Ask the Expert articles

How Can I Run My DATA Step Programs in SAS Viya? Q&A, Slides, and On-Demand Recording

TWinand — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 14:17:58 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on running your DATA Step programs in SAS Viya? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

If you're a longtime SAS programmer, and concerned your skills won’t translate to SAS Viya, don’t worry. You can use all your valuable programming skills in Viya. In fact, this leading-edge software from SAS represents a whole new world to grow your skills and use them for greater contributions to your organization.

During this webinar, you will learn:

What Viya is, how it works and what CAS is.
How SAS 9 and CAS seamlessly execute SAS programs to prepare and analyze data.
What a CASLIB is, how to start a CAS session and how to load data into CAS.
How to run DATA step in CAS, run Base SAS Procedures and run CAS enabled procedures.

Here are the questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the webinar. The slides from the webinar are attached.

Will my existing SAS programs run in Viya?

The short answer is YES. Your SAS 9 programs will run as is on Viya assuming that library references, references to include files, etc. are pointing to proper server locations associated with your Viya environment. BUT your programs will not take advantage of Cloud Analytics Services (CAS) in-memory processing until your data is loaded into CASLIBs and you are using DATA Step and cloud enabled PROCS.

How do I know what program steps ran in CAS?

Look at the log. If you look at the log and you see “cloud analytics services” then it ran in CAS (it doesn’t shorten it to CAS). If you don’t see that, it didn’t run in CAS. Make sure your procedure is CAS enabled.

How do I learn what SAS functions run in CAS?

SAS Documentation. This link is to the list of functions that run in CAS: https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=allprodsle&docsetTarget=syntaxByProduct-function.htm&locale=en#n0ovyuo3huqgs9n1wff08phoz4a8

Are there any particular procedures or group of procedures that as of now cannot use CAS?

Yes, only SAS 9 procedures that I listed in the presentation are CAS enabled; all others will run on the workspace server (SPRE). Of course, all new procedures that are supplied with Viya products are CAS enabled.

How long does the Proc casutil load take to run?

Depends on the size of your data. Typically, it runs very quickly.

We saw a nice example of the performance gains we can get using VIYA. Going back to the Cars example demoed, how long did it take to load the Cars table into CAS memory?

The Cars data is tiny, so it loads in a split second.

How can I tell if I have access to CAS in my SAS installation?

If you are using EG or SAS Studio you can tell if you have access to CAS if you see any of the tables loaded in memory or if you are able to log on through the log in manager.

Is proc sort CAS enabled?

It is not CAS enabled. Most PROC SORT code can be commented out because the BY statement of DATA Step or CAS enabled procedures will cause sort on the fly. You can also consider simulating the PROC SORT code that contains a NODUPKEY statement with SAS DATA Step.

I understand SAS9.4 M6 is the last main official SAS maintenance version. How long will this be supported by SAS? In a few words, when do companies need to move to SAS Viya?

Currently, there are plans to release additional Maintenance releases for SAS9.4, so M6 will be supported for some time depending on how many additional releases come in the future. Companies should move to Viya when they need the functionality that Viya provides.

Are SAS Macros enabled in CAS?

Macros are supported in SAS Viya, but only in the SAS session. Macros can be useful in generating the code that runs in CAS, but the macro language itself is not supported in CAS. https://go.documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=whatsdiff&docsetTarget=n0bwi2f9srst4fn1gek4w7okmaju.htm&docsetVersion=3.1&locale=en

Is SAS Viya hosted in SAS servers only?

SAS Viya is cloud based, so it can run on public or private clouds. It can also run on SAS Servers.

Can you use a lag() function in a SAS Viya CAS data step?

According to the function documentation the LAG() function is a Base SAS function and not CAS enabled. However, that does not mean that you can’t run it in a SAS program that runs in Viya – only that the step with the function will run on the workspace server – not CAS. Keep that in mind because you may want to use this function in preparing your data prior to loading it into CAS.

What are some of the major difference between proc SQL and FEDSQL?

The syntax is similar, but there are some SASizms that are not in FEDSQL that you need to watch out for. FEDSQL enables much more transparent access to join multiple tables in multiple formats simultaneously. You can still use proc SQL if you are pulling tables and doing some data prep prior to loading in CAS. Once the table is loaded into CAS, you need to switch over to FEDSQL.

Can we get a copy of the FEDSQL knowledge transfer paper?

Here is one good paper: file:///C:/Users/saswtw/OneDrive%20-%20SAS/Documents/1-SAS/SAS-PRODUCTS/SAS94%20-%20PROC%20SQL%20vs%20PROC%20FEDSQL.pdf . There are other good ones you can find using LexJansen.com search engine.

How can CAS do by-group processing without sorting? Is it sorting behind the scenes?

Good question. I assume so, but I would need to check. With by-group processing the data is partitioned by each by-group value to run on a different thread. So, for example, if your environment has 10 available threads, but you assign continent as your by-group and there are only 5 values for continent, your processing will occur on only 5 threads.

Is the demo code going to be shared?

Yes, I will change references to sashelp tables so you can run it, and I will post it…

I have SAS base 9.4, SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Studio installed in my PC. Is SAS Viya one of the SAS Base, Enterprise Guide, SAS STUDIO features or it is a software that is different from other SAS software above?

You are currently running a SAS 9.4 environment on your PC. That is great. SAS Viya is a whole different environment to address specific use cases. It has a different architecture. If your organization does license SAS Viya and it is configured so that SAS 9 and SAS Viya can work together, you could theoretically write your SAS programs in Enterprise Guide on your PC that include CAS enabled steps that could be submitted to the CAS server.

If a proc or function is not CAS enabled, then do you need SAS 9.4 or Enterprise Guide to run? Will SAS Studio work? (Our agency is thinking of going from PC SAS 9.4 to either 9.4 server or Studio. They are gathering info now to make best choice. They will be considering Viya options as well.)

No. In Viya, anything that is not CAS enabled will run on SPRE (the equivalent of the SAS 9 Workspace server in SAS9). It does not matter what user interface you are using – EG or SAS Studio. See above for link to CAS enabled functions. Here is link to CAS enabled procedures: https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=proc&docsetTarget=p0nnkdmqmz48w8n1kqofzc7mcla4.htm&locale=en

What is a federated join?

Here is a great paper on the topic: https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings15/3390-2015.pdf

Can SAS Viya run on mainframes?

No. Viya runs on Linux and Windows operating systems only and in various public and private cloud deployments.

Does CAS work the same with ODS files using Excel? I know you gave example of Excel.

Viya does. When ODS is involved, the processing step runs not in CAS but on the workspace server (SPRE) as there is no advantage for using distributed in memory-processing for this type of work.

My org doesn't currently have SAS Viya, but we have server SAS and use Studio, Enterprise Miner, Enterprise Guide, and Contextual Analysis. We were told Contextual Analysis support is ending and that we would be switched to Visual Text Analytics which requires Viya. Does this mean everything else will need to be converted to run on Viya and we will be on CAS? I'm ignorant about CAS/Viya/Server/Admin info, but an analyst with tons of programs that I'm not sure if I need to start preparing to convert.
That is a good and big question. In migrating to Viya there are many options and considerations (more than I can address here or am qualified to address). Your organization could acquire Viya for VTA but still run legacy programs in SAS 9. You as a SAS programmer could take advantage of that by modifying your long running, CPU intensive SAS 9 program steps to run in CAS without needing to change your entire program. The other steps will still run on SAS 9.

Can you save output to a local directory using the ODS system with Viya?

Yes, you can.

Recommended Resources

SAS® Viya® Enablement

Programming for SAS® Viya®

An Introduction to SAS® Viya® 3.5 Programming

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How Do You Manage Your SAS Projects With Git? Slides, Q&A and On-Demand Recording

ChrisHemedinger — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 19:22:19 GMT

Learn how to manage your SAS project with Git, using the integration provided in SAS tools and programming language.

How Do I Get the Most From AI-Enhanced BI With SAS® Visual Analytics? On-Demand Recording and Q&A

TedStolarczyk — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 13:39:05 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on getting the most from AI-Enhanced BI with SAS^® Visual Analytics for SAS^® Viya^®? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

During this webinar, I demonstrated the AI-enhanced business intelligence features that are baked right into the latest release of SAS Visual Analytics (VA) for SAS Viya. In the recording, you will learn:

What AI-enhanced BI is and why you need it.
An overview of 10+ features within SAS Visual Analytics 8.5 for Viya 3.5 that allow AI-enhanced BI.
Which features are available in older releases of SAS Visual Analytics
How to determine whether to perform AI or BI first, depending on your data storytelling path.

Here are the questions from the Q&A panel throughout the webinar:

1. How did you run the Automated Explanation report? It looks very powerful, but I missed how you run that in VA 8.5.? Answer:

Note: this feature was called Automated Analysis in SAS VA 8.3.1

2. How do some of these AI features like Auto Explanation compare with what a data scientist could do when creating models using Visual Statistics or VDMML?

And there was an additional related question ... How would you compare this to Visual Statistics and VDMML?

Answer: Please see the section paragraph titled What about for the true Data Scientist? within this article that was the basis for this webinar.

3. As a follow-up question to previous Question/Answer directly above ... So then how would you compare Visual Statistics with VDMML?

Answer: Visual Statistics provides objects for descriptive modeling - k-means clustering and "traditional" Machine Learning algorithms like trees, log regression, generalized linear models, etc. Whereas, VDMML adds more modern Machine Learning models like gradient boosting, random forests, deep Neural Nets, Factorization Machines, etc. VDMML also offers different levels of automation courtesy of provided Model Studio.

Relating to SAS Model Studio there was a question asked ... I was in Model Studio and built some models. I went to view results and only found variable importance but can't find the variable impact. For logistic regression model for example, I can't find the odds ratios. Could you tell me how to get that information?

Answer: Odds ratios can be calculated as part of post-fitting using the logisticOddsRatio action which is part of the Regression Action set. This can be accessed through a coding approach (like using PROC CAS in SAS) to program the options for logistic regression in CAS. It is not offered as an option through the logistic regression node in Model Studio as this is typically used more for inferential modelling rather than predictive modelling with large data. You could include this code through a code node in the pipeline.

4. How does SAS VA mapping compare to SAS/GIS from SAS 9.4. Or do we work with SAS/GIS?

And there was an additonal related question ... Do you have any feel how this compares to packages like ESRI?

There was also a third related question ... Can you give/send a detailed demo or post something on your blog for the Geomap capabilities that you demoed?

Answer: SAS VA has built-in geo spatial analysis capabilities that are courtesy of Open Street Map and ESRI.

SAS VA does NOT compete with Open Street Map and ESRI. We provide the data and Visual Analytics functionality. They provide the geo map (i.e. boundary) layers.

For more information, please see the section paragraph titled Demographic data within this article that was the basis for this webinar.

5. There was a mention of "modernization of the SAS Stored Process". Can you provide more details on that?

Answer: Please read this article for those details.

6. Is it possible to do a 'Heat map' in what was being demonstrated?

Answer: Yes. It was not demonstrated because this wouldn't be officially considered AI-Enhanced Business Intelligence by organizations like Gartner 😊

For more information on 'Heat map' functionality, please consult the documentation here.

There was an unrelated question but the answer lends itself to 'Heat map' ... Does the Correlation shown screen out categorical variables?

Answer: Yes. The Correlation Matrix only uses measures. A heat map might be better to represent relationships between categories and measures.

