All idea exchange posts in SAS Support Communities

Re: System Option for Displaying Macro Source Code on Log Only Once

Quentin — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 23:38:38 GMT

MPRINT is not showing the macro code, it's showing the SAS code that the macro generates. Each time a macro is called, it may generate different SAS code (depending on the parameters passed, the input data, global macro variables, etc etc.) So if the admins want to be able to read the log to see all the SAS code executed (which I think is reasonable, I always leave MPRINT on), I don't think an option to show the results of MPRINT once per macro called would meet that need.

System Option for Displaying Macro Source Code on Log Only Once

F_Pierantoni — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 22:02:34 GMT

Due to cybersecurity restrictions, our SAS Site Administrators have enforced system options like SOURCE, SOURCE2 and MPRINT on every SAS session to make sure that every single line of submitted code is printed on the SAS Log.
Options SOURCE and SOURCE2 pose no particular problem. But a locked-in MPRINT option has the unwanted effect of multiplying the number of lines of Macro Code being printed on the Log, every time a Macro is invoked.
Having a system option that displays the Macro Code only once (regardless of how many times the Macro is called in the program) would be very helpful to reduce the number of lines displayed on the Log.
MPRINT is a debugging option that works well as it does.
The new option could be named somewhat differently (maybe MLOG ?).

Re: Identify Column Support

Tom — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 02:14:12 GMT

Make sure they do a better job than Oracle (or at least the way Oracle was used by the application I was working with). I just had a program that had been running for over 10 years without issue break because this application generated a unique id column that was larger than a billion. For a table with only 11 observations (and never had any observations deleted.) The application seems to be using only one sequence generator for ALL of the tables instead of a separate sequence for each table.

Re: Identify Column Support

mikegia5 — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:05:42 GMT

Thanks all - I see my typo now in the subject but not in the body, so hopefully the body is included when searching?

And yes, I do use SAS for much more than just data analytics, although I do some of that too. I find SAS very powerful as a programming language and can develop solutions that would take much longer in other languages. I'm a mainframe software engineer - going on 45 years of experience, and I first started using SAS in 1987, so I've had plenty of time to develop bad habits! If I had known that IDENTITY wasn't supported, I would have coded an alternative right from the start.

This particular software is for compliance monitoring, and I received a patent two months ago for it - very proud of that!

Re: Identify Column Support

Reeza — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:56:23 GMT

Very small issue, it's identity column not identify so if people search this may not come up very high for them to realize it.

That being said, SAS is for data analysis. I wouldn't expect this functionality in SAS BASE, but would in SAS DI Studio though.

Re: Identify Column Support

Tom — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:31:15 GMT

I suspect there is not much support for this because it does not really have any value for normal statistical analysis tasks. Sounds like it might be more valuable in a transactional database application which is not a core reason that people use SAS.

Re: Identify Column Support

ballardw — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 19:20:04 GMT

No comments doesn't mean a lot in this section of the forum. Many comments are in the nature of "workarounds". Some comments are clarification of the purpose.

I would say the more important bit would be the number of supports, the number next to that "thumbs up" in the upper left of the page. No supports means the users of this forum aren't seeing a need but not everyone visits the ballot ideas part of the forum.

With the SAS Institute aiming new ideas at the Viya platform I suspect that unless ballot ideas are incorporated there they won't be. The time might be awhile even for accepted ideas.

Re: Identify Column Support

mikegia5 — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 18:08:48 GMT

I opened a case/track on this and was told to move it to this community, which I did on the same day, but it's been here for over 2 years without a single comment. Is this the proper forum to submit an official request for enhancement?

Mike Giaquinto
Wells Fargo

Bring back the Narratives from the PSS (Power and Sample Size) application

Norman21 — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 08:58:40 GMT

Please bring back the Narratives from the PSS (Power and Sample Size) application. I found this very useful for rapidly generating a sensible, accurate report.

According to SAS Technical Support, the PSS application was replaced by a set of tasks in SAS Studio 3.6, but does not include the Narratives (described near the bottom of this page:https://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/statug/63962/HTML/default/viewer.htm#statug_clientpss_sect006.htm )

More discussion here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/Community-Suggestion-Box/Bring-back-the-Narratives-from-the-PSS-Power-and-Sample-Size/idc-p/831196

Re: Bring back the Narratives from the PSS (Power and Sample Size) application

Norman21 — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 06:30:04 GMT

I did contact Tech Support, they confirmed that the Narratives option is no longer available.

I'll try SAS Ballot.

Re: Add SAS Packages Framework to the SAS Base/Viya

GerryFromPace — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 20:08:10 GMT

Great idea, great work, should be on the SAS ballot. Gerry

Re: Make the list "New solutions" more informative - Status changed to: Implemented

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 19:07:09 GMT

Re: Adjust the spell check - Status changed to: Implemented

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:35:12 GMT

We regularly review the spell check and add words as needed.

Re: Add SAS Packages Framework to the SAS Base/Viya

AlanC — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:49:01 GMT

I rely on nuget in the .NET world. SAS needs something along those lines. Highly agree with Bart here.

Re: Closing/locking solved topics - Status changed to: Unspecified

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:26:01 GMT

Resolved with Chris Hemedinger's comments below.

Re: Bring back the Narratives from the PSS (Power and Sample Size) application

Reeza — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:26:00 GMT

Or SAS Ballot? The interfaces do look the same which may lead to some confusion as well.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SASware-Ballot-Ideas/idb-p/sas_ideas

Re: Bring back the Narratives from the PSS (Power and Sample Size) application - Status changed to: Unspecified

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:23:35 GMT

This is outside the scope of SAS communities. To request this and other features, please contact SAS Tech Support: https://www.sas.com/en_us/contact/technical-support.html

Re: Expert User Forum

Reeza — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:16:12 GMT

The forum does enable tags though I don't use them. We could use tags that are consistent/systematic for more technical discussions if we could agree to something and use the convention?

Re: SAS App Store - Status changed to: Not Planned

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:13:50 GMT

This is outside the scope of changes to the SAS community.

Re: Community feedback and "Friends" - Status changed to: Implemented

ShelleySessoms — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:08:51 GMT

We discuss these types of items during our Super User calls.