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Learn SAS

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

Learn SAS

Rick WicklinFebruary 22, 2016 0

Create dummy variables in SAS

A dummy variable (also known as indicator variable) is a numeric variable that indicates the presence or absence of some level of a categorical variable. The word "dummy" does not imply that these variables are not smart. Rather, dummy variables serve as a substitute or a proxy for a categorical

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Learn SAS

Gregory LeeFebruary 18, 2016 0

Explaining statistical methods to the terrified & disinterested: pictures & diagrams

In a previous blog I suggested that many readers in many applied areas are reading statistics texts under duress for a course or project, and are in truth somewhere between disinterested and terrified. In my new SAS Press book Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS® I make use of various

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Learn SAS | SAS Events

Maggie MillerFebruary 10, 2016 0

Unique learning experience at SAS Global Forum

You know when you visit Las Vegas you’ll have an experience you can only find in this one of a kind city. Where else can you gamble around the clock, get married in a drive-through, or see the Eiffel Tower without visiting Paris? So in the spirit of Vegas, SAS

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinFebruary 8, 2016 0

Read data into vectors or into a matrix: Which is better?

In the SAS/IML language, you can read data from a SAS data set into a set of vectors (each with their own name) or into a single matrix. Beginning programmers might wonder about the advantages of each approach. When should you read data into vectors? When should you read data

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanFebruary 4, 2016 0

Introducing data-driven loops

Programming loops are a staple of any computer programming language. In essence, loops are what make programming languages so powerful. In all programming loops, a group of statements is executed repeatedly based on the value of an index variable that changes from one iteration to another. The iterations are continued

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Learn SAS

Sian RobertsFebruary 1, 2016 0

What’s the most important new feature in SAS/STAT software?

What do you think is the most important new feature in SAS/STAT? Well it depends! In this video, SAS developers talk about their new work and which customers will be excited about it and why. Healthcare professionals may lean toward the new rare events control charts in QC, which allows

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinFebruary 1, 2016 0

Group processing in SAS: The NOTSORTED option

Novice SAS programmers quickly learn the advantages of using PROC SORT to sort data, followed by a BY-group analysis of the sorted data. A typical example is to analyze demographic data by state or by ZIP code. A BY statement enables you to produce multiple analyses from a single procedure

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 25, 2016 0

What is a moving average?

A moving average (also called a rolling average) is a statistical technique that is used to smooth a time series. Moving averages are used in finance, economics, and quality control. You can overlay a moving average curve on a time series to visualize how each value compares to a rolling

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Learn SAS

Ruth Dobson-TorresJanuary 19, 2016 0

New Year’s resolution: schedule SAS tasks and your success with SAS

Do any of your New Year’s resolutions include the goal to become a more productive SAS user? Whether you’re building models or reports using SAS or you’re using SAS to effectively manage your data, you likely have a goal to be as productive as possible with your SAS usage in

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 18, 2016 0

Create a SAS macro variable that contains a list of values

Parameters in SAS procedures are specified a list of values that you manually type into the procedure syntax. For example, if you want to specify a list of percentile values in PROC UNIVARIATE, you need to type the values into the PCTLPTS= option as follows: proc univariate data=sashelp.cars noprint; var

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Jeff ZeanahJanuary 13, 2016 0

Making peace with storytelling and analytics

A number of years ago I was driving home to Alabama for the holidays. Typical of the season the driving was not easy. It was getting dark early and the traffic was fairly heavy. I had the radio on to pass the time. A talk show was on and the

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Leonid BatkhanJanuary 13, 2016 0

SAS administrators tip: Keeping track of SAS users

If you are a SAS Administrator who is tasked with managing SAS users including adding and removing SAS users in the SAS Management Console, assigning (or re-assigning) them to Groups and Roles, maintaining their General information and user Accounts, then you know that when number of users grow, at some

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 6, 2016 0

Compute a weighted mean in SAS

Weighted averages are all around us. Teachers use weighted averages to assign a test more weight than a quiz. Schools use weighted averages to compute grade-point averages. Financial companies compute the return on a portfolio as a weighted average of the component assets. Financial charts show (linearly) weighted moving averages

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Learn SAS

BrennaJanuary 4, 2016 0

5 new SAS Press titles for the new year

Whether your New Year’s resolution is to get SAS certified or to become a more advanced SAS programmer, we’ve got you covered with these upcoming SAS Press books, many of which will be making their bookshelf debut at SAS® Global Forum 2016 in fabulous Las Vegas! The SAS® Programmer’s PROC

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Learn SAS | Students & Educators

Keith CollinsDecember 15, 2015 0

60 students and everyone is learning? Only with the Hour of Code

What would it take for you to keep 60 students interested and on task in a classroom for an entire hour? Some kind of magic or trickery? Maybe a bribe? Nope, all you need is an Hour of Code lesson plan, and you’ll be teaching computer programming to a classroom

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Learn SAS

Cindy PuryearDecember 11, 2015 0

Get dedicated to your learning with these top-selling SAS Press books of 2015

Continuing your education can be daunting. Just thinking about all of that time that could be spent relaxing and you have to carve out two hours to study…really! Trust me when I say, I feel your pain. BUT, you will reap the rewards ten-fold, I promise. Check out these top

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Charu ShankarDecember 7, 2015 0

Top 3 stocking stuffers for coders

Last Christmas I decided to knit a scarf while at a concert in the Bahamas. A little boy and his sister sitting in front of me watched me very intently. Their eyes grew bigger and bigger as the scarf grew longer and longer. Finally the little boy couldn’t take it

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Learn SAS

Gregory LeeNovember 25, 2015 0

Ensuring that key variables are numeric not character

One of the frustrating outcomes of the data import process is when a variable that you need to be numeric is imported as character. This often happens because the column of data contains non-numeric data, for example, where blanks in a database are exported as “NULL” instead of a true

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Learn SAS

Gregory LeeNovember 20, 2015 0

Explaining statistical methods to the terrified & disinterested: A focus on metaphors

Many readers in applied areas (business, health, psychology & sociology, education, and several others) are reading statistics texts under duress for a course or project, and are in truth somewhere between disinterested and terrified. In my new SAS Press book Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS® I knew that I

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Learn SAS

Susan SlaughterNovember 16, 2015 0

A short history of The Little SAS Book

This blog is co-authored by Susan J. Slaughter and Lora D. Delwiche. SAS Press is now 25 years old. As impressive as that is, a bigger milestone for us personally is that The Little SAS® Book is now 20 years old! We had no idea back then that we would still

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Learn SAS

Art CarpenterNovember 12, 2015 0

You’re not using PROC REPORT?

As I visit my clients, it sometimes surprises me when they avoid the use of PROC REPORT. “It’s too different”. Even those that do use it, often fail to take advantage of the procedure’s power by ignoring the compute block. Yes this procedure is different from any other. Yes using

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Learn SAS

Susan SlaughterNovember 10, 2015 0

Who was the first SAS user to write a SAS book?

SAS Press is now 25 years old! To commemorate this milestone, I decided to research a question that has fascinated me for years: Who was the first person outside of SAS Institute to write a book about SAS? I first heard about this controversy at the Western Users of SAS

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Learn SAS

Art CarpenterNovember 4, 2015 0

Celebrating 25 years writing for SAS Press

Of course it has not really been 25 years of SAS Press, but more like 30 or so. But it has been 25 years of the publishing of SAS books by SAS users. What started as “Books by Users” with only a few titles has grown into what is now

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanNovember 3, 2015 0

SAS to the rescue: claiming your location on Google map by address only (without knowing latitude and longitude)

➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in

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Advanced Analytics | Learn SAS | SAS Events | Students & Educators

Polly Mitchell-GuthrieOctober 23, 2015 0

Data science training - is it possible?

Ok, so the title is a little provocative, but some people are dubious that data science training is even possible, because they believe data science entails skills one can learn only on the job and not in a classroom. I am not in that camp, although I do believe that data

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Learn SAS

Maggie MillerOctober 19, 2015 0

25 Fun Facts about SAS Press authors

You’ve read their books. You’ve probably even met them at conferences. But now, we’re revealing another side of our beloved SAS authors in this list of fun facts. Prepare to be surprised. Hint – one of the authors swims with sharks. Tricia Aanderud Tricia has over 100 jokes memorized -

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Learn SAS

Cindy PuryearOctober 8, 2015 0

How my SAS Press book was born

This guest blog post comes from Dr. David Dickey, one of our original SAS Press authors. Hope you enjoy! In the late 1970s, shortly after SAS was founded, I was approached by Herbert Kirk and John Brocklebank from SAS to put together a course on time series. This was reasonably

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinOctober 7, 2015 0

Tabulate counts when there are unobserved categories

Suppose that you are tabulating the eye colors of students in a small class (following Friendly, 1992). Depending upon the ethnic groups of these students, you might not observe any green-eyed students. How do you put a 0 into the table that summarizes the number of students who have each

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Jeff ZeanahOctober 5, 2015 0

What Hurricane Joaquin can teach us about analytics

While holed up inside, like many others on the East Coast of the United States, suffering from record-breaking rainfall and watching the path of Hurricane Joaquin, I found a perfect metaphor for handling a problem in explaining analytics. Many executives bemoan the fact that it seems to take forever for

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinOctober 5, 2015 0

How to generate random integers in SAS

You can use SAS to generate random integers between 1–10 or in the range 1–100. This article shows how to generate random integers as easily as Excel does. I was recently talking with some SAS customers and I was asked "Why can't SAS create an easy way to generate random

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