7. Was that SIRI or Alexa in the video you showed?

Answer: The voice assistant feature built into SAS Visual Analytics App for iOS is separate from Siri or Alexa. The voice assistant does not respond to Siri or Alexa commands.

Note: SAS Visual Analytics Product Management are looking for real-life business use cases you could apply voice assistant to your every day work. If you could please share these example use cases, please comment back at the bottom of the following article, thank you and much appreciated.

8. Have you compared the AutoML with trees (and other models) developed by Experts?

Answer: Often times the AutoML algorithms provide better results than first run models by experts. However, Auto Explanation (and similar black box machine learning) only uses a subset of modeling algorithms so a data scientist that can use business knowledge with a broader range of models and advanced data prep can do better. Think of these capabilities being demonstrated here as a starting point for model development.

9. How do you find the independent variable impact (positively or negatively) on the target (aka response or dependent) variable?

Answer: To get more details within any visual that is analytical in nature, click on the 'Maximize' icon as depicted in the following screen capture ...

a.k.a. Expand, a.k.a. Explorer mode

10. What's the minimal version of SAS VA I need for any of the features covered? Answer:

The latest SAS VA 8.5 for Viya 3.5 is preferred for any of these.

So then how do I know what version of SAS VA I'm running? Answer: When you're within the report building interface, on the upper right of interface, you can click on Help/About to get that information. An example screen capture from SAS VA 7.5 and SAS VA 8.5 is provided below ...

How do I know if I'm running SAS Visual Analytics 7.5?

How do I know if I'm running SAS Visual Analytics 8.5?

Recommended Resources

a) This webinar was based on the following article.

b) When you are ready to apply AI enhanced (or any analytical) capabilities to your reports and dashboards, here is a creative way to go about producing them.

c) If you are currently running a version of SAS Visual Analytics that is older than 7.5 and want to explore your upgrade options so you can take full advantage of what was presented during this webinar, please consult this article.

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How Can SAS Help Me Become a Premiere Data Scientist? Q&A, Slides, and On-Demand Recording

CatTruxillo — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 20:40:59 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on becoming a premiere data scientist? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

During this webinar, I interviewed seasoned data scientist, Carlos Pinheiro. He shared how he’s seen the field evolve through a variety of industries around the world and the lessons he’s learned along the way. Whether you’re an experienced professional or just starting your career, you will learn how you can make the most of your resources to build in-demand skills to advance and lead in the technology-driven world of analytics. We shared information on SAS e-learning and SAS certification, helping you build a foundation for data science success. You’ll also learn about free resources to prepare you to sit for SAS certification exams.

You will learn:

How to increase skills and productivity.
What strategies enable you to dive deeper into the work you care about.
What data scientists can do to increase job security and growth potential.
How to set yourself apart from your peers.

Here are the questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the webinar. The slides from the webinar are attached.

Can I try out the Academy for Data Science before I pay for it?

Yes, you can try it out for free for 30 days. Once you sign up for it, then you pay for annual access for the professional level certification you are preparing for.

Can I take exams without having been through the courses?

Yes, you can. The training courses are not required but recommended to pass the exam.

Do I have to have experience programming before taking classes in the Academy?

Yes, you should have programming experience. It doesn’t have to be in SAS. You need to understand how programs work and program logic. You need to be able to look at a program in another language and make sense of it.

Which part of the Academy should I do first?

You can start with whichever level you want to. Many people start with Data Curation, but that is not required.

Can you be a Data Scientist without R and Python but knowing only SAS?

You should be familiar with the languages that are best suited to what you are doing. Sometimes that's SAS, sometimes Python, sometimes R... in SAS you can program in all three of those languages and others, directly. We address this in the Academy for Data Science.

Can I be an AI & ML consultant by passing Data Curation and Advanced Analytics? If Yes, what do I need to know?

I would recommend the AI & Machine Learning professional certification for doing AI & ML consulting. In addition to training and certification, you should have project experience. A few small or pro bono projects early in your career can build the experience you need to gain a reputation in consulting.

I understood your advice for AI and ML but it’s a catch22 and I am not sure how well can I address it.

I understand this: How do you get experience, when experience is required? By having certification, you have what you need to start as a junior consultant on a team, and experience as a junior consultant gives you experience you need to lead projects. It's a challenging process, and you can do it.

It looks like I should take courses aligned to AI & ML and appear for certification exam and then start looking for SAS AI & ML Junior consultant either at SAS or SAS Customers.

The AI & ML training can prepare you for work in this area whether you are using SAS or not. But yes, looking at job postings that require SAS skills is a good idea.

Should I do both Advanced Analytics and AI/ML before I am considered a Data Scientist?

You can choose either Advanced Analytics or AI & ML to meet the analytical requirement of the SAS Certified Data Scientist. The Data requirement can be met with the Data Curation Professional or the Big Data Professional (an older certification).

Data curation is just data preparation, or does it involve many other techniques?

Data prep, information map, lineage, and so on. More than just data prep. Data curation involves much more data management than data prep. You may have multiple approaches in data prep depending on the model you are developing. Data curation means efficiently managing different data sources, multiple data inputs, a corporate data dictionary, etc. Everything will be used during analytical models development.

Would people take me seriously as a Data Scientist if I don't have a master’s degree?

Good question, and of course it depends on the market you are trying to work in, and where you are. In the US and Europe, I know some data scientists who have bachelor's degrees. They typically have another advantage, such as professional certification and job experience. In India, a master's degree seems to be a minimum requirement for entry level jobs.

Could we take the advanced analytics courses alone by themselves?

Yes, you can. Each individual course is on the web to register for.

So, for courses in data analytics, I do not need any other courses from data curation or AI?

If you just want to take the courses, then no, you don't have to take Data Curation or AI &ML course to take the Advanced Analytics courses. However, I would strongly recommend a good course in regression before starting the Advanced Analytics professional courses. We have a free Statistics 1 course online that can serve as a prerequisite.

For a beginner Data Scientist, which course would you recommend taking first?

For a true beginner data scientist, make sure you have a foundation in regression modeling. We have a free online course called Statistics 1: ANOVA, Regression, and Logistic Regression https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?id=5235&ctry=US that can give you that foundation. We also recommend that you have a least 6 months of programming experience in some language. The Academy for Data Science is language neutral.

How can I apply the 30-day free trial to data analytics courses?

There are two different 30-day free trials that we offer. We have a SAS Learning subscription with over 100 courses. We have a 30-day free trial of that. That’s a great place to try out some courses. We also offer these classes on the web with live instructors.

Is certification required for a professor who is qualified and experienced with SAS tools and materials through the SAS hub?

If you are using the academic hub you don’t have to have certification to get access to the courses and teach them to your students. I would recommend it. One nice thing about the certification is that it fully prepares you for teaching the classes. If you’re already very familiar, then the certification shows that you know the content.

What kind of roadmap would one follow if they were a novice in SAS?

Here is a great website for starting out with SAS:

https://www.sas.com/en_us/learn.html

From there, you can access several free tutorials and courses to get you started.

Can I sign up for multiple classes at the same time during the 30-day free trial?

Yes, you can take as many of the courses in the Academy for Data Science or the Learning Subscription as you would like during the 30-day trial.

Are examination fees covered in the $1,295 annual access for data curation course?

Yes, one certification exam voucher is included.

How much time per week do you recommend a person allocate to this program?

That depends on how fast you want to be ready to take exams. For most people, 5-7 hours a week for a year, of studying and learning suffices to prepare to take the exams within a year.

Is there a discount to the academy if you're a student? I'm just starting my PhD journey.

Yes! Students get a 50% discount. You can see all the discounts here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/training/academy-data-science/ai-machine-learning-certification.html#discounts-guidelines

If I only do the Advanced Analytics curriculum, would I not be certified as a data scientist?

No, you would be able to earn the Advanced Analytics Professional certification.

After the 30 days and you have not completed, what will happen?

Your access will expire automatically. At that time, you will be eligible for a 25% discount off the annual license price. It is not an automatic transition- you must sign up for the annual license.

For marketers who are interested in data analytics but not preparing to be a data scientist, what is your recommended course?

We have a curriculum of courses that can be very useful for market research and analysts- you will likely find many courses that interest you in the Learning Subscription:

https://www.sas.com/en_us/training/programs/learning-subscription.html

The Learning Subscription also has a 30-day free trial.

I work at a state government... and have been using SAS since 1993. A majority of people still use SAS here... but lately newcomers prefer using R. What are your thoughts on the analytical software perspective?

We actually embrace open source tools. You can develop your model in R or Python and add them in the pipeline in Model Studio and even compare their performance against SAS models. We can also deploy them using Model Manager. We have a free course in using SAS for R programmers, https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?id=3033&ctry=US as well as extensive documentation on coding in SAS with R.

How would you compare R/Python to SAS regarding data science? For example, the size of the community, the availability of packages, computing efficiency, presentation of results etc.

I would say the size of community of course is bigger in open source, as well as availability of packages. Just noticed that there is a great overlap in terms of algorithms in different packages. SAS offers algorithms in a wide spectrum of disciplines, like statistical analysis, machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, computer vision, optimization, network analysis, forecast, econometrics, among others. The great benefit is to have all of this in a single environment, where you can combine multiple techniques, from different disciplines, to solve a complex business problem. Efficiency and presentation are key factors for SAS and these are our major differences. SAS is very efficient, particularly in Viya and its in-memory distributed environment. Visualization is also a major topic in SAS and we have interactive visualization tools that enrich any analytical results.

How much is an umbrella subscription to cover all our staff?

Depending on your country and number of users, it varies. Please reach out to your SAS rep for information.

What is the eligibility for certification in data curation course?

You must pass the Data Curation Professional exam.

How much is the subscription?

Each program is $1,295 per year for the annual subscription. There are three different subscriptions: Data Curation, Advanced Analytics, and AI & Machine Learning.

What are prerequisites for these courses?

Make sure you have a foundation in regression modeling. We have a free online course called Statistics 1: ANOVA, Regression, and Logistic Regression https://support.sas.com/edu/schedules.html?id=5235&ctry=US that can give you that foundation. We also recommend that you have a least 6 months of programming experience in some language.

You mentioned Hadoop, pig, etc. Does SAS have and provide its own data warehouse?

Data warehouse is not just a database to store historical information. It is a set of solutions including data storage, data management, data ingestion and visualization. SAS offers solutions in all these areas, but the important thing here is the ability to work with multiple vendors and solutions to get the most of your data warehouse. You can find more information about this here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/data-management/data-warehouse.html.

Approximately how long will it take to complete all 3 courses?

Each professional certification program is comprised of multiple courses, and to complete all three professional training modules is approximately 350 hours.

What are the prerequisites for this journey?

What is the duration of the course?

Each professional certification program is comprised of multiple courses, and to complete all three professional training modules is approximately 350 hours.

Is a PhD required for these programs?

How does the SAS platform work in terms of analytics and programming?

You have a visual interface like point and click to create models, another visual interface to create the flow of steps in terms of data prep, transformation, feature extraction, model selection, model comparison, etc. And you have SAS Studio to code. The same algorithms work in all these 3 interfaces.

How did you fund the courses and certification test to be considered a premier data scientist?

I did it while I was a SAS employee.

What are some challenges common to a premiere data scientist?

