Blogs

Blogs

Programming Tips

Strengthen your programming skills with tips and techniques from the experts

Data Management | Programming Tips

Bogdan TeleucaAugust 19, 2019 0

Execute Python inside a SAS Decision: Learn how in less than 5 minutes

You can now easily embed a python script in a SAS decision with SAS Intelligent Decisioning. If you want to execute in MAS, you do not need to wrap it in DS2 anymore. The python code node does it for you. Here is how you can achieve it in less than 5 minutes.

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Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Chris HemedingerAugust 19, 2019 0

A skeptic's guide to statistics in the media

News outlets share stats and graphs that they source from public data. It takes data literacy skills to critique the stats you see, and investigate more.

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 19, 2019 0

Timing performance in SAS/IML: Built-in functions versus Base SAS functions

One of my friends likes to remind me that "there is no such thing as a free lunch," which he abbreviates by "TINSTAAFL" (or TANSTAAFL). The TINSTAAFL principle applies to computer programming because you often end up paying a cost (in performance) when you call a convenience function that simplifies

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Programming Tips

Marcia SurrattAugust 16, 2019 0

How to fix common problems in output from ODS Graphics procedures

A few examples to demonstrate some of the common output-related problems with ODS Graphics Procedures. If your graphical output does not appear as you wanted, consider the options that you are using and make sure that you are using the correct option.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonAugust 15, 2019 0

Where can you own a pet kangaroo in the US?

I saw an interesting kangaroo map on reddit, and although the data was deemed "not entirely reliable" it seemed like a fun topic. And also a good exercise to try out the map labeling capabilities in the new Proc SGmap choropleth maps in SAS! For those of you not really

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 14, 2019 0

Short-circuit evaluation and logical ligatures in SAS

Many programmers are familiar with "short-circuit" evaluation in an IF-THEN statement. Short circuit means that a program does not evaluate the remainder of a logical expression if the value of the expression is already logically determined. The SAS DATA step supports short-circuiting for simple logical expressions in IF-THEN statements and

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Analytics | Programming Tips

Jane EslingerAugust 8, 2019 0

Summarization in CASL

Summarizing numeric data is an important step in analyzing your data. CASL provides multiple actions that generate summary statistics. This blog provides a quick overview of three of those actions: SIMPLE.SUMMARY, AGGREGATION.AGGREGATE, and DATAPREPROCESS.RUSTATS.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonAugust 7, 2019 0

Mapping the drone registration data (for NC)

Flying drones was a new & exciting hobby, and very cool fad a few years ago. In recent years, the drone manufacturers have added some really nice features to make the drones easier to fly and more capable ... but the government also added some new rules that have curbed

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 7, 2019 0

The essential guide to binning in SAS

Do you want to bin a numeric variable into a small number of discrete groups? This article compiles a dozen resources and examples related to binning a continuous variable. The examples show both equal-width binning and quantile binning. In addition to standard one-dimensional techniques, this article also discusses various techniques

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Learn SAS | Machine Learning | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinAugust 5, 2019 0

How to use PROC HPBIN to bin numerical variables

Binning transforms a continuous numerical variable into a discrete variable with a small number of values. When you bin univariate data, you define cut point that define discrete groups. I've previously shown how to use PROC FORMAT in SAS to bin numerical variables and give each group a meaningful name

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 31, 2019 0

Use numeric values for column headers when printing a matrix

Sometimes a little thing can make a big difference. I am enjoying a new enhancement of SAS/IML 15.1, which enables you to use a numeric vector as the column header or row header when you print a SAS/IML matrix. Prior to SAS/IML 15.1, you had to use the CHAR or

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 29, 2019 0

Vectorize the computation of the Mandelbrot set in a matrix language

When my colleague, Robert Allison, blogged about visualizing the Mandelbrot set, I was reminded of a story from the 1980s, which was the height of the fractal craze. A research group in computational mathematics had been awarded a multimillion-dollar grant to purchase a supercomputer. When the supercomputer arrived and got

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Analytics | Internet of Things | Programming Tips

Joe FurbeeJuly 26, 2019 0

SAS Event Stream Processing on SAS Analytics Cloud - my journey

In a previous post, Zero to SAS in 60 Seconds- SAS Machine Learning on SAS Analytics Cloud, I documented my experience with a SAS free trial on the SAS Analytics Cloud. Well, the engineers at SAS have been busy and created another free trial. The new trial covers SAS Event

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 25, 2019 0

The *real* country names in Europe

Have you ever had one of those moments when something you had assumed was true all your life, turned out not to be true? I remember that happening in my high school Spanish class (taught by the wonderful Señor Shoaf), when he let us in on a little secret -

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Programming Tips

DATA Step compiler shortcut

Ron CodyJuly 24, 2019 0

A DATA step compiler trick to get the record count

Years ago I saw a line of SAS code that was really puzzling. It was a statement that started with: if 0 then … ; What? This was a statement that would always be evaluated as false. Why would anyone write such a statement? Recently, I was discussing with a

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 24, 2019 0

Implement the Gumbel distribution in SAS

SAS supports more than 25 common probability distributions for the PDF, CDF, QUANTILE, and RAND functions. Of course, there are infinitely many distributions, so not every possible distribution is supported. If you need a less-common distribution, I've shown how to extend the functionality of Base SAS (by using PROC FCMP)

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 22, 2019 0

Travel around the world, always in perfect weather!

