While you are putting finishing touches on your final submission videos, I want to emphasize the power of storytelling and encourage you to check out past winners’ videos for inspiration! ... View more

  The final hacking day is upon us! It is now time for teams to turn in their final submissions, which are due by October 19th. Each submission requires a Use Case Form, a short pitch video, and a longer main video. Check out this post for full guidelines, examples, and a team checklist. You’ve done the work, now it’s time to show the world! ... View more

  Only one week remains in the #SASHackathon! This update covers key deadlines, final submission requirements, and important reminders for Student Track participants—including a chance to join Office Hours on Oct. 6 for helpful tips. Teams can now submit their use case form and two required videos. Let’s finish strong—see you at the finish line! ... View more

  Get the latest on the SAS Hackathon! Teams are actively building with SAS tools, mentors are in place, and the October 10th project deadline is approaching. Don’t forget to share your journey using #SASHackathon! ... View more

  The SAS Hackathon has officially launched! With over 2,000 registrants, 120 teams, and more than 1,000 students, this is our largest Hackathon yet. Teams are being onboarded, mentors assigned, and the Cortex simulation game is underway! ... View more

  Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   To view this email in your web browser, click here. Miles and Confidence: Vehicle Types on the Move Take a look at this horizontal bar chart showing vehicle mileage by type, built with PROC SGPLOT’s HBAR and HBARPARM magic. Bonus: it includes confidence limits to show how sure we are about each number! Dear Reader, It's time to mark your calendar for SAS Innovate 2026, the ultimate data and AI event for business leaders, technical users, and SAS partners! If you thought SAS Innovate 2025 was a blast, the 2026 edition will be even better. We’re heading to Grapevine, Texas from April 27–30, 2026 for another unforgettable experience. Whether you're looking to boost productivity, explore cutting-edge AI, or soak up some serious inspiration from your peers, this is the place to be. Until then, SAS Innovate On Tour is still rolling through cities around the globe for the rest of 2025. These free, high-energy events bring the same innovation-packed agenda to your backyard, so you can connect, learn, and get inspired without the travel. You might even bump into some SAS Hackathon ambassadors (and don’t forget to register for that… time is running out). So go ahead, save that date, and get ready to innovate. We’ll see you in Texas! 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 In the SAS Support Community, few things stir up excitement like a file that’s been labeled "complicated." Recently, a user posted a challenge: how to read a quirky, non-standard file into SAS. The file had odd delimiters, inconsistent formatting, and just enough mystery to make it irresistible. Within hours, the thread lit up with responses. SAS programmers—true DATA step operatives—responded quickly with elegant solutions, clever tricks, and deep knowledge of the INPUT statement. From @ pointer controls to STOPOVER and TRUNCOVER options, the community showcased the unmatched versatility of SAS in reading any file format. This is where SAS shines. Whether it’s fixed-width, delimited, hierarchical, or just plain weird, SAS has the tools to tame it. The DATA step isn’t just a way to read data—it’s a language for understanding it, reshaping it, and making sense of the messiest inputs. (You can learn these tricks for yourself in this free Ask the Expert training session: The Lost Art of Reading and Loading Raw Data in SAS.) So next time you're staring down a "complicated" file, remember: it’s not a problem—it’s an invitation. And if you need backup, call in the SAS Community as your own special forces team. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks SAS Models, Fairness Monitoring | SAS Viya June and July Release In this month's SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we focus on ready-made AI models and how SAS is bringing AI directly to your doorstep. Our experts will also discuss the Trustworthy AI Life Cycle and publishing SAS models in Databricks in SAS Model Manager. Plus, hear about some exciting SAS Studio updates including the new data connection manager, code editor, and job enhancements. Additionally, we highlight new features such as the DuckDB Access Engine in SAS Studio, an LLM custom step generator with Azure OpenAI and more! Cohen's D statistic in SAS When comparing the means of two groups, it can be useful to standardize the measurements. A popular standardized statistic in the social sciences is called Cohen’s d. In this blog post, Rick Wicklin discusses Cohen’s d statistic and how to implement it in SAS. In a follow-up post, he shows how to obtain confidence intervals, too. SAS Tutorial | Partitioning Data in Model Studio - for SAS Enterprise Miner Users When building predictive models, honest assessment on a hold-out sample is the tried-and-true method to best guarantee model generalizability as well as to obtain a fair measure of model performance. In this SAS How To Tutorial, Senior Analytic Training Consultant Jeff Thompson explains the differences and similarities between partitioning data in Model Studio versus SAS Enterprise Miner. SAS 9.4 News for z/OS (MVS) SAS is actively testing SAS 9.4M8 and M9 on IBM’s upcoming z/OS Version 3 Release 2 and z17 systems, with plans to support the 64-bit IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition for z/OS. These efforts reinforce SAS’s commitment to hybrid cloud and AI readiness for enterprise clients leveraging mainframe platforms. A case of nostalgia: Clippy once walked so that AI could run Reflecting on the quirky legacy of Clippy, Jarno Lindqvist explores how modern AI copilots have evolved into context-aware assistants that boost productivity, enhance decision-making, and support developers with intelligent coding tools. It highlights the shift from novelty to necessity as AI becomes an integral part of everyday workflows. CI/CD for Python and SAS: Build modern workflows with GitHub Actions Sean Ford shows us how to modernize legacy SAS workflows by integrating Python and automating processes using GitHub Actions and SAS Viya Workbench. This guide walks through building collaborative CI/CD pipelines across diverse development environments, streamlining production and boosting efficiency. Build without bias: Bias mitigation built-in with ML procedures in SAS Viya SAS Viya now features built-in bias detection and mitigation across its machine learning procedures, helping users create more ethical and trustworthy AI models. This update reduces manual effort and addresses critical issues like prediction, training data, and intersectional bias to prevent discriminatory outcomes. Demand planning with SAS Discover how SAS Demand Planning on Viya 4 empowers retailers to sense demand shifts in real time, optimize forecasts with machine learning, and drive agile supply chain decisions. Learn how intelligent planning tools help deliver the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time. Building seamless data pipelines across multiple languages: A life sciences and healthcare use case leveraging R and SAS Emmett Smith demonstrates how combining SAS and R in a unified environment streamlines data science workflows in life sciences and healthcare. This reduces friction, boosts collaboration, and enables seamless transitions from data cleaning to model development and app deployment. Revolutionizing motor insurance: A model for automated claims assessment SAS is streamlining motor insurance claims by automating the entire process, from uploading accident images to predicting damage and accessing policy details. This integrated solution improves speed, reduces fraud and human error, and enhances the customer experience by combining data management, machine learning, and user-friendly tools. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case Transforming logistics and package delivery with data and AI French delivery leader Relais Colis transformed its logistics operations using SAS Visual Analytics, enabling real-time tracking, optimized transport flows, and rapid adaptation during the COVID-19 crisis. The shift from spreadsheets to data-driven decision-making helped streamline operations, improve service quality, and unify internal data across teams. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers SAS Bowl LIV, SAS and Generative AI You can't go anywhere today and not hear/read/see Generative AI. Generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence models designed to create new content, such as text, images, music, or code, by learning patterns from existing data. Unlike traditional AI systems that focus on classification or prediction, generative AI can produce original outputs that mimic human creativity. Technologies like large language models (e.g., GPT), diffusion models for image generation, and generative adversarial networks (GANs) are at the forefront of this field. We're featuring Generative AI in the September edition of the SAS Bowl. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.) Ask the Expert: Data Science Meets A/B and Multi-Arm Bandit Testing in SAS® Customer Intelligence 360 Join SAS' Suneel Grover at 9:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., September 4 to learn how smarter testing yields dynamic, real-time results with SAS Customer Intelligence 360. You will learn: How to choose the right testing strategy — from classic A/B to adaptive multi-armed bandits. Ways to integrate SAS CI360 insights into your existing marketing workflows with minimal disruption. Best practices for using advanced analytics and machine learning to optimize campaigns in real time. How to measure success and turn test results into actionable business value. Ask the Expert: How Do I Make a SAS Macro? Join SAS' Alison Saito at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., September 9 to learn how to automate repetitive tasks using macro programming. You will learn about: Context/background of the SAS macro facility. Macro variables. Macro conditional processing. Ask the Expert: PROC BGLIMM: The Smooth Transition to Bayesian Analysis Join SAS' Danny Modlin at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., September 18 to learn about the BGLIMM procedure, allowing you to transition your models to the Bayesian realm. You will: Discover the difference between using PROC MCMC and PROC BGLIMM for Bayesian analysis. Explore the diagnostic output provided for Bayesian analysis. Determine how a Bayesian approach to analysis can be helpful. Ask the Expert: Scaling Advanced Analytics Across the Enterprise With SAS Custom Analytics Framework Join SAS' David Frede and Priya Sharma at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tues., September 23 to learn how you can put powerful analytics to work for you – without writing code. You will learn how to: Empower domain experts with AI, without coding. Scale and standardize analytics across the enterprise. Accelerate decision-making from IoT data. This email was sent to %%ONPREM.root.Contact Email%%. Edit SAS Profile Unsubscribe SAS Privacy Statement © SAS Institute Inc. SAS Campus Drive, Cary NC 27513 USA. ... View more

In this month's SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we focus on ready-made AI models and how SAS is bringing AI directly to your doorstep.   Our experts will also discuss the Trustworthy AI Life Cycle and publishing SAS models in Databricks in SAS Model Manager.   Plus, hear about some exciting SAS Studio updates including the new data connection manager, code editor, and job enhancements.   Additionally, we highlight new features such as the DuckDB Access Engine in SAS Studio, an LLM custom step generator with Azure OpenAI and more! ... View more

  Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   To view this email in your web browser, click here. Through the years: SAS Enterprise Guide versions Chris Hemedinger charts the evolution of SAS Enterprise Guide from version 1.0 in 1999 to 8.6 in 2025, highlighting key milestones, platform updates, and how EG has adapted to support SAS Viya and Workbench. Dear Reader, If Generative AI is on your radar (and let’s be honest—how could it not be?), you’re exactly where you need to be. Gartner agrees: SAS has been named an Emerging Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant for Generative AI Engineering! This recognition highlights SAS’s strengths in full-model lifecycle management, multi-agent orchestration, and synthetic data generation. These capabilities are key to building GenAI solutions that go beyond simple prompting and actually deliver trustworthy, production-ready results. What’s exciting is how this aligns with what we’re seeing across industries: organizations are looking for GenAI tools that are secure, scalable, and smart. SAS Viya’s embedded GenAI features are helping customers do just that… boosting productivity, improving ROI, and supporting responsible innovation. Stick around for the usual tips, tricks, guides, events, and all the good stuff to help you get the most out of SAS! 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. Tech tips with Chris This month, I was inspired by this community question (and the responses!): When is your SAS program good enough? We’ve all been there—staring at a SAS program wondering, “What was I thinking when I wrote this?”  A good SAS program isn’t just one that runs without errors (though that’s a great start). It’s one that’s clear, reliable, and easy to maintain—even if someone else has to pick it up months later. Or worse… you have to pick it up months later. Here are a few qualities that make a SAS program shine: Readable: Use meaningful names, clean formatting, and comments that explain why you did something—not just what you did. Modular: Break things into chunks. Macros, reusable steps, and logical flow make your code easier to tweak and reuse. Resilient: Build in checks for missing data, weird values, and unexpected hiccups. Documented: Leave breadcrumbs! Version notes, assumptions, and usage tips go a long way. Efficient: Don’t waste cycles. Optimize where it counts, especially with big data. And some best practices to keep your code in tip-top shape: Use version control (Git is your friend). Test your logic with sample data or known outputs. Automate repetitive stuff with macros or templates. Review and refactor—your future self will thank you. Tell me: what are your best tips for writing good programs? ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks SAS Tutorial | Creating a Custom Step, Part 4: Running Your Step You’ve planned, built, and coded a custom step. There’s only one thing left to do: run it! In this final installment of the Creating a Custom Step series, follow along with SAS Senior Analytical Training consultant Danny Modlin as he shows you two ways to run a custom step. Unlocking the power of SAS Procedures Learn how SAS Procedures power a wide range of analytics and discover a new cheat sheet designed to help users work more efficiently. Resetting Report States using the Reports API and SAS® Viya Jobs Discover how to use the Reports API and SAS Viya Jobs to create a "Reset Filters" button that returns Visual Analytics reports to their default state, helping users clear filters quickly and easily. Strengthen your SAS skills with the WEEK function Rick Wicklin shows you how to use the WEEK function in SAS to accurately assign week numbers to dates using ISO standards, including handling leap weeks and year transitions. 