Most custom tasks need to access SAS data in some way. Since custom tasks are built using Microsoft .NET, and the .NET Framework is object-oriented, it would be convenient if we had an object-oriented method for navigating SAS data sources. That was the thinking behind the “SasData”-namespace classes within the […]
Category: SAS
SAS 9.3 macro SQL trick
Suppose you need to create a numbered series of macro variables, one macro variable per row, from an SQL query. Suppose you magically know in advance that a given WHERE clause returns, say, 123 rows. No problem! proc sql; select customer_name into :…
Next best thing since sliced bread – SAS Enterprise Guide
I recently had a student in a SAS Enterprise Guide class declare that EG was the next best thing since sliced bread. I couldn’t have agreed with her more! In this post, I‘ll share four ways where EG outperforms SAS code –yes I know you’re a cod…
Efficient acceptance-rejection simulation
A few days ago on the SAS/IML Support Community, there was an interesting discussion about how to simulate data from a truncated Poisson distribution. The SAS/IML user wanted to generate values from a Poisson distribution, but discard any zeros that are generated. This kind of simulation is known as an […]
NOTE: Comment-Driven Design
I started the NOTE: blog in 2009. It was a successor to the highly-popular email newsletter that I used to send between 2001 and 2006. At its height, the email newsletter had 4,000+ subscribers. One of the regular features was “SAS With Style”. Below…
NOTE: The Expert Channel at SAS Professionals
Next year’s SAS Professionals Convention will be in Marlow, 10 – 12 July. If you’re in the UK, or able to travel to the UK, it’s one of the most valuable training events you can attend in 2013. And very reasonably priced too (£150 for three days in …
Inverse hyperbolic functions in SAS
I was recently asked, “Does SAS support computing inverse hyperbolic trigonometric functions?” I was pretty sure that I had used the inverse hyperbolic trig functions in SAS, so I was surprised when I read the next sentence: “I ask because I saw a Usage Note that says these functions are […]
NOTE: More on Ishikawa
I recently mentioned the use of Ishikawa diagrams for assistance with problem solving. I have frequently found them to be of value. However, what I had never realised, until my friend Chris Brooks pointed it out, is that there’s a PROC ISHI…