VIEWS News issue 71 has now been published and in Q1 as the title states!
Even though Foundation SAS is being pushed to one side by SAS Viya, this newsletter continues to bring you information about making the most of SAS 9. This newsletter issue includes another useful SAS programming tip from Nina L Werner, I asked ChatGPT a question about SAS Studio and WPS (now called Altair SLC), and Richard Carson discusses the configuring of SAS processes without editing them in the first part of a series of articles about KT. As usual I have publicised some SAS-related events for the next few months, and I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions that you may or may not have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.
If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.
To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:
If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.
Some time ago I introduced a new Educational Games membership, which added access to the web apps on this blog site on top of the Free membership. Unfortunately I couldn’t add Educational Games to the Programmer and Recruiter levels at that time, but now I’ve worked out how to make this work. This means that all Programmer and recruiter members will automatically get access to the Educational Games apps via the menu option “Educational Games”. It is also important to remember that, even if you copy the web links, they will only work when accessed from the Educational Games page.
At the same time as the access has been simplified I have added some more games, which are based on the classic console games from the late 20th century:
Hamurabi allows you to try your hand at governing Ancient Sumaria for a 10‑year term of office. The original Basic program was supplied with DEC System-10 mainframes in the mid-1970’s.
Blake’s 7 includes a number of references to classic sci-fi series. Y is the Liberator symbol, because the ship had 3 engines arranged in a Y-shape. H is the symbol for the Federation ships, but is probably closer to the shape of the Empire’s TIE fighters from Star Wars. If you try to exceed a speed of 5, then you will get the following warning: “The engines will not stand that!” (Scotty, Star Trek).
There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:
Country
Jobs Advertised
From Company
UK
SAS consultancy permanent positions
Pazikas Group
UK
Graduate SAS consultancy permanent positions
Pazikas Group
India
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
ClinChoice
Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.
Recruiters looking for candidates
I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.
If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:
The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.
Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02Mar2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.
The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:
VIEWS News issue 70 has now finally been published. I know it should have been published in November, but, as they say, better late than never!
Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year from the UK! Now we are in January I have a feeling 2023 is going to be a very productive year! This newsletter issue includes yet another useful SAS programming tip from Nina L Werner, and some thoughts on how to develop SAS ODS Graphics programs with different SAS maintenance versions based on a recent discussion in the SAS Programming Forum on my blog site. As usual I have publicised some SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions that you may or may not have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.
If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.
To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:
If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.
There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:
Country
Jobs Advertised
From Company
UK
SAS consultancy permanent positions
Pazikas Group
UK
Graduate SAS consultancy permanent positions
Pazikas Group
India
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
ClinChoice
Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.
Recruiters looking for candidates
I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.
If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:
The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.
Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02Feb2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.
The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:
If you use Windows 11, and it has been updated to 22H2, then you can run Android apps from Amazon Appstore or side-load them as APK files.
Install “Amazon Appstore” from the Microsoft Store on your Windows 11 PC. This will give you access to Android apps in the Amazon Appstore, but will also install the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). If you cannot find this software there, then you may still need to update Windows 11 to 22H2.
There is at least one Holland Numerics app that can be installed directly from the Amazon Appstore, “How Do You Do This in SAS?“, which is free and will give you a taste of what the other Android apps will look like on Windows 11.
If you want to install Android apps from APK files, then you will need to install another app from the Microsoft Store. I have tested a few of the free APK installers, and am currently using “Apk File Installer“.
If you would like to install some of my apps directly from APK files on Windows 11, then they can be downloaded from the Windows 10/11 Store (which includes prices), and select one of the apps with “(Android app)” in their name, They are downloaded as Zip files, which must be unzipped before installing with the APK installer, including:
SAS course apps
How Do I Do This in SAS? apps
Brain training apps
Puzzles and games apps
Additional email setup may be needed in Windows 11 for the “SAS course” and “How Do I Do This in SAS?” apps, as they use “mailto:” links, which must be associated with an email client.
There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:
Country
Jobs Advertised
From Company
India
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
ClinChoice
UK
SAS consultancy permanent positions
Odin
Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.
Recruiters looking for candidates
I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.
If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:
The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.
Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 03Jan2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.
The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:
Way back in September 1992 I was working at CentreFile, a software subsidiary of NatWest Bank. Unfortunately, the financial environment at that time required NatWest Bank to bring much of the outsourcing done within CentreFile back inside the bank, so I was one of the 17% of the IT staff made redundant.
