I’m really excited, Angela and I were invited to speak at the SAS Global Forum in Orlando in April. We were asked to talk about the SAS BI package and we have narrowed down our topic to SAS Information Map Studio, SAS Web Report Studio, and, if time allows, the SAS Information Delivery Portal. The point of the presentation is learning about the SAS BI clients – getting the data has proved to be a journey of it’s own. Step 1: Need some interesting data … The hardest part of preparing a teaching presentation is find data that presents some mystery and allows you to tell a story that resonates. Right now the leading topic is along the lines of “How do you let people know you have a book out there? How do you build excitement?” For us, building a companion website (this blog) that gave the users an idea of the book content was our answer. Plus the website would be a continuation of the book information for the users. The next question is – “How do you know it’s working?” Using the data that Google Analytics collects for this blog, I have been researching what kind of […]
Tag: SAS Enterprise Guide
SAS EG: 3 Quick Tips for Working with Data
In 2002, I started out using BASE SAS 8 and it wasn’t until nearly two years later that I learned how to use SAS Enterprise Guide. I quickly grew to love it. It made it so much easier to build charts and just keep my data organized. Today I just want to share some quick tips that I use SAS Enterprise Guide to review my data quickly. Tip #1 Look at the Dataset Some people don’t realize they can view the dataset in the metadata – just like you can in BASE SAS. All you have to do it double-click and dataset is added to the Project Tree. You can then double-click the dataset and view it. [Not too long I discussed datasets and metadata libraries.] Tip #2: View Unique Values for a Variable You can use PROC FREQ to see all values for a variable but that involves typing. Sometimes I’m in the middle of a some code so I don’t want to add another program or maybe I’m just too lazy. Select Filter and Sort on your dataset. In the Filter tab, add the variable you want to view – for instance I needed to know the company […]
Best Practices: Letting SAS Enterprise Guide Write MDX Code
SAS Enterprise Guide is a VERY useful client tool for SAS development and data analysis. One the best features is the ability to see the SAS code generated from different tasks. In addition to viewing the Base SAS code used to perform different tasks, you can also view MDX code written to create certain measures, members, and sets in OLAP Cubes. Adding Simple Measures from SAS Enterprise Guide Let’s start by creating a simple measure for a Rolling 3 Months of Sales using my SGF2011 cube: Create a time series measure: Enter the parameters: Specify the format: The next screen summarizes the parameters entered into this wizard. You can see the MDX written here as well. Click ‘Finish’ to define the measure. You should see the measure in your cube output. Right click anywhere on the grid output to ‘Edit View’ > ‘Edit with MDX Editor’. This is the output you should see in the MDX Editor: The measure can then be defined in the cube globally by putting the MDX code in the SAS program which builds the cube (if applicable) or through SAS OLAP Cube Studio. This same method can be used to view the MDX code generated […]
Best Practices: To Write or Not to Write PROC OLAP… That is the Question
There are 2 ways to develop OLAP cubes in the SAS EBI platform: using SAS OLAP Cube Studio or by writing the PROC OLAP statement by hand and submitting the SAS program. There are pros and cons for both that I will go through in this post. Personall…
A SAS options viewer for SAS Enterprise Guide
On the heels of the release of the popular SAS macro variable viewer from last month, I’m providing another custom task that I hope will prove just as useful. This one is a SAS options viewer, similar in concept to the OPTIONS window in SAS display manager. You can download […]
SAS Enterprise Guide: Updating the Metadata with New/Modified Datasets
When working in SAS Enterprise Guide, you can access data from the metadata libraries. When you make changes to the datasets in the meta library, such as adding or modifying columns, or even deleted datasets, the metadata library does not have the data…
Just-in-time data prep in SAS Enterprise Guide
On this blog, I’ve delivered a few tips about using SAS formats to stratify your data values “in place” without having to actually change your data. The most recent example addressed date and datetime variables. My previous examples included simple SAS programs that you can run in SAS display manager […]
Inspecting SAS macro variables in SAS Enterprise Guide
The SAS macro variable “inspector” is a custom task that plugs into SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3. You can use it to view the current values for all SAS macro variables that are defined within your SAS session. You can also evaluate “immediate” macro expressions in a convenient quick view window. […]