Author: Philip Holland

Owner and Administrator of Holland Numerics: Blog and Forums.

You may not be able to access my blog!

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Hi everyone,

I’ve updated my blog site to fix a bug in the forum software, and you may not now be able to access the site in the way you’ve done so in the past. Using http://blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk will still work, but any web addresses including “:8000” will now fail.

You have 2 choices:

Why has the change been made?

When the site was accessed using port 8000, the forum software bbPress would not accept replies to forum topics. It should have done so, but it just didn’t work. Using port 80 (the default for web sites) bbPress will now successfully accept replies to forum topics, so please feel free to ask questions, and offer suggestions in forum replies.

I’m now looking forward to your topic replies.

…………Phil

Are you learning about SAS?

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Anyone learning about SAS can take advantage of the SAS University Edition. This can be downloaded to your Windows or Linux platform as a free virtual machine compatible with VirtualBox or VMware Player (both free too!), or accessed online through an Amazon AWS environment (also free!). Full details about what you need to do can be found at http://www.sas.com/en_us/software/university-edition.html. Just follow the Get free software link on this web page.

Note that this version of SAS must only be used for learning about SAS, and is not intended for commercial use. The full list of permitted uses for the SAS University Edition can be found here.

You can use SAS University Edition with all of the topics in the SAS course on this site, except SAS Enterprise Guide.

The SAS course now has 16 topics in 3 sections

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The SAS course continues to grow, and now has 16 topics in 3 different sections:

  • [A] SAS components – 2 topics
  • Data Steps – 11 topics
  • [F] PROC SQL – 3 topics

The SAS course topics themselves can only be accessed by Programmer level members, but Free members can read the SAS course – Home page and see the individual topic names.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register for free now to be kept up-to-date about all of the news, so you can take advantage of the Programmer level when it suits you best!

A new SAS course section about PROC SQL has been started

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While I have been working on the final topic(s) for the Data Steps section of the SAS course on the FILE & PUT statements, I have read a number of questions on the web about PROC SQL syntax. I was not going to start this section until somewhat later, but I have decided to publish the first few topics to explain some of the most useful PROC SQL syntax, so look out for the following topics in the next few weeks:

  • SELECT & FROM
  • ORDER BY
  • GROUP BY & HAVING
  • Joins, WHERE & ON
  • INTO
  • DISTINCT
  • Summary functions

The SAS course topics can only be accessed by Programmer level members, but Free members can read the SAS course – Home page.

Reminder that I still have the SAS-related apps available in Google Play, Amazon Appstore and Chrome Web Store

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This is quick reminder that I still have the following apps available in Google Play:

  • Data Steps: Do This in SAS?
  • SQL: Do This in SAS?
  • Graphs: Do This in SAS?
  • Platforms: Do This in SAS?
  • EG: Do This in SAS?
  • Macros: Do This in SAS?
  • Efficiency: Do This in SAS?
  • Studio: Do This in SAS?

These apps are also available for Android users in the Amazon Appstore, or for Chrome and Chromium desktop browser users in the Chrome Web Store:

  • Data Steps: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • SQL: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • Graphs: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • Platforms: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • EG: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • Macros: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • Efficiency: How Do You Do This in SAS?
  • Studio: How Do You Do This in SAS?

There are also free apps, which you can find by searching in each app store:

  • How Do You Do This in SAS? (Google Play, Amazon Appstore and Chrome Web Store)
  • Consulting: Do This in SAS? (Google Play)
  • Consulting: How Do You Do This in SAS? (Amazon Appstore and Chrome Web Store)

All these apps are updated frequently, and the paid-for apps are priced at less than US$3 based on the number of questions that are answered, and within the apps you can ask new questions that can be added in future updates. It doesn’t matter which platform you use, as the same content is present in the corresponding Google Play, Amazon Appstore and Chrome Web Store apps.

