As the new year begins, I am reviewing the 2012 results for this blog and trying to determine what direction I need to set. As Greg Ng suggests in his post 2013 Goals. Not Resolutions., I want to keep my attention on the goals that help me stay focus…
Tag: SAS BI Tools
Information Maps: Quick Tips for Your Data Items
Here’s a few quick tips to use when creating information maps that are used with Web Report Studio. Tip #1: Order Data Items How They Are Displayed You may not always know how data items are used in the reports, but sometimes you do! For instance…
Does your SAS code know what time it is? Add a timestamp.
In 1986 the Beastie Boys released their classic debut album, License to Ill, and the last track posed a question: “What’s the time?” The Beasties answered with an anthem, “It’s time to get ill.” I think Peter Cr…
SAS Stored Process: Debugging from the URL
Here’s an excerpt from “The 50 Keys to Learning SAS Stored Processes” book, which is 20% off until Dec 31. When Bad Things Happen to Good Stored Processes When the stored process fails, a standard error message appears with a button…
Web Report Studio: Update Resources to Fix Your Report
Is there a worse way to start your day than someone calling to tell you that your marvelous Web Report Studio report is not working? Yes, this means the world is being denied a viewing of your stunning visual design efforts about last quarter’s s…
SAS Stored Process: Shake, Rattle, and a lil’ DelGobbo Style
One of the great things about attending user conferences such as WUSS is that you get to meet all kinds of fun and interesting people. Vince DelGobbo is a witty, smart, and clever SAS developer, who also happens to work at SAS Institute. Vince work…
SAS Stored Process: Benefits of Minimalist Programming
Minimalism SAS stored processes can do a lot. While I haven’t taken on the life of a true minimalist, recently I have come to see the benefits of limiting my stored process source code to just one statement. And the best part of this practice is, I can still do everything I want. When you create a stored process, SAS writes the source code somewhere (see Tricia’s post on where the code is stored). Typically you enter the source code in the stored process wizard. I am now in the habit of typing just one %INCLUDE statement in the source code, and I end up with a stored process window that looks like below. I use the /source2 option to make sure the included code is written to the log. Minimalist Stored Process The full stored process source code ends up as below, because SAS adds a bit of wrapper code: Minimalist Stored Process: Source Code The main code is DoSomething.sas. It has the usual DATA steps, PROC steps, macro calls, maybe even %INCLUDE statements to call other other sub-modules. Minimalist Stored Process: Main Code So what are the benefits? You can store the main SAS code (DoSomething.sas) wherever you want. I’ve been writing SAS code for MUCH […]
BI Dashboard: Tips for Learning to Use the Tool
When you start to learn how to work with the BI Dashboard tool – the blank slate can be the scariest single element you face. What goes where? How can I make it look better? Here’s some suggestions I have used. Review Dashboard Sources Use Google Images to find examples of what other designers have created. When you can see an overview of dashboards as thumbnail images, the better ones are more apparent. Study the colors and graphics used. Note what really makes the data communicate its message versus what looks like a cool concept for the designer, such as putting a steering wheel on the dashboard! From the Google homepage, type dashboard or dashboard design or dashboard examples and select Images from the bar, as shown below. You can then click on the more interesting ones to see a close up. Also notice how the data is visualized – was the bar graph or the gauge more effective. Can you understand within a few moments what the dashboard is measuring? Recreate What You See For Fun! Once you find some dashboards you admire, recreate the information using the BI Dashboard. By using data that is not meaningful […]