Tag: programming

What is the SAS Programming Forum and why does it cost to access?

Loading

It is rather sad that everyone knows the price of everything and the value of nothing! I have paraphrased this statement somewhat from the original written by Oscar Wilde for Lord Darlington in “Lady Windemere’s Fan”, but the reality is very much in evidence everywhere today. But how is that relevant to the SAS Programming Forum?

I wanted to create a place where students of SAS programming (which includes myself, as I try to learn something new about SAS every day) could ask SAS-related questions, even if they were from interviews or homework, without being criticised. However, I wanted to exclude those asking questions because they were too lazy to research the answers themselves (#LAZYWEB), so I hoped that charging a small amount to access the forum would filter out those trying to get free information with no effort, but encourage those enthusiastic enough to pay to learn about SAS an opportunity to do so. The SAS Programming Forum subscription is only GBP 5.00 per month for up to 3 months via PayPal, so it can be stopped at any time, but also renewed easily, and includes access to my SAS course about SAS programming topics, which I’m progressively building, and currently includes 4 sections on SAS components, Data Steps, PROC SQL and SAS macros, and now totals 25 topics in all. The sections are intended to be read sequentially, but are, for the most part, independent of each other. The key feature of the SAS Programming Forum and the SAS course is that questions can be asked at any time and they will be answered, provided sufficient information is given in the question. This is not a “get out” clause, but a learning point for all prospective SAS programmers that without sufficient information you cannot write a SAS program that meets the customer’s needs, so you have to be able to ask question yourself!

The SAS Programming Forum is growing: a new SAS course topic posted and another SAS question answered

Loading

The SAS course and the SAS Programming Forum continue to grow, I have just added a new course topic about the PROC SQL data set combining, and there are now 21 topics in 3 different sections:

  • [A] SAS components – 2 topics
  • Data Steps – 13 topics
  • [F] PROC SQL – 6 topics (1 new topic!)

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

I’ve also added an answer to a new SAS-related question in the SAS Programming Forum about re-ordering data sets without using PROC SORT. Again this topic can only be accessed by Programmer level members.

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!

Another new post in the SAS course making a total of 20 topics in 3 sections

Loading

The SAS course continues to grow, I have just added a new topic about the PUT statement, and there are now 20 topics in 3 different sections:

  • [A] SAS components – 2 topics
  • Data Steps – 13 topics (1 new topic!)
  • [F] PROC SQL – 5 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!

The SAS course now has 19 topics in 3 sections

Loading

The SAS course continues to grow, and now has 19 topics in 3 different sections:

  • [A] SAS components – 2 topics
  • Data Steps – 12 topics (1 new topic!)
  • [F] PROC SQL – 5 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!

The SAS course now has 18 topics in 3 sections

Loading

The SAS course continues to grow, and now has 18 topics in 3 different sections:

  • [A] SAS components – 2 topics
  • Data Steps – 11 topics
  • [F] PROC SQL – 5 topics (2 new 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!

Are you learning about SAS?

Loading

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.

A new SAS course section about PROC SQL has been started

Loading

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.

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

Loading

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…

SAS can correct your spelling!

Loading

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.)

The apps “Platforms: How Do You Do This in SAS?” have recently been updated on Google Play, Amazon Appstore and Chrome Web Store.

Loading

“Platforms: How Do You Do This in SAS?” looks at SAS platform-dependencies on Windows, UNIX, Linux and z/OS. This paid-for app has had some of the answer text updated to include SAS 9.4 and Windows 10.

I’ve now updated my “Platforms” apps, which can be installed from Platforms: Do This in SAS? (Google Play), Platforms: How Do You Do This in SAS? (Amazon Appstore), or Platforms: How Do You Do This in SAS? (Chrome Web Store), depending on your preferred platform.

The latest versions of all my apps can be found here.

A new SAS course for all SAS Programmers is now starting in my SAS Programming Forum

Loading

I’ve seen self-paced SAS courses for around $125 / R.7,000. My new course will be priced at £5 (about $7 / R.475) per month and details can be found here, and you’ll be able to ask me any questions you need answers to at the same time, so it will be cheaper to become a member for 12 months than register for just one self-paced course!

Course topics during the year will include:

  • Data Steps
  • PROC SQL
  • Macros
  • PROC REPORT
  • PROC TABULATE
  • Reading databases
  • Reading text files
  • ODS destinations
  • ODS GRAPHICS
  • Performance considerations
  • Platform differences

The first two topics from the course looking generally at SAS components have been published today:

Still interested, then subscribe now for the SAS Programming Forum here !!