5 Steps for Starting your AI Journey Explore the strategy and execution to help you and your organization begin your trustworthy AI journey in this new blog series. Part 1 explores the foundational steps to take while embarking on your AI journey with clarity and purpose, while Part 2 addresses moving from strategy to execution, scaling AI responsibly and unlocking its full potential. Fighting fraud, waste, and abuse in health care: How SAS is democratizing AI for payment integrity SAS is redefining health care fraud prevention with a new Payment Integrity solution that uses low-code AI to help analysts and business users detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse faster and more effectively. The ultimate guide to maximizing your amusement park experience Discover how SAS Optimization and Visual Analytics can help amusement park visitors plan smarter, skip long lines, and enjoy more attractions through personalized, data-driven itineraries. Creating an Onboarding Scheduled Journey in Customer Intelligence 360 Learn how to configure an onboarding journey in SAS Customer Intelligence 360 using scheduled tasks and journey conditions to guide new users through personalized experiences. SAS/CONNECT on SAS Viya with Kerberos Get step-by-step guidance on configuring SAS/CONNECT in SAS Viya to use Kerberos authentication, enabling secure, seamless connections between SAS clients and services. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case AI transforms online insurance services HUK24 uses SAS Viya to power its AI-driven digital platform, transforming its website into a reliable virtual insurance assistant that improves customer trust, speeds up service, and delivers context-aware responses from the first interaction 1. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers The Best of Both Worlds: Using SAS and R Together in SAS Viya Workbench In this SAS Communities article, Shelby Taylor explains that with a shared file system and support for notebooks across multiple languages, SAS Viya Workbench lets you mix and match SAS and R in the same project. It's a flexible, modern setup that keeps everything connected and in sync — so you can stay focused on the data, not the logistics. SAS Bowl LIII, SAS Hackathon 2025 It's that time of year. The brightest minds from around the world come together to use SAS Analytics, AI and open source on Microsoft Azure to collaborate in the #SAShackathon. Registration is now open (through August 31) and the Hack runs from September 15 through October 11. The SAS Hackathon is such a great event, we're featuring it in the August edition of the SAS Bowl. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​User group news Early registration for Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS) ends Aug. 4 Everyone wants to save money, so don't forget to get your early registration in for WUSS. Prices are the lowest they'll be. And there are special deals for Academic attendees and military service members. Register today! Lots of deals on early registration for Southeast SAS Users Group (SESUG) Sign up for SESUG before Aug. 11 and save money. Will this be your first SESUG? You can save even more. Students, government and military also save money, so don't delay. Register today! MidWest SAS Users Group (MWSUG) Call for Presentations SAS is so rich in function and application that everyone is an expert on something. This year, share your expertise with fellow users at MWSUG 2025. Proposals are due Aug. 15. Early registration is also open. We hope to see you there! ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.) Ask the Expert: Credit Risk Decisioning Using Intelligent Decisioning on SAS® Viya® Join SAS' Carla Boustany and Carl Eastwood at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., August 5 to discover how Intelligent Decisioning on SAS Viya can help streamline credit originations, improve risk management and boost productivity. This webinar will explore new features designed to enhance decision-making efficiency while minimizing risk and customer friction. You will learn about: How some of the new features can be applied to credit risk decisioning. Best practices from SAS credit risk decisioning experts. Ask the Expert: ESP Project Containers – How to Enhance ESP Models Deployment and Operationalization Join SAS' Sindu Kumar, Aaron White and Frédéric Combaneyre at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., August 12 to learn the benefits of project containers and how to create and run them using SAS Event Stream Processing clients. You’ll see how containerized models simplify the promotion and lifecycle management of event stream processing models. You will: Understand the benefits of project containers. See a demonstration of how to create and run project containers using ESP clients. Understand how containerized models can simplify deployment, integration and the promotion and lifecycle management of ESP models. Ask the Expert: Seamlessly Integrate With External Channels Using Customer Intelligence 360 Custom Task Types Join SAS' Bojan Belovic at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., August 19 to discover how to turn complex MarTech ecosystems into coordinated, customer-focused journeys with Customer Intelligence 360. You will learn more about: Custom task types and connectors. How to use custom task types to create seamless connections to external delivery platforms and the benefits of such integration. The differences between triggers and bulk custom tasks. Best practices when configuring custom tasks. Technical aspects of custom tasks, connector configuration and deployment. Ask the Expert: From Dashboard to Autopilot: How SAS Visual Analytics on SAS® Viya® Transforms the AI Data Journey Join SAS' Ted Stolarczyk at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., August 26 to learn whether you’re a report builder (driver) or a report viewer (passenger), this webinar will reveal how the new Viya platform puts you in the fast lane of analytics innovation, speed and self-service. You will: Understand the practical benefits of migrating to or starting fresh with SAS Viya. See live demos of new features such as natural language generation, modern visualization and tighter AI/machine learning (ML) integration. Learn how SAS is investing in the future of visual analytics with cloud-first thinking, open integration and automation. This email was sent to %%ONPREM.root.Contact Email%%. Edit SAS Profile Unsubscribe SAS Privacy Statement © SAS Institute Inc. SAS Campus Drive, Cary NC 27513 USA. ... View more

  Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   To view this email in your web browser, click here. How I use BirdNET-PI and SAS to track my feathered neighbors Chris Hemedinger has been tuning in to birdsongs using SAS and his BirdNET‑PI setup. The heatmap above gives a peek at the variety of songs heard in his area over time. Peep his latest article to learn more and see the full heatmap. Dear Reader, The 2025 SAS Hackathon officially kicked off on June 11! This annual global coding competition brings together SAS users to tackle real-world challenges using SAS technology. Teams will have access to SAS tools, mentorship, and the chance to win exciting prizes. It’s a great opportunity to sharpen your skills, connect with peers, and showcase your creativity. The Hackathon runs from September 15 through October 10, and registration is open now until August 31. Don’t wait to secure your spot! To get a head start, join the Hacker’s Hub community for more resources including an FAQ. I’m excited to see what you all come up with! Hack on! 