I am trying to map some custom regions all of which are in the US. Unfortunately, the only geographic locations I have are zip codes. I imported my zip code list into ArcGIS and ran a dissolve to get the appropriate regions, then exported to a shape file and imported to SAS using PROC MAPIMPORT. I am facing two problems though:
1) The data is "too detailed" i.e. I am getting approx. 7 mm records to map 5 regions across the US. Since the SAS loaded US map only has 1,500, I figure this is too many. I have tried reducing some of the records by taking every 10th record (just as a starting point) and limiting to only one region but the map I am getting isn't right (see attached).
2) My second problem is how to make my regions appear on a US map when I don't have a State Code, just a zip. Do I need to use the zipstate function to be able to link to the maps.us? Currently I am just using a basic GMAP procedure.
I have been using this article as a starting point, and it has been extremely helpful, I am wondering if I just have way more records then the sample and that is why I am having trouble: http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings09/232-2009.pdf. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.