: find the max digit in a string of digits

"Code golf" is a fun programming pastime that challenges you to solve a problem with the least amount of code possible. Like regular golf, the goal is to use fewest code "strokes" to hit the mark. Here's a recent challenge that was posted to me via Twitter. @cjdinger @SASJedi got

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Kathryn McLawhornJuly 19, 2018 0

Keeping the top frequency count (n) for each character variable in a SAS data set

Which character variables have the highest frequency count? You can easily determine this using a variety of procedures that calculate frequency count. For example, the FREQ Procedure or the MEANS Procedure. This blog post illustrates this process through two examples.

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Data Management | Learn SAS | Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Leonid BatkhanJuly 17, 2018 0

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.

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Learn SAS

Sian RobertsJuly 16, 2018 0

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 –

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Data Management | Learn SAS

Natasha Ulanowski

Natasha UlanowskiJuly 10, 2018 0

No typical SAS user: how three professionals prep data using SAS

Did you know that 80 percent of an analytics life cycle is time spent on data preparation? For many SAS users and administrators, data preparation is what you live and breathe day in and day out. Your analysis is only as good as your data, and that's why we wanted

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Jim SimonJune 29, 2018 0

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.

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Sanjay MatangeJune 25, 2018 0

Pie Charts Redux

It seems only a few months back I posted an article on creating Pie Charts using a GTL based macro. Well, looking back, that was almost 6 years ago!! Recently, a colleague here at SAS needed to create Pie Charts in his report along with other plots created using SGPLOT

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Banking | Government | Health Care | Life Sciences | Manufacturing | Retail

Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Jody CarltonJune 22, 2018 0

A transcoding story (or, How Oliver S. Füßling lost his last name and comes to find it again)

There are many ways to avoid transcoding problems when you have national language characters in SAS programs that you save from a SAS®9 (English) session and move to a UTF-8 environment. In this article, we'll share tips to help you avoid such issues.

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Excel named range

Chris HemedingerJune 21, 2018 0

How to use SAS to read a range of cells from Excel

I've said it before: spreadsheets are not databases. However, many of us use spreadsheets as if they were databases, and then we struggle when the spreadsheet layout does not support database-style rigor of predictable rows, columns, and variable types -- the basic elements we need for analytics and reporting. If

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Allison SaitoJune 18, 2018 0

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.

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJune 18, 2018 0

The BOOTSTRAP statement for t tests in SAS

Bootstrap resampling is a powerful way to estimate the standard error for a statistic without making any parametric assumptions about its sampling distribution. The bootstrap method is often implemented by using a sequence of calls to resample from the data, compute a statistic on each sample, and analyze the bootstrap

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJune 13, 2018 0

Attrs, attrs, everywhere: The interaction between ATTRPRIORITY, CYCLEATTRS, and STYLEATTRS in ODS graphics

If you use PROC SGPLOT to create ODS graphics, "ATTRS" are everywhere. ATTRS is an abbreviation of "attributes." Most options that change the attributes of a graphical element end with the ATTRS suffix. For example, the MARKERATTRS option modifies attributes of markers, the LINEATTRS option modifies attributes of lines, and

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJune 11, 2018 0

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

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJune 8, 2018 0

Video: A new syntax for lists in SAS/IML

I recently recorded a short video about the new syntax for specifying and manipulating lists in SAS/IML 14.3. This is a video of my Super Demo at SAS Global Forum 2018. The new syntax supports dynamic arrays, associative arrays ("named lists"), and hierarchical data structures such as lists of lists.

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Leonid BatkhanMay 30, 2018 0

Are you developing foolproof solutions?

It is imperative for developers, whether hardware or software engineers, to foresee unintended (probable or improbable) system usages and implement features that will make their creations foolproof, that is protected from misuse. Learn more about developing foolproof solutions with this old Russian anecdote.

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Analytics | Learn SAS | SAS Events

Lexi HawksMay 29, 2018 0

Top 10 tips for SAS Enterprise Miner

SAS Enterprise Miner has been a leader in data mining and modeling for over 20 years. The system offers over 80 different nodes that help users analyze, score and model their data. Here are the Top Ten Tips for Enterprise Miner from a user with more than 20 years of experience.

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinMay 29, 2018 0

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

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