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Programming Tips

Strengthen your programming skills with tips and techniques from the experts

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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Programming Tips

Stephen FoersterJanuary 23, 2015 0

Need test data? Use SAS to extract it from these surprising sources

Everyone is always looking for test data. Business analysts want it for demos and prototypes. Software developers want it for development and unit testing. Testers want it for system and integration testing. I’ve written many programs to generate test data over the years, as have many other SAS users. Generated

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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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Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 15, 2015 0

Using SAS analytics to monitor blog posts

As a blogger, I often wonder whether my blog posts are 'successful' - and being a graph guy, I like to visually analyze the data, to try to answer that question. The most common measure of a blog post is probably the number of times it was viewed, so I guess

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Analytics | Data Visualization | Programming Tips

Robert AllisonJanuary 14, 2015 0

Don't let difficult graph legends get your goat

Is this blog post about techniques to use on difficult graph legends, or is it about goats? The answer is both! But first, to get you into the proper mood, here is a picture my friend, Mark, took of some cute goats. And some links to YouTube videos about goats

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Jim SimonDecember 4, 2014 0

How to eliminate data error notes from the SAS log

A student in a SAS class recently asked if there were a way to eliminate data error notes from the SAS log and, instead, write them to a separate file. Of course there's a way! Here's a simple datastep. Notice the missing dollar sign to indicate the variable GENDER (M,

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Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerDecember 4, 2014 0

Using SAS Enterprise Guide with your local SAS installation

If you have SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS for Windows installed on a machine together, they should Just Work. There is no special setup required. But...what if they don't? I've posted an article in the SAS Enterprise Guide community about this topic. Read the article to learn: How to select

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Advanced Analytics | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Compute minimum and maximum of rows and columns in SAS

Rick WicklinDecember 1, 2014 0

Compute maximum and minimum values for rows and columns in SAS

A common question on SAS discussion forums is how to compute the minimum and maximum values across several variables. It is easy to compute statistics across rows by using the DATA step. This article shows how to compute the minimum and maximum values for each observation (across variables) and, for

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanNovember 28, 2014 0

Drill, baby, drill—using SAS to drill down through Google maps

➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in

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Programming Tips

Grace WhiteisNovember 21, 2014 0

SAS arrays—be not afraid!

Arrays are a powerful SAS programming tool. They can be used to simplify coding for repetitive calculations, to transpose data and to evaluate variables in a non-sequential manner. Sometimes users are intimidated by the term array, but in SAS, an array is simply a grouping of variables that lasts for

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Programming Tips

Russ TyndallNovember 14, 2014 0

SAS macro errors: the answers you’re looking for

Have you ever received an error or warning in SAS macro and did not know what to do next or even where to look? Now there is an answer! And debugging your SAS macros just got easier. All macro errors and warnings are now documented in the SAS 9.4 Macro

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Rick WicklinNovember 3, 2014 0

Recent additions to the SAS/IML file-sharing community

It has been three months since the introduction of the SAS/IML File Exchange, so I thought I'd give a short update on recent submissions and activity. (Note: The File Exchange was merged into the SAS Community Library in 2022.) Users have submitted eight new articles. The application areas include experimental

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Programming Tips

Lelia McConnellOctober 17, 2014 0

Symbols in SAS 9.4 graphs: unlimited possibilities

Beginning with the first maintenance of SAS 9.4, you have the ability to define your own symbol markers using the SYMBOLCHAR and SYMBOLIMAGE statements. With these statements you can select a Unicode value or you can select an image file that exists on the local file system—making the possibilities for

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Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerOctober 14, 2014 0

Why your DDE programs don't work anymore

Hello, 1992 called. They want their DDE Excel automation back. Perhaps the title of this article is too pessimistic. Of course your SAS programs that use DDE (dynamic data exchange) can still work perfectly, as long as you situate your SAS software and its DDE "partner" (usually Microsoft Excel) to

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanOctober 13, 2014 0

Circling Google maps with SAS

➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in

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Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerOctober 12, 2014 0

New SAS programming features in SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1

SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1 began shipping last week. Of the many new features, some are "biggies" while others are more subtle. My favorite new features are those for SAS programmers, including several items that I've heard customers ask for specifically. I'll describe them briefly here; the SAS Enterprise Guide online

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Programming Tips

Teri PatsilarasOctober 3, 2014 0

Use layering to design reports in SAS® Visual Analytics

Report design includes several phases. Granted, these phases aren’t official: they’re more a reflection of my own thought processes and how my report designs typically unfold: the initial “get the data on the screen to see what we have” phase the addition of filters and prompts to assist with guided

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Programming Tips

Bari LawhornSeptember 26, 2014 0

Encoding: helping SAS speak your language

If you live in an English speaking country you are used to a relatively unadorned alphabet. Take a look at the French and Spanish languages, where vowels are decorated with accents like “acción” in Spanish, and the circumflex, or the hat used in “pâte” in French. Look at the gorgeous

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Charu ShankarSeptember 26, 2014 0

Help! Why does the WHERE clause choke on the INPUT function?

A student brought in this coding problem after her manager was struggling with this issue for a while. They played guessing games, but to no avail. Here’s what happened when they submitted data step and proc sql code using a WHERE clause with an INPUT function? data aileen; length hcn

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Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerSeptember 24, 2014 0

Don't panic: maybe your XLSX file is already opened

As you can tell from my recent posts (see here and here), I've been working with SAS and Microsoft Excel files quite a bit. I'm really enjoying the ability to import an XLSX file in my 64-bit SAS for Windows without any additional setup. After one long afternoon of back-and-forth

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerSeptember 21, 2014 0

Using ODS EXCEL and PROC EXPORT to bundle Excel-based reports

I recently wrote about my foray into the experimental world of ODS EXCEL. Using this new destination in SAS 9.4, I was able to create multisheet workbooks -- containing reports and graphs -- in the XLSX format. I outlined some of the benefits -- such as being part of Base

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanSeptember 12, 2014 0

The power of SAS-generated InfoWindows in Google maps

➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in

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Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerAugust 29, 2014 0

Experimenting with ODS EXCEL to create spreadsheets from SAS

The ODS ExcelXP tagset has served us well over the years. It provides a reliable method to get formatted SAS output into Microsoft Excel workbooks, where the business world seems to like to live. And it's available in Base SAS, which means that you don't need SAS/ACCESS to PC Files

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Data Visualization | Learn SAS | Programming Tips

Leonid BatkhanAugust 29, 2014 0

Drawing overlays on SAS-generated Google maps

➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in

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Programming Tips

Robert L. Anderson IIAugust 22, 2014 0

SAS Visual Analytics 6.4: Importing a Twitter Stream

Great news. If you’ve been struggling to import a Twitter stream as a data source, SAS Visual Analytics 6.4 has greatly simplified that task as part of this release’s expanded data import functionality. The first time you import tweets, you are directed to the Twitter website to log on to

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Programming Tips

Russ TyndallAugust 15, 2014 0

Macro quoting made easy

Are there times when you need to pass special characters to a macro variable but cannot find the right technique to accomplish the task? In this article I’ll discuss the different macro quoting functions and give a simple technique to help you determine which macro quoting function to use. Why

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Programming Tips

Chris Hemedinger

Chris HemedingerAugust 5, 2014 0

How to find out what's new in SAS 9.4 maintenance

Today SAS began shipping the second maintenance release of SAS 9.4, colloquially known as "SAS 9.4M2". This is an incremental release, meant to build upon the already-solid SAS 9.4 platform. Even as a SAS insider, I cannot possibly keep track of every new feature that has been added in maintenance.

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