Base SAS vs all the others, trying to find training!

[kecb]

Hi community,

I have been coding for years but am new to SAS.  My data work team uses Base SAS, and for the past few days I've been looking for training videos to help get me orientated to the new (to me) interface.  But the training I'm finding all have the SAS EG or Studio interface.  I don't understand what the difference is between the three but they all seem to have different interfaces and I'm very confused.  For example, in base, if I click on the 'RESULTS' tab it takes me into my active libraries.  But I don't know how to 'go back' to the previous page if I click on the wrong thing.  I also notice in EG and Studio the lines of code are indented after you begin the code 'data' and before you run the code 'run;'.  But I notice this doesn't happen in Base when I'm playing with code.  So I don't understand the different interfaces, and I'm not having much luck finding Base-specific training.  Even the SAS official e-Learning does not cater to Base: 

I'm at a loss of what to do.  Am I completely missing something?  How can I learn Base interface if the training is geared for other interfaces I don't have?  Can anyone help or offer some suggestions?  Thanks so much!

[Reeza]

SAS Windowing Environment = SAS Base and is what you're referring to here and that's the last option for setup instructions.

The assumption for the windowing environment is that you're programming so once you're pass the point of finding results and finding your libraries the same code works across all three systems so it shouldn't matter beyond this initial set up stuff. 

---

@kecb wrote:

Hi community,

I have been coding for years but am new to SAS.  My data work team uses Base SAS, and for the past few days I've been looking for training videos to help get me orientated to the new (to me) interface.  But the training I'm finding all have the SAS EG or Studio interface.  I don't understand what the difference is between the three but they all seem to have different interfaces and I'm very confused.  For example, in base, if I click on the 'RESULTS' tab it takes me into my active libraries.  But I don't know how to 'go back' to the previous page if I click on the wrong thing.  I also notice in EG and Studio the lines of code are indented after you begin the code 'data' and before you run the code 'run;'.  But I notice this doesn't happen in Base when I'm playing with code.  So I don't understand the different interfaces, and I'm not having much luck finding Base-specific training.  Even the SAS official e-Learning does not cater to Base: 

I'm at a loss of what to do.  Am I completely missing something?  How can I learn Base interface if the training is geared for other interfaces I don't have?  Can anyone help or offer some suggestions?  Thanks so much!

---

[Cynthia_sas · Accepted solution]

Hi:

  If you are using SAS with SAS Windowing Environment (also known as "Base SAS" or "SAS Display Manager"), then this video:

https://youtu.be/Gr59JfCDkN0

will show you the data creation steps to go through for the Programming 1 class.

  The bottom line is that SAS is a collection of components. Everybody has "Base SAS", they just access it different ways, through different interfaces. The bottom line is where does the SAS Executable main program live. Does it live on your local C: drive? If so, you have 3 options for how to interface with SAS on a local machine: 1) SAS Windowing Environment or SAS Display Manager; 2) SAS Enterprise Guide; 3) SAS Studio.

  But if SAS lives on a server machine and you need to run programs then your choices are 1) use Enterprise Guide to access SAS on a server; or 2) use SAS Studio to access SAS on a server. (There are other applications such as the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office that will access SAS on a server, but those are not geared toward doing the practices in class.)

You might possibly log onto the remote server using remote desktop and run your programs on the server using one of the 3 methods listed above -- however, very few system administrators will let end users just log onto a remote server running production software-- so this isn't a much used option and we don't outline how to make data for this method in Programming 1 because it it highly unlikely. Another option for using SAS is on a mainframe computer, such as IBM Z/OS system. While this is an option for using SAS, we also don't outline how to make the data for this method of using SAS either. The Z/OS mainframe has a different file system and we recommend that mainframe students get one of the free methods to practice. Or, you might be using Jupyter Notebook to access SAS. Again, this is an interface for which we do not provide instructions. At the point where you might be using Jupyter Notebook, you are beyond the level of the introductory programming classes.

  The free methods of practicing for non-commercial learning purposes are: SAS University Edition in a Virtual Machine and SAS OnDemand for Academics.

  With SAS University Edition, in a Virtual Machine, you can use SAS Studio to access SAS inside the Unix Virtual Machine. This is closer to a server install of SAS than a local install of SAS because you do not have write access to the Virtual Machine file system. You only have write access to a shared folder location that is defined as a folder on your operating system drive.

  With SAS OnDemand for Academics on a cloud server, you can use SAS Studio to access SAS on our cloud server. You have limited write access to a HOME folder on the server. All other locations on the server are locked down.

  For your purposes, it sounds like you are using the Windowing Environment (or Display Manager) and the video will help you figure out what to do. One of your co-workers should be able to provide you with a quick overview of how Display Manager works.

  Basically all SAS interfaces work the same way, whether you are using SAS Windowing Environment (Display Manager), SAS Enterprise Guide or SAS Studio:

1) There's always an Editor window -- you type your code here and you submit your code after you're done

2) There's always a Log window -- you review your program messages here

3) There's always a Results window -- you review any program or procedure results here

  Sometimes you access the Windows via tabs, sometimes the tabs are at the top of your screen, sometimes the tabs are at the bottom of the screen.

  Hope this helps,

Cynthia

[kecb]

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation!  I didn't realize the overall software was called Base, and you are correct- I am using Window Manager. 

Time to go learn SAS 🙂 

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Well, that was sort of a "gloss", the overall software is called SAS .. and then the smallest footprint for a local install is often called "BASE" SAS because it contains all the core SAS functionality, along with ODS, PROC FREQ, PROC MEANS, PROC FORMAT, the Macro Facility and the other pieces of the core functionality, formats, functions, Data Step language, etc (too many individual piece parts of Base SAS to list). Then there are additional components which you may or may not have: SAS/STAT (although almost everybody gets that), SAS/ETS, SAS/GRAPH, SAS/OR, etc.

You can always run proc setinit to see what components YOU have:
proc setinit;
run;

Here's what I have on one of my local machines:

Cynthia