Be curious. Don’t be afraid to tryout and experiment with traditional and brand-new solutions. Evaluate simple and very complex models and be ready to combine different knowledge (eventually from different people) and distinct disciplines to solve business problems. Be elegant in the solution, clearly communicate the results, and always pursue the simpler models.

Recommended Resources

SAS Academy for Data Science

SAS Academy for Data Science Brochure

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Ask the Expert Suggestion Box

wreeves — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 11:52:22 GMT

The goal of the Ask the Expert webinars is to provide insights into using SAS products to make your job easier and empower you with the knowledge you need to be successful at your work. We conclude each webinar with a time for you to ask questions of the presenter. We want to know what topics you are interested in learning more about from a SAS expert?

Please comment on this post with your suggestions.

We look forward to hearing from you!

How Do I Access the SAS® Training Resources that Best Suit My Needs? Q&A and On-Demand Recording

anrake — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 14:06:35 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on SAS^® Training Resources? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

Overwhelmed with the number of great looking choices for SAS training? Not sure where to start? SAS Technical Training Consultant Anna Rakers discusses how to access the SAS training resources that best suit your current needs as well as prepare for future career advancement.

You will learn:

How to choose the best courses not just for your current job, but for the job you want to earn, via SAS courses and certification.
How to access documentation to aid in the learning process and the SAS Knowledge Base to find tips and solutions to known challenges.
How to access supplemental videos to enhance your learning.

Here are the questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session.

How long do you have access to an e-Learning course?

When you activate a paid e-Learning course, you have 180 days to complete the course.

Can you request a class if you don’t see the one you want available?

You can request a class. If you are on a course page, you can click “Suggest course date” and it will take you a page where you can make your suggestions.

Is there a deadline to access the free 30-day learning subscription?

There is not. We plan to keep the 30-day free trial for the Learning subscription and the Academy for Data Science. Once you start, you can access as much content as you like in the next 30 days.

Is certification included in the free learning subscription?

No, certification is not included in the free learning subscription. You would need to schedule and pay for the exam.

Which version of SAS is best for academic learning environments related to statistical/regression analysis?

SAS OnDemand for Academics is a great option. There is no download. You simply need a SAS profile and can use SAS on the cloud. Of course, that requires a stable network connection. You can upload data from the SAS e-learning to complete the activities, but there is a limit. Also, there are regularly scheduled maintenance outages. SAS OnDemand gives you access to SAS Studio for programming, which includes Base SAS, SAS/STAT, and SAS/ETS software for statistical analysis. Professors can register their classes to give students access to SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Enterprise Miner, and JMP software. Here is a great SAS OnDemand resource page. For more information on the SAS software products offered in the different interfaces, click here.

How do I know which version of SAS I should download for a beginner SAS user/learner?

We offer SAS OnDemand for Academics and SAS University Edition to all users, not just those affiliated with a school or university. It depends on which you prefer to use. SAS OnDemand requires a web browser only. You log into the software with your SAS profile. SAS University Edition is a local download. You do not need a network connection to access the software. Please check out the SAS Starter Kit for more information on all available free software, free training, and more.

I am currently working on my MPH in Epidemiology. What course would you suggest I start with?

Curriculum consulting can help you make a plan. You can email them at curriculumconsulting@sas.com. You can also sample some of the classes with the free 30-day eLearning.

Is curriculum consulting free?

Yes! Send your SAS training questions to curriculumconsulting@sas.com.

For the free e-Learning - is it the case that you can activate any class during the 30 days and then, still for free, have 180 days to do class?

No, anything you activate during the 30-day free learning has to be completed within the 30 days. You have 180 days to do the paid courses.

Do you have a class on mapping data with SAS?

We offer a course on creating SAS Information Maps.

Are there resources around someone who has inherited a SAS code or program and need help to improve that program or code?

You can contact SAS Technical Support. SAS Education also provides Mentoring Services.

When does the 30- day free trial expire because it says May 31?

Not all of the marketing materials have been updated. Initially, the deadline was May 31^st. We plan to keep the 30-day free trial for the Learning subscription and the Academy for Data Science as an ongoing offer.

I've had a hard time finding resources to help me review others' code. For example, I've put "IRT" and "PROC IRT" into search fields on some pages you are showing and getting no results. How can I find digital learning tools that incorporate discussions about a particular procs, etc.?

Go to the Knowledge Base page. There is a procs section. You can also join SAS Support Communities. You can ask questions and read about what other people have asked.

Can SAS offer all the courses for free?

Unfortunately, SAS cannot.

How long does this 30-day window last (from today) or (from say I begin on July 1, then 30 days from that date or Aug 1 then 30 days for that date?

It begins on the day you activate your trial.

I am an Internal medicine resident and clinical researcher, I don’t have much knowledge about statistical software knowledge or software/coding, so I want to use SAS for my clinical research and for statistical analysis , so what are the courses would be helpful for me and what would be duration to learn SAS?

Curriculum consulting can help you make a plan. You can email them at curriculumconsulting@sas.com. You can also sample some of the classes with the free 30-day eLearning.

Which training resources would you suggest for a Senior Statistical Programmer (completed SAS Base Certification exam few years back) working at a pharmaceutical company for clinical trials.

Curriculum consulting can help you make a plan. You can email them at curriculumconsulting@sas.com. You can also sample some of the classes with the free 30-day eLearning.

I want to know where to start, to learn SAS. I want to be a data analyst if I want to get certification with SAS?

Curriculum consulting can help you make a plan. You can email them at curriculumconsulting@sas.com. You can also sample some of the classes with the free 30-day eLearning.

What is the subscription charge if one chooses to continue e-Learning on or before 30- day expiry?

Next to the class, there is a column that specifies the price. You can select the classes you want to take and add them to your cart.

How much is the cost of the exam?

The cost ranges from $75 - $250 per exam, depending on the exam. Please note that some credentials require you pass more than one exam. Visit the SAS Certification site for more information, free practice exams, and available discounts. Through June 30^th, you can save 50% on all exams.

Is the 30-day sub tied to your email address? What if we lose our job while doing the 30 days?

The 30-day learning subscription is tied to your SAS profile.

Recommended Resources

Free Online Training

SAS Starter Kit

How-To Tutorials

Learn SAS

SAS Knowledge Base

SAS Documentation

SAS Users YouTube Channel

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q&A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars.

Choose Your Own Adventure - Data visualization in SAS Viya

SylvainTremblay — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 13:43:30 GMT

Your data has a lot to say and people in your organization are hungry for meaningful information. Satisfy them by taking advantage of SAS Visual Analytics to build interactive reports that engage the audience.

How Do I Get Started with SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning? Slides and Q&A

MelodieRush — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:27:52 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on How Do I Get Started with SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

How Do You Use Open Source With SAS® Event Stream Processing?

evan_guarnaccia — Fri, 29 May 2020 17:56:15 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on using open source with SAS^® Event Stream Processing? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

Learn how to use SAS^®with open source to extract value from streaming data. Through screen share, you’ll see a product demonstration and have access to a free trial.

You will learn:

How to use open source with SAS^® Event Stream Processing.
Technical knowledge for integration of Python code in SAS^® Event Stream Processing.
How to use Python and the visual drag-and-drop interface in the SAS^® Event Stream Processing environment.

Here are the questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference. My slides are attached to this post.

Can I use Python to make a REST call from a streaming project?

Yes, you can. No inherent limit to what can be done with the Python code that you put into ESP.

With Python running in ESP, how can I visualize the results? Do I have to write all of the results out to a database?

Surface that using a calculate window. Use stream viewer to visualize what is happening in that window. If using Jupiter notebook, can use regular visualization tools.

I see that you’re integrating Python into ESP, but does ESP call out to Python and if it does, wouldn’t that result in slower performance?

The more native functionality you use inside an ESP project, the better the performance will be. Every tool doesn’t have an equal level of performance. Runs great on performance grade hardware.

How do you integrate with AWS IoT products?

See other response for connectors and adapters from ESP for integration with AWS offerings. SAS ESP is cloud-native and can be deployed in the AWS environment and co-exist within that environment.

Are there any technical content on how AWS and ESP integrate?

SAS ESP provides connectors and adapters to read/write data for Kinesis, which enables data transport within the AWS environment. Docs on these and other connectors can be found at support.sas.com for the ESP product.

It is confusing when PyMAS needs to be used. Do I understand correctly that PyMAS is only used when running Python/C code wrapped by DS2? Is the PyMAS not using in case of the executing raw Python or C in Calculate Window? And PyMAS related environment variables are not needed to be declared.

The use of MAS capability runs in the same memory space as ESP for performance and is used for executing DS2 and Python. SAS ESP and the MAS module approach supports running Python natively when the approach is followed by Evan (using the function signature for entry point).

You mentioned that C%2B%2B code can be executed in MAS in ESP. But at the project's MAS declaration there are only Python, C and DS2 options. Therefore, to run C%2B%2B code should I use C option or there is another way to run C%2B%2B?

AS ESP supports Python, C, and DS2 code execution in the MAS module approach. C is supported so that users can write plug-ins for the ESP Procedural window.

Is there any coloration between SAS visual analytics and stream visual?

SAS Visual Analytics supports data exploration and analytics on large volumes of data for in-memory analysis. In contrast, SAS ESP Streamviewer supports real-time visualization of streaming insights created by SAS ESP. From a Streamviewer object, you can link to a SAS Visual Analytics pre-built report to link real time alerts with SAS VA's historical analysis.

What is the approximate latency in visualization results if we use SAS Visual Analytics instead of ESP Streamview?

Don’t think of it as a real-time dashboard.

If you already have, or are generating DS2 code, and you want to call a Python function, the DS2 PYMAS package lets you do that.

Yes, that is correct.

I suggest looking into the other Ask the Expert sessions on Event Stream Processing for additional information.

Recommended Resources

Free Trial

Event Stream Processing Support Page

IoT Community

Tutorial and Examples

GitHub

Developer Site

Event Stream Manager Product Brief

Event Stream Processing for Edge Product Brief

Event Stream Processing Solution Brief

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q&A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars.

SAS® Enterprise Guide®: 20 Tips in 20 Minutes

KDG — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:18:19 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on SAS^® Enterprise Guide^®: 20 Tips in 20 Minutes? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

Want new ways to make the most of SAS^® Enterprise Guide^®? Our SAS^® expert, Kelly Gray, delves into quick tips and tricks that make working in SAS^® Enterprise Guide^® a breeze. These tricks are simple, and you’re bound to find one that will work perfectly for you and your needs.

You will learn:

20 tips and tricks to make your SAS^® Enterprise Guide^® experience the best it can be.
One new tip per minute

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference. We are still working on answering all of the questions that were submitted during the webinar. I’ve attached what is ready and I’ll post the full list of questions and answers in the next few days. You can find my slides (with animations) on GitHub.

Will everything in v7 work in v8?

All tasks and code should work. There are many new enhancements in v8 and some behavior differences, including a few rarely used options that were removed.

Can you change the default library for query output?

Yes, you can. Go to Tasks > Output Library > move libraries up and down to get them how you want them.

Please review the shortcuts offered by the function keys in SAS Enterprise Guide.

F3 and F8 – submit the code you have selected. F1 opens the online help. When you’re in SAS EG help, search on keyboard shortcuts to see the full list of shortcuts. You can also customize the shortcuts in v8.2.

Can you use prompts with program nodes or only the query builder?

Yes. Right click on the program node and click properties.

What’s the difference between sysecho and a put statement?

