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Programming Tips

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SAS JediJanuary 18, 2022 0

Jedi SAS Tricks: GIT my macros

I use macros extensively in my SAS programs, and over the years have accumulated a few that I find quite useful. The integration of GIT and SAS Studio has made it easy to build a re-usable macro library, so I've put some of the more polished macros I've written in

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 18, 2022 0

Simulate events when some probabilities are zero

Several probability distributions model the outcomes of various trials when the probabilities of certain events are given. For some distributions, the definitions make sense even when a probability is 0. For other distributions, the definitions do not make sense unless all probabilities are strictly positive. This article examines how zero

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Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanJanuary 13, 2022 0

Calculating the overlap of date/time intervals

Leonid Batkhan describes and discusses pros and cons of 3 different algorithms and SAS code implementations to calculate length of overlap of date/time intervals and integer intervals in general.

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Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 12, 2022 0

How to assign a name to a color

Some colors have names, such as "Red," "Magenta," and "Dark Olive Green." But the most common way to specify a color is to use a hexadecimal value such as CX556B2F. It is not obvious that "Dark Olive Green" and CX556B2F represent the same color, but they do! I like to

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyJanuary 11, 2022 0

Two macros for detecting data errors

Last year, I wrote a blog demonstrating how to use the %Auto_Outliers macro to automatically identify possible data errors. This blog demonstrates a different approach—one that is useful for variables for which you can identify reasonable ranges of values for each variable. For example, you would not expect resting heart

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 10, 2022 0

12 blog posts from 2021 that deserve a second look

On this blog, I write about a diverse set of topics that are relevant to statistical programming and data visualization. In a previous article, I presented some of the most popular blog posts from 2021. The most popular articles often deal with elementary or familiar topics that are useful to

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Programming Tips

Peter Styliadis

Peter StyliadisJanuary 7, 2022 0

Getting Started with Python Integration to SAS® Viya® - Part 6 - Descriptive Statistics

Welcome to the sixth installment in my series Getting Started with Python Integration to SAS Viya. In previous posts, I discussed how to connect to the CAS server, how to execute CAS actions, and how to work with the results. Now it's time to generate simple descriptive statistics of a CAS table. Let's begin

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Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 5, 2022 0

A block-Cholesky method to simulate multivariate normal data

You can use the Cholesky decomposition of a covariance matrix to simulate data from a correlated multivariate normal distribution. This method is encapsulated in the RANDNORMAL function in SAS/IML software, but you can also perform the computations manually by calling the ROOT function to get the Cholesky root and then

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Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 3, 2022 0

Top 10 posts from The DO Loop in 2021

Last year, I wrote almost 100 posts for The DO Loop blog. My most popular articles were about data visualization, statistics and data analysis, and simulation and bootstrapping. If you missed any of these gems when they were first published, here are some of the most popular articles from 2021:

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Programming Tips

Yinliang WuDecember 23, 2021 0

SAS financial functions review and mortgage payment analysis

Let's take a look at the design and implementation of SAS functions in financial calculations. We'll do this through examples calculating and analyzing the monthly payment, interest, and principal for CPM/CAM mortgages.

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyDecember 16, 2021 0

Summarizing data

Because it is near the end of the year, I thought a blog about "Summarizing" data might be in order. For these examples, I am going to use a simulated data set called Drug_Study, containing some categorical and numerical variables. For those interested readers, the SAS code that I used

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Programming Tips

Marcia SurrattDecember 10, 2021 0

How to view CAS tables in SAS® Studio

CAS libraries enable you to access your CAS data. By defining the librefs for those caslibs in SAS Studio, you can have more interactive access to the CAS data.

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Cloud | Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Anthony KanDecember 6, 2021 0

A Novice Perspective on SAS Viya Deployment

This post is written in the hopes of easing the SAS Viya deployment process for novices like me. Firstly, deploying SAS Viya, like most enterprise software packages, isn't a skill we're innately born with. We're going to need a little help, some good documentation, and time to absorb the intricoes

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinDecember 6, 2021 0

The expected number of points on a convex hull

While discussing how to compute convex hulls in SAS with a colleague, we wondered how the size of the convex hull compares to the size of the sample. For most distributions of points, I claimed that the size of the convex hull is much less than the size of the

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Programming Tips

Lora D. DelwicheDecember 3, 2021 0

Using variable names with special characters

When we wrote the sixth edition of The Little SAS Book: A Primer, one of our goals was to write it for all SAS programmers regardless of which interface they use for coding: SAS Studio, SAS Enterprise Guide, the SAS windowing environment, or batch. This is harder than it sounds.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonNovember 29, 2021 0

Enhancing a scatter plot

A scatter plot is my go-to graph! It's what I often start with to get a feel for the data ... and I often end up using just a scatter plot. But some scatter plots are better than others ... In this blog post, I create a scatter plot of

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 29, 2021 0

Caslibs and librefs in SAS Viya

When SAS 9 programmers transition to SAS Viya, there are inevitably questions about how new concepts in Cloud Analytic Services (CAS) relate to similar concepts in SAS. This article discusses the question, "What is the difference between a libref and a caslib?" Both are used to access data, but they

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 17, 2021 0

The order of vertices on a convex polygon

In a previous article, I showed how to use theCVEXHULL function in SAS/IML to compute the convex hull of a finite set of planar points. The convex hull is a convex polygon, which is defined by its vertices. To visualize the polygon, you need to know the vertices in sequential

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyNovember 16, 2021 0

Creating Simulated Data Sets (Part Two)

This blog is a continuation of a previous blog that discussed creating simulated data sets. If you have not seen it, you might want to review it, especially if you are not familiar with the RAND function. The program that I'm going to show you simulates a drug study with

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 15, 2021 0

Two-dimensional convex hulls in SAS

Given a cloud of points in the plane, it can be useful to identify the convex hull of the points. The convex hull is the smallest convex set that contains the observations. For a finite set of points, it is a convex polygon that has some of the points as

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonNovember 11, 2021 0

Where do Canadians live?

Canada is a geographically large country, but I've heard that much of the population lives in the small southernmost sections (near the US border). I decided to use my mapping skills, and put that to the test. Follow along, and we'll see what that looks like on a map ...

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Programming Tips

Pedro PucheNovember 9, 2021 0

How I used a SAS ML model and Intelligent Decisioning to build a calculator

If you are thinking that nobody in their right mind would implement a Calculator API Service with a machine learning model, then yes, you’re probably right. But considering curiosity is in my DNA, it sometimes works this way and machine learning is fun. I have challenged myself to do it,

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyNovember 2, 2021 0

Creating Simulated Data Sets

There are times when it is useful to simulate data. One of the reasons I use simulated data sets is to demonstrate statistical techniques such as multiple or logistic regression. By using SAS random functions and some DATA step logic, you can create variables that follow certain distributions or are

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Programming Tips

Mike GillilandOctober 29, 2021 0

Additional statistical capabilities in the containerized deployment of SAS Analytics Pro

SAS Analytics Pro consists of three core elements of the SAS system: Base SAS®, SAS/GRAPH® and SAS/STAT®. The containerized deployment option adds the full selection of SAS/ACCESS engines making it even easier to work with data from virtually any source.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonOctober 29, 2021 0

Where are people moving to/from in the US?

With the 2020 Census numbers starting to come out, it's interesting to look at what states are gaining (or losing) people. In this example, I create a custom map similar to the ones the US Census Bureau likes to use, and plot the 10-year change in population. But before we

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Programming Tips

Xavier BizouxOctober 28, 2021 0

Creating a React web app using SAS Viya

From articles I've read on the web, it is clear that data is gold in the twenty-first century. Loading, enriching, manipulating and analyzing data is something in which SAS excels. Based on questions from colleagues and customers, it is clear end-users are willing to display data handled by SAS outside

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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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