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Barrels and Borders - The Geopolitics of Fuel Dependency
Falko Schulz explores the volatile intersection of global geopolitical conflict and historical fuel prices from 1970 to the present. He visually maps the fragility of the world's energy supply by highlighting extreme geographic concentrations of oil production alongside highly vulnerable maritime transit chokepoints.
Dear Reader,
The AI conversation is maturing. Organizations are moving beyond experimentation and asking a more practical question: how can we get meaningful work done faster without sacrificing trust?
Across SAS, we're seeing growing interest in agentic AI, AI-assisted development, governance, and modernization initiatives that help teams move faster and scale innovation responsibly. This month's issue highlights resources that can help you put those ideas into practice, from SAS Viya Copilot tips and prompt engineering guidance to migration strategies, advanced analytics techniques, and real-world examples of AI in action.
Cheers,
Thiago De Souza
Editor, SAS Tech Report
Someone forwarded you this edition of Tech Report? Subscribe to receive your own copy each month! Back issues “live” on the SAS Support Community.
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I'm planning an Ask the Expert webinar for later this year, tentatively titled "SAS Functions that Put the FUN in SAS Programming." The session will introduce some of my favorite and most-used SAS functions from DATA step and SAS macro programming.
When I ask SAS users about their favorite functions, a few core functions consistently rise to the top: INPUT, SCAN, SUBSTR, CATX, MISSING, and SUM. From there, the conversation often moves to date and datetime functions such as INTCK and INTX. Their names may not be intuitive, but they provide tremendous power for working with time differences and intervals. Eventually, we reach the most divisive category: PRXMATCH and the other PRX* functions. These functions bring the power of regular expressions to SAS programming, which can be transformative, but they also come with a steep learning curve.
What about you? What's your favorite function? Better yet, what's an example of an underutilized SAS function that you've been able to leverage particularly well? Let me know!
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Tips & tricks
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SAS Viya Copilot for Code Assistance | SAS Viya Quick Start Tutorial
See how SAS Viya Copilot helps developers work faster by explaining code, generating new programs, fixing issues, improving readability, and assisting with both SAS and Python development directly in SAS Data and AI Studio.
SAS® Viya® Copilot Prompt Library
Explore a collection of ready-to-use prompts and best practices designed to help you get more value from SAS Viya Copilot across products such as Data & AI Studio, Model Studio, Visual Analytics, and more.
A Hidden Gem in SAS: Using PROC GLMSELECT to Dummy Code Categorical Variables
Learn a time-saving technique for generating dummy variables with PROC GLMSELECT, making it easier to prepare categorical data for SAS procedures that require numeric inputs.
An alternative Pareto chart in SAS
Discover a statistically enhanced version of the Pareto chart that uses acceptance intervals to help determine whether the most common causes in your data are truly significant or simply due to chance.
The three components you need to use agentic AI with SAS
Learn how interface design, agentic AI tools, and a SAS connection layer work together to enable AI-assisted coding, testing, and debugging in SAS 9 environments.
From SAS 9 to SAS Viya: Modernize analytics without starting over
Explore practical ways to modernize from SAS 9 to SAS Viya by adding AI assistance, agentic AI, open-source collaboration, and scalable cloud capabilities while preserving existing investments.
Loading SAS Data with Formats to Object Storage Parquet
Learn how to move SAS data and preserve format metadata when loading datasets into Parquet files stored in cloud object storage for use with SAS Viya.
SAS 9 Content Assessment: the Profile Report for SAS Data Sets
Discover how the SAS 9 Content Assessment Profile Report helps identify data characteristics, migration risks, and optimization opportunities when moving to SAS Viya.
Ant Colony Optimization metaheuristic in SAS Optimization
See how the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm can be implemented in SAS Optimization to solve complex routing and combinatorial problems such as the Traveling Salesman Problem.
Hoyer's sparseness measure
Gain an intuitive understanding of Hoyer’s sparseness metric and how it quantifies the concentration of values within a vector, with visualizations and examples in SAS/IML.
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When milliseconds matter: Building smarter, safer manufacturing
Georgia-Pacific uses SAS Viya, Intelligent Decisioning and Event Stream Processing to deploy thousands of AI models in minutes, helping optimize manufacturing, reduce downtime, improve safety and preserve critical operational knowledge across more than 150 facilities.
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Community and user group news
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Western Users of SAS Software Educational Forum and Conference
WUSS is an education-focused and energy-packed conference featuring the best and brightest data software users and experts from industries all over the country. This year’s conference will feature more than a hundred live presentations, classes, demos, and hands-on workshops on SAS, R, Python, statistics, analytics, advanced techniques, a special SAS Essentials Track for early career programmers and so much more. Register today to save $200 off our on-site registration rate and join us September 1-3 at the Hyatt Regency Burlingame.
Southeast & Atlantic SAS Users Group Conference
The SEASUG annual conference is taking place October 22–24, in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Hosted at the Penn State Great Valley Graduate Campus, SEASUG brings together analytics professionals, programmers, statisticians, educators, researchers, and students for three days of technical learning and professional networking. Attendees are encouraged to register by September 2 to take advantage of early registration pricing and pre-conference tutorials. Whether you plan to attend, present, or both, SEASUG 2026 offers valuable opportunities to expand your technical expertise and connect with fellow analytics professionals. Learn more and register at www.sesug.org.
Midwest SAS Users Group Conference
The Midwest SAS Users Group (MWSUG) conference will be held in Madison, WI at the Monona Terrace November 15-17. Deadlines to be part of the event are approaching, so act fast and keep checking www.mwsug.org for all the latest information! The call for content has been extended until August 1, and we are still looking for abstracts to capture the attention of SAS and Open Source programmers. If your work follows one of the MWSUG 2026 Section Descriptions, then you have what it takes to show us a solution you have and teach your audience how you got there. You can also attend the conference at a discounted rate! There are mentors available to assist you in creating content, but for now we just need your ideas. Submit your abstracts here: MWSUG 2026 Call for Papers.
2026 SAS Hackathon
Registration for the 2026 SAS Hackathon is now open, giving teams access to SAS® Viya® and the latest analytics, AI, and cloud-native capabilities! Participants can experiment with real-world data, leverage modern SAS tools, and receive guidance from expert mentors to accelerate solution development and deepen technical expertise. Register early to secure your spot!
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Upcoming learning events
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(Each webinar is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.)
How is AI Transforming Clinical Data Programming?
Join this webinar on Tuesday, August 4 at 11:00 AM ET to explore how clinical trials can be accelerated while improving consistency, quality and regulatory compliance.
Supercharging SAS Model Manager From Standard Workflows to Advanced Performance
Join this webinar on Tuesday, August 11 at 11:00 AM ET and see firsthand the way open-source scoring enhances SAS Model Manager.
How is SAS Customer Intelligence 360 Marketing AI Redefining Marketing?
Join this webinar on Thursday, August 20 at 9:00 AM ET (30 min.) to learn how to apply Marketing AI at the point of decision - not just in your dashboards after the fact.
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