SAS Bowl V, Working with Data

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Tears I cried for that woman are gonna flood you big river......

......lyrics from one of my favorite songs ("Big River") from my favorite band (The Grateful Dead). It's actually a Johnny Cash song, but was covered by the Grateful Dead, and usually followed "Me and My Uncle," but I digress. The song name had a small bearing on the outcome of SAS Bowl V, Working with Data. The song is about the Mississippi River, and how it traverses pretty much the entire United States from north to south. I also distinctly remember my high school geography teacher, Mr. Pence, telling us that the Mississippi river was the longest, biggest, deepest, widest, etc., river in the United States.

Turns out, I was misinformed, majorly. I did some research and no one can seem to agree on much about rivers in the US, except for the longest, and it's not the Mississippi! The longest river in the United States is the Missouri River. As for other measurements, one site listed the deepest river as the Pocomoke, while another perched the Hudson on top. And lets not get started on the widest river, as the best answer I could find is, "it depends," as the width of rivers fluctuate throughout the year.

I bring all of this up as we got it wrong on our question on the longest river in the US, in the latest edition of the SAS Bowl. We claimed it to be the Mississippi, instead of the Missouri. We like to make things right, so here is my apology to all who attended the event (my note to Mr. Pence is completed and ready to mail).

Game wrap up

Congratulations to the winners @snoopy369, @SassyErik, and @andrewdef for finishing in the top three. If I'd correctly identified the Missouri as the longest river, @elayne would have cracked the top three. To avoid controversy and cover my error, SAS Community swag will be sent to all four winners.

Other highlights included discovering SAS data SME Leonid Batkhan is originally from Belarus. We also learned the new LTS release of SAS Viya is version 2020.1. As always, we included a questions dealing with roman numerals as we learned the moon orbits the earth every XXVII days. All-in-all it was another successful edition of the SAS Bowl. Fear not, we have more planned.

In case you couldn't make it

If you had to miss the event, you can catch it in the recording below.

(view in My Videos)

Preparing really pays off

I received the following quote from one of our winners after the event:

"I’ve loved playing SAS Bowl every month and realizing how many random bits of SAS knowledge I’ve accumulated in my nearly 20 years of SAS programming. After finishing in the middle of the top 10 on a few occasions, I got with the program and finally read through some of the articles that were provided as “helpful pre-reading,” which definitely filled in a few gaps this time around for me."

Next up

We'll kick off 2021 with SAS Bowl VI, SAS APIs on January 19, 2021, at 10 AM ET. SAS is at the forefront of embracing integration with open source technologies. This capability is made possible by APIs. Stay tuned to the Community for further details.

Thanksgiving in the US is just around the corner. And while the next SAS Bowl isn't until December, I'm truly thankful for the theme and featured contributor for our next Community trivia installment. We'd like to announce our event SAS Bowl V, Working with Data, featuring articles, posts, and other resources from @LeonidBatkhan . The contest takes place on Tuesday December 8, at 10 AM ET.

Introducing Leonid

Over the years, Leonid has written dozens of SAS Users blog posts, provided endless support in the Communities, and was featured in a SAS Learning Post blog interview Secrets from a SAS Expert: An Interview with Leonid Batkhan. Suffice it to say, Leonid is a rock-star when it comes to SAS programming and story telling.

Where will questions come from?

We started looking into resources to draw questions from for the event. We have many options. For now, we've identified multiple resources and thought you could enjoy some interesting reading from Leonid.

Related resources for funsies

Theory of relativity in SAS programming
Dividing by zero with SAS – my personal favorite ‌‌🙂
Expanding lengths of all character variables in SAS data sets

SAS Bowl and event details

For those who may be new to the SAS Bowl, you can find game history and specifics in this Community memo. There you'll also find links to previous events, which include recordings.

Add the game to your calendar or download the article attachment for an event reminder. No pre-registration is required. On game day, access the game URL, provide your SAS Support Communities username (so we can identify you when you win), and show off your SAS and worldly knowledge while competing for bragging rights and SAS Community game gear.

Join the game. (on game day only)

See you December 8th!