SYSECHO is a global statement. PUT is not. You don’t need to use sysecho in a DATA step. See tips on how to use SYSECHO to show program progress here.

Is the autoexec for libname just for that one session or all sessions once you set it up in tools/options?

It will automatically execute in all sessions.

Can I create a libname that is on my workstation, but the project is running on a server?

The server that is running SAS needs to be able to “see” the location of the library. You can have a library that points to a shared network location. But it won’t be able to see a location like “C:\temp” on your local machine. If you need to read data files from your local machine, use the Upload SAS Data Sets task or the Copy Files task to copy them to the SAS server.

Can you go over the steps for auto libname each time one opens EG?

Tools > Options > SAS Programs > Submit SAS code when server is connected > Edit button will allow you to add libname statements (and any other SAS statements you want).

Can I create a libname that is on my workstation but the project is running on a server?

How many libnames can be auto executed once connected with its appropriate server?

There is not a set limit. However, assigning a large number of libraries can make some operations slow, and can make it more difficult to navigate your SAS server resource.

I don't have an autoexec file with my SAS. I need to create a startup file with autoexec to autorun some vital libname statements. What can I do?

You can use an Autoexec process flow, or tools > options > SAS programs and submit SAS code when server is connected.

If the server where the library exists needs a password does that need to be included in the libname statement when we paste it for the auto lib to work?

Yes. But it’s a best practice to avoid passwords in code if you can. See some tips in this SAS blog post.

Is the autoexec for libname just for that one session or all sessions once you set up in tools/options?

It will automatically execute in all sessions.

How do I get version 8?

Contact your SAS site rep to refresh your SAS software order.

Why don't results automatically display in v8?

This behavior change can make your work flow quicker and more responsive. But if you prefer a different behavior, you can change it in Toolsà Optionsà Results and specify the tab to display.

Is the upgrade from SAS EG 7.15 to v8 automatic or is there a cost involved?

Contact your SAS site rep – it should not be an additional cost. However, it will require that you refresh your SAS software order. The move from v7.x to v8 is not an automatic update.

In SAS EG 7.1, I can have the logs in separate tabs, in 8.x it overwrites it by default. Where can I change that behavior?

This behavior has changed in v8. There is no longer the option to submit a task/program multiple times generate new results without replacing the existing set. However, you can use the Project Log feature to keep all log content from each task/program that runs.
If you want to keep previous results (log and ODS), we recommend that you copy and paste the task in the project, and run the copied version.

Is the stored process generation only available in version 8?

No, it is available in v7 as well.

Why would I want to upgrade to version 8?

The entire interface has been redesigned, much of it in response to feedback from SAS Enterprise Guide users. In addition to the many new features, the interface is much more flexible for different styles of working.

Is the "Filter and Sort" with nodupkey result feature in SAS EG 7 or 8?

The “Sort Data” task is the task that has the nodupkey functionality and it’s in both versions.

How do you set up scheduler in EG 8 to run program at specific date and time?

Using the Schedule Project or Schedule Process Flow feature, you can schedule all or part of a project to run using the Windows Scheduler. Or, you can use a scripting language to create your own scripts to run programs and projects unattended. See this article for examples.

If the slides don't make it clear whether a tip only applies to version 8 then can you update the slides before making them available to make it clear which only apply to version 8?

This is made clear in the comments of the slides.

Please tell us again the keystrokes to copy and paste a column?

Alt-left mouse to highlight the column, then copy & paste as normal.

How do you move the position of the columns in the dataset in EG v7?

Highlight the column name you want to move. Once you see the edges of the column name change, you can drag it left or right in the dataset.

Is the column width feature purely for aesthetics/viewing data? (i.e., the length of the variable isn't actually changed?)

Correct

Is there an option to alphabetize the columns of a dataset, like in viewtable in base SAS?

How do you resize columns for version 7 if I export to Excel?

Double click between the column headers.

Can you display two sets of SAS code in each window?

You can split the screen and show different code in each window.

The scheduler is based on the Windows scheduler?

Yes

Can you display more than one program code window at a time when you use the 'split screen' functionality?

Yes

Do you execute the status updates macro in a new program window or insert it at the top of your project code?

If you’re referring to the SYSECHO, that is a global statement that you insert into your code where you want to see a status update.

Can I use Autexec for several process flow inside one project?

Yes, it will affect all process flows inside the same project.

If possible, please go over when to use project versus just a SAS program?

A SAS program is used when you want to submit your own code or program. A project holds multiple programs, tasks, queries, results.

Can you link stored processes together to run in a project?

Yes you can – use an ordered list to specify the order.

Can you go over scheduling EG projects?

See the documentation for this feature.

How do you recover EG projects?

Tools -> Options -> Auto Recovery

Can you change the default library for Query output?

Yes, you can. Tasks > Output library > move libraries up and down to set the precedence order as needed.

Can you use prompts with program nodes or only the query builder?

Yes. Right click on program node and click properties to associate new prompts with a program.

Can shortcut keys in SAS be changed? Specifically, the Ctrl-Shift-B that removes comments from lines of code. Another software installed overrides the SAS shortcuts, so it no longer works as desired.

Yes, they can be changed in v8.2. Go to SAS help and search for keyboard shortcuts. F1 opens help.

There is a shortcut for collapsing, expanding code blocks, but if your laptop doesn't have a number pad (w/ plus/minus signs) is there an alternative shortcut to accomplish this?

There is a “+” or “-“ at the left side of the code block that you can click to expand or collapse.

When executing a block of code that contains a combination of data steps, proc sql statements, etc. how does EG decide which output dataset will be displayed? Generally speaking, it seems to be the last output dataset that was created chronologically, but sometimes that is not the case. When this occurs, it can be very confusing and misleading to the developer.

It may depend on how many datasets are being produced – you may have hit the limit on the number of datasets to show, or if there is code that doesn’t produce a new dataset then it won’t create one (i.e. proc sort with no out= option). But generally, it should show the last dataset created. You can also tweak settings in tools->Options->Data->Performance.

How to make stored process in EG?

You can right click in the process flow, or File->New->stored process. You must be connected to a SAS metadata environment and have permissions to create a stored process.

In Query Builder, Filter “In a list”, it will only allow one value at a time. Any future plans to make this where multiple items can be pasted which would make it much, much faster to enter a large list of values?

The user interface allows adding/editing just one list item at a time. If you have a large list of values, you might want to use the Advanced Expression editor or copy the query to a program node and maintain it that way. Or consider using a Join instead to include records that match a value from another table.

Did you say there's a shortcut option for version 7?

There are shortcut keys in version 7. You can find them listed in the Enterprise Guide Help. In v8.2 you can customize many of the shortcut keys.

So in v7 you can have your setup be like PC SAS v 6?

You can make it look similar to Base SAS by using split/stack windows in Enterprise Guide 7. It won't be exactly like PC SAS, but you can get close. v8.2 has many more options for workspace layout.

Was the auto replace results option in tools?

Yes, tools -> options -> Results

How do you split the screen into dual views?

From the program menu you can do View -> Workspace Layout, and select from a few options. v8.2 has many more options for layout.

How can I see code from another program when I am running an existing program?

You can split the screen (View menu).

How can I set the blanks by formatting automatically? You showed four, but we have three.

Tools > Options > SAS Programs > Editor >Enhanced editor options. Enables you to customize.

Will it also format SQL code in the editor?

Yes

Is there a way to customize the "format program" feature in program editor? (or is it just standardized formatting)?

You can go to tools->options->SAS programs->Editor Options then the “Indenter” tab. You can adjust many of the settings, but maybe not all of the behaviors you might want to control.

Is there a feature that we can run the program and the output or other results does not clutter the process flow space?

Tools à Options à Project Views lets you customize the process flow view

Where is the best place to learn details about all of the Tools that are available for Options in version 7?

Check out the Enterprise Guide Help from the Help menu.

In tip 13, shouldn't the &i part be outside the quotes?

No because it’s a macro variable. SAS will replace the text via the macro processor.

Can we sort by more than two variables?

Yes you can. However, the more variables that you select, the more resources that SAS needs to complete the sort.

How do you reuse the conditions written in the WHERE filter?

You can copy the where clause code that is generated by the query. You can also save the Query as a template and use in other projects or as subqueries in other Query Builder nodes.

Can we change the format name for a variable in dataset properties tab in EG v7?

Yes

Can we easily migrate an EGP 7 into EGP 8? So we can use extraction of code soon?

Yes, you can open any v7 projects in v8 and run them. Once you save them in v8, you cannot open them again in v7.

Does autoexec flow work for unix SAS?

Yes

Would you say that SAS Enterprise Guide can be used as a data prep tool for data visualization elsewhere?

Yes, in fact it is an excellent tool for data prep! I use it to get my data ready to consume in SAS Visual Analytics.

You mentioned favorites a bit, but how do you use favorites in the menu bar and what else can you save as a favorite item?

From the help:

tasks
SAS data sets
reports
stored processes
information maps
OLAP cubes
programs
external files such as text files, Microsoft Word documents, or any file that can be opened or imported into SAS Enterprise Guide

Except for the built-in tasks, these items must exist on a local or remote server before you can add them to your favorites. You can edit your list of favorites and rename, delete, and rearrange items in the list.

I currently use SAS 9.34 at my job. Will it be easier to work with SAS EG? Or does it matter?

SAS Enterprise Guide is a client interface that will connect to SAS 9.3 on the back end. It’s a matter of which interface you prefer, display manager or SAS Enterprise Guide.

How do you declutter the log file?

Tools->Options->Results General deselect “show generated wrapper code”

What versions of SAS EG has the de-clutter option for the log?

Both versions 7 and 8

Sometimes I find that the autofill in a SET statement selects odd options. Can you explain how this works?

You can change the sensitivity of the autofill at tools->options->SAS programs->Editor Options then the “autocomplete” tab

Can you change the order in which programs run when you run a process flow?

Yes, you can use File -> New -> Ordered List to determine the order that things run. You can also define custom links that help you to control the sequence of tasks/programs in a flow.

Is there a way to display all the variables in a data set 1 record at a time? i.e. all values displayed on one page per record (instead of the standard data set view in a tabular format)

You're looking for the classic FSVIEW function? No, this is not built into SAS Enterprise Guide.

When you highlight a variable, it highlights all other variables with the same name. Are you able to change all at once?

Yes, you can use the Replace All feature in the editor.

In EG 8 can you drag and drop macros from macro viewer like you can datasets?

No, but you can copy and paste, and the %LET statements will be copied.

Is it possible to display the variable label instead of variable names?

Yes, Tools->options->Data: General

Any way to change the font color in code?

Tools->options->SAS programs->Editor Options then “appearance”

How do you run SAS in batch mode in EG?

You can schedule the project to automate from your PC where EG is installed. Or use the automation scripting feature.

How do you run SAS programs simultaneously?

You can’t in version 7, but you can in version 8

I'm new to EG. When you open a dataset, is there a way to right click so that you can select particular values of a variable, like in SAS 9.3/9.4? Trying to filter data in EG seems to be much more cumbersome and time-consuming in EG than in 9.3/9.4.

There is a “where” filter that you can use that is an option in the data grid.

Playing around in EG8, I noticed I could change the background color of the code window to a dark color (easier on the eyes). Is that available in EG7?

Tools->options->SAS programs->Editor Options then “appearance”. Check out this YouTube tip that shows you how.

Why can’t the graph result be seen in Enterprise Guide?

