It should be able to export reportobjects (list tables, cross tabs, etc.) to Excel through HTML 5. We updated to SAS Visual Analytics 7.3 and noticed that exports to Excel are not possible through HTML 5 so we went back to Flash Player. Currently only our front page is running through HTML 5. ... View more

There are some common variations on how to create delimited files used by data software, like Excel and Redshift, that are currently not directly supported by SAS.  Of these there are two main ones that I think should be easy to implement and solve the most common problems.   Support for reading and writing files with embedded end-of-line characters.  This is common for CSV files generated by EXCEL.  Currently SAS can only handle files where the embedded line break characters do not exactly match the end-of-line characters.  So SAS can read a file that uses CR+LF as end of line and has embedded CR or LF characters, but not records that have embedded CR+LF combinations.  But when the field is properly quoted this is a format that Excel (and others) do support.    This one is especially annoying since it is difficult to program around this limitation.  Currently to read files like this users need to pre-process the whole file to remove or replace the embedded line break characters.  And for writing files SAS does not currently automatically add quotes around field values that contain the end-of-line characters.  So users might need to use the ~ modify on PUT statements to force SAS to add quotes and end up with files that have more quotes than are really needed.   Support for the use of an escape character To protect special characters like delimiters, CR, LF, quotes and the escape character itself a lot of databases (and programming languages) use an escape character, typically a backslash.  This method of protecting special characters in text is popular with many languages, for example Unix command shells, and has been adopted by major database platforms like Redshift.  Typically this is done instead of adding quotes around values that contain special characters. Some even try to add quotes around the values but instead of doubling the quotes that are in the data they add this backslash character. SAS should be able to read a delimited file that is using an escape character instead of quoting to protect embedded special characters. And it should be able to write files that use escaping instead of quoting to protect special characters. ... View more

  In MySQL, you can use the group_concat function to concatenate across rows with a by group. I think this would be a valuable addition to the functions available in proc sql.     proc sql; create table EXAMPLE as select ID, STRING, group_concat(STRING) as ALL_STRINGS from DATA_SET group by ID; quit;     ... View more

It seems as though the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format is quickly becoming a standard alongside XML with respect to data acquired via web services.  I'd like to see PROC JSON incorporate the ability to read JSON-format datasets in addition to the already-existing write functionality. ... View more

When copying code from SAS Studio from a browser to Word the syntax highlighting disappears so the code appears all as black, rather than have the same highlight colours as in the browser.    This makes making documentation, presentations and tutorials more difficult as the colours may not match between the views.    This is based o this question here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Copy-and-paste-SAS-Studio-code-to-Word-Document/m-p/644502   ... View more

I was thinking that a "Run to Selected Node(s)" feature in SAS Enterprise Guide would be an amazing feature just like in SAS Data Integration Studio. The time that I would gain in not having to select all the nodes/task that need to run before a specific node/task in huge process flows would be tremendous... bringing my efficiency level to the top :-).   What do you think about this new feature? A must have or not?   Cheers,   Danny  ... View more

I would like to be able to display our data in a Radar Chart i VA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_chart ... View more

The purpose of CATXF would be to concatenate formatted values with a delimiter. CATXF(format, delimiter, item-1 <, ... item-n>) If format is not present use the variables format attribute. A null delimiter would be a null delimiter (not an implicit 1-space)   Example: array items (5) _temporary_ (1:5); result = catxf(z4., '', of items(*)); Result 00010002000300040005 ... View more

Hi,   The idea is to allow to use hyphen(-) notation in the DATA statement. So the following code would work: data b1-b10 ; set sashelp.class ; run ; and create 10 data sets b1 to b10. The idea is to make it symmetric to SET statement behavior such as: data a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 a10 ; do value1 = 1 to 10; output; end; run ; data All_a1_to_a10 ; set a1-a10; run ; All the best Bart   ... View more

&SYSRC holds the return code of the last external command executed. But it is not set when a filename pipe is used as input (and therefore runs the command included in the physical name if the fileref). See this: filename oscmd pipe "ls /garbage 2>&1"; %put &=sysrc.; data _null_; infile oscmd; input; put _infile_; run; %put &=sysrc.; x "ls /garbage 2>&1"; %put &=sysrc.; Log: 27 filename oscmd pipe "ls /garbage 2>&1"; 28 29 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=0 30 31 data _null_; 32 infile oscmd; 33 input; 34 put _infile_; 35 run; NOTE: The infile OSCMD is: Pipe-Kommando="ls /garbage 2>&1" ls: 0653-341 The file /garbage does not exist. NOTE: 1 record was read from the infile OSCMD. The minimum record length was 46. The maximum record length was 46. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.01 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds 36 37 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=0 38 39 x "ls /garbage 2>&1" 39 ! ; 40 41 %put &=sysrc.; SYsrc=2 I therefore suggest that SYSRC is also updated when external commands are run via the filename pipe mechanism, as it would enhance the communication with the host OS. ... View more

