Altair SLC 2026 series: Summary post #5

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For the background to this series of summary posts see Altair SLC 2026 series: Introduction to posts.

Book links:

Book A: Advanced Altair SLC

Comparing Altair SLC with SAS Software

A-05  From CDISC ADaM data to a validated comparison

A clinical chapter written by people who have done the work.

It follows the data journey end to end: acquisition and cleaning, transformation and integration, statistical analysis, visualisation, report generation. It covers the CDISC tooling that works with Altair SLC, from the Clinical Standards Toolkit to the R Pharmaverse.

Then it gets practical. Download the sample ADaM data, configure Altair SLC to read it, and build a macro that standardises and compares ADaM data sets.

The chapter closes with an exercise and a worked answer, because reading about clinical programming is not the same as doing it.

Advanced Altair SLC, chapter 8.

#ClinicalResearch #CDISC #ADaM #AltairSLC #StatisticalProgramming

Book B: Altair SLC for Business Users

Working with Altair SLC day to day

B-05  Everything you actually have to read and write

The data never arrives in the format you wanted.

One chapter in Book B covers what a working programmer really reads and writes: delimited files with PROC IMPORT, PROC EXPORT and ODS CSV; Excel through the XLSX and EXCEL LIBNAME engines and through ODS EXCEL; Microsoft Access; dBase; MySQL and MariaDB; ODBC through both the ODBC and ODBCOLD engines; and OLEdb.

The database connections added in Altair SLC 2026 are listed separately from those already there in 2025, so you can tell at a glance whether an upgrade solves your problem.

Altair SLC for Business Users, chapter 7.

#AltairSLC #Excel #ODBC #SQL #DataEngineering

Book C: Altair SLC for Companies

The case, the cost and the migration

C-05  Find out before you commit, not after

Will your SAS programs run in Altair SLC? You can find out before you spend anything.

Analytics Workbench syntax checks whole folders of programs through Analyse then Program Compatibility, and reports missing procedures, system options, global statements and Data Step options to an Excel file. The free Personal Edition is enough to run that check.

Book C also lists the known false positives, so that DIMn() and LAGn() are not mistaken for blockers when they work perfectly well.

Altair SLC for Companies, section 10.2.1.

#AltairSLC #Migration #SAS #ITStrategy

Altair SLC 2026 series: Summary post #4

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For the background to this series of summary posts see Altair SLC 2026 series: Introduction to posts.

Book links:

Book A: Advanced Altair SLC

Comparing Altair SLC with SAS Software

A-04  Three editors, one language

Three editors, one language.

The Altair SLC extension turns Visual Studio Code into a full editing and execution environment for SAS-language programs.

Book A installs and configures it, then compares it directly with SAS Studio and with the SAS extension for VSCode, so a team can decide which editor actually fits the way it works rather than the way it is marketed.

Advanced Altair SLC, chapter 7.

#AltairSLC #VSCode #SASStudio #StatisticalProgramming

Book B: Altair SLC for Business Users

Working with Altair SLC day to day

B-04  It is the code text that is sent, not the file

Open a program on your laptop, right-click, and run it on the Linux server.

It is the code text that is sent, not the file, and every ODS destination on the remote server is honoured, so the output lands where you expect it.

Altair SLC Link behaves much like Enterprise Guide or SAS Studio connecting to a remote server. Altair SLC Communicate offers a second route. Book B configures both, and then shows the automatic macro variables that tell you, from inside the program, where it is actually running.

Altair SLC for Business Users, chapter 6.

#AltairSLC #RemoteServers #SASProgramming #Linux

Book C: Altair SLC for Companies

The case, the cost and the migration

C-04  What a session actually costs

What does an Altair SLC session actually cost?

A personal computer consumes 10 units. A server operating system consumes 10 per logical CPU, with a minimum of 40. Analytics Workbench itself consumes none.

Units are consumed by device, not by process, so the first user to start a session on a shared server takes the units and everyone after that shares them. Close the session and the units come back.

Book C works the arithmetic through with real examples, and shows exactly what a batch job and a Workbench session report when there are no units left.

Altair SLC for Companies, sections 4.4 to 4.5.

#AltairSLC #Licensing #CapacityPlanning #ITOperations

Altair SLC 2026 series: Summary post #2

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For the background to this series of summary posts see Altair SLC 2026 series: Introduction to posts.

Book links:

Book A: Advanced Altair SLC

Comparing Altair SLC with SAS Software

A-02  There is no session, there is a workspace

The first thing that surprises a SAS programmer opening Altair Analytics Workbench: there is no session. There is a workspace.

That one difference changes how you set the current working folder, how file types are associated, and how a server is assigned before anything will run.

Book A shows the 2024 and 2025 releases side by side, how to identify the installed version on Windows 11 and on Linux, and compares Workbench feature by feature with SAS Enterprise Guide.

If you are moving a team across, this is the chapter to read first.

Advanced Altair SLC, chapter 3.

#AltairSLC #SASProgramming #EnterpriseGuide #DataAnalytics

Book B: Altair SLC for Business Users

Working with Altair SLC day to day

B-02  Where your defaults come from

Two sessions, same program, different results. Almost always the defaults.

Altair SLC has two kinds: those built into the product, and those set in the configuration file. Until you know which is which, a session is not reproducible on anybody else’s machine.

Book B gives the initialisation procedure for Altair SLC 2026 step by step, for Windows and then for Linux, and separates the two kinds of default option properly.

Altair SLC for Business Users, section 2.3.

#AltairSLC #Reproducibility #SASProgramming #Linux

Book C: Altair SLC for Companies

The case, the cost and the migration

C-02  Four products, two tables

Altair SLC. Foundation SAS 9.4. SAS Viya. SAS Viya Workbench.

Book C compares all four in two tables. The first summarises the pricing model of each product from publicly available information. The second compares capability and scope across primary positioning, deployment model, execution engine and language support.

It is deliberately short, because it is written to be put in front of people who will not read the rest of the book.

Altair SLC for Companies, section 3.3.

#AltairSLC #SASViya #DataAnalytics #ITStrategy

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