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CharlotteCain
Quartz | Level 8

Hi Folks,

I would like to know is it fairly comfortable to work on SAS DI studio if you have Base SAS knowledge? Please point out some similarities between the 2 at a practical work environment from your past experience. Is it really easy to grasp and work on one of the above if you know the other and in both fronts or does one require extensive independent training separately?

Please explain. Thanks

Charlotte

3 REPLIES 3
Quentin
Super User

Hi,

Looks like you wrote this in WRS forum.  Might get more responses if you ask it in the Enterprise Data Management forum.

I've started using DI studio a bit, after years of programming in base SAS.

I think the ease of transitioning from Base SAS to DI Studio depends on how you decide to use DI Studio.

Much of DI Studio is a code generator.  So, like Enterprise Guide, you can click your ways through menus that will build SAS code for you in the background.   For people used to coding in SAS, the learning curve might be steep, because you have to figure out a bunch of new menus.

*BUT* the good news is that DI studio is happy just executing a block of user-written code (same as EG is).  So if you already know how to code your data extraction routines using base SAS, you can call that exact same code using DI studio.  You basically end up using DI studio as a wrapper for your old-fashioned SAS code.  In this case, I think the learning curve for DI studio is fairly minimal.  Some would say that this does not really constitute learning DI studio.

On the other hand, I would think that having learned the point and click interface in DI studio would not be of much benefit in trying to learn how to code in base SAS.  An experienced DI Studio developer may not have a solid understanding of the SAS language.

--Q.

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CharlotteCain
Quartz | Level 8

Hi Quentin,

Thanks very much for the response. I guess that's very well written. One school of thought, if the current trend moves to GUI based upgrades, does that mean the charm of learning SAS language and coding smart and exciting solutions will soon be over?

Or, to clear my understanding should i assume no matter how much ever GUI products arise, the need for Solid base SAS programming will remain as it is?

Anyways, Thank you

Charlotte

Quentin
Super User

Well, that question would be good for the Enterprise Guide group...

My biased opinion is that the charm of coding smart solutions in SAS is not likely to be over any time soon.

For example, suppose that I learn to use the DI studuo GUI interface.  Great, now I can build a DI job that does something useful.

Suppose I learn to hand code SAS DATA steps.  Now I know how to manipulate SAS data.  And I can write code that will be used in a DI job, an Enterprise Guide project, a web report, a dashboard, a stored process, etc etc.  So by understanding the SAS language, your toolset is expanded to multiple domains SAS has built that rely on the SAS language.

Again, this shows my bias, and I have never worked with a DI or EG user who was a pure GUI user.  But it would be hard for me to have confidence in results from even a moderately complex project if the developer did not understand SAS code.

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Next webinar will be in January 2025. Until then, check out our archives: https://www.basug.org/videos. And be sure to subscribe to our our email list.

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