Make sure you have the graph format type set to something compatible with your system. If using code, your graphics file path might be set to a location that SAS Enterprise Guide cannot reach. Check the gpath= and path= options on your ODS statements. You may need to call SAS Technical Support if you are getting errors.

Is there a way to store log externally as text to a personal folder separately for each program, without appending the earlier log?

Not directly from EG. You can use PROC PRINTTO to redirect log content, but then you would need to access/download each of those files.

In EG 7, is there a way to force the task query wizard to display on your primary monitor as opposed to a secondary monitor?

It should "remember" the last position in between sessions. If it gets positioned off-screen, use these key combinations to activate/move it: Alt+SPACE, M, then arrow keys to move the window back into view.

What is the difference between SAS EG and SAS Studio?

So many. Both are SAS programming clients that are designed for you to manage your SAS work productively. EG is an installed Windows app, while SAS Studio runs in your browser. Each contains features you'll find in the other, and over time you'll see more features in SAS Studio.

Can you go over task templates and using that to create a query builder with preselected fields and filters?

Check this blog post that shows how to use a query template to build nested subqueries.

Is there an option in EG 8 to not show a message when data is unlocked?

I don't think so. Wouldn't you rather know? You can control the behavior of when to release the lock on data you open.

I‘m wondering if you will be talking about the use of git in sas? I would be interested to see a quick and basic clone, change, push demonstration if possible.

Check out this blog post. We also have some webinars on this topic.

When I'm using 2 monitors (laptop and external) and later switch to just laptop, the CONTROL F window stays on the last monitor it was on, which could be the external. Is there a fix?

Ideally this shouldn't happen. But if a window does get positioned off-screen, use these key combinations to activate/move it: Alt+SPACE, M, then arrow keys to move the window back into view.

Can you change the view size of the Output Data?

You can "zoom" in and out on data, code, and other content.

In EG 7, how do you send email only when there is error in project log?

Use Email as a Step to send a log, and add a Condition on the node. You can add a Condition based on a macro variable, including SYSERR.

When the project log is full and opens in a note pad. How do I clear this log?

Right-click on the Project node, select Properties. In the Project Log tab you'll find settings for clearing the project log.

What are the errors I will receive when the server is down? Just running too slow to complete my query?

SAS Enterprise Guide detects when the SAS session is no longer available or disconnected. Unfortunately, there isn't much more information available to display. If this happens often, work with your SAS systems administrator to understand the cause. Server-side logging might reveal more information.

How do you turn off all the keyboard shortcuts?

You cannot turn them off. You can customize the shortcuts in SAS Enterprise Guide 8.2. Tools->Manage keyboard shortcuts.

SAS studio has a "background submit" which I think is like a batch submit. Does EG have a batch submit, where you can submit an entire program and have it execute in a clean SAS session?

No, and I do not believe this feature is planned at this time.

Can I disable/gray out options in EG for my Users?

Yes, you can control different capabilities by role using SAS metadata. See the doc for details.

Is there a way to enable a "Dark Mode" on the SAS program background?

Yes - here's a video that shows you how.

I like v8, but the graphical style is not as good as v7, is there any option to run v8 with the v7 - much clearer and more readable graphical style?

Some default settings are different in Version 8. It uses ODS HTML5 instead of just HTML, and also SVG (scalable vector graphics) instead of PNG. Also, ActiveX is no longer the default for traditional chart/plot tasks -- it's JPG or PNG. You can adjust all of these settings in Tools->Options; Results.

Recommended Resources

This paper from SAS Global Forum 2020
SAS Enterprise Guide Support
SAS Enterprise Guide Tutorial
SAS Enterprise Guide Overview (YouTube)
I suggest looking into the other Ask the Expert sessions on Enterprise Guide^® for additional information.

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q&A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars.

On Demand Webinar: Using SAS APIs

joeFurbee — Thu, 14 May 2020 13:01:51 GMT

SAS has APIs to help integrate open source technologies and languages to perform analytics and create applications. In this webinar you will learn how to interact with SAS Viya and CAS REST APIs to create and access SAS resources using any client technology.

A Tour of SAS Viya Programming and Application Interfaces: A Forest Modeling Example

AnnaBrown — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 21:31:13 GMT

In case you missed it, posted information about the Ask the Expert webinar, A Tour of SAS Viya Programming and Application Interfaces: A Forest Modeling Example on the SAS Viya Community. I'm posting it here as well for those of you who subscribe to this channel for all Ask the Expert sessions. If this topic interests you, be sure to watch the on-demand webinar itself.

Check out David's post for the presentation material, related data, code used in the programming examples, and Q/A from the session.

Best Practices for Data Scientists and Analysts: Communicating Your Results

JThompson — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 20:05:46 GMT

Did you miss the webinar on Best Practices for Data Scientists and Analysts: Communicating Your Results? Not to worry, you can view it on-demand at anytime.

This webinar introduces some of the best practices to consider when presenting your analytics findings to colleagues and decision makers.

Learn how to:

Identify your audience.
Create effective messages.
Demonstrate the value of your findings.

Here is the communication workflow that is covered in the webinar:

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session.

What do you do with a mixed audience?
Try your best to please everyone. Some of your communication will have to be detailed and technical to satisfy those audience members, but also provide high-level, easy to consume communication to satisfy the nontechnical audience members. Always communicate what you are doing to your audience. If you providing a technical, in-depth answer that some audience members may not be able to follow, tell your audience that you have to get technical to answer the question, but it is OK if not everyone understands the details.
Do you anticipate possible questions regarding the analysis and results and prepare some slides just in case? Any tips to be prepared for questions?
Yes. Always have the technical details available "just in case". Even if not prepared on a slide, be ready to provide technical answers about the analysis and results.
What are the next steps to continue learning on this topic?Practice. Get out there and practice communication. Practice for colleagues, family members, your boss, or just by standing in front of a mirror.
How do you end your presentation strongly, leaving the audience craving for more? Summarize what you have discussed and be sure to make it relevant for your audience. Tailor your communication for your specific audience so they see the relevance of the topic to their work. Pose a rhetorical question so that they are thinking about the topic even after the presentation is over

Introduction to Hierarchical Linear Models

sasmlp — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 19:53:01 GMT

Leveraging SAS® Viya® to Improve SAS® Processes

brian_kinnebrew_sas — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:43:05 GMT

This article was co-authored by Brian Kinnebrew and Steven Sober.

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session Best Practices in Migrating SAS Code to Leverage CAS? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure. A pdf of the presentation slides is attached.

The SAS Platform is greatly enhanced by SAS Viya. In this session, Steven Sober and Brian Kinnebrew share their experiences in leveraging SAS Viya to improve SAS processes. They explore technical insights and implementation details to CAS-enable your code, thus achieving faster results. These techniques are illustrated by real-life case studies.

In this session, you’ll learn the answers to questions such as:

If a process cannot run in CAS, where does it run?
What coding components are most frequently encountered in code reviews with customers?

Figure 1 Agenda of the Webinar Best Practices for Migrating SAS Code to leverage CAS

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference.

What does CAS stand for?
CAS stands for SAS Cloud Analytic Services. It's the In-memory processing engine in SAS Viya.
In general, if the base procedure is threaded in Base SAS, will it thread in CAS? Like Proc Sort, for example?

Yes, CAS is multi-threaded by default.

How can you tell if SPRE or CAS is running?

In the SAS log, there is a note that tells you if the procedure or DATA Step ran in CAS. If you write CASL code, that code will only run in CAS.

Is there a PROPCASE function in CAS?

This function is not supported in a DATA Step that runs in CAS.
https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.4&docsetId=lefunctionsref&docsetTarget=n169kj2of5nur0n1bl1hubv55q63.htm&locale=en

Does a LIBNAME statement run in SPRE, and a CASLIB will run in CAS?

All data sources that are access by a LIBNAME will be processed in SPRE. All data sources that are accessed via a CASLIB will run in CAS provided.

a. The step is a CAS enabled procedure or all statements in the DATA Step are CAS enabled.

b. All source and target tables to the step reside in CAS.

Recommended Resources

Course: Free SAS Viya Enablement
Course: SAS Viya Learning Path

Reading material:

Parallel Programming with the DATA Step: Next Steps (2018) required reading
How to achieve repeatable results with distributed DATA Step BY Groups (2018) required reading
Six reasons you should stop using the RANUNI function to generate random numbers (2013) required reading
The following Base SAS procedures are CAS Enabled (2018)
SAS ^®SAS Viya ^™3: FedSQL Programming for SAS ^® Cloud Analytic Services (2018)
FedSQL Implicit Pass-Through Facility in CAS (2018)
What’s New in SAS® Data Connectors for SAS® SAS Viya® (2018)
How to Emulate DESCENDING BY Variables in DATA Step Code that Runs Distributed in SAS® SAS Viya™ (2018)
DATA Step in SAS® SAS Viya™: Essential New Features (2017)
How to Emulate PROC APPEND in CAS (2017)
Getting your SAS 9 code to run multi-threaded in SAS Viya 3.3 (2017)

Trial: Get an early preview of SAS® Visual Analytics on SAS® Viya™

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Ask the Expert webinars. To subscribe, select Subscribe from the Options drop down button above the articles.

Gaining Efficiencies in SAS Enterprise Guide

megak8 — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:12:45 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on Gaining Efficiencies in SAS Enterprise Guide? Not to worry, you can view it on-demand.

Watch the webinar

Its goals are:

Understand recommended ways to organize your work in Enterprise Guide
Learn tips for improving Enterprise Guide performance

It discusses and demonstrates

Factors to consider when designing SAS Enterprise Guide projects.
Ordering and arranging your work.
Techniques for reducing data volumes and minimizing I/O.
Client/server performance considerations.

Reviewing and revising your Tools -> Options settings can help you gain efficiencies in Enterprise Guide

Here are some questions and answers that were submitted during this webinar:

In the project tree, I only see process flows. How I can see the other notes?

Notes can be free-floating or attached to a node. You can create them from the "New" menu or right mouse click in the white space of a diagram.

Does autoexec process flow pertain to the project or just the user's individual Enterprise Guide preferences?

The autoexec process flow is project-specific - only one process flow per project can be named autoexec (or AUTOEXEC or AutoExec - casing does not matter.)

Can you access a program residing in one process flow, and utilize that program in another process flow?

Yes, you can copy and paste it.

Are these options for this specific project or all projects?

Tools -> Options specifications apply to all projects opened in that installation of Enterprise Guide.

How to create several process flows in one Enterprise Guide session?

Use the "New" menu pull-down to create new process flows,

What’s New in SAS® Enterprise Guide® 8.1

AmyP_sas — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 18:50:14 GMT

Did you miss our live webinar “What’s New in SAS® Enterprise Guide® 8.1”? No problem! You can watch the recording right now.

Watch the webinar

Take a tour of the new (released June 2019) SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1. The redefined SAS Enterprise Guide 8 is attractive, flexible, and smart. SAS Enterprise Guide 8 sports a modern interface, tab-based organization of content, and flexible window management such as floating, docking, and leveraging multiple monitors. Want to view your code, log, and results at the same time? SAS Enterprise Guide 8 has you covered. Want to view four data sets at the same time? Sure, no problem. Want to just code, without a project? You got it.

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A during the session.

How do I get SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1? Do I have to update SAS? Is there an extra charge for the new release? Does it require a new license?

