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Programming Tips

Strengthen your programming skills with tips and techniques from the experts

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonOctober 22, 2021 0

How to (mis)label a map

This blog post is mostly just a bunch of fun maps ... maps that are labeled (or mislabeled) in various ways, using fun/interesting data. I focus on the 'fun' part, but if you're not careful you might also learn a little about the various ways to add labels to maps

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Programming Tips

Kim WilsonOctober 20, 2021 0

Debugging a stored-process problem

Have you ever submitted a stored process, and instead of the expected output, you saw errors or no output at all? Depending on how you submit the stored process, various logs are available to assist you with debugging. This article provides guidance for understanding which situations call for which logs, where to find each log, and what you should look for in each log.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonOctober 20, 2021 0

Which countries consume the most coal?

These days, many countries are moving away from coal, and towards natural gas, hydro, wind, and solar as ways to meet their electricity needs. I had heard that some countries still use a lot of coal (especially those countries with large coal deposits), and I was curious which countries use

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Energy & Utilities

Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinOctober 18, 2021 0

Crossover and mutation: An introduction to two operations in genetic algorithms

This article uses an example to introduce to genetic algorithms (GAs) for optimization. It discusses two operators (mutation and crossover) that are important in implementing a genetic algorithm. It discusses choices that you must make when you implement these operations. Some programmers love using genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are heuristic

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonOctober 15, 2021 0

Captain Kirk travels into space!

Recently, the news has been all abuzz about William Shatner traveling into space. This was a cool event because he's the oldest person who has traveled into space (at 90 years old) ... and he was also the iconic Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek television series. This got

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Data Management | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanOctober 14, 2021 0

Introducing TRIMS function to remove any leading and/or trailing characters from SAS strings

Leonid Batkhan introduces multipurpose TRIMS function that removes any leading, trailing or both leading and trailing characters from SAS strings.

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyOctober 13, 2021 0

Encrypting Data Using SAS

There are many reasons why you might want to encrypt data. I use a SAS program to encrypt a list of logon names and passwords. Before we get started describing how to encrypt data, let's discuss some basic concepts concerning encrypting and decrypting data. All computer data is stored as

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinOctober 13, 2021 0

Penalties versus constraints in optimization problems

Sometimes we can learn as much from our mistakes as we do from our successes. Recently, I needed to solve an optimization problem for which the solution vector was a binary vector subject to a constraint. I was in a hurry. Without thinking much about what I was doing, I

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisOctober 8, 2021 0

CAS-Action! Executing the SAS DATA Step in SAS Viya

Just because you are using CAS actions doesn't mean you can forget about the powerful SAS DATA step. The dataStep.runCode CAS action is here! Welcome back to my SAS Users blog series CAS Action! - a series on fundamentals. I've broken the series into logical, consumable parts. If you'd like

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonOctober 7, 2021 0

Let's dive into some data - SCUBA site data!

SCUBA diving is one of those activities that should be on your bucket list - everyone should experience it at least once! But where should you go diving? ... Coral reefs are always popular - and they are typically in shallow water, making it an 'easy' dive. But, being in

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinOctober 6, 2021 0

Logical negation of vectors

In a matrix-vector language such as SAS/IML, it is useful to always remember that the fundamental objects are matrices and that all operations are designed to work on matrices. (And vectors, which are matrices that have only one row or one column.) By using matrix operations, you can often eliminate

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

SAS JediSeptember 30, 2021 0

Jedi SAS Tricks: 5 Ways to Make Your SAS Code Run Faster

Tired of waiting for answers? Then make your SAS code run faster with these 5 tips.

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisSeptember 28, 2021 0

CAS-Action! Executing SQL in SAS Viya

SQL is an important language for any programmer working with data. In SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) you can execute SQL queries using the fedSQL.execDirect CAS action! Welcome back to my SAS Users blog series CAS Action! - a series on fundamentals. I've broken the series into logical, consumable parts.

