September 2026

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Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌  

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Dear Reader,

Ready to take the spotlight at SAS Innovate 2027? Now is the perfect time to get involved in SAS's biggest data and AI event of the year!

The call for content is open for SAS Innovate 2027, happening April 12-14 in Las Vegas. If you've used SAS to solve tough challenges, drive business value, or uncover new insights, consider sharing your experience with the global SAS community. Your story could inspire someone else's next breakthrough. Submit your proposal by October 23.

You can also showcase your team's accomplishments through the 2027 Jim Goodnight Excellence Awards. These awards recognize SAS customers who are making a meaningful impact through analytics and innovation. Winning teams receive recognition from SAS, exclusive swag, and a trip to SAS Innovate 2027 to accept their award on stage. Nominations open October 5 and run through November 20. 

Las Vegas awaits!

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.

Tech tips with Chris

Over the past few months, I've been moving some of my SAS 9 workloads (and I have a lot of these) to our SAS Viya environment. The transition has been refreshingly straightforward. Most of my SAS programs run without any code changes at all! Along the way, I've partnered with our system support team to enable job scheduling, adjust firewall access to key services, and establish the right storage locations for the data I manage. Once I get things working as-is, I can go back with a second pass to take advantage of Viya's enhanced capabilities and data storage techniques.

The payoff is significant: a more resilient and sustainable process that supports business continuity and reduces our reliance on legacy systems. If you're considering your own move to Viya, join our upcoming Move to Viya workshop to learn more about the migration experience, common considerations, and practical tips for getting started.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks

SAS Tutorial | Simplifying SAS Viya: Key Concepts for Programmers
New to SAS Viya? This quick tutorial explains the key concepts every SAS programmer should know to get started working effectively in the platform.

Why Does My SAS Viya Platform Stop Responding From Time to Time?
Learn how session timeouts, resource constraints, and other common factors can cause SAS Viya to appear unresponsive, along with practical tips for troubleshooting and prevention.

SAS Macros: Error Handling Best Practices
Make your SAS macros more reliable by learning how to validate inputs, add self-documentation, and generate clear error messages that simplify troubleshooting.

Python your way: 6 ways to run Python in SAS Viya (The SAS Extension for VS Code)
Discover how the SAS Extension for VS Code lets you run Python, SAS, and SQL together in a familiar development environment while leveraging the power of SAS Viya.

Beyond the dashboard: how SAS Viya Copilot lets curiosity lead the analysis
See how SAS Viya Copilot empowers users to ask natural-language questions, generate new visualizations, and uncover insights beyond what was originally built into a dashboard.

How Much Farther? Calculating Distance in SAS
Learn how to use SAS distance functions to calculate and analyze geographic distances between locations for mapping, spatial analysis, and real-world business applications.

Implement a zero-inflated distribution in SAS
Explore how to build and use a zero-inflated Beta distribution in SAS, including custom PDF, CDF, quantile, and random-number generation functions.

The Model Zoo: LLMs, SLMs, and VLMs, Oh My!
Cut through the AI buzzwords with a practical guide to LLMs, SLMs, VLMs, reasoning models, and diffusion models, and learn where each fits in modern analytics workflows.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case

No disruption: Modernizing the analytics behind Dutch real estate
Brainbay modernized its analytics platform by migrating to SAS® Viya® 4 on Notilyze Cloud, ensuring uninterrupted access to critical Dutch housing market data while enabling more advanced insights and decision-making for real estate professionals.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events

(Each is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.)

FREE Virtual Event! Skills Fest: Master Machine Learning Models | October 2nd, 2026 | 9am - 5pm ET
Join us for another free, one-day, virtual training event with SAS experts who will explore common machine learning methods across the modeling lifecycle – from data preparation and variable selection to model building, tuning and interpretability. No matter your experience level, leave with actual skills and a clear idea of what to learn next.

SAS Functions that put the "FUN" in Programming
Tuesday, October 6 | 10 a.m. ET
There’s a SAS programming tool for that! Discover functions that can simplify complex tasks, eliminate repetitive code and make your programs easier to read and maintain. And they may be hiding in plain sight – we’ll show you how to use them. You'll learn:

• Essential DATA step functions every SAS programmer should know.
• Useful character, date and conditional functions for everyday coding.
• Function-driven techniques that simplify macro programming.

How Can I Integrate SAS Viya with Microsoft 365?
Tuesday, October 13 | 10 a.m. ET
Tools like Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint are used every day. Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily access them from your SAS Viya environment? We’ll show you how to embed powerful analytics insights from SAS within these tools. You will learn to:

• Make informed business decisions by enhancing Microsoft documents with analytics insights.
• Work with data in Microsoft applications and upload Excel files to SAS Viya.
• Create SAS programs and insert results from programs and SAS jobs into Excel.

MAP to Success: Using ODS Graphics for Data Visualization
Thursday, October 15 | 11 a.m. ET
We know it can be daunting, but creating a custom graph is possible. We’ll show you step by step how to use Output Delivery System (ODS) Graphics and Graph Template Language (GTL) to truly customize your graphs.. You will learn how to:

• Start with a plot created with SG procedures and use TMPOUT to help generate GTL code.
• Combine different graphs into one graph using GTL.
• Understand what is meant by “gutter” in a multi-cell graph.

Getting Started with SAS Visual Analytics: Build your first Dashboard
Thursday, October 22 | 9 a.m. ET
Are you ready to turn data into insights? We’ll show you how. Go from loading and exploring data to building interactive dashboards with SAS Visual Analytics. Create compelling visualizations so you can share discoveries that resonate with business decision-makers. You will learn:

• How to explore and prepare data for analysis in SAS Visual Analytics.
• Techniques for creating effective charts, reports and dashboards. Ways to add interactivity and share insights with stakeholders.
• Tips for prompting SAS® Viya® Copilot in SAS Visual Analytics.

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