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 They say that when you turn 50, you either get really into World War II documentaries, grilling thermometers, or birds. I chose birds. (Okay, and maybe a little grilling.) Using SAS and an open source project named BirdNET-PI, I was able to turn my curiosity about our local birds into data driven insights! Over the past 6 months, I've used this hobby project to collect data about over 140,000 birdsongs. After analyzing the data with SAS code and SAS Visual Analytics, I can see the patterns of behavior from over 100 species of birds that visited my backyard. You can read about my findings and how I built the project in my latest blog post. I'm often asked, "what's the best way to learn SAS?" My answer is always to start with formal training (or a good book!), but if you want the skills to stick you have to apply what you learn in a real project. If you don't have a work project at hand, pick some data that you care about and see what you can do!  I definitely learned some things by working with these bird detections. What's your favorite data to use for learning? Let me know! P.S. Interested in exploring birdsong data yourself? You can access my detection data on GitHub and use my sample SAS program to get started. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks SAS Tutorial | Creating a Custom Step, Part 3: Coding Your Step Join Senior Analytic Training Consultant Danny Modlin in part three of this four-part SAS Studio tutorial, where he shows you how to modify code for use in a custom step and how to connect it to the step’s GUI. SAS Notebooks in VS Code: A developer’s guide David Weik explains how SAS Notebooks in SAS Viya Workbench seamlessly integrate with VS Code, making it easy for developers to combine SAS code, SQL, and Markdown for more efficient, well-documented workflows. Getting Started with R in SAS Viya Workbench Shelby Taylor introduces users to the integration of R within the SAS Viya Workbench environment, providing a flexible, cloud-based platform for developing, visualizing, and sharing R code, thereby enhancing the analytical capabilities of data scientists and statisticians. Boost ML accuracy with hyperparameter tuning (with a fun twist) Stu Sztukowski shows how hyperparameter autotuning in SAS Viya helps boost machine learning model accuracy without the hassle of manual tuning. Generate a check digit and validate a Universal Loan Identifier in SAS In finance and other fields, accounts are represented by a long string of digits. To guard against mistyping, some digits are “check digits,” which are obtained by using a mathematical computation. Rick Wicklin cautions against trying to convert these account numbers to numeric values. Instead, he shows that you can compute the check digits directly from the character string. SAS Enhanced Support: More than support — a true technological partnership Margherita Albrizio explains how SAS Enhanced Support offers proactive, personalized help through dedicated account managers, custom dashboards, and strategic planning to keep systems running smoothly. Automatic Linting of SAS Code with SASjs McGwire Jones shows how using SASjs linting with GitHub Actions helps enforce consistent SAS code standards like styling, security, and file naming across your project automatically. Optimize spare parts inventory under uncertainty with SAS: A simulation-based approach Bahar Biller, Jagdishwar Mankala, and Jinxin Yi demonstrate how a simulation-based approach in SAS enables optimization of spare parts inventory under uncertainty to balance cost and service levels based on real-world asset failure modeling. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case Accelerating drug discovery with AI innovation Shionogi & Co., Ltd. is using SAS® Viya® to accelerate drug discovery and deliver life-changing treatments faster, showing how data and innovation can drive a healthier, more hopeful future. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers On-demand recordings from SAS Innovate Check out the 100+ recordings of breakout sessions and Super Demos all captured at SAS Innovate 2025. Use the Label categories to navigate the topics or use the Search bar to find sessions related to the topics and products you care about. All sessions are also available at youtube.com/sassoftware. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​User group news Educators: Join us this summer for a week of virtual learning From July 21-24, learn from SAS experts and educator peers about the latest in AI and analytics education. SAS Educate is free for faculty. Western Users of SAS Software: Sept. 3-5 in Universal City, CA The Call for Papers is open! WUSS is looking for SAS users to come share their knowledge at WUSS 2025.  To learn more about presenting at WUSS and to submit your ideas for consideration, visit the WUSS 2025 Call for Papers. Proposals are being accepted through July 14. Southeast SAS Users Group: Sept. 22-24 in Cary, NC SESUG will be held on the beautiful SAS campus this year! You’re in luck because the Call for Abstracts has been extended to July 11. Plus, early registration is open until Aug. 11. We hope to see you there. Midwest SAS Users Group: Oct. 5-7 in Cincinnati, OH MWSUG 2025 will be held at the Marriott Cincinnati Airport, just across the Ohio River in charming Hebron, Kentucky. We anticipate a full schedule of presentations from SAS users, training courses from industry experts, excellent networking opportunities, and plenty of fun! Call for Presentations is now open. Get your proposals ready and submit by July 15. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.) Ask the Expert: Data Integration in SAS® Viya® Join SAS' Lou Galway at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., July 10 to explore the benefits of transitioning to SAS Viya, as our experts help you make an informed decision. You will learn about: What’s in the SAS Data Engineering offering. Data jobs compared to SAS Studio flows and how to migrate jobs in flows. Benefits you’ll see in SAS Data Engineering. Ask the Expert: Marketing AI With SAS Customer Intelligence 360 and SAS® Viya® Join SAS' Suneel Grover at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., July 15 to refine your skills, optimize workflows and maximize the value of SAS solutions within your marketing strategies. You will learn: To observe SAS viewpoints on 2025 innovation themes within Martech use cases. Data science and analytics can bring incremental value to marketing opportunities. To accelerate the delivery of AI solutions to marketers.  Ask the Expert: What Makes the New SAS Studio a Game-Changer? Join SAS' Alexey Vodilin at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., July 24 to learn how to spend less time worrying and more time doing in the new SAS Studio. You will learn how: The new interface speeds up everyday tasks. The enhancements to file imports, data viewing, and connections make it easier to work with data. Key productivity features accelerate your work. Free Workshop: Moving from SAS Office Analytics to SAS Viya Join this 3-hour workshop at 8:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., July 31 to discover how SAS Viya enhances collaboration, streamlines workflows, and provides advanced analytics in an open, scalable environment. We’ll explore the strategic and technical aspects of transitioning from SAS Office Analytics to SAS Viya and highlight the key differences between the platforms, focusing on demonstrating the user experience. Ask the Expert: Why Should I Move From SAS Analytics Pro to SAS® Viya®? Join SAS' Henrique Danc, Joseph Henry and Brian Kinnebrew at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., July 31 to learn about the benefits of transitioning to SAS Viya, as our experts help you make an informed decision. You will: Understand the benefits of moving from SAS Analytics Pro on SAS®9 to SAS Viya. Learn how to choose between SAS Viya Workbench and SAS Viya Programming. See live demonstrations of both products with their latest features. 