How valuable is SAS programming these days and for what role?

[edasdfasdfasdfa]

I was looking at many of the SAS software solutions, and they all appear to be about hiding the language behind drag and drop type interfaces. Has knowing the language itself become less important over time? And if not, why? And if so, what role is it still necessary?

[Ksharp]

" And if not, why?"
If you have dirty data, you need it to clean data.
If you have many model to run ,you need it to make a macro to replicate many code to run.
If you don't want heavy task, you need it to save you .

[AMSAS]

In my opinion, they are just different tools for different use cases.

For example, a business user, would not need to know the details of coding in SAS to generate a report. They would just need to know I want this data, I apply these filters, I want it ordered by date, I want these fields. A point/drag/click solution is simple and easy, they don't need to know the data is sitting on Oracle, that the Full Name column is the variable FName, etc.

Whereas a data scientist might need a more complex report that requires custom models that are very specific to their business case, requiring a coding solution. Note they might start with a GUI sample and then take that and customize it.

[Kurt_Bremser]

NONE (literally!) of the drag-and-drop helpers would be useful for any of my ETL work (even though I have the luxury of extracting my data from well-structured sources, DB/2 and SAP). And for all the reporting, I use the wizards only if a need a starter for a procedure I'm not familiar with, but I always need to work on the code itself to get the details right.

Just think of using hash objects. You will find NO wizard/task for this in EG or Studio.

[Sajid01]

 I was looking at many of the SAS software solutions, and they all appear to be about hiding the language behind drag and drop type interfaces. 

Well you have the option of coding using the programming constructs,

Has knowing the language itself become less important over time? 

Persons with no programming background can now use the software with ease. But knowledge of programming gives one a decisive edge (Where ignorance is bless, knowledge is power).

Low code development is now becoming more prevalent and is not SAS specific.

[SASKiwi]

Remember the 80:20 rule. With GUI application solutions you can do 80% of your work (the straightforward bit) in 20% of your time. The remaining 20% of your work is a lot harder and will take 80% of your time and require coding.