Back-to-School Part 1 - Using Your Own Data in SAS Viya for Learners
The fall semester is nearly here. Woot! So, it’s time to put away that beach gear and to start thinking about how you’ll help mold the minds of that next generation of analytics talent.
And what’s one way to get students excited about analytics? Answer: trick them into learning with interesting use cases!
Unlike previous semesters, data uploads are now available to everyone in SAS Viya for Learners. What’s that you say? Yes, uploads are now available to ***everyone***! This allows students to find data most interesting to them – a passion project of sorts. Data are then easily uploaded in SAS Studio with just a couple of clicks:
Click One: open SAS Studio
Clicks Two + Three: Open Explorer + Find your Home folder
Right-Click folder within Home + Select Upload File
Follow prompts and upload data. Nice! It’s that easy. And if you need more guidance on how to handle the 100mb cap, there are other SAS Community articles addressing exactly that. See: (1) https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Ways-to-Handle-the-100mb-Data-Upload-Restrict... and (2) https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Ways-to-Handle-the-100mb-Data-Upload-Restrict...
But I’m not done yet! I’ve got two other ways to access interesting data sets, in case your students are struggling a bit to find something worthwhile. The first is to access our SAS Viya for Learners Data Repository. The what? This button:
Yes – the repository has been hiding in plain sight the whole time – next to the button that you (likely) use to launch SAS Viya for Learners (vle.sas.com/vfl). The repository contains hundreds of pre-loaded data sets for use, now, in VFL! Click Access Now to search for cool data in this great resource:
Oh – and if you want more information on how to upload data in SAS Studio, you’re in the right neighborhood:
The User Data Upload Info shows how students can upload their own data, in much greater detail than I provided above.
And because I love groups of three, I’ve got one more way to access interesting data in SAS Viya for Learners. Did you know that open-source packages in Python and R often come with a bunch of useful data sets? For example, one of my favorite GGPLOT2 currently has 115 data sets in the library. A small sampling:
What does this really help? Well, if your students are looking or data to, say, plot, then starting with a plotting package such as GGPLOT2 is a great place to start ideating!
Learn more about converting open-source files to SAS files in these two posts: (1) https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Converting-Python-data-frames-to-SAS-datafile... and (2) https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Converting-R-data-frames-to-SAS-datafiles-SAS...
That’s all for now academic friends. See you in Part 2!