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Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Joe FurbeeSeptember 24, 2021 0

Authentication to SAS Viya: a couple of approaches

In my blog series regarding SAS REST APIs (you can read all of my posts on this topic here) I outlined how to integrate SAS analytical capabilities into applications. I detailed how to construct REST calls, build body parameters and interpret the responses. I've not yet covered authentication for the

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisSeptember 23, 2021 0

CAS-Action! Simply Distinct - Part 2

In my previous post CAS-Action! Simply Distinct - Part 1 I reviewed using the simple.distinct CAS action to explore distinct and missing values in a distributed CAS table. Welcome back to my SAS Users blog series CAS Action! - a series on fundamentals. I've broken the series into logical, consumable

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinSeptember 22, 2021 0

Use simulations to evaluate the accuracy of asymptotic results

The field of probability and statistics is full of asymptotic results. The Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem are two famous examples. An asymptotic result can be both a blessing and a curse. For example, consider a result that says that the distribution of some statistic converges

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Programming Tips

Ron CodySeptember 21, 2021 0

Fuzzy Matching

The term "fuzzy matching" describes a method of comparing two strings that might have slight differences, such as misspelling or a middle initial in a name included or not included. One of my favorite functions to compare the "closeness" of two strings is the SPEDIS (spelling distance) function. Have you

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinSeptember 20, 2021 0

Add an item to a sublist

The SAS/IML language supports lists, which are containers that store other objects, such as matrices and other lists. A primary use of lists is to pack objects of various types into a single symbol that can be passed to and from modules. A useful feature of using lists is that

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisSeptember 15, 2021 0

CAS-Action! Simply Distinct - Part 1

Welcome back to my SAS Users blog series CAS Action! - a series on fundamentals. I've broken the series into logical, consumable parts. If you'd like to start by learning a little more about what CAS Actions are, please see CAS Actions and Action Sets - a brief intro. Or

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinSeptember 15, 2021 0

The partition problem: An optimization approach

I previously wrote about one way to solve the partition problem in SAS. In the partition problem, you divide (or partition) a set of N items into two groups of size k and N-k such that the sum of the items' weights is the same in each group. For example,

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips | Students & Educators

Suzanne MorgenSeptember 13, 2021 0

Top Books for SAS Programmers

The Day of the Programmer is not enough time to celebrate our favorite code-creators. That’s why at SAS, we celebrate an entire week with SAS Programmer Week! If you want to extend the fun and learning of SAS Programmer Week year-round, SAS Press is here to support you with books

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinSeptember 13, 2021 0

The partition problem

The partition problem has many variations, but recently I encountered it as an interactive puzzle on a computer. (Try a similar game yourself!) The player is presented with an old-fashioned pan-balance scale and a set of objects of different weights. The challenge is to divide (or partition) the objects into

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Data for Good | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonSeptember 2, 2021 0

Cary NC data - weather

Many cities have Open Data pages. But once you download the data, what can you do with it? This is my sixth in a series of blog posts where I download public data about Cary, NC, and demonstrate how you might analyze that type of data (for Cary, or any

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanSeptember 2, 2021 0

Removing trailing characters from SAS strings

SAS' Leonid Batkhan shows how to cut away ANY unwanted trailing characters (not just blanks) from SAS text strings to clean up your data.

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinSeptember 1, 2021 0

On the number of bootstrap samples

The number of possible bootstrap samples for a sample of size N is big. Really big. Recall that the bootstrap method is a powerful way to analyze the variation in a statistic. To implement the standard bootstrap method, you generate B random bootstrap samples. A bootstrap sample is a sample

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Data for Good | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonAugust 31, 2021 0

Cary NC data - parks and trails

Many cities have Open Data pages. But once you download the data, what can you do with it? This is my fifth in a series of blog posts where I download public data about Cary, NC, and demonstrate how you might analyze that type of data (for Cary, or any

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 30, 2021 0

Bootstrap correlation coefficients in SAS

You can use the bootstrap method to estimate confidence intervals. Unlike formulas, which assume that the data are drawn from a specified distribution (usually the normal distribution), the bootstrap method does not assume a distribution for the data. There are many articles about how to use SAS to bootstrap statistics

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisAugust 27, 2021 0

CAS-Action! Show me the ColumnInfo!

Welcome back to my SAS Users blog series CAS Action! - a series on fundamentals. I've broken the series into logical, consumable parts. If you'd like to start by learning a little more about what CAS Actions are, please see CAS Actions and Action Sets - a brief intro. Or

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 25, 2021 0

Convert a symmetric matrix from wide to long form

For graphing multivariate data, it is important to be able to convert the data between "wide form" (a separate column for each variable) and "long form" (which contains an indicator variable that assigns a group to each observation). If the data are numeric, the wide data can be represented as

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