Computer says…my job is safe

The purpose of this blog is simply to post this link to an article in The Economist. Click here to read the article “How soon will computers replace The Economist’s science writers?” At this point, I could stop writing because this article falls into the category of No Comment Needed, but that would be too […]

Condition execution on row count

Use this code as a template for scenarios when you want to change how a SAS program runs depending on whether a data set is empty or not empty. For example, when a report is empty, you may want to not send an email with what would be a blank report. In other words, the report sends only when it has information.

On the other hand, you may want to send an email when a data set is empty if that means an automated SAS program had an error that requires manual intervention.

In general, it’s good practice in automated SAS programs to check the size of a data sets in case they are empty or otherwise have the wrong number of observations. With one easy tweak, you could check for a specific minimum number of observations that is greater than zero. (This is left as an exercise for the reader.)

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For more posts like this, see Heuristic Andrew.

Price of marijuana, across the US

As marijuana has become legal in several states, it’s been a frequent topic of interest in the news. And as with any interesting topic, I like to find useful ways to visually analyze the data. In this case, let’s have a look at the price of marijuana, …

Which US states require an ID to vote?

The first time I voted (back in the 1980s), I was very surprised that I didn’t have to show any kind of identification. I assumed it was because I lived in a small North Carolina town of 300 people where “everybody knew everybody” … but they told me …

Which are the oldest .com domains?

Over the New Year’s weekend, I was listening to the re-broadcast of Dick Clark’s Top 100 music countdown from the 1980s … it was the music from my high school and college years, when synthesizers and fun-rap music popped onto the scene. Another thing…