Request help with terminology

[deleted_user]

Hello,

I'm not a SAS user; I'm trying to transcribe a course discussing SAS and looking for help with terminology.

Can someone please confirm that there are both datasets and data steps? Also, does the term GV key sound familiar at all?

Thank you very much,

Cheryl

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Yes, a SAS "dataset" is a proprietary file structure which contains rows and columns of data. In SAS terminology, the ROWS are sometimes called OBSERVATIONS; and the COLUMNS are sometimes called VARIABLES.

SAS datasets can be accessed, analyzed and reported on using PROCEDURES or DATA step programs. (These are frequently abbreviated, jargon-wise, as "PROCs" and "DATA Step") So, a reasonable sentence might be:

Once you read your Oracle data into a SAS dataset, you can write reports using PROC REPORT or a Data Step program.

A DATA Step program allows a programmer to use the programming language features of the SAS programming language to perform data manipulation, write reports and perform analysis on a SAS dataset.

There are different ways to reference "keys" ... a "GV key" doesn't initially ring a bell. What is the name of the course that you are transcribing??

cynthia

[deleted_user]

Cynthia,

Thank you very much for your reply. Some of the terms you've mentioned were there and I was able to find it. I can always use [inaudible] if I need to, but this "GV key" came up quite a bit. Could it be a proprietary term? I don't get that much information and often don't know who the client is.This term is used as if it's an identifier of some sort. I tried GB key and didn't get any results. Does the fact that they're listed in a "where statement" help?

Thank you so much for any guidance you may have,

Cheryl

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Knowing that the reference to the key is in a WHERE statement, (as opposed to an SQL WHERE clause) helps a bit.
I wonder whether this is some SAS/Access product. Knowing the title or general topic of the class -would- help.
Is it at all possible that, instead of "GV key", someone is talking about a "GDG" or Generation Data Group or Generation Dataset???? This is where knowing a bit more about the class topics would be helpful.

cynthia

[LinusH]

If you could share that WHERE-statement, it would probably be clear.
Could it be that this is a name for a column (variable) in a dataset (table)...?
/Linus

[deleted_user]

Thank you both for trying to be helpful. I do wish I had more information, but all I have is audio. But I do appreciating you taking the time to answer.

Tks again,

Cheryl

[Cynthia_sas]

Unless you dropped into the middle of the audio, there has to be -some- context that you've already transcribed.

"hello, welcome to today's class. our topic today is how to recalibrate the framistat using SAS software."

"Our objectives are to learn how to use the SAS recalibration tool, how the framistat is configured and how to achieve fine tuning with PROC FRAM."

There should be some context that you can share. Otherwise, your only recourse is to work with the person who presented the material.

cynthia

[deleted_user]

All it said was "This is an intermediate class that focuses on features that you can find in the SAS DATA step."

I'm going to just go with what I have. Truly, thanks for trying to assist me with this.

Cheryl

[Peter_C]

the base sas glossary might help at http://support.sas.com/baseglossary

[deleted_user]

Thank you!
Cheryl

[sbb]

Consider some other useful SAS-related Internet resources available:

http://www.sascommunity.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_(software)

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_(software)#Terminology

Google search argument: sas bi solutions


Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.