The guys over at reservations.com recently posted a really interesting idea, and a map to go along with it! They worked out an itinerary where you could spend one year traveling around the world (staying in a different place each week), and always be in a comfortable temperature around 70-75°

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Kathryn McLawhornJuly 19, 2019 0

How the RANK procedure calculates ranks with groups and ties

The RANK procedure (PROC RANK) is useful for ranking numeric variables in a data set across observations. You often see PROC RANK used to rank data into quartiles, deciles, or percentiles. This action requires that you use the GROUPS= option in the PROC RANK statement. This blog answers three questions

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 18, 2019 0

Fun with Mandelbrot sets and Proc SGplot

A few years ago Mandelbrot sets and fractals were all the rage! (Am I showing my age? Hahaha!) I thought creating some plots of this type of data would be a good way to sharpen my SAS programming skills, and it would make a nice/interesting example to help teach people

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanJuly 17, 2019 0

Passing comma-delimited values into SAS macros and macro functions

Have you ever tried to pass comma-delimited values to SAS macro or to a SAS macro function? How can SAS distinguish commas separating parameters or arguments from commas separating parts of the values? Passing comma-delimited value as an argument to a SAS macro function Let’s say you want to extract

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Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 17, 2019 0

Write numeric and character matrices to a data set from SAS/IML

In the SAS/IML language, a matrix contains data of one type: numeric or character. If you want to create a SAS data set that contains mixed-type data (numeric and character), SAS/IML 15.1 provides support to write multiple matrices to a data set by using a single statement. Specifically, the CREATE

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 15, 2019 0

Plotting data on a Census block map

As the 2020 Census approaches, I'm getting my code ready to plot the data! And a question I often hear is "Can you use SAS software to plot data on a Census block map?" Rather than tell you 'yes', let me show you 'yes' :) Preparing the map First I

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 15, 2019 0

Create a discrete heat map with PROC SGPLOT

Heat maps have many uses. You can use a heat map to visualize correlation matrices, to visualize longitudinal data ("lasagna plots"), and to visualize counts in any two-dimensional table. As of SAS 9.4m3, you can create heat maps in SAS by using the HEATMAP and HEATMAPPARM statements in PROC SGPLOT.

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 11, 2019 0

Plotting California earthquake data!

Earthquakes have been in the news lately - in particular, two very strong earthquakes that recently hit California. Exactly where did they hit? ... Let's plot it on a map! But before we get busy analyzing the California data, here's a picture to get you in the mood for studying

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Derek MorganJuly 10, 2019 0

SAS Press Author Derek Morgan on Timetables and Model Trains

I was sitting in a model railroad club meeting when one of our more enthusiastic young members said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could make a computer simulation, with trains going between stations and all. We could have cars and engines assigned to each train and timetables and…" So,

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 10, 2019 0

Find the center of each cell in a mosaic plot

I recently showed how to create an annotation data set that will overlay cell counts or percentages on a mosaic plot. A mosaic plot is a visual representation of a cross-tabulation of observed frequencies for two categorical variables. The mosaic plot with cell counts is shown to the right. The

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 8, 2019 0

Which counties in the US are still 'dry'?

We just had the big July 4th holiday weekend here in the US. And as with many holidays, there was a lot of drinking. Which got me thinking/wondering ... which counties do not allow alcohol to be sold (ie, which counties are 'dry')? And it seemed like a question that

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Government | Sports & Entertainment

Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 8, 2019 0

How to add an annotation to a mosaic plot in SAS

The mosaic plot is a graphical visualization of a frequency table. In previous articles, I showed how to create a mosaic plot in SAS by using PROC FREQ and how to define a template in the Graph Template Language (GTL) by using the MOSAICPARM statement. This article shows how to

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Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJuly 3, 2019 0

Can you choose an SUV based on MPG?

I think it's time to replace my 2008 Prius. It has served me well, been basically maintenance-free, and gotten good gas mileage ... so, why not just get a newer Prius? Well, I've got the itch to get back into an SUV for my daily driver (I had a Bronco

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Energy & Utilities

Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinJuly 3, 2019 0

Create a custom informat in SAS

An informat helps you read data into a SAS data set. SAS supports more than 100 informats. The most common informats are related to dates and times and make it easy to read an input string such as 28JAN2001 and convert it to a SAS date such as 15003. Yet

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