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  Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   To view this email in your web browser, click here. What’s new in Data & AI at SAS Innovate 2025 Want to know all of the latest announcements and what’s new in SAS Viya? In this SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we’re packing our bags and heading to Orlando to showcase the latest from SAS Innovate 2025 – SAS’ premier data and AI conference for data scientists, statisticians, data engineers, analysts, developers and C-level leaders. Dear Reader, Welcome to this edition of the SAS Tech Report, my very first as editor! I’m thrilled to take the helm, especially at such an exciting time for SAS and the broader tech community. Earlier this month, I had the incredible opportunity to host the SAS Viya Release Highlights Show at SAS Innovate 2025 in Orlando, Florida. We interviewed some of the brightest minds in the field on topics such as SAS Data Maker, SAS Viya Workbench, SAS Models, and more. One of the standout moments from the event was the announcement of a visionary partnership between SAS, Epic Games, and Georgia-Pacific. This collaboration is reimagining digital twins using Epic’s Unreal Engine to enhance worker safety and operational efficiency in manufacturing. Everyone was a winner at SAS Innovate, but I specifically would like to congratulate the winners of the Customer Recognition Awards and the SAS Hackathon Grand Champion, Team Butterfly, who were celebrated at SAS Innovate. I encourage you to click those links and read more about their incredible accomplishments using SAS software. If you missed out on SAS Innovate or would like to revisit your favorite sessions, on-demand content is now available at sas.com/digitalpass. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I look forward to exploring the future of data, AI, and innovation with you in issues to come. Happy reading! 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 Last week I participated in an "Ask Me Anything" event for our SAS Analytics Explorers program. Dozens of members asked me questions about SAS products, my career here, and my thoughts on the future of AI. I tried my best to answer as many as I could. (Don't miss the next AMA event! Join SAS Analytics Explorers here.) Here's one question I received, along with my honest answer: Q: What’s your favorite, or most underrated SAS Procedure or function in your opinion? A: My favorite PROC these days is PROC HTTP. I use it all of the time to gather data from other services using REST APIs. Using PROC HTTP and then the JSON libname engine to convert API responses to data, I can gather info from our community platform, Google Analytics, GitHub, and so many more services that my team relies on. PROC SQL is my go-to for combining and manipulating data. I’m pretty good at writing SQL code that works the first time I run it, but I still use SAS Enterprise Guide to help me design more complex queries – then I copy that SQL for use in a production program. Finally, I use PROC FREQ a lot for summarization and “top N” reporting. I’m not a statistician by training, so while I admire and respect the many analytical PROCs we have in SAS, I leave it to others to use them responsibly What about you? I'd love to hear from you about your favorite SAS function or procedure (and why it's so great)! Tell me about it here. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks SAS Tutorial | Creating a Custom Step, Part 2: Building the Graphical User Interface Join Senior Analytic Training Consultant Danny Modlin in part two of this four-part SAS Studio tutorial, where he shows how to build a graphical user interface for a custom step. Along the way, Danny shares tips and techniques to maximize the usability of your custom steps. Essential VS Code shortcuts every Python developer should know This guide shares the top keyboard shortcuts to boost productivity in VSCode, especially when using SAS Viya Workbench with Python or SAS notebooks. It includes built-in commands for navigating and editing notebooks, plus instructions for creating custom shortcuts tailored to your coding workflow. Python ML pipelines with Scikit-learn: A beginner’s guide Using SAS Viya Workbench for efficient setup and execution, this beginner-friendly guide shows how Scikit-learn pipelines can streamline machine learning workflows and prevent common errors. Taking Control of Models in SAS Visual Forecasting Enhance high-value time series forecasts in SAS Visual Forecasting by using the Interactive Modeling node in Model Studio to customize models, apply business knowledge, and gain deeper insights beyond automated pipelines. Comparing the SAS Job Execution Web Application, SAS Studio and jobExecution REST API endpoint Explore the differences between the SAS Job Execution Web Application, SAS Studio, and the jobExecution REST API in SAS Viya to choose the best tool for your workflow whether you're a beginner, a developer, or building automated systems. Stratified bootstrapping and when to use it When your data includes small or important subgroups, stratified bootstrapping can yield more reliable results than standard resampling. In this DO Loop post, Rick Wicklin explains when to use it and shows how to implement it in SAS for better subgroup representation and more stable estimates. Variable Selection Node: A Versatile Powerhouse for Feature Selection in Model Studio Learn how the Variable Selection node in Model Studio streamlines feature selection by combining supervised and unsupervised methods to identify the most relevant inputs for predictive modeling. Calculate the Gini-Simpson diversity index in SAS The first part of this series explores the Gini-Simpson diversity index (a statistical measure recently adopted by the US Census Bureau) and shows how to compute it in SAS using Base SAS, PROC SQL, and SAS IML. Visualize the Gini-Simpson diversity index In the second part of this series on the Gini-Simpson diversity index, we visualize how diversity changes with different group sizes using SAS IML, highlighting how the index behaves when class sizes are balanced versus highly uneven. Detecting lags in nonlinear time series with PROC TSSELECTLAG in SAS Viya Accurately forecasting time-lagged relationships in epidemic data, such as the delay between infections and hospitalizations, is critical for public health planning. Find out how using distance correlation in SAS Viya’s PROC TSSELECTLAG offers a robust method for identifying these nonlinear lags more effectively than traditional Pearson correlation. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case Predictive analytics and AI deliver a winning fan experience Learn how the Orlando Magic uses mobile app data and SAS to personalize marketing campaigns and boost fan engagement. See who’s changing the world through analytics Congratulations to winners of the 2025 SAS Customer Recognition Awards and thank you to all who submitted an entry! Check out the complete list of winners. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers SAS Bowl LII, SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript The SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript is a collection of JavaScript libraries for interfacing with SAS Viya resources and embedding your SAS Viya content into custom web pages and corporate portals. We're covering the SDK for June's SAS Bowl. This series of SAS Communities articles will give you all the details: SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript- A Tale of Two Methods (Part 1 – Overview) SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript- A Tale of Two Methods (Part 2 - Direct Connection) SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript- A Tale of Two Methods (Part 3 - Report Packages) ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​User group news Educators: Join us this summer for a week of virtual learning From July 21-24, learn from SAS experts and educator peers about the latest in AI and analytics education. SAS Educate is free for faculty. Register today. Register now. Western Users of SAS Software: Sept. 3-5 in Universal City, CA The Call for Papers is now open. Be sure to submit your ideas and be part of the action in Universal City! Learn more. Southeast SAS Users Group: Sept. 22-24 in Cary, NC SESUG 2025 will be held at the beautiful headquarters of SAS. The call for abstracts is currently open. Learn more about submitting your proposal. Midwest SAS Users Group: Oct. 5-7 in Cincinnati, OH Details will be coming soon. Be sure to visit the updated website to stay in the loop. Learn more. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary.) How Can the SAS Macro Language Enhance LLM Integration in SAS ® 9.4 for Clinical Programming? Join Daiichi-Sankyo's Stephen McCawille at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 3 to learn how Large Language Models (LLMs) – ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek, for example – can be seamlessly integrated into the SAS 9.4 environment. You will learn: How to call and interact with LLMs using PROC HTTP in SAS. How SAS Macro Language can be repurposed to dynamically structure prompts and automate AI-driven responses. Techniques to refine and control LLM responses, ensuring they are relevant and useful for SAS-based workflows. Getting the Most From the New Task Design Experience in Customer Intelligence 360 Join SAS' Sam Padda and Mark Chaves at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 10 to learn how to streamline your team’s campaign design process. We’ll show you how the new task design experience will maximize your efforts. You will learn how: The new campaign task design experience is different, and why. To manage creatives both within and outside of a campaign’s task. To personalize your marketing content for your campaigns. Best practice approaches to creating tasks to support your campaigns. The Data Science Productivity Gains in the SAS ® Viya ® Modeling Experience Join SAS' Robert Blanchard and Carlos Pinheiro at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 19 to learn how to streamline your model development process and enhance cross-team collaboration. You will learn about: Auto-tuning multiple statistical and machine learning models. An enhanced modeling approach and fine-tuning advanced ML algorithms. Easily building sophisticated data visualizations. Responsible AI, fairness, bias and interpretability. A comprehensive approach to model assessment. Extensive methods for model tournament and deployment. AI Explained: Techniques and Tricks to Improve the Interpretability of Machine Learning Models Join Farias Brito University's José Aragão Júnior at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., June 26 to learn techniques for interpreting machine learning models and how to use them in SAS ® Viya ® . You will learn: What are black box models? Why interpretability matters. When to distinguish between local and global explanations. This email was sent to %%ONPREM.root.Contact Email%%. Edit SAS Profile Unsubscribe SAS Privacy Statement © SAS Institute Inc. SAS Campus Drive, Cary NC 27513 USA. ... View more

  Get your SAS tips & tricks here!͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   To view this email in your web browser, click here. Chasing the poles This striking SAS® Visual Analytics infographic, created by Falko Schulz, brings 400 years of data from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information to life by mapping the historical shifts of Earth's magnetic north pole. Dear Reader, As we bring this issue to you, we’re also marking a significant moment in the newsletter’s history. For years, Beverly Brown has been the voice behind these pages, sharing invaluable tips and tricks to help you make the most of SAS software. We wish her a very happy retirement after a 30-year long journey with SAS. As we transition from one editor to the next, I – the intern who has been designing these newsletters for the last year – have been given the responsibility of ensuring the incoming editor is up to snuff. For this edition alone, I’m working more in the capacity of a co-editor than a designer, and we thought it only fair that I take the editor’s note before the full changing of the guard next month.  It’s been an incredible experience working alongside so many talented people here at SAS, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. Not to mention what I’ve learned from these newsletters, where I was able to see compelling stories, enlightening tutorials and fascinating events monthly. This month’s newsletter will be no different, and I hope you enjoy what we’ve put together for this edition. There’s truly something for everyone, no matter where you are on your SAS journey. As I’m sure you’re aware, this is the last newsletter before one of SAS’s biggest events of the year, SAS Innovate 2025. We’re all excited about it here at SAS, and though I’ll be missing it (May 6 th through May 9 th  happens to be my finals week, so a trip to Orlando is a no-go), it’s better if you don’t make the same mistake. You wouldn’t want to miss out on this fantastic opportunity to learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry. It’s not too late to register, and if you’re attending, don’t forget to use the code "SASforDummies" to save $250 and get a copy of the brand-new SAS For Dummies (Written by my wonderful boss, who you’ll hear more from below).  I’d also like to take this chance to thank the entire SAS community for the opportunity to contribute to this newsletter. I’ve had a wonderful time preparing these for you all, and while it’s never easy to say goodbye, I’m very excited for what I have in store for the future. I hope you enjoy this month’s edition, and I wish you all continued success with your SAS projects! Thank you! Happy reading! Jared Levenson Co-editor & Designer, 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 A few months ago in this column, I revealed that I was working on a new edition of SAS For Dummies. This month, I'm very excited to announce that the new edition is now available! When you revise a book for Wiley (the publisher of all Dummies books), you first negotiate and agree on two principles that guide the effort: the book's outline (usually 20 chapters divided into 5 or 6 parts), and the page count. Much has changed about SAS in the 16 years since the previous edition, as you probably know. While many high-level topics can remain the same, the details to cover are completely different. And many topics from the previous edition are now less relevant (looking at you, OLAP), which is good because I had to make room for newcomers (hello Machine Learning and Analytics Life Cycle). I had learned a lot about these new topics just by working with the smart people who pioneered them over the years. But "knowing a lot" and "knowing enough to write a book" are very different things. To make up for my knowledge gaps, I did what any SAS user would do: I completed e-learning courses, watched tutorials, and worked with hands-on exercises. Since the book became available, I've heard from many SAS users who tell me that they first learned SAS by reading earlier editions. I hope that this new edition helps a new generation of learners too. I would never claim that a Dummies book will turn you into an expert, but it can provide enough groundwork to boost your confidence as you approach your job using SAS.  What about you? Are you a fan of the Dummies approach? What's your favorite way to learn a new topic? Let me know! P.S. Right now, you can get your own copy of SAS For Dummies by registering for SAS Innovate in Orlando! Use the code "SASforDummies" and save $250 and get the book too (while supplies last). ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks SAS Intelligent Decisioning, Fairness Monitoring | February and March Release  The SAS Viya Release Highlights show gives you a peek at the latest and greatest with SAS Viya. Join us and you’ll learn about:  How to make faster decisions without compromising on governance Fairness monitoring in SAS Model Manager New SAS Studio steps  And more. Watch and subscribe to the SAS Users YouTube channel for the next show from SAS Innovate in May! SAS Tutorial | Creating a Custom Step, Part 1: Planning Your Step Join Senior Analytic Training Consultant Danny Modlin in part one of this four-part SAS Studio tutorial, where he shows how to kick off your own custom step by adapting existing code—complete with tips and a few surprises. Using PROC HTTP 2 - Accessing Internet Information and Debugging In his previous post, Using PROC HTTP 1: Reviewing the HTTP Protocol, SAS’ Mark Jordan reviewed the HTTP protocol and demonstrated using cURL to grab data from an internet API. But SAS programmers want to use SAS for data acquisition. In his final article as a SAS employee, the SAS Jedi shows how to replicate those processes using PROC HTTP, and how to debug unexpected results. As usual, the article includes a link to download the code and data for the series so you can easily experiment with it yourself. How to work with ZIP files in SAS programs In this article by Chris Hemedinger, learn how to easily unzip and work with ZIP files in SAS to transform compressed data into accessible insights. From slopes to stats: Building a snowboarding performance dashboard with Python and my own sensor data Stu Sztukowski transforms his snowboarding adventures into a data-driven experience by combining GPS and heart rate data with Python and SAS to build a dynamic performance dashboard—proving that shredding slopes and crunching stats go hand in hand. Meet your AI Copilot: The future of supply chain optimization SAS's new AI Copilot for supply chain optimization lets you steer complex scenarios with simple, conversational commands to transform data into decisions with ease. Integrate Git repositories via SSH Sean Ford shows us how to easily integrate Git repositories with SAS Viya Workbench using SSH keys, making secure access a breeze. Using synthetic data to bridge production and development David Weik demonstrates how to use synthetic data generated by a GAN model to bridge the gap between production and development environments, enabling developers to build and test models without exposing sensitive customer information. Nested bar charts in SAS Dive into the art of nesting bar charts with SAS's Graph Template Language, where Rick Wicklin shows how to layer quarterly sales within annual totals—because sometimes, one bar chart just isn't enough. Instantly Update SAS Visual Analytics Reports from Excel with SAS for Microsoft 365 Shelby Taylor breaks down how to instantly update your SAS Visual Analytics reports from Excel using SAS for Microsoft 365, making your data updates smooth and efficient. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case What happens in Vegas... gets analyzed with SAS Learn how UNLV uses SAS to power data-driven decisions that boost student success and improve operational efficiency across campus. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers From cURL to PROC HTTP on SAS Viya There are many reources on SAS Communities and beyond on how to use PROC HTTP to connect to external systems and communicate via API calls. In this article, Joe Furbee focuses on how to create REST API calls from the API documentation, connect to SAS Viya, and make API calls from SAS Studio. SAS Bowl LI, SAS Innovate 2025 - Recap Let's recap what is due to be an incredible SAS Innovate 2025 event at SAS Bowl LI. It's gone by many names in the past, SUGI, SAS Global Forum, SAS Explore, but this year we'll continue our annual conference, SAS Innovate. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​User group news Registration is open for PharmaSUG 2025 There will be some exciting things June 1-4 in San Diego: 2.5 days of live presentations, hands-on training, e-posters and panel discussions, pre- and post-conference in-person training seminars, Sunday night opening session and networking opportunities during the conference. Register by May 18, 2025 to receive the regular registration rate! WUSS: Sept. 3-5 in Universal City, CA The WUSS conference committee is hard at work planning an even bigger and better in-person WUSS 2025 conference with all the top-notch technical content for which WUSS is known, along with plenty of opportunities for professional networking. Learn more. SESUG: Sept. 22-24 in Cary, NC SESUG 2025 will be held at the beautiful headquarters of SAS. Plenty of exciting things are being planned for this year, so you don't want to miss it! The Call for Abstracts is currently open. Learn more about submitting your proposal. MWSUG: Oct. 5-7 in Cincinnati, OH Details will be coming soon. Be sure to visit the updated website to stay in the loop. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary.) I Have Results From PROC PSMATCH. Now What? Join SAS’ Cat Briggs and Sherrine Eid at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., May 1 to explore the possibilities of no-code real-world evidence analytics in SAS® Viya®. You will learn: How custom steps and SAS Visual Analytics can automate no-code analytics. To use analytics visualization for real-time model decisioning. How to choose a correct propensity score matching model. What methods to use for casual inference after matching. Mapping Digital Events to Customer Journeys: Strategies for Data-Driven Success Join SAS’ Craig Kestecher and Alexandra Despa at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., May 13 to level up your customers’ experience by using a powerful tool that enhances your marketing with deep customer analytics. You will learn: How to use the power of personalized web and mobile app experiences to drive conversions. Best practice approaches to configuring behavior and identity tracking. Which Customer Intelligence 360 data tables to explore for deeper analysis. Modernizing Risk Modeling and Decisioning: Practical Strategies for Analysts and Managers Join SAS’ to Sandra Sorza Hernandez and Sachin Mehra at 8:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., May 15 to learn how to modernize risk modeling and decisioning with SAS. You will learn about: Developing smarter models. Seamless deployment without recoding. Unified model monitoring and governance. Enhancing decision execution. Thinking of Moving From SAS Enterprise Guide to SAS® Viya®? What to Consider. Join SAS’ Gemma Robson and Wilbram Hazejager at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tues., May 20 to learn about the multiple pathway options when transitioning from SAS Enterprise Guide to SAS Viya. Plus, get a comparison of SAS Studio features. You will learn: What options are available to a SAS Enterprise Guide user transitioning to Viya. How SAS Enterprise Guide compares to SAS Studio. About additional benefits gained with SAS Viya. Moving Microsoft Office Integration to the Next Level: SAS for Microsoft 365 Join SAS’ Renato Luppi and Gregor Herrmann at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., May 29 to learn how to modernize information delivery across your organization. You will learn: The experience of accessing SAS content through Microsoft 365. What it’s like to create new content in SAS® Viya®. About the wider array of analytics and procedures not available in SAS®9. The migration process for SAS®9 content included in Microsoft Office documents. 