Undeterred I decided to become a freelance SAS programmer and landed a 3-month SAS contract at Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium in October 1992, where the financial environment was better. This contract was a fixed price contract for 9 weeks, but I finished all of the expected work in 7 weeks (which didn’t please the client!), so it was agreed that I “work” a further week in Belgium before completing my stay there!
There followed a 14-month contract at Euroclear, a securities bank in Brussels, where I was living in an apartment belonging to a hotel. This is where I really developed my love of finding new beers! I was not the only English-speaking SAS programmer there, as English, Australian and New Zealand programmers were also part of the various teams in Euroclear (and I am still in contact with them), and we would meet on Wednesday evenings for “Contractors Night Out”, starting the evening by watching Star Trek in my apartment (with a Belgian beer from my well-stocked fridge!), and then exploring the vibrant beer and food culture in the centre of Brussels. I will always be grateful for the beers in the supermarket GB Inno that I walked past on my way back to my apartment.
Returning to the UK I then worked on a wide variety of SAS programming contracts between 1994 and 2002, including pharmaceutical development for Glaxo and Praxis, HR systems for Asda and Zurich Insurance, marketing and risk databases for Barclaycard, Pearl Assurance and Ford Credit Bank, and fraud operations for Barclaycard.
My final contract before 9/11 was at Ford Credit Bank, where CNN was shown on screens next to the lifts. We watched in horror as 9/11 evolve in real-time on those screens. The effect on the finance sector was almost immediate, and SAS contracts in banking and insurance became extremely scarce. Fortunately Ford Credit Bank honoured my contract which ended in March 2002. Holland Numerics Limited then spent the rest of 2002 without any significant income, and I was temporarily employed by Bayer Vital in Leverkusen for 3 months later that year.
In 2003 the SAS contract market improved a little and I was able to work on an online campaign manager application for Proximity, before joining the Epidemiology team at GSK until 2005, when I started a 10-year spell at Amgen, where I was mostly involved in observational studies. It was during this period that I discovered the benefit of publishing SAS papers. I had written a paper on how to improve mainframe SAS and DB/2 performance back in 1997, which had been read by someone at the European Patent Office in 2004. They contacted me and I spent several days investigating on-site in The Hague, and then writing and presenting a paper explaining how to fix their problems for their senior management. This included adding a simple sort, which improved the elapsed time of a single step from 7 hours to 3 minutes! The fundamental truth I demonstrated was that developing on a Windows platform was OK, until you involved sorting, which is built into the mainframe operating system.
Following 10 years at Amgen I spent a year at Syne Qua Non, a brief SAS ODS Graphics remote contract with Astellas in Chicago, and then 5 years at Roche, before my current SAS contract with Veramed. This contract actually takes me back to 2002, where I shared an office with the now CEO of Veramed. The take-home from this contract is that you should keep good contacts with all of your business friends, because you never know whether they could help you in the future!
Now why would I be telling you this story about my company? Well, I am approaching retirement (I’m already beyond the statuary retirement age in the UK), but I have a lot of SAS-related knowledge that I am very keen to pass on to younger SAS programmers. My entire collection of SAS conference papers can be freely downloaded from this blog site. Registered members of my blog site can have free access to all the issues of VIEWS News since 1998, as they are stored on my blog site. My SAS licensing depends on earning enough in SAS contract fees to pay for it, so future SAS contracts will be helpful to maintain this site. Finally, if you would like to learn about how to be a good SAS programmer, performance analyst, or graphics designer, then I’ll be happy to spend time helping you (and your colleagues) using my appointment calendar.
I have spent 30 years working for Holland Numerics Limited. How long I continue to work will ultimately depend on you!
There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in Europe and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:
Country
Jobs Advertised
From Company
Germany
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
Cerner Enviza
India
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
ClinChoice
Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.
Recruiters looking for candidates
I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.
If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:
The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.
Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 07Dec2022 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.
The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:
VIEWS News issue 69 has now finally been published. I know it should have been published in August, but, as they say, better late than never!
In the UK we have just experienced our joint hottest summer on record since 1884, and our driest summer since 1995, and not all Brits celebrate warm weather! This newsletter issue includes yet another useful SAS programming tip from Nina L Werner, and some extracts from my SAS conference papers about SAS Studio and ODS Graphics. As usual I have publicised some SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions that you may or may not have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.
If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.
To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:
If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.
There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe and India, and the links are open to all site visitors:
Country
Jobs Advertised
From Company
UK
Consultancy permanent positions
Odin Consultancy
Germany
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
Cerner Enviza
India
Pharmaceutical permanent positions
ClinChoice
Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.
Recruiters looking for candidates
I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.
If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:
The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.
Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02Nov2022 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.
The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:
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