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Learn SAS

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Learn SAS

Maggie MillerApril 14, 2015 0

Landing a SAS Certification

After working as a flight attendant for more than 20 years, Lauren Guevara was ready for a new adventure. The inspiration for her journey came from an article she read in CNN’s Money magazine that highlighted the earning potential of a SAS Certification. Also having earned a Master of Science

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Learn SAS

Michael A. RaithelApril 10, 2015 0

We don’t need no education!

So, how did you first learn SAS programming? Originally, I was self-taught. Many years ago, I learned SAS on the job when a systems programmer quit and I took over supporting a mainframe performance software package that was written in SAS. I got a copy of the Base SAS users

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Learn SAS

William BenjaminApril 8, 2015 0

What to do when all your boss wants is a spreadsheet

Most SAS programmers have been here. Someone just wants a handful of numbers that they can add to a graph or power point presentation that is due tomorrow. You have the data files, you have a job to summarize it, and you have a dilemma. How do I get my

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Learn SAS

Sian RobertsMarch 24, 2015 0

3 bestselling books at ENAR 2015 Spring Meeting

We had a lot of books at the ENAR 2015 Spring Meeting in Miami last week, but these were the top three bestsellers. Analysis of Observational Healthcare Data using SAS by Douglas E. Faries, Robert L. Obenchain, Josep Maria Haro, and Andrew C. Leon Survival Analysis Using SAS®: A Practical

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanMarch 20, 2015 0

How to reverse graph axes in SAS Visual Analytics

It may never crossed your mind, but there are real-life cases when reversing graph axes make sense. For example, when Y-axis represents a depth under the sea level or depth of oil well drilling, it makes perfect sense to have zero on top and positive numbers increasing from top down.

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Learn SAS

Catherine (Cat) Truxillo

Catherine (Cat) TruxilloMarch 18, 2015 0

Data Super Savers vs Data Science

“Dear Cat, I got an email from my IT department that says: [We are nearing capacity on the Flotsam Drive. Please clear data from any folders you are no longer using so we can save disk space. Thanks, The IT Department] Doesn’t this strike you as a bit old-fashioned? I

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Charu ShankarMarch 16, 2015 0

I can see clearly now thanks to this SAS student

With any software program, there are always new tips and tricks to learn, and nobody can know them all. Sometimes I even pick up tips or techniques from my students while they’re learning broader programming tips from me. Like fine wine, instructors only get better with age. Every customer interaction

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Learn SAS

Sian RobertsMarch 12, 2015 0

SAS Press is heading to ENAR 2015 Spring Meeting

Are you heading to the ENAR 2015 Spring Meeting in Miami this week? SAS author and Program Chair Mithat Gönen, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Associate Chair Brisa Sánchez, of the University of Michigan School of Public Health have created an outstanding scientific program this year. The sessions cover

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinMarch 9, 2015 0

Writing data in chunks: Does the chunk size matter?

I often blog about the usefulness of vectorization in the SAS/IML language. A one-sentence summary of vectorization is "execute a small number of statements that each analyze a lot of data." In general, for matrix languages (SAS/IML, MATLAB, R, ...) vectorization is more efficient than the alternative, which is to

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinMarch 2, 2015 0

Avoid loops, avoid the APPLY function, vectorize!

Last week I received a message from SAS Technical Support saying that a customer's IML program was running slowly. Could I look at it to see whether it could be improved? What I discovered is a good reminder about the importance of vectorizing user-defined modules. The program in this blog

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Learn SAS

Maggie MillerFebruary 19, 2015 0

6 questions with forecasting expert Charlie Chase

Charlie Chase is considered an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics and supply chain management. Now he's sharing some of his expertise in his Business Knowledge Series (BKS) course, Best Practices in Demand-Driven Forecasting. I had the chance to ask him some questions about his course and the

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Learn SAS

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerFebruary 16, 2015 0

Can you learn how to create custom tasks?

To develop a custom task for use in SAS Enterprise Guide (or SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office), you need a few things: A working knowledge of SAS and SAS Enterprise Guide Microsoft Visual Studio (the free Express edition will do, though the Professional edition is better) Some experience with C#

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Learn SAS | SAS Events

Aubrey BarfieldFebruary 11, 2015 0

Everything’s bigger in Texas, so … SAS Education offers HUGE training savings!

SAS Global Forum brings together the most die-hard SAS users, both veteran and novice, once a year. It’s one of those can’t-miss events, and each year it just gets better. 2015 will bring us all together in Dallas, Texas for several days of active learning and excitement from SAS users

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Learn SAS

Maggie MillerFebruary 9, 2015 0

SAS Certification hits 75k

We’re all about numbers here at SAS. So when the Global Certification program hit its 75,000th credential – we had to make it a big deal. We tracked down the 75,000th credential holder to Susan Langan, a research analyst in Maryland, and what’s even more special than Langan holding the

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Stephen MistlerFebruary 5, 2015 0

Solving Sudoku with SAS/IML – Part 2

Part 1 of this topic presented a simple Sudoku solver. By treating Sudoku as an exact cover problem, the algorithm efficiently found solutions to simple Sudoku problems using basic logic. Unfortunately, the simple solver fails when presented with more difficult Sudoku problems. The puzzle on the right was obtained from

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Advanced Analytics | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinFebruary 2, 2015 0

Detect empty parameters that are passed to a SAS/IML module

A SAS/IML programmer asked a question on a discussion forum, which I paraphrase below: I've written a SAS/IML function that takes several arguments. Some of the arguments have default values. When the module is called, I want to compute some quantity, but I only want to compute it for the

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Learn SAS

Sian RobertsJanuary 29, 2015 0

Why statisticians need strong communication skills

This year the American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice (CSP) has some weighty themes including Big Data Prediction and Analysis and all of its exciting applications. But just as important is the theme Communication and Impact. Everyone knows that if you have a great idea or discovery but you

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 28, 2015 0

The relationship between skewness and kurtosis

In my book Simulating Data with SAS, I discuss a relationship between the skewness and kurtosis of probability distributions that might not be familiar to some statistical programmers. Namely, the skewness and kurtosis of a probability distribution are not independent. If κ is the full kurtosis of a distribution and

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerJanuary 26, 2015 0

How to split one data set into many

Back in the day when the prison system forced inmates to perform "hard labor", folks would say (of someone in prison): "He's busy making little ones out of big ones." This evokes the cliché image of inmates who are chained together, forced to swing a chisel to break large rocks

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 26, 2015 0

IF-THEN logic with matrix expressions

In the SAS DATA step, all variables are scalar quantities. Consequently, an IF-THEN/ELSE statement that evaluates a logical expression is unambiguous. For example, the following DATA step statements print "c=5 is TRUE" to the log if the variable c is equal to 5: if c=5 then put "c=5 is TRUE";

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 22, 2015 0

What is an empty matrix?

At the beginning of my book Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software I give the following programming tip (p. 25): Do not confuse an empty matrix with a matrix that contains missing values or with a zero matrix. An empty matrix has no rows and no columns. A matrix that contains

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanJanuary 21, 2015 0

SAS timer - the key to writing efficient SAS code

New Year to me is always a stark reminder of the inexorability of Time. In a day-to-day life, time is measured in small denominations - minutes, hours, days… But come New Year, and this inescapable creature – Time – makes its decisive leap – and in a single instant, we

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 20, 2015 0

Five tips from Simulating Data with SAS

Data simulation is a fundamental technique in statistical programming and research. My book Simulating Data with SAS is an accessible how-to book that describes the most useful algorithms and the best programming techniques for efficient data simulation in SAS. Here are five lessons you can learn by reading it: Learn strategies

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Myles HannonJanuary 20, 2015 0

Panning for corporate gold requires gold standard skills

We now live in the era of ‘big data’, where data and its analysis have become crucial to the modern economy. In fact, "big data is the new 'corporate gold'," according to Mark Wilkinson, managing director of SAS UK & Ireland. A recent study by Cebr found that companies in

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Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 20, 2015 0

Finding matrix elements that satisfy a logical expression

A common task in SAS/IML programming is finding elements of a SAS/IML matrix that satisfy a logical expression. For example, you might need to know which matrix elements are missing, are negative, or are divisible by 2. In the DATA step, you can use the WHERE clause to subset data.

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Learn SAS

Data sample from Cast Of Characters data set

SAS JediJanuary 17, 2015 0

Jedi SAS Tricks: DS2 & APIs - GET the data you are looking for

While perusing the SAS 9.4 DS2 documentation, I ran across the section on the HTTP package. This intrigued me because, as DS2 has no text file handling statements I assumed all hope of leveraging Internet-based APIs was lost. But even a Jedi is wrong now and then! And what better

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Catherine (Cat) Truxillo

Catherine (Cat) TruxilloJanuary 16, 2015 0

Learn how to maximize your data with SAS and Hadoop

Outside, the Cary, NC sky is gray and winds are blowing freezing rain, but a group of statisticians at SAS are channeling warm green hills and the soft, gold light of a California evening. Team conversations alternate between distributed processing, PROC IMSTAT and how many pairs of shorts to pack.

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Analytics | Learn SAS

Stephen MistlerJanuary 13, 2015 0

Solving Sudoku with SAS/IML – Part 1

Sudoku solvers have been written in SAS using a variety of methods (e.g., the DATA step, PROC SQL, and PROC CLP). Surprisingly, SAS/IML appears to have been overlooked for this purpose. On a challenge from a coworker, I wrote this blog post to demonstrate the flexibility of SAS/IML in the

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Advanced Analytics | Learn SAS

Rick WicklinJanuary 7, 2015 0

Compute the kth smallest data value in SAS

A SAS programmer recently posted a question to the SAS/IML Support Community about how to compute the kth smallest value in a vector of numbers. In the DATA step, you can use the SMALLEST function to find the smallest value in an array, but there is no equivalent built-in function

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Advanced Analytics | Learn SAS | Students & Educators

Kenneth SanfordDecember 19, 2014 0

Are there jobs for economists in analytics?

SAS will again be participating in the Allied Social Science Association annual meetings in January. This year the event will be held in Boston, and conference organizers expect more than 12,000 participants from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, finance and many other social sciences. One of the primary functions

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