It would be great if there was a function similar to N() that counted the number of non-missing character values. Currently SAS has functions for counting missing character (CMISS) and numeric (NMISS) variables, and nonmissing numeric variables (N). So this seems like a logical hole to fill.   This article suggests development is investigating the possiblity but I wanted to emphasize my interest and hopefull others will as well.   http://support.sas.com/kb/46/235.html ... View more

I have some processes that are best performed using hash objects, often ending with use of the OUTPUT method to write results to a data set.  But some of my datasets are so large that the correspondng hash objects need too much memory to run.   However, many of these tasks can be done in BY groups.  Conceptually thiis would suggest using the hash object for one by-group, outputitng the results to a data set, then clearing the hash object, and doing the same process all over again for the next by group, followed by outputing it to the same data set.   But the OUTPUT method would only overwrite the data set.  So I am asking for an APPEND method, which would work similarly to PROC APPEND.  This would allow object-oriented processing of many large data sets with a much smaller demand on memory resources.  ... View more

Request It should be great to have the possibility to prepare in VA report layout formatting for printing. Currently the solution enable to produce PDF export but feature for formatting layout for printing pdf is really poor also after the last release. It should be useful to have the possibility to prepare report layout in a similar way of what is now available with Sas-guide solution and in SAS web report solution. It’s clear that VA is a solution for report viewer but could be effective to have the possibility to prepare out of VA predefined layout with predefined reports that use the same datamart and objects that user can navigate on line. Let me share a dream: New VA module “VA Reporting”!. The features should enable to prepare report with header and footer with had hoc formatting reusing the same object of current report for web navigation. The component should include the standard functionality already available in SAS web report studio for scheduling report distribution by mail to list of predefined recipients Use case/Workarounds Standard behavior of our user is to publish dashboard on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly, ..) and the request is very often to prepare a presentation with main figures to be distributed to all relevant responsible eventually with some executive summary comments on figures. Workaround in place so far is the utilization of MSOffice add-in for creating dynamic PPT that retrieve data directly or indirectly  from VA. Consideration   Without an effective feature for report preparation in printable format is still not covered with VA  the “last mile” of BI. Our users  still like and ask static paper base documents that are not  satisfied with SAS suite and this ask futher re-working from user reporting teams with other tools. VA Reporting Module could be an interesting opportunity ... View more

In VA 6.3 Explorer it is possible to export the shown chart to PNG.   In the Designer and Viewer, there should be a similar function.   As for now, there is no easy way the end users of my reports can grap and use what they see on the screen.   On the basis of https://communities.sas.com/thread/53198 ... View more

About half the time I use %sysfunc() is for calling function countw() and %scan() in a loop.   It'd be nice if I could just use %countw().       ... View more

I would like to be able to select only the items I need to be listed in the "Recent Items" list. My preference would be to select only SAS Programs and EG projects. I don't want to get any table that I open or any library I access in the list. ... View more

I guess that there are many users who have to resort to using Excel or similar tools for data entry, as this is quite user-unfriendly to do in the current SAS frontends.   I therefore suggest creating a facility in Enterprise Guide and SAS Studio, similar to the old proc fsedit, for creating/editing SAS datasets. ... View more

When I make a format, about 99.9% of the time I expect it to be exhaustive of the values that will be encountered.  It would be nice to be able to define a format that would throw an error to the log if a value was not found.   For example:   proc format; value sex 1='F' 2='M' other=_ERROR_ /*pseudo code*/ ; run; data have; input sex ; cards; 1 1 3 ; run;   When the format is used, it would throw an error to the log.  So below PROC step and DATA step would both throw errors, ideally listing the invalid value:   proc freq data=have; tables sex; format sex sex.; run; data want; set have; sexC=put(sex,sex.); run;   I know there are alternatives, e.g., data want; set have; sexC=put(sex,sex.); if sexC="_ERROR_" then put "ERROR: invalid value " sex=; run; But it would be nice to have a way to say when a format is created, "if any value is outside the domain of values defined in the format, throw an error [or warning or note]."   ... View more

Hi,   When selecting cells in a cross-tab, it should be possible to copy the selected cells and paste them elsewhere, e.g. Excel, without having to export the entire table. As it is right now, it is possible for report readers to select cells, thus highlighting the cells in blue, but as far as I know this does not give the user any new options. For me being able to select specific cells gives the reader the impression that it is possible to copy the selected cells, like in so many other programs, only to leave them confused or disappointed. I am currently on version 7.2   - Kasper ... View more