We publish a lot of books by SAS experts at SAS Press, but how does someone become an expert in the first place? Becoming certified is one step, but who develops the certifications in the first place? Those are the true experts. They have to have a deep understanding of […]
Meet our SAS Press Author of the Month — Jane Eslinger was published on SAS Users.
This blog demonstrates how to create a report that provides only the column headings for data that is missing. The blog also explains how to create, select, and exclude output objects as well as how to generate reports with the SAS® Output Delivery System (ODS). These concepts are relevant to the task of generating a report with the column headings for a data set that contains no (0) observations.
Creating a report that displays only the column headings for a data set containing 0 records was published on SAS Users.
Check out my post on AllAnalytis.Com about how SAS is using analytics to fight fraudsters. Looks out crooks! Plus there was an e-chat yesterday with Angela and Dennis Toomey. [Hint: Read from the bottom.] Lots of cool information about the techno…
Wow – it’s a very exciting time to have an analytics career! You may have read the Preparing Yourself for Analytics Job Tsunami post at BeyeNetwork last week, which basically said we are headed for a shortage of analytics or data-minded people. Oh … music to my little analytic-trained, big-data-lovin’ ears! The article was pointing to the McKinsey & Company thoughts from last May about the arrival of big data and what it would mean. I liked this particular point: “There will be a shortage of talent necessary for organizations to take advantage of big data. By 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.“ -McKinsey Global Institute May 2011 Analysts with the Know-How to use the Analysis My favorite moment with customers is when I show them their data as a chart or graph and they say something like ”This is what I’ve been trying to say!” or “No wonder this situation is happening.” Suddenly, the issue they have been having with employee productivity, another department, or […]
If you use SAS Add-In to Microsoft Office – specifically Excel, then you already know how awesome it is to link to the SAS data on the server. First, if you are using data that needs to be refreshed – just a click of the button brings you the new rows and your report or charts are updated immediately. Awesome! Let the analysis begin … Refreshing Your MS Office Report with SAS Data Using the SAS Add-In to MS Excel (or Word or PowerPoint), you can build charts from the SAS data sets. You may have a report that you create each month based on an Oracle table that is extracted into SAS. On the first day of each month the data is made available, which is great because you report is due the next day and your manager gets upset when it’s not on his desk. [He’s a fan of your work – what can you say?] Let’s make your job a little easier so you can get back to answering your fan mail. Using the SAS Data button from the SAS ribbon, you can peruse the SAS Server to find the desired data. With the found data, you […]
I have to say I’m in love with the new SAS BI Dashboard and it’s many features. It really brings the Google Analytics to life and helps me understand how the Website traffic changed over time along with the key influences. The following figure gives you an idea of how you can integrate dashboard indicators for an interactive user experience. The best part is how easy it is. Once I understood the how the feature worked, this indicators below took less than an hour to setup and most of that was deciding what data I wanted to see. [More articles about Google Analytics here.] Quick Dashboard Tour This dashboard has two indicators, a line graph that shows the traffic over time and a spark table that contains specific data about site visitors. As the user drags the slider and clicks, the data in spark table updates. I left the Week variable in the Spark Chart to help you understand what was happening. Also in the Last Wk Delta, New Visitors (%) and New Visitor Delta columns, you can see the various gauges available. Creating an Interactive Dashboard For several weeks I’ve been discussing using Google Analytics with the SAS […]
Google Analytics uses data from your Website to prepare a neat looking application where you can explore your data and answer what I consider your first-level questions. First-level questions are the most basic things you might want to know, such as How many? What Time Period? It is the second- and third-level questions where the analysis and action plans come into play. After all, it’s not enough to know how many people visited the site – you need to know what segment attracted them and how do you keep them coming back for more. [More articles about Google Analytics here] Reviewing the Google Analytics Dashboard In the Google Analytics site from the Home tab, you can design a dashboard to review what you consider key measurements for your site. This dashboard is easy to use and works great for checking daily traffic. However, these measurements answer your basic questions, such as the counts. It’s more difficult to use the information for in-depth discovery. For instance, in the following figure I am comparing month over month traffic for the site using the Dashboard. This number indicates the total visits for each month. So, what can I learn from these metrics? Traffic […]
SAS Web Report Studio has some features that help can improve the overall appearance or just shake things up a little. You can change the template for individual reports in cases where you need to better highlight an idea. Tip! Check out the Information is Beautiful site for some inspirational ideas about presenting data. Of course, Stephen Few’s Now Your See It book I keep on my desk as a reference for presenting data. Changing the SAS Web Report Studio Template Colors In the Before shot, the Applied filters text is black, which I think is a little distracting, and the green line disappears slightly into the blue bar. In the After chart, the line is red so there is more contrast between the line and bar. Note: This change will update the template and change the color from green to red everywhere. Make sure that is what you want to do. To change the chart, do this: From the File menu, select Properties. From the Format pane, select the Use customized colors radio button. Select the second color box on the top row, which controls the line color. From the color drop-down box, select a new color. Bonus Ideas […]