Since this is a major update, that is, going to a new version rather than a hot fix or minor release, you will not be able to use the update functionality within SAS Enterprise Guide to get SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1. A new version must be requested from your administrator. Your administrator should just place a new order and install latest version via the SAS Deployment Wizard or the standalone installer. SAS does not need to be updated as SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 works with older SAS releases just fine. There’s no extra charge or new license required for the new version if you already have SAS Enterprise Guide licensed.

Can I have SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 and an older version of SAS Enterprise Guide on the same machine?

Yes, you can have multiple versions of SAS Enterprise Guide. The only thing to watch out for is once a project has been saved in SAS Enterprise Guide 8.x, it is no longer backwards compatible with 7.1x versions of SAS Enterprise Guide. For this reason, if you share SAS Enterprise Guide projects, we recommend coordinating upgrading with your colleagues, so you use the same SAS Enterprise Guide version.

Is running one program at a time still a limitation of new version?

Each program is run in the order they are submitted, but they will be queued as shown in the Submission Status window. But while a program is running, you can view and edit the programs. The submit will be disabled while they are running or queued. SAS Enterprise Guide also supports parallel execution.

How are custom tasks handled?

Custom tasks work the same way as they did in previous versions of SAS Enterprise Guide.

Is there any functionality we will be losing?

SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 has parity with SAS Enterprise Guide 7 - things are moved around in some cases but the functionality is the same.

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert Community Library to receive follow up Q/A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars. From the Ask the Expert Library, just click Subscribe from the orange bar underneath the list of the recent articles.

Ask the Expert: Getting Started with AI-Embedded IoT Analytics

janehowell — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 18:24:24 GMT

Learn how to use AI-embedded IoT analytics to quickly drive desired outcomes for the business - no coding required. Leverage all of your IoT solutions (SAS, Open Source and Third Party) to optimize your investment in IoT. Watch this on demand video today.

SAS® Studio or SAS® Enterprise Guide®: What's the Best SAS® Programming Interface for Me?

AmyP_sas — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 18:59:29 GMT

Did you miss our live webinar "SAS® Studio or SAS® Enterprise Guide®: What's the Best SAS® Programming Interface for Me"? No problem! You can watch the recording right now.

Watch the webinar

For some, loyalty to an interface can run as deep as loyalty to a football team – and it’s no different for many SAS users. An effort to remove barriers between interfaces and the differences between them is underway, enabling you to choose what you use. Are you on a desktop? A mobile device? In a conference room? This webinar talks you through this integrated future and helps you understand what the strengths and weaknesses are of programming interfaces today.

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A during the session. I’ve attached the slides, as well.

Do we need new computers, more sophisticated hardware, computer memory and more space for SAS Studio compared to SAS Display Manager / SAS Enterprise Guide?

No. SAS Studio is a web application, thus zero-footprint on client machines (end-users simply access via a URL). SAS Enterprise Guide is installed on the Windows client machine, which provides a more native experience, but it is still a thin client. Both SAS Studio and SAS Enterprise Guide are light-weight clients that leverage backend SAS servers for the heavy lifting.

Can GIT be integrated with our own Enterprise GIT?

Yes, you can work with any existing Enterprise Git repositories from both SAS Studio and SAS Enterprise Guide.

In SAS Studio, when you open a program and are shown the list of file names to choose from, they are listed in alphabetical order. In SAS Display Manager, you can sort the list by date, size, etc. which makes it convenient find the latest program that you have been working on. Is there any way currently to do so or is that in the works for a future edition?
Yes, that is a commonly asked question and is high on the future roadmap.

Can you clarify whether SAS Studio is available with SAS 9.4?

Yes, SAS Studio is available with SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya. SAS Studio 3.8 is the latest version of SAS Studio on SAS 9.4. SAS Studio 5.1 and 4.4 are the latest versions of SAS Studio on Viya.

In SAS Studio, the inability to edit data sets in a ViewTable equivalent is a large drawback at our site. Any plans for addressing that or is it unaddressable given the HTML5 interface?
That is a tough one to answer as it’s quite challenging in a browser. It is something we are looking at.

Can one type code in SAS Enterprise Guide?

Absolutely. SAS Enterprise Guide has a robust program editor with syntax highlighting, suggestion, autocompletion, and integrated syntax help. Many SAS programmers use SAS Enterprise Guide as their SAS programming IDE.

In SAS Display Manager, when you submit an ODS PDF or ODS EXCEL sandwich, the PDF or EXCEL file automatically display when the program finishes. This isn’t the case in SAS Studio. Is there any way to enable that functionality?
Sorry, SAS Studio does not currently automatically display results generated by hand-written ODS statements. We are planning on adding this in a future release.

If I currently have SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1 installed, can I download 8.1?

This article has a good explanation of how you get 8. Both 7.1x and 8.1 can coexist on the same machine.

My problem with SAS studio is that you cannot view the whole data set, whereas SAS Enterprise Guide you can (but it takes longer to load). Am I missing a functionality in this?

As a web application, SAS Studio has to make http requests for the data, rather than having a persistent direct connection to the data the way SAS Enterprise Guide does. Therefore, (for performance reasons) SAS Studio "pages" the data by retrieving a certain number of observations at a time. As you noted, it does result in a different user experience.

A Global Forum paper on SAS Studio was mentioned that included references to blogs. Can you provide a link or the name of that paper?

The paper is SAS Studio or SAS Enterprise Guide: What's the Best SAS Programming Interface for Me?. Many of the same links are in the notes of the webinar slides, too.

How do you change in themes/backgrounds in SAS Enterprise Guide?

In SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 you can change themes by going to Tools > Options > General and from the Visual Experience section you can change the theme. Then you can change the theme for the code editor separately. Go To Program > Editor Options and on the Appearance tab you can play with all sorts of colors on different syntax elements.

Now that SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 is released, when my site renews its SAS, will we get SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 as part of the 2020 release or will that require a new license?

SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1 does not require a new license. Whenever you get a new order and download the latest depot, it will include the latest SAS Enterprise Guide version (8.1), assuming SAS Enterprise Guide is part of your order.

NOTE: For best results when opening the attached slides, click on the “download” icon.

SAS Viya Architecture, Data Access, Movement, and Processing - Ask the Expert talk on demand

DavidGhan — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 20:31:03 GMT

Did you miss the live presentation of the Ask the Expert session on SAS® Viya® Architecture and Data Access, Movement, and Processing: A SAS Programmer's Overview. No problem. You can still click here to access and view the on demand recording. A PDF document for the presentation and the demonstration script is also available for download. In this post I am attaching the demo code used and a Q&A for questions received but not answered in the recording.

Here is a Q and A for some outstanding questions that were not provided during the live session:

Q: Does SAS Web Report Studio integrate with SAS Viya.

A: It does not. However, SAS Visual Analytics provides the equivalent functionality in the SAS Viya environment.

Q: Could you give some examples of what programmers cannot accomplish on SAS Grid but on SAS Viya? Do they share the similar architecture?

A: SAS Grid allows you to distribute SAS jobs in an automated way to any number of available SAS servers that are available. This allows you to effectively use any available SAS Server resources to execute SAS programs as soon as a server is available. However, each SAS job executes only on the single SAS server machine that the job is sent to. In SAS Viya, on the other hand, every single process executes in parallel across multiple machine simultaneously where the data itself is distributed across all those machines and the process executes in parallel across all those machines. This allows you to execute each individual process rapidly on large volumes of data.

Using SAS with Git: Bring a DevOps Mindset to Your SAS Code

ChrisHemedinger — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 19:46:10 GMT

Few technologies have done more to advance code collaboration and automation than Git. And GitHub’s explosive growth has drawn the interest of all types of programmers, including SAS programmers.

SAS Viya: Working with APIs

tylerfreckmann — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 15:03:20 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on SAS® Viya™: Working with APIs? No problem! This is a recap of the webinar. This webinar was for both experienced and novice SAS® users who want to learn how and when to use APIs to run machine learning models in SAS® Viya™.

Introduction to Survival Data Mining

sasmlp — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 19:52:56 GMT

Do you want to learn about survival data mining?

This webinar (see attached slides as well) will discuss topics such as building models for time-dependent outcomes derived from customer event histories, accounting for competing risks and incorporating time-dependent covariates.

Demonstrated in SAS/STAT^® 14.3, you’ll see how to fit a multinomial logistic regression model with splines for right-censored data and how to produce graphics that illustrate results of a model.

SAS Optimization on SAS Viya: Getting Started

PatriciaNeri — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 18:44:12 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on Getting Started on SAS Optimization? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure

Watch the webinar

Every time we use our GPS system, receive items purchased online or find in stock food, medicine and clothing, we benefit from optimization algorithms. Optimization solves real-world problems in many areas: medicine, manufacturing, transportation, supply chain, finance, government, physics, economics, artificial intelligence and more.

This session provides several examples on how Optimization is used to solve real-world problems, and briefly reviews important Optimization concepts.

You will learn how to use SAS Optimization on Viya to build these models:

Linear Programming
Mixed Integer Linear Programming
Nonlinear Models
Network optimization (brief example)

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference. I’ve attached the slides as well.

Do you know if these Optimization algorithms are industry standard? What other technology can compete with SAS Optimization?

Optimization algorithms are well known I would say that all vendors use similar algorithms to the ones we use. However, we do have some elements, like the automated Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition algorithm, that other vendors don’t have.

I noticed that in your code examples that you use data lines for your input data – can you also use data stored in traditional Relational Database Management System?

Yes, you can read/write between SAS data sets and virtually any other broadly accepted data format, or you can use a SAS/ACCESS engine and keep the data in its native format and SAS will see it as a SAS data set.

Is there any advantage to running the procedures in SAS versus an open source with CAS actions?

No, the beauty of the Viya platform and the CAS analytic engine is that the CAS enabled procedures map down to the action calls. So, no matter which programming language you use to call the CAS actions you will be executing the same algorithms.

Are there better problems suited for constraint programming than for any other optimization technique?

Constraint Programming is a powerful technique that is used to solve powerful “real-world” problems in a variety of areas, such as, planning, Sports scheduling, DNA Sequencing, computer graphics and natural language processing.

Some types of constraints can be better implemented with constraint programming than with MILP. Still, frequently for complex programs like sports scheduling a hybrid approach is used, that is, an approach that uses Integer Programming, Constraint Programming and Heuristic procedures.

Is it possible to use a SAS Stored Process to call an Optimization technique from a non-SAS interface such as Excel? Or even calling an Optimization technique from Visual Analytics (VA)?

At this time, it is not possible to call Optimization techniques from VA. However, from SAS Studio 5 one can use Tasks to solve several Network Optimization problems.

In Viya, jobs replace stored processes that ran in 9.4. But that not all functionality is there yet.

I cannot have a job in Viya with the SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office and call it from Excel.

What would you say are the prerequisites to utilize SAS Optimization? How can I learn more about Mathematical Optimization?

At least a graduate level course in Mathematical Optimization that covers LPs, MILPs, etc.

See the references listed below

Where can I find reference materials?

1) Several related optimization blogs, for example:

2) Videos from the INFORMS Wagner Prize competition https://www.informs.org/Resource-Center/Video-Library/Wagner-Competition-Videos , for example:

Calibrated Route Finder: Improving the Safety, Environmental Consciousness, and Cost Effectiveness of Truck Routing in Sweden (2016 Wagner Winner – video presentation)
SAS OR Center of Excellence’s finalist entry to the 2014 Wagner Prize “Statistical & Optimization Techniques for Laundry Portfolio Optimization at P&G (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6J8L-Y5iL8

3) Videos from the INFORMS Edelman Prize competition https://www.informs.org/Resource-Center/Video-Library/Edelman-Competition-Videos

4) Global Forum Papers, for example:

Using the OPTMODEL Procedure in SAS/OR® to Solve Complex Problems by Rob Pratt (Paper SAS1502-2015)

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q/A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars. To subscribe, select Subscribe from the Options drop down button above the articles.

You can view this and other Ask the Experts sessions on-demand here.

SAS Visual Forecasting on SAS Viya: Getting Started

TWinand — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 15:21:17 GMT

This webinar provides an introduction to SAS Visual Forecasting (SVF) on the SAS Viya platform. It answers the question, "what is SAS Visual Forecasting?". It introduces the viewer to the foundational concepts behind SVF. It overviews the visual, programmatic, and open source interfaces to SVF. And through presentation and demonstration, shows how a user can prepare the time series data, define variable roles, build and compare models/pipelines, and apply overrides through the integrated visual interface.

Watch the webinar

Recommended Resources

SAS Training: Advanced Analytics: Forecasting and Econometrics Courses

Try the software: Free Trial

SAS Viya Enablement: free eLearning course

Live Webinar Q&A:

Q1: how does this compare with the capabilities of SAS Forecast Server
A1: it is very comparable in terms of automated forecasting capabilities – automatically developing and choosing models based upon selection criteria using ESM and ARIMA algorithms. It provides new ML based modeling algorithms. It provides integrated data prep and visualization that in FS had to be accomplished through multiple products/interfaces. It provides integrated model management if licensed through Model Manager. It provides easy access to code for tuning and creating new templates. But it doesn’t yet have all “bells and whistles” of FS like scenario analysis.

Q2: Do I have to use the visual interface, can I just write code
A2: Of course. That is a key feature of all Viya products. The interface, obviously, has advantages for some to speed the development process (by generating the code underneath) and to provide visual perspective to enhance insight and understanding, but it is just a code generator calling underlying procedures like TSMODEL which you can call directly through code in SAS Studio. You can also see that you can easily access the code that the interface generates and modify and save it – like in the example of the intermittent denad model.

Q3: Can I use these models/algorithms from Python?
A3: Yes. Viya provides APIs that enable you to call these capabilities in SAS VF. The Python programmer can code in Python, include packages to enable him/her to call CAS actions which underlie the SAS VF functionality to prepare data, and run VF algorthims returning the results to Python for further processing. Same is true with R, Java, other.

The New Languages of SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya: A SAS Programmer's Primer

AmyP_sas — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 14:41:18 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on The New Languages of SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya: A SAS Programmer's Primer? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya: A Perfect Pair

ambuff — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:26:01 GMT

This article shows the implications of SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya complementing each other to provide a highly available and scalable environment. What does this mean for you and your organization?

You'll learn about:

Workload management, the lifeblood of SAS Grid Manager.
The many ways SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya complement each other.
SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya use cases.

SAS Enterprise Guide: Scheduling Projects

fifthand57th — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:06:21 GMT

This webinar walked the SAS Enterprise Guide user through scheduling SAS Enterprise Guide projects using Windows Task Scheduler. During the session discussion included the prerequisites for scheduling, caching metadata credentials, and step-by-step troubleshooting.

SAS Enterprise Guide: Tips, Tricks and Considerations for Programmers

TWinand — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 02:41:30 GMT

This webinar provided the SAS programmer, either new or experienced, with useful tips and tricks for programming effectively in SAS Enterprise Guide. The webinar especially focuses on the experienced SAS programmer who is migrating from Display Manager (aka "PC SAS") to Enterprise Guide

Did you miss the live Ask the Expert session on SAS Enterprise Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Considerations for Programmers? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

Topics in this webinar include:

Overview Considerations – Gains & Losses
A Different Paradigm – Projects, Process Flows & Programs
The Basics
- Error Handling
- SAS Libraries
- Auto Complete & Syntax Help
- Enhanced Editor Options
- Window Navigation
SAS Logging
- The Project Log
- Changing Default Behaviors
Taking Advantage of a Paradigm Shift (part 1)
- Parsing Up the Mega-Program
- Creating An Ordered List
- Linking
Taking Advantage of a Paradigm Shift (part 2)
- Using a Task to Write Code
- Using Code to Expand a Task
- Using Tasks to Inspect Your Data
Other Tips & Tricks
- Exporting, Scheduling, & Sharing
- Formatting Code
- Using the Data Step Debugger & Other Development Tools
Common User Feedback

There were no questions during the live webinar, but the attached PDF has several user questions with responses.

Recommended Resources
Course: SAS Enterprise Guide for Experienced Programmers

SAS ACCESS: Universal SAS Methods to Access Just About Any Data, Anywhere

DavidGhan — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:39:39 GMT

I often speak about SAS ACCESS to customers. One particular presentation, called SAS ACCESS: Universal SAS Methods to Access Just About Any Data, Anywhere, covered two universal SAS programming methods for reading and writing to/from many types of database tables: SQL pass-through and the SAS ACCESS LIBNAME method. To emphasize the commonality of this across database systems, I demonstrated these methods for several diverse data source and focused on the consistency of the SAS syntax that makes it easy for SAS users to apply these methods to any required database. General performance considerations and efficiency techniques were discussed.

Below I am including the Q&A for the presentation. Following the Q&A you will find attached slides and demonstration code that you can download as well.

Question: What is the maximum number of lines that the database can return to SAS?

Answer: That will be determined by your hardware and operating system.

Q: I run SAS in a UNIX environment and want to read an .xlsx file from my local PC (example c:\temp). I wrote the libname statement but get an error saying I need to include the SERVER= option?

A: Because SAS resides on UNIX and the Excel workbook resides on Windows, you must use the SAS PC Files Server to connect. You must also use the SERVER= option to specify the name of the Windows machine where the .xlsx file is stored. You can use the IP address or the machine name.:

libname unxls pcfiles path="c:\temp\lwacc\mixed.xlsx"
server="L7621.na.sas.com"
port=9621;

* The default port is 9621, so the PORT= option is necessary only when you use a different port number.

Q: Can you run and return an Oracle Explain plan using execute ( )?

A: Yes, you can use the SQL Pass-Through Facility and the EXECUTE statement to use native Oracle non-SELECT SQL statements such as the EXPLAIN PLAN statement:

proc sql;
connect to oracle (path=localhost user=student pw=Metadata0);
    execute (explain plan for
             select last_name from employees)
    by oracle;
disconnect from oracle;
quit;

Q: Can you use SAS Access to connect to data in Amazon S3?

A: Amazon S3 is a service for storing and retrieving data. You can use SAS Access to Amazon Red Shift to query S3 data. Amazon Red Shift provides the application layer, including an SQL language that SAS can communicate with to access the S3 data.

Q: How can I tell what SAS Access licenses I have?

A: You can execute a PROC SETINIT with the NOALIAS option to find out what is licensed. To determine which of the available licensed SAS components you have installed you should also run PROC PRODUCT_STATUS. The results will show in the SAS log.

Q: Is SQL Pass-through or the LIBNAME method most efficient for moving data from the database to SAS?

A: Both methods use the same connection and communication protocol. So for moving the equivalent amount of data both are equal in performance. It may take the LIBNAME a little longer initially to determine how to generate the native SQL code but this amount of time becomes negligible when compared to the time it takes to move a significant amount of data from the database back to SAS.

Q: Is there a way to avoid using database passwords in the code? This is a security risk we need to avoid.

A: There are various ways to do this, depending on your setup. This can involve storing the library connection information in the SAS metadata repository. This connection information is available to the SAS server in a secure way without it being visible to the SAS user. Another way to set this is up can be to design the application to prompt the user to type the userid and/or password in a prompt window. This works for interactive applications only. Other methods can also be employed.

Q: When I query Hive tables from Hadoop and create SAS datasets the datasets the file size is really large even for small amounts of data and the character variables are larger than they need to be. Is this preventable?

A: This is a know issue when returning STRING variables from Hive back to SAS. The STRING data type in Hive has no length information and SAS defaults to creating character variables with a length of 32767 bytes in the resulting SAS Dataset. There are several ways to prevent this. Either by converting the Hive variables to a CHAR or a VARCHAR type, or by using SAS functions to reduce the length of the CHARACTER variable. I can add links to the Q and A log that I post for this talk sometime early next week.

Q: What data types does SAS support with SAS/ACCESS?

A: SAS generally supports all the basic data types, and not the more complex ones. This is documented for each database in the SAS Access documentation and varies somewhat by database. But everything is converted by the ACCESS engine to the only two data types SAS supports (character and numeric). Database dates are converted to the numeric SAS date value and automatically assigned a default date format. Complex data types are not supported for the most part, but in some case may simply be converted to character values and treated as a literal character string.

Q: If you copy an indexed SAS dataset to a database, is there a way to re-create the index in the database table?

A: It does not happen automatically as part of the copy process has been my general experience and as far as I know this is generally true. What you can do though, is add some SQL pass-through to submit database code to add an index to the tables after you create them.

Q: How do I name columns from an excel spreadsheet in my SAS code. I've had trouble working with columns that have spaces in their name.

A: For the LIBNAME access method this depends depends on the system option called validvarname. If using value of V7, the access engine will put underscore characters in place of invalid characters such as spaces, so 'My Var' becomes My_Var. If validvarname is set to ANY then the oroginal name with spaces and other invalid characters are retained and instead you need to quote the varialbe name, as it is, and add the letter n after the quoted name (so 'My Var'n).

Q: What is the quickest best way to do a lookup for data from a small SAS dataset. I need to find the matching rows in a large database table and return some values for those rows in the database.

A: There are several ways to approach this. One is to simply copy the small dataset into the database if you have write access to the database, and perform an inner join in the database. Then you can return the result back to SAS. There is also an option you can add on the SAS ACCESS LIBNAME statement (multi_data_src=inclause). If you then do an inner join of the sas dataset with a database table that option causes SAS to first find the unique values for the key value in the SAS dataset and then generate a query to ONLY bring back the matching rows from the database (see documentation here). Even better, if the database is indexed for the key value for the lookup, then you can use a LIBNAME or dataset option in the join (dbindex=yes) which instructs the Access engine to use the index to retrieve each needed row from the database. Click here for documentation on dbindex.

Q: Which SAS procedures are converted into native database SQL when you use the SAS ACCESS LIBNAME method?

A: The table below lists the BASE SAS and SAS/STAT procedures that convert part of the processing (sorting/computing summary statistics) in database before returning results to SAS. The SAS/STAT procedures only execute in-database with Teradata.

Base	SAS/STAT
FREQ	CORR
MEANS	CANCORR
RANK	DMDB
REPORT	DMINE
SORT	DMREG
SUMMARY	FACTOR
TABULATE	PRINCOMP
	REG
	SCORE
	TIMESERIES
	VARCLUS

Data Preparation Best Practice Approaches for Deriving Better Insights from Analytics

JohnStultz — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 15:52:50 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on "Data Preparation Best Practice Approaches for Deriving Better Insights from Analytics?" Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

The What, When and Why of SAS/ACCESS

JeffSimpsonSAS — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:26:25 GMT

Sorting Through the Features of Proc Sort

JeffSimpsonSAS — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 16:29:24 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on Sorting Through the Features in Proc Sort? Not to worry, you can catch it On-Demand at your leisure.