Data Steps section of my SAS course is nearing completion

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I’m currently working on the final topic(s) for the Data Steps section of the SAS course on the FILE & PUT statements, which also includes information about FILENAME and ABORT statements too. Currently I’m splitting this topic into 4 sub-topics, to make it more manageable, which will be published before the end of the month.

The next section will focus on SAS procedures, and then I’ll be working on a section about reading external files.

The SAS course topics can only be accessed by Programmer level members, but Free members can read the SAS course – Home page.

2 new topics now in the SAS course, and an extension to an existing topic

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You will need to have, at least, Free membership of my SAS blog to access the SAS course home page, which is made up of sections containing SAS-related topics, with new topics and sections posted over time.

The SAS course now has 2 sections, updated with 2 new topics (about formats and informats) and another extended topic (about DO loops, including information about arrays) available, making a total of 10 topics in the SAS Programming Forum. Note that the course topics themselves are not available to registered members with Free membership, so to upgrade your membership please click here.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register now for free to be kept informed about all of the news…

The SAS course now has 8 topics available in the SAS Programming Forum

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The SAS course is made up of sections containing SAS-related topics, with new topics and sections posted over time.

The SAS course now has 2 sections, with 4 new topics available, making a total of 8 topics in the SAS Programming Forum. Note that the course topics themselves are not available to registered members with Free membership, so to upgrade your membership please click here.

More topics and sections are being developed, so register now for free to be kept informed about all of the news…

SAS can correct your spelling!

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The following SAS keywords are recognized even if you don’t spell them correctly:

DATA = dat, dta, daa, ddata, date*
RUN = ru, rn, rnu, urn, ruin, runt*
PROC = pro, prc, poc, porc, pric
QUIT = qut, qui, quti, qit, quite, quiet
SET = sett, sent*
FILE = fil, fill*
OUTPUT = outputsomething, outputnothing*
IF = fi*
THEN = the*
DO = doo*
PUT = putit, putting*
INPUT = imput
END = endit*

This behaviour can be controlled using OPTIONS AUTOCORRECT from SAS 9.3 onwards. To maintain this behaviour use OPTIONS AUTOCORRECT to show warnings in the log, but allow the program to continue, which is the default. OPTIONS NOAUTOCORRECT will show an error in the log at the first incorrect spelling, and then stop the program.

Can you add to my list?

(* Taken from the “Job Security” papers by Art Carpenter and Tony Payne.)

What happened in Vegas?

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I know it should be “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, but I really believe you need to hear this!

  • SAS Studio 3.5 is out, but, as it is part of SAS 9.4M3, you will have to request a new download of SAS 9.4M3 to get it, although it will be part of the latest version of SAS University Edition.
  • SAS Viya has been announced and it is a cloud version of SAS, but:
    • I have no idea what impact it will have on SAS users
    • How much it will cost
    • Whether it will benefit small users of SAS more than big users
    • What SAS procedures it will use, and whether new procedures will be needed
    • When I find out more, then I’ll let you know!
  • ODS Graphics continues to expand the number of graphs it can create.
  • The SAS Communities stand had amazingly good swag! They were giving away power banks, coffee mugs and unique shoulder bags made from SAS’ own roll shades and conference material to active members of the SAS Support Communities.

On a personal note I ran a prize draw for my latest book on the Data Presentation/ODS Graphics stand. 36(!) attendees left their business cards and the draw was won by Olivier Goethals from Belgium.

Olivier Goethals won a copy of my book in Las Vegas

My thanks go to everyone who tried to win a copy of my book! I’m sorry that I didn’t bring more copies with me from the UK, but I will be running prize draws again at conferences in the future.

I also met lots of old friends, and made lots of new friends, at the SAS event of the year!

The SAS course now has 4 topics available in the SAS Programming Forum

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The SAS course is made up of sections containing SAS-related topics, with new topics posted over time.

The SAS course now has 2 sections and 4 topics available in the SAS Programming Forum. Note that the course topics are not available to registered members with Free membership, so to upgrade your membership please click here:

More topics and sections are being developed…