August 2024

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SAS’ Falko Schulz created an infographic using SAS^® Visual Analytics that reveals cool (pun intended 😉) data points about Antarctica. Curious about Emperor penguins? You’ll learn about their resilience. Check it out.

Dear Reader:

Welcome to the new tips-centric SAS Tech Report! You’ll find a beefed-up Tips & Tricks section, what’s new items, an advice column, user group news and upcoming free learning events. Ready to start or add to your SAS swag collection? You’ll be entered in a random drawing if you watch the latest SAS Viya Release Highlights Show in order to complete the sentence where indicated below. Hit reply with the completed sentence within a week and – voila – you’re entered.

Thank you for being a part of the SAS community.
Happy reading!

Bev Brown
Editor, Tech Report

Someone forwarded you this edition of Tech Report? Subscribe to receive your own copy each month! To see back issues, visit the archive on SAS Communities.

Pretty code is as pretty code does Hello SAS enthusiasts! One thing I’ve learned about SAS programmers over the years: they have definite feelings about how to format their code for readability. Some of the hot debates include: Use proper case (My_Variable_Name) instead of camel case (myVariableName) for variable names. Put TITLE statements in open code (not within PROC steps), as they are global statements. Use blank lines to separate steps (such as DATA steps and PROC steps). Don’t place multiple statements in a single line of code. Tabs versus spaces for indentation (made famous by a feud on Silicon Valley). As a programmer with decades of experience and habits formed across many different programming languages, I also have opinions about all of these choices. But when it comes to formatting, I have ceded all of the work to the automatic formatting features offered by modern SAS code editors. Did you know that SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Studio and even the SAS extension for VS Code all provide quick “pretty print” capabilities, with just a keystroke? Even if the result isn’t the same as my own artisanal code formatting, the time saved is – to me – well worth the compromise. In SAS Enterprise Guide or SAS Studio in SAS Viya, the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+B, or click the Format Code icon in the toolbar. In VS Code, right-click and select Format Document. Each application offers options that allow you some control over how the formatting behaves. My friend and noted SAS expert Ron Cody shares his code formatting tips here.  What are your SAS code formatting peccadillos? Do they make your teammates a little bit crazy? Hit reply and let me know.

Search & Find for Swag: SAS Viya Release Highlights Show
In the most recent episode, you’ll hear about new features in SAS Studio, SAS Information Governance, A/B test nodes in SAS Intelligent Decisioning and much more. Want a chance to win cool SAS swag*? Listen carefully as you watch the show, fill in the two blanks below and email the completed sentence to communities@sas.com by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5.
“Model cards are essentially a _________ _____ for your model.” (Hint: You’ll find the analogy just past the halfway point.)
*The value of the swag is $5 or less, in case your employer has rules about what you can accept. If you win the random drawing, you’ll receive an email asking for your mailing address.

5 ways to select random samples
In this blog post, Rick Wicklin shows how to use the SAS DATA step to implement five common sampling methods.

Learn to resize, rename and reformat with SAS Macro
Ever worked with data that had crazy column names, custom formats you no longer have access to or enormous text columns way too big for the data they contain? Turns out it’s not that hard to fix – and this 18-minute video by Mark Jordan, the SAS Jedi, shows you the way. You’ll also find macro programs you can download to make the process even easier.

Connect your SAS program code to Microsoft 365
In this recently updated blog post, SAS’ Chris Hemedinger shows you how to use SAS to read and create Microsoft Excel documents. Yes, cloud-based files can add an extra wrinkle when you automate the process, but also introduce some exciting possibilities.

Unlock the power of SAS Formats
Looking for a way to simplify your SAS formatting? Read Peter Crawford’s guide, which helps you navigate more than 1,000 formats and informats using the SASHELP.VFORMAT table.

Get up to speed on INTNX and INTCK functions
One of the best ways to understand the INTNX and INTCK functions and how they work is to see some easy examples. This SAS Community article gives you four of each and includes a video tutorial for those of you who learn best that way.

Learn how to sort data in SAS
This SAS Community article shows how to sort SAS data sets using the SORT procedure to sort records by one or more variables in ascending or descending sequence. The article includes a video tutorial and a resource for situations when using PROC SORT isn’t needed or recommended.

Check out the SAS^® Viya^® Workbench Quick Start Playlist
Check out the 12-minute video Get Started with SAS Viya Workbench, the first of six tutorials that guide you through the essential steps to using the dynamic self-service platform for analytical development, data engineering and AI and machine learning model building. The SAS Viya Workbench Quick Start playlist is available on the SAS Users YouTube channel and sas.com.

SESUG: Regular registration closes Friday, September 6 There’s still time to register for SESUG, taking place Sept. 22 – 24 at the North Bethesda Marriott. Register by Sept. 6 to take advantage of the regular registration rate. We’ll see you there! MWSUG early registration is open through Friday, October 11 MWSUG 2024, November 17-19, 2024, will take place at the Milwaukee Marriott West in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Students and professors get a significant discount. Group discounts are also available. Get the details and register today!

(Each is one hour and complimentary.) Executing SAS Analytics From R Shiny Applications Join SAS’ Samiul Haque at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 5 to learn how SAS® Viya® offers various ways to establish connectivity between R and SAS sessions. Improving Manufacturing Product Quality With Bayesian Computation in SAS® Viya® At 11:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 17, join José G. Ramírez, Chief Statistician within the Global MSAT group at Kite, a Gilead company, and SAS’ Fang Chen, Ph.D., to learn how Kite, a global cell therapy leader, applies advanced statistical methods in SAS Viya to improve manufacturing quality, safety and timelines. Moving to SAS® Viya® From SAS®9 Join SAS’ Kevin Bickford at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 24 to learn the tools necessary to identify SAS®9 content that can be moved to SAS Viya and what the migration process will look like.

How to connect SAS to your Git profile Git and SAS—how do they fit together? In his SAS Communities Library article, Chris Hemedinger clarifies everything and provides step-by-step instructions on how to set things up. SAS Bowl XLIII, The New SAS Developer Portal Join us at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wed., Sept. 18 for the SAS Bowl Trivia. We're dedicating this edition of the game to the new SAS developer portal since the old one has shut down. Register for the event and receive an invite to a Microsoft Teams meeting and a calendar event.