SAS studio vs base SAS

[silva88]

From a functional standpoint, can you basically do everything in SAS studio that you’d ordinarily be able to do in base SAS? If so, what is the advantage of base SAS? Seems like it’s a lot more convenient to use SAS studio, since it’s free and compatible with a Mac....

[Quentin]

SAS Studio is an interface to Base SAS.  When you use SAS Studio, you are using Base SAS.

There are free learning versions of SAS which use Studio as the interface.  If you are learning to code in SAS, or even learning point-and-click analytics in SAS, then SAS Studio is a great interface to use.

[john_mccall]

If you are referring to the SAS Windowing environment (Display Manager), you can build SAS programs in either interface.   One of the key differences is that SAS Studio also offers point and click tasks (with prewritten code) for data manipulation, analysis and reporting.   My preference is to use Studio for  development of SAS programs but some folks use what they are more comfortable with in SAS. 

[PaigeMiller]

---

@silva88 wrote:

From a functional standpoint, can you basically do everything in SAS studio that you’d ordinarily be able to do in base SAS?

---

I would say the answer is NO.

I find SAS Studio to be very frustrating compared to Base SAS. Yes, coding is the same, but the SAS/Studio interface simply isn't as powerful or comprehensive.

For example, if I want to merge/join two data sets, in Base SAS I can have windows open showing both data sets side-by-side, and also another window with my code (and if needed, another window with the log). I can align or move these windows in any way I want, adding windows as needed. The ability to do this in SAS Studio is limited, I don't think you can show two data sets side by side. And there are all sorts of similar situations where the Base SAS windowing is superior to SAS Studio.

[AMSAS]

When you say Base SAS what I assume you are talking about is the SAS Windowing Environment

Which is different from other interfaces e.g. SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Studio

It comes down to personal preference which is better.

Like @PaigeMiller I started using SAS before SAS Enterprise Guide or SAS Studio existed and prefer the windowing environment, for the reasons Paige mentioned. 

[Tom · Accepted solution]

SAS Display Manager is a built in part of the SAS system.  SAS/Studio is a separate process that is submitting code to a SAS session and retrieving the results and displaying them to your browser.

Since they are both using SAS to run the code you can pretty much do the same types of analyses.

The difference is how you interact with it and how much access you actually have to the SAS session you are using.

SAS Display Manager is much more responsive since it is part of the system. It is much more integrated, you can control your interaction using SAS code.  You can make interactive windows using SAS code and the WINDOWS statement.  And create your own interactive windows using SAS/AF and the SCL language. You can create command line macros to automate generating display manager commands.  

You can run Display Manager on Windows and on Unix (using an X windows server to display the windows).  But as you say they don't have a version that runs on MACOS (even though MACOS is a UNIX verison now).

At least with the installations I have seen it is much easier to run multiple SAS processes at once using DMS.  But perhaps that is just a limitation imposed on use by the systems team that manages the SAS Servers processes needed to make the SAS/Studio interface work.

But with SAS/Studio is seems easier to me to manage editing multiple SAS programs at once within the same session.  The "enchanced editor" that is only available in DMS running on Windows does help with allowing you to have multiple files open.  But on Unix you would be forced to trying to use NOTEPAD windows instead if you wanted to edit multiple files at once in the same SAS session.

One of the things I miss with SAS/Studio editor (and the "enchanced editor") is the support for the line number commands.  IN the regular DMS program editor you can type simple one or two letter commands in the line number area on the screen and copy/delete/replicate/reflow blocks of lines very easily.  No needs to move your hands off the keyboard to pick up a mouse.