Book: Data Management Solutions Using SAS® Hash Table Operations: A Business Intelligence Case Study

[novinosrin]

Hello folks, 

I trust a lot of us are keenly waiting for the launch of Data Management Solutions Using SAS® Hash Table Operations: A Business Intelligence Case Study by authors Paul Dorfman and Don Henderson. 

1. Has anybody seen the preview yet? 

2. If yes, does it narrate from the very basic to advanced real world examples or is it more suited for advance users?

3. Would it be available on safarionlinebooks pay as you go version?

4. Any possible discounted price for college students?

5. Does it emphasize heavily on managing memory or more on the complexity of hash applications. I am asking this because Memory investment is increasingly  becoming cheaper and readers would prefer more content on the latter.

Thank you & Regards

[ChrisHemedinger]

At least some of these questions can be addressed by the authors: @DonH and @hashman.  Perhaps one of them will chime in here.  I suspect they also have a paper to present at SAS Global Forum this year.

[DonH]

WRT @1, all the Chapters have been sent out for review by the SAS Press folks. This was done in two phases. We are awaiting that feedback on the second set of chapters.

WRT #2, the examples center around analyzing data similar to the baseball Game Day data. Both simple and more advanced examples are included.

WRT #3 and 4, the book will be available via SAS Press. So someone from there will have to answer that question.

WRT #5, there is one chapter where memory management is covered. And regarding of the price of memory, it is not unusual to get to a point where memory management becomes important. Most of the examples center around problems like what @hashman and I have encountered in a number of projects.

[novinosrin]

Thank you @ChrisHemedinger Sir for getting the authors attention. That really means a lot. 

@DonH  Thank you for the responses. 

I can't wait for the launch. 

[DonH]

The SAS Press folks said that there will be student discount. Details here: https://support.sas.com/en/books/discounts.html

It will also be available on Safari as an ebook with their subscription service.

And here is the current outline for the book (subject to change). The book will be organized into 5 parts.

• Part is just chapter 1
  • Chapter 1 is an overview of the topics and chapters. It will also discuss the rules of the game we call Bizarro Ball - similar to but different from Baseball. All the examples will use this data (e.g., data on each pitch, at bat, runner, etc. in all the games for a given season.
• Part 2 - an overview of what the hash object is and how it works.
  • Chapter 2 will cover the high level details of what the hash object and how it works.
  • Chapter 3 will discuss table level hash object operations.
  • Chapter 4 will discuss item level operations.
  • Chapter 5 would be a more detailed discussion of item level operations focusing on enumeration (explicit looping).
•  Part 3 - focuses on the BI problems that hash tables allow us to address.
  • Chapter 6 documents/describes the generated sample data
  • Chapter 7 is a series of simple examples that expand upon the theoretical discussion in Chapters 3, 4, 5.
  • Chapter 8 discussed how the hash object can be used to support a Star Schema Data Warehouse.
  • Chapter 9 discusses Data Aggregation.
•  Part 4 - advanced techniques.
  • Chapter 10 talks about parameterizing and generalizing by creating hash objects whose items are themselves hash objects.
  • Chapter 11 discusses various memory management techniques.
•  Part 5 - two case studies.

[DonH]

Just wanted to let anyone who is interested know that the book is now available.

https://www.sas.com/store/books/categories/examples/data-management-solutions-using-sas-hash-table-o...

[novinosrin]

@Greats  @DonH , @hashman  I have done reading 7 chapters and I wanted to convey my heartfelt thanks and feedback(hopefully, ordinary blokes feedback are welcome), although i will have to reread iteratively until i master it. Of course hash of hashes is gonna take me sometime to get the hang of it.

Feedback:

1. Fantastic , extremely well explained. 

2. Great analogy, comparisons

3. Case study is superb 

4. Have recommended to my fellow classmates and even reached to CDM Depaul Master's of Information systems with Business intelligence concentration professors requesting them to emphasize applications of BI case study/projects using high end solutions. Well this may be daunting for those folks who do not have work experience background before they got to grad school unlike me and may tend to shy away. Nevertheless, Professors seem to show interest in my opinions/recommendations

5. For future releases, One request to you. Would it be possible to include a "Q & A Test yourself" section after every chapter with difficulty levels easy, medium and hard with solutions provided at the end so that the learning can be fun and can cover wider section BI users to get them interested?

My assumption: The chances are the book is intended for perhaps advance folks who are serious about applying this and so you have not bothered with Q & A in the first place. If that's the case, sorry and kindly ignore.

Overall Awesome and my only humble and sincere intent is to get many DW/BI/STats folks to use, see and get value out of it.  Best regards!

[hashman]

@novinosrin:

Many heartfelt thanks, and I'm sure @DonH will second my gratitude. Penning a book is a lot of work, and it's awfully nice to know that someone has found it useful.

WRT the intended readership level, our assumption was that it should be soundly versed in the fundamentals of the DATA step and maybe some ABCs of the macro language.

WRT the future releases, nobody can predict the future. However, if it comes to that, we'll give your suggestion a good deal of consideration.

Best regards

Paul D.

[DonH]

As @hashman said, I second that. 

Also so note that we are creating a number of articles on communities.sas.com (referenced in the text of the book as blog entries). We have already added the overview that provides a link to each of the three categories of blogs/articles we plan to write. 

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Hash-Tables-Can-Do-More-Than-You-Think-Table-...

[novinosrin]

Thank you Sirs @DonH and @hashman, I love every bit of it. The serious wish is the "Test yourself section" as mentioned coz it would be aesthetically pleasing to be certified by you and PD(not to mention the nice humor and banter we had over linkedin haha)  as opposed to SAS certification which I am losing faith as too many dumps floating around. 

You do not need any introduction as I am aware of your accomplishments since I started using SAS 5 + years ago, however you are too humble and selfless to a fault 🙂 i mean in a nice way, spoon feeding folks besides what's already in the book. I have read a lot of yours, PD, IW, John King, etc articles over the last couple of years.

Anyways, from my side, being in DW/BI concentrated master's program, if I can be of any help in spreading the word in any capacity, would be the greatest honor.  Best regards as always!

PS @ChrisHemedinger  I owe you special thanks or in other words can never thank you enough for connecting me with born geniuses. I initially thought such amazing people may not care about the lower end of the spectrum. 

[ChrisHemedinger]

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I owe you special thanks or in other words can never thank you enough for connecting me with born geniuses. I initially thought such amazing people may not care about the lower end of the spectrum. 

I agree that @hashman might be a born genius.  @DonH probably has to work at it.  Either way, the two of them have forgotten much more about SAS than I will ever know.

[DonH]

😅👍😅

[novinosrin]

lol That's funny. Well, the memory processing experts need memory pills. 🙂 

[novinosrin]

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@DonH wrote:

It will also be available on Safari as an ebook with their subscription service.

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Thank you Sir @DonH , @hashman   I have subscibed to safari and got hold of your marvel. Just wanted to appreciate the prompt your responses, especially to @ChrisHemedinger for getting the author's attention. From my side, I have recommended the same to my fellow classmates and others at Depaul University whom I thought would benefit from i.e (IS/stats majors cdm graduate school). 

Many thanks indeed and it certainly has been worth the wait. Cheers

Regards,

Naveen Srinivasan