Hi, I dont think the issue is importing a docx file, but being able to include it in the project as a word file. This is often useful if you have documentation or other material in word format that you want to include in your project. Whilst .pdf and .doc files can be included without issues, SAS EG tries to import .docx files as a data file, which, is not what we want it to do. Nick ... View more

I dont think SAS EG is capable of opening up .docx documents. Can anyone clarify whether this capability will be present in future EG versions? Nick ... View more

Hi Jen, Yes, if you have SAS EG 4.305, then try this one. http://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/C44.html#C44010 Nick ... View more

Hi, I had this same problem and was resolved with the latest hotfix ftp://ftp.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/D18.html Nick ... View more

Hi, I assume that you are accessing an external relational database, using some access engine. If this is the case, or you are using your local ODBC from SAS EG, then, your query is probably not implicitly able to use SQL passthrough. That means, that SAS need to copy the entire database contents before it is able to process the query, as apposed to using the DBMS to carry out the processing and only pushing through the data that you need. This is the difference between waiting minutes, possibly hours, compared to a few seconds. If you dig up from the SAS Global Forum 2011 the Paper 'Explicit SQL Pass-through: Is it Still Useful', there are some hints on this issue. This article is also useful: http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/sgf2008/optimization.pdf Nick ... View more

Thanks Chris, I have done exactly that - serialized to an XML in Windows/temp. Just wanted to make sure there was no inbuilt method. Nick ... View more

Thanks Chris, The problem is that I dont quite get how these get and set methods work. The methods return or deserialize a string, but does this string need to be stored somewhere? Remember, my custom task's show method returns a 'Canceled' ShowResult value, and therefore does not store a result. I have tried to implement what is demonstrated in the examples into my custom task, but it doesnt seem to work. What might I be doing wrong? I have had to resort to serialize the properties into an xml file, but your examples don't seem to require this. An explanation, or a reference to somewhere which explains how these methods are handled would be helpful. Is there something being done behind the scenes with these methods that might help me figure it out? Thanks, Nick ... View more

Hi, If you are accessing data from a remote server, and processing a query locally using SAS EG then SAS EG has to copy all the data to the local session before it can process it. Perhaps this is the problem. Nick ... View more

Hi, I have noticed the same problem. I am now using 4.3 and have not noticed this quirk so far. Nick ... View more

I do all of that and more...and I use SAS EG. GIve SAS EG a go - I dont think you have. Are you aware of the power and flexibility of SAS BI? I am quite perplexed because SAS EG and SAS BI can do all of that efficiently - and if you are interested in improving data manipulation, then .NET has much more power and flexibility. Point and click is a suplliment not a replacement in SAS EG. The best IDE's such as Visual Studio use point and click. Where have you been? Why are you not pressing for improving SAS EG rather than developing a whole new environment? The reason there is no SAS IDE and never will is because there is no need to. Can't wait for SAS EG 4.3 - the improvements keep coming. Nick ... View more

Final thought, I have read your thread, and the deficiencies relate to a fraction of people using SAS, not to mention your misconceptions about numbered lines, accessing the OS, and being able to see catalogues (which you can with a downloadable custom task) SAS EG enables you to write code as normal, produce code using the custom tasks, produce code templates from the custom tasks which allow you to modify into macros, modularise your code (segmenting data output, and log for debugging), configure your windows including set up windows using a dual display, and with EG 4.3, will have intellisence, and other predictive code options. Not and IDE???? I think it comes down to the 80/20 rule - aim to please the 80% as the 20% are never satisfied. Nick ... View more

Hi again, I am still no sure what it is in SAS EG and what SAS are doing that you cant accomplish alot easier than before. If you want to use the fat client SAS then you can still use your old code editor and SAS EG. You can write code as you always have, utilising the automatic code generating capablities to focus on more challenging tasks. You can still access your OS by making a simple registry change. You can still create macros, and extend them by including drop down menus to input parameters. With SAS EG 4.3 you will have intellisence type features to help you develop. You will also be able to call up projects and autoexecute processes which gives me alot of ideas about how to improve the modularisation of my programs. And there are ever more available .NET templates and how to guides for SAS EG that will make producing custom and user friendly programs accessable to SAS programmers. Thus, whilst I do understand SAS not pulling the plug on the older features, SAS is doing what alot of companies are doing ; leverages current technologies to capture what more and more people expect - an easy to use and intuitive interface to their statistical analysis. It has been an interesting discussion, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds. Nick ... View more