Watch the webinar

Remember Proc sort data=< Library.Dataset>;
By var;
Run; ??

Well, the PROC SORT of today tackles data challenges like never before. It goes past EBCDIC and ASCII to include additional international languages beyond English.

Imagine having the ability to sort allowing for case insensitivity of names such as McGowan or the ability to sort addresses by the address number and the address name with the same field or eliminating records with unique keys vs. duplicates.

In this session we will explore some of the exciting PROC SORT tools and goodies.

We look at:

Proc Sort Basics
Modern Day Sort Functionality
Linguistic Collating options

I have added the Q&A from the session below and attached you will find the slides:

Q. If I use a WHERE with PROC SORT, do I have to use OUT=

A: The danger of NOT using an OUT= is that you could overwrite the original data. For example, if you used a “WHERE age ge 14” when sorting SASHELP.CLASS with an OUT=, then you would be creating a subset of ages 14, 15 and 16. But, if you did NOT have an OUT= and you had write access to the data file, then you would essentially be overwriting the original data with that subset. We’ll post an example of the code (using a WORK dataset) in the Q&A log.

Q: I am told that I need to use something called SYNCSORT. Is that a SAS Product? How do I use it:

A: No, SYNCSORT is a “host” sort routine and is frequently used on IBM mainframe computers. There are three SAS system options that work together to let you use a host sort. Remember, the SYNCSORT product itself needs to be installed, and then SAS needs to be told how to find and use it. The values for these options are operating system specific.

We’ll put an example of the code in the Q&A log.

Option Description

SORTPGM= Specifies whether SAS sorts using the SAS sort utility or the host sort utility.

SORTCUTP= Specifies the number of bytes up to which SAS sorts. If the number of bytes in the data set is greater than the specified number, the host sort program sorts the entire data set.

SORTNAME= Specifies the name of the host sort utility.

Here’s an example:

options sortpgm=host

sortcutp=1M

sortname=syncsort;

proc sort data=detail;

by ID;

run;

Consult the Operating System Companion for your platform to see the specifics on using host sorts in your environment.

Q: Can I create an index on my dataset using PROC SORT? What happens if I try to sort an indexed data set?

A: Yes, you can. PROC SORT allows you to use the INDEX= option for the OUT= dataset. We’ll put an example in the Q&A log:

proc sort data=old

out=new(index=id);

by id;

run;

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q/A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars.

Leveraging SAS® Viya® to Improve Base SAS® Processes

SteveSober — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 18:09:58 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session Leveraging SAS^® Viya^® to Improve Base SAS^®Processes? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure. I’ve attached the slides as well.

PROC REPORT Next Steps

JaneEslinger — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 15:29:27 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on Next Steps with PROC REPORT? Not to worry, you can watch it on-demand whenever you want. The slides and demo code are attached as well.

Watch the webinar

The session covers using aliases and temporary variables in PROC REPORT. It

Defines aliases.
Defines temporary variables.
Examples demonstrate how to use aliases to show multiple statistics, change summary values, and apply multiple formats to the same raw value.
Examples demonstrate how to use temporary variables to fill in group and order values, apply IF/THEN logic based on group values, and how to calculate percentages within nested groups.

Here are some highlighted questions from the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference.

I have an across variable and tried to create a percent column under each value but I got all missing values. Why?

With an across variable you must refer to columns in the form _cn_. I suspect you got all missing because you had the computed variable name in the compute block but you need to use _cn_ to reference those columns.

Refer to this sample to see how to calculate variables under an across.

Sample 43091: Calculate percentages under an ACROSS variable using PROC REPORT

When I am debugging my code, is there a way to see the values of the temporary variables?

Yes, you can output the temporary variables in a LINE statement. The syntax is

compute before region;

denomreg = sales.sum;

line denomreg 8.;

endcomp;

While debugging your code you can also add a dummy computed column to the end of your COLUMN statement. Then assign the computed column to the temporary variable.

In the example that showed the overall sum and mean, is there a way to use a different format for one of those rows?

Yes, you can apply a different format to a summary row by adding a CALL DEFINE statement to the compute block that controls the summary row you want to change. If you want to change the row generated by the RBREAK statement then the CALL DEFINE statement should be added to the compute after block.

How do I sort the table by the overall sum or one of the statistics that I am not showing in the table?

A PROC REPORT cannot be sorted by an analysis variable. You need to summarize the data in one step and create a data set with the results. With PROC REPORT, create the final report that would allow you to define the summarized value as group or order variable.

When I use PROC TABULATE, I use ALL to create totals and grand totals. PROC REPORT does not respect that, why not?

Every procedure is different. PROC TABULATE as the keyword ALL. PROC REPORT does not have that keyword. You can get the totals and grand totals with PROC REPORT. Using an analysis variable multiple times will let you get row totals, that is like using ALL in the column dimension in TABULATE. The RBREAK statement will create a summary row containing the column totals.

I know I can test _BREAK_ because it is an automatic variable. Can I use it in a COLUMN statement?

To use in the COLUMN statement it would need to be in your input data set or creating one (like you would a compute variable). However, I don’t recommend creating a variable called _break_. You could create a computed column and set the value of the computed column to _break_ so you can see what the value is on a given row.

This paper is a very good reference for learning about breaking in PROC REPORT.

Go Ahead and _BREAK_-down: Advanced COMPUTE Block Examples

How is the length of a temporary character variable set?

All the defaults are used. But PROC REPORT generally assumes that temporary variables are numeric. The best way to assure that you get the right type and length is to use a LENGTH statement in your COMPUTE block.

Are you required to define all Column statement variables?

No, you're not required to DEFINE each variable. But if you do NOT use a DEFINE statement, then you take all the defaults for usage, format, label, etc. If you're OK with that, then don't use a DEFINE.

What is the difference in creating alias in Proc Report vs creating variables in pre-processing data step?
In general, it is user preference to pre-process the data and create a copy of a variable versus using an alias in PROC REPORT. Some programmers do not want to add more variables to the data set so that like that they can create a copy inside of the procedure.

In your Proc Format to highlight the background of a cell, what would be the color if the value is 50000? Shouldn't the other range be 50001-1000000 so it does not overlap with the 1-50000?
The cell would be blue if the value was exactly 50,000. You are correct, the values in the PROC FORMAT step should not have overlapped.

Do temporary variables have to be numeric?
No, temporary variables can be either numeric or character.

Could you do this with a "Display" instead of "Group" when defining region? If so what is the benefit of one versus the other?

Group combines like variable values and will sum (or whatever statistic you are using) any analysis variables that are specified. Display is just that - it is like PROC PRINT and does not grouping or summation.

Want more tips? Be sure to subscribe to the Ask the Expert board to receive follow up Q/A, slides and recordings from other SAS Ask the Expert webinars.

SAS Enterprise Miner: Tips and Tricks - Ask the Expert Q&A

MelodieRush — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 18:06:00 GMT

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on SAS Enterprise Miner: Tips and Tricks? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

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MelodieRush — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 16:51:17 GMT

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megak8 — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 19:44:20 GMT

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Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on SAS® Visual Statistics 8.2 on SAS Viya: Getting Started? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure.

Introduction to Custom Processing for SAS Marketing Automation

LiseC — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 16:45:15 GMT

Keen to learn about custom processing for SAS Marketing Automation, but you missed the recent Ask the Expert session? Rest easy, you can view it on-demand whenever you like.

Understanding SAS Hot Fixes

rpthom — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 15:37:38 GMT

Understanding SAS Hot Fixes – Ask the Expert Q&A

Did you miss the Ask the Expert session on Understanding SAS Hot Fixes? Not to worry, you can catch it on-demand at your leisure. I’ve attached the slides as well.

This session introduces the concept of SAS® hot fixes, why they are necessary, and how they are installed and configured. Specifics of this session include working with:

SAS hot fix analysis.
Download and deployment tools.
SAS Deployment Wizard to install SAS hot fixes.
Building the SAS deployment registry.

Watch the webinar

Here’s a transcript of the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference.

Question: Some hotfixes need configuration update and some will need configuration update, how do we determine which hotfix will need a configuration update and which will not? Also, what are the common configuration files that will be updated when applying hotfixes?

Answer: n the SAS Note, hot fix tab, when you download the hot fix, there's also the documentation html link. That tells you of any Post-Installation instructions like re-building and re-deploying the web apps.

Q: Does the hotfixes update custom configuration?

A: No, however, the customizations that can be done to an environment usually don't have an effect on the products itself.

Q: In our SAS 9.4M3 environment, we have HTTPS (CA signed certificates, key store files, etc.), Single sign on and FIPS configured on our platforms. We are always worried losing custom configurations with our hotfix implementations or with upgrades. We are on 9.4 M3

A: If a hot fix does not affect encryption or authentication, customizations will not be touched. It is important to read the documentation and/or SAS Notes carefully as they usually point out what will actually be updated. To be on the very save side, please always make sure to run a backup before installing a hot fix.

Q: I've found some hot fixes to overwrite your custom configurations, especially when rebuilding/redeploying any web applications. I have to go back and check files I had previously edited in my custom configurations and re-enter them. Any suggestions?

A: If the hot fix is middle tier/web tier related, it could affect the customization. It really does depend on what is being updated. Please be sure to review all pre and post installation steps before installing the hot fix. As always feel free to reach out to SAS Technical Support if you have questions.

Q: Is the process for applying a hot fix different in a Mainframe z/OS environment?

A: The process is the same, however SASHFADD is not currently compatible with PERL for z/OS. SAS Technical Support recommends z/OS users run the WINDOWS version of SASHFADD.

Q: Do we need to remove existing HotFixes that might have been applied earlier before copying into InstallMisc/HotFixes?

A: No, you do not have to remove any existing hot fixes. Any new hot fixes are seamlessly added or components are updated for you.

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Watch the webinar

The session covers enhancements to SAS 9.4 that have improved Base SAS, SAS/GRAPH^®, SAS/Access to PC File Formats and SAS Studio.

Join us for this webinar as we discuss how SAS 9.4 will:

Give you more ways to report and output data.
Simplify how to remove unauthorized access.
Make programming easier with modern coding syntax.

Here’s a transcript of the Q&A segment held at the end of the session for ease of reference.

Do you need SAS/Access to PC File Formats to use ODS Excel?

No. This functionality is part of Base SAS and is available for version 9.4 Maintenance release 3.

Can the JSON LIBNAME statement help the programmers to convert JSON files to SAS datasets?

Yes. Please note that this functionality became available with Maintenance release 4 of version 9.4. Please see this blog and this support page for more information.

Are there plans to add NEWFILE=YES for the XLSX engine in addition to the EXCEL engine? 

A suggestion has been added for this functionality

How do you access SAS Studio? Do you need a web server?

You access SAS Studio from a web browser. The way in which SAS Studio is implemented dictates whether a web server is required. Please see this link for more info:

Are there any plans for enabling ODS HTML output to be named with #BYVAL + unique digit syntax, rather than the current static basename + digit?

We support the #BYVAL on the titles, labels, and the ANCHOR= but not the filename. There are no plans to add this for the FILENAME statement.

Where can we find help documents for DS2, FEDSQL & Hadoop?

What’s New Documentation for these products can be found in the following location. Additional documentation is available through embedded links.

Is there a separate license fee for SAS studio?

No, it is included with Base SAS if you are running version 9.4.

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