Hash Tables Can Do More Than You Think: Table Lookup; Data Management; Data Aggregation;and more

[#1]

Paul Dorfman (@hashman) and I (@DonH) wrote, Data Management Solutions Using SAS® Hash Table Operations: A Business Intelligence Case Study, because we wanted to make SAS programmers and users aware of the fact that hash tables can do a lot more than just table lookup.

The book is centered around a story line of doing a Proof of Concept about how hash objects can be used for many data management and business intelligence (BI) requirements. Based on comments from the reviewers three types of additional content were identified. Instead of trying to squeeze that into the book, we decided to provide that content as community articles.

1. First is how a  number of very useful SAS programming techniques that may not be widely known or commonly used. These techniques have particular relevance when using the SAS hash object. However, they have much broader applicability and can be used to address any number of issues. So even if you are not interested in hash objects, these articles may be of interest to you.
   
   
2. The theme of the book is a Proof of Concept implementation to demonstrate how SAS, and specifically the hash object, could be used to address typical Business Intelligence questions. As such, the book has a select few references to yea but questions which we agreed to do but not as part of the Proof of Concept. Those examples, along with selected requests from readers, can be found in these articles. if you have questions or suggestions for additional examples, please contact either of us (@hashman, @DonH). 
   
   
3. The book uses as its sample data, data from a game called Bizarro Ball which has rules similar to baseball. We wrote SAS programs that used the SAS hash object to create the data. Based on reviewer feedback that the generation programs were not addressing Business Intelligence questions, we decided to describe the programs in a series of blog entries (which evolved to communities articles) instead of in the book itself. If you are a reader of the book you can use these programs to generate different result data sets by changing the random numbers seeds or specific parameter values. These articles describe these programs also focus on the general approach taken and can be used as a guide for for anyone who needs to generate other types of data (e.g., performance testing).

A list of all the articles related to the book is also available.

Check back often as we expect to be adding articles on a continuing basis. 

[wwvierg]

this was unexpected (i.e., extra goodies for the book) .... found it via your (Donnie) Facebook post; did you tell SAS-L by chance, too? regardless: thanks!