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Cyclone Fury: Unraveling Australia's Most Devastating Storms SAS’ Falko Schulz uses data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to create an infographic highlighting the most destructive storms, common cyclone tracks, and fascinating records. Dear Reader, Welcome to another info-packed edition of Tech Report! Scroll down to get the latest technical blog posts and how-to articles from the SAS Support Community, secure an early-bird registration for SAS Innovate (available through Monday, March 31), sign up for Ask the Expert learning events in April and much more. Happy reading! Bev Brown Editor, 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 Hash objects in the news: validation for some dedicated SAS programmers It sounds like the setup for an old joke, but I find that there are two types of SAS DATA step programmers: those who use (and love) hash objects, and those who don’t. Hash objects (or “hash tables” as most computer science people call them) have been in the news recently. See this article from The Register: Undergrad and colleagues accidentally shred 40-year hash table gospel. The upshot from the article is that hash tables can be even faster than we thought, if we build them right. Hash objects in SAS are the fastest way to merge, sort, and transpose data based on key-value lookups, provided you can fit all of the lookup values in memory. They are a secret weapon for DATA step programmers who use them to transform previously slow-running MERGE or PROC SQL steps into a lightning-fast operation. However, to become skilled at using hash objects requires some study and practice. Fortunately, there are dozens of SAS conference papers (like this one) about the technique. Even AI coding assistants are getting better at generating valid DATA step code that uses hash objects. I’ll admit that I straddle the boundary between the aforementioned “two types” of SAS programmers: I have occasionally used (and loved) the hash object, but I have to relearn the technique every time I want to apply it in a new project. Which type of programmer are you? Hash object newbie or hash object aficionado? Let me know where you fall. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​SAS Innovate SAS Innovate early bird rate extended Early-bird discount registration for SAS Innovate, the world’s largest in-person gathering of SAS users, has been extended through Monday, March 31. You’ll save $200 and enjoy all the conference offers, including keynotes from SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and researcher/storyteller Brené Brown. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​SAS® Viya® Trial Productivity Guides A recent study by The Futurum Group proved that SAS Viya boosts data and AI team productivity by 4.6x. Curious to experience it firsthand? You can access the same datasets and follow the same steps from the study during your free trial. Try it now!  ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Tips & tricks Pi to the power of pi SAS’ Rick Wicklin celebrates the importance of mathematics in this Pi Day blog post. The quantile fit plot: Comparing empirical and predicted quantiles for a univariate model PROC UNIVARIATE in SAS produces a table, called the FitQuantiles table, which indicates how well the quantiles of the model distribution agree with the empirical distribution of the data. This post discusses the FitQuantiles table, shows how to visualize it with a graph, and demonstrates how to create a larger version of the table, offering further insight into how well the model's "estimation of probabilities" agrees with empirical evidence. Deviance residuals and the DEVIANCE function in SAS The parameters for generalized linear models are fit by using maximum likelihood estimation. The deviance is based on the loglikelihood function for the model. The deviance statistic is a goodness of fit statistic, and the deviance residuals are a generalization of the familiar least squares residuals. You can use the DEVIANCE function in the DATA step to compute the deviance statistic and the deviance residuals.  Install VS Code Extensions Offline: A step-by-step guide There are a lot of reasons why you might not be able to find the extension you want within VS Code and install directly within the tool. SAS’ Sean Ford introduces you to a way to install any extension manually. How to create and manage Python virtual environments Wouldn’t it be great if you could create a Python environment with only the packages and versions you need? A virtual environment may be what you need. SAS’ Stu Sztukowski gives 5 reasons to create one. SAS Container Runtime Testbench: A field developed tool for SAS Intelligent Decisioning SAS’ Simon Topp demonstrates the power of running/debugging decisions locally on you own desktop, where you have full control. The benefit? Testing/debugging becomes very easy and accessible. Training code, scoring code, and what makes a model Learn the definitions of machine learning model, training code and scoring code in this post by Sophia Rowland and Colby Hoke of SAS. You’ll also see their recommendation for handoffs between data scientists and engineering. How to fix unformatted URL job results Have you recently updated your release of SAS Viya and noticed that jobs submitted via a URL produce results that no longer appear formatted using standard SAS formatting? This is due to an update in the default content security policy setting in Stable 2024.02 onwards. In this SAS Support Community article, SAS’ Greg Treiman explains the issue and show you how to resolve it so that you get the job results you need. Ever wonder what’s in those credit card agreements you never read? Let’s see if SAS can help us out! It’s easy to incur credit card debt at exorbitant interest rates, posing a mountain of financial burden that can be extremely difficult to get out of. With credit card agreements often exceeding 15 pages in length, no wonder they are not on top of your reading list. Still, by looking at the fine print of credit card agreements before signing up for one, you can save money when you do have to carry credit charges over several billing periods. For this post, SAS’ Peter Christie downloaded and analyzed hundreds of credit card agreements from dozens of financial institutions. The data is generally available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Smart Conversations, Smarter Decisions: Integrating SAS Intelligent Decisioning with Azure Open AI Imagine an AI assistant that not only listens to you but drives critical workflows—flawlessly calculating risk ratings, explaining complex outcomes, and ensuring decisions align with trusted, replicable standards. SAS’ Bogdan Teleuca’ article, which includes a demo, says that by integrating Azure OpenAI conversational capabilities with SAS Intelligent Decisioning, the approach in the post blends the power of conversational AI and advanced analytics into a unified experience. From secure login to rule-based decisioning, this AI-powered system tackles complex decision-making with speed, transparency, and reliability. Unsupervised variable selection: Identifying input spaces that maximize data variance Variable selection is an important data preprocessing task that improves model performance by removing irrelevant and/or redundant inputs, enhancing accuracy, and minimizing computational complexity. Variable selection can be supervised (using the target variable) or unsupervised (ignoring the target). SAS Viya supports both, with supervised methods reducing irrelevant inputs and unsupervised methods removing redundant ones. In this article, SAS’ Sharad Saxena highlights a specific unsupervised method known as variance-based unsupervised variable selection. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Use case Toyota Financial Services Italia: Getting more people behind the wheel with predictive modeling and personalized financing solutions Find out how Toyota Financial Services Italia uses SAS Viya to getter understand customers, tailor communications and customize financing options for buying or leasing vehicles. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​For developers Why Use Git for Data and AI Work in SAS Studio? SAS’ Lars Arne Skår reveals six advantages of using Git and a centrally managed version control system. SAS Bowl L: PROC HTTP Join us for the 50th edition of SAS Bowl Trivia, which features PROC HTTP.  The SAS Support Community trivia event, SAS Bowl L, PROC HTTP is scheduled for Wednesