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Programming Tips

Strengthen your programming skills with tips and techniques from the experts

Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 20, 2020 0

The Johnson SB distribution

From the early days of probability and statistics, researchers have tried to organize and categorize parametric probability distributions. For example, Pearson (1895, 1901, and 1916) developed a system of seven distributions, which was later called the Pearson system. The main idea behind a "system" of distributions is that for each

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 15, 2020 0

Where's the best place to retire, in the U.S.?

As I get older, a few of my buddies are starting to retire. And this makes me think about my own retirement (not that I'm anywhere near old enough to retire, mind you!) Therefore when I saw a list of the "Best & Worst Cities for Retiring" it caught my

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Suzanne MorgenJanuary 13, 2020 0

Foresight is 2020! New books to take your skills to the next level

Are you ready to get a jump start on the new year? If you’ve been wanting to brush up your SAS skills or learn something new, there’s no time like a new decade to start! SAS Press is releasing several new books in the upcoming months to help you stay

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Programming Tips

Amber ElamJanuary 10, 2020 0

Why does my SAS date have the wrong century?

2020 is here and systems that use 2-digit years in date values are getting confused. Do we mean 1920 or 2020? In SAS, the YEARCUTOFF= option lets you decide.

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Programming Tips

Ron CodyJanuary 8, 2020 0

Adventures of a SAS detective and the fantastic FIND function

Did I trick you into seeing what this blog is about with its mysterious title? I am going to talk about how to use the FIND function to search text values. The FIND function searches for substrings in character values. For example, you might want to extract all email addresses

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 7, 2020 0

Are winters colder in North Carolina, or Canada?

If someone proposes a bet to you, then you should be suspicious that they already know they're going to win. And one frequent topic of such bets is the weather... What if I bet you there's a city in Canada with a warmer average January temperature than Raleigh, NC? You

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJanuary 6, 2020 0

Top posts from The DO Loop in 2019

Last year, I wrote more than 100 posts for The DO Loop blog. The most popular articles were about SAS programming tips for data analysis, statistical analysis, and data visualization. Here are the most popular articles from 2019 in each category. SAS programming tips Create training, testing, and validation data

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonDecember 23, 2019 0

What restaurant is always open on holidays? - Waffle House!

Do you find yourself on the road during the holidays, and looking for a place to eat that's still open? Or perhaps you're like me - I don't cook at home, and I'm not really into visiting family for the holidays and eating with them. Well then, you probably know

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Data Management | Programming Tips

Yinliang WuDecember 20, 2019 0

How to filter variables by percentage of missing values or duplicate values in SAS

This article discusses how to use SAS to filter variables in a dataset based on the percentage of missing values or duplicate values. The missing value statistics can be implemented by either DATA step programming on your own or reusing the existing powerful PROC FREQ.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonDecember 19, 2019 0

Cracking the code, of the Star Wars timeline!

The Rise of Skywalker, the final movie in the third set of the three Star Wars trilogies, will finally be released tomorrow (December 20, 2019). That's 9 movies, in about 42 years. And, if the first movies aren't still fresh in your mind (or perhaps you weren't even born when

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Sports & Entertainment

Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Sian RobertsDecember 17, 2019 0

How many people does it take to publish a book?

The next time you pick up a book, you might want to pause and think about the work that has gone into producing it – and not just from the authors.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonDecember 12, 2019 0

What areas in NC have growing/shrinking population?

I can tell that my area (Wake county, NC) has a growing population, because the traffic keeps getting worse and worse. But it's a little difficult to quantitatively gauge growth by looking at traffic congestion. Therefore let's have a look at a more direct measurement - the actual population data!

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics | Machine Learning | Programming Tips

Nelson Grajales

Nelson GrajalesDecember 11, 2019 0

Machine Learning with SASPy: Exploring and Preparing your data - Part 3

Parts 1 and 2 of this blog post discussed exploring and preparing your data using SASPy. To recap, Part 1 discussed how to explore data using the SASPy interface with Python. Part 2 continued with an explanation of how to prepare your data to use it with a machine-learning model.

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Analytics | Learn SAS | Machine Learning | Programming Tips

Nelson Grajales

Nelson GrajalesDecember 11, 2019 0

Adding SAS® procedures to the SASPy interface to Python

Bringing the power of SAS to your Python scripts can be a game changer. An easy way to do that is by using SASPy, a Python interface to SAS allowing Python developers to use SAS® procedures within Python. However, not all SAS procedures are included in the SASPy library. So,

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinDecember 11, 2019 0

Swap elements in binary matrices

Binary matrices are used for many purposes. I have previously written about how to use binary matrices to visualize missing values in a data matrix. They are also used to indicate the co-occurrence of two events. In ecology, binary matrices are used to indicate which species of an animal are

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonDecember 10, 2019 0

Mapping Antarctica, with a tile-based map

As we're getting into December, and the weather is getting colder, I thought it would be cool to plot some Antarctica data. You might remember I did this about 1.5 years ago, using good-old Proc Gmap, a special projection, and lots of tricky annotation. Well, this time let's use the

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Kim WilsonDecember 10, 2019 0

Old reliable: DATA step tips and tricks

The DATA step remains a popular way to create and manipulate SAS data sets. Whether you are reshaping a data set entirely or simply assigning values to a new variable, there are numerous tips and tricks that you can use to save time and keystrokes.

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanDecember 9, 2019 0

How to compare SAS data tables for common/uncommon columns

SAS' Leonid Batkhan shows you how to compare SAS data sets that include common and uncommon columns. You'll learn how to check mark commonalities and color-code differences in data tables side-by-side columns and add a comments field to see greater detail.

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Shelley Sessoms

Shelley SessomsDecember 4, 2019 0

Gifts to give the SAS fan in your life

If you’re like me, you struggle to buy gifts. Most folks in my inner circle already have everything they need and most of what they want. Most folks, that is, except the tech-lovers. That’s because there’s always something new on the horizon. There’s always a new gadget or program. Or

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Programming Tips | SAS Administrators

Joe FurbeeDecember 3, 2019 0

developer.sas.com 2.0: More than just a pretty interface

Site relaunches with improved content, organization and navigation. In 2016, a cross-divisional SAS team created developer.sas.com. Their mission: Build a bridge between SAS (and our software) and open source developers. The initial effort made available basic information about SAS® Viya® and integration with open source technologies. In June 2018, the

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonDecember 3, 2019 0

Free maps to use with SGmap, in Base SAS!

If you don't have a SAS/Graph license, then you're probably using the ODS Graphics 'sg' procedures that come with Base SAS to create your graphs and maps. And if you've tried plotting data on a map, you probably noticed that SGmap lets you overlay point-data on an OpenStreetmap, but you

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Yinliang WuNovember 27, 2019 0

Implementing HMA, WMA & SMA with 27 lines of SAS code

With time series data analysis, we can apply moving average methods to predict data points without seasonality. This includes Simple Average (SA), Simple Moving Average (SMA), Weighted Moving Average (WMA), Exponential Moving Average (EMA), etc. For series with a trend but without seasonality, we can use linear, non-linear and autoregressive

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Samantha Gidlow

Samantha GidlowNovember 25, 2019 0

Are you a SAS certified professional?

The SAS Global Certification Program started in 1999 and has issued over 150,000 credentials to SAS users. Today, the program offers 23 different credentials across seven categories.

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Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 25, 2019 0

Evaluate a quadratic polynomial in SAS

What is an efficient way to evaluate a multivariate quadratic polynomial in p variables? The answer is to use matrix computations! A multivariate quadratic polynomial can be written as the sum of a purely quadratic term (degree 2), a purely linear term (degree 1), and a constant term (degree 0).

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonNovember 22, 2019 0

These mortgage rates look shady to me!

The English language can be a bit tough to learn. One reason is that sometimes words can have more than one meaning. For example, the word shady can mean "of doubtful honesty or legality," or it can mean "giving shade from sunlight." Which of those meanings am I thinking about,

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Banking | Government

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 18, 2019 0

Create a strip plot in SAS

My colleague, Mike Drutar, recently showed how to create a "strip plot" that shows the distribution of temperatures for each calendar month at a particular location. Mike created the strip plot in SAS Visual Analytics by using a point-and-click interface. This article shows how to create a similar graph by

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Ron CodyNovember 12, 2019 0

Testing the Assumption of Normality for Parametric Tests

The t-test is a very useful test that compares one variable (perhaps blood pressure) between two groups. T-tests are called t-tests because the test results are all based on t-values. T-values are an example of what statisticians call test statistics. A test statistic is a standardized value that is calculated

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 11, 2019 0

Round to even

In grade school, students learn how to round numbers to the nearest integer. In later years, students learn variations, such as rounding up and rounding down by using the greatest integer function and least integer function, respectively. My sister, who is an engineer, learned a rounding method that rounds half-integers

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonNovember 7, 2019 0

Does plotting data give you the jitters?

With all this sitting at a desk writing code, I have to do something to keep in shape. And for me, that something is paddling boats ... as fast as I can - and occasionally trying to race them. This past weekend I entered the race at Hunting Island, SC.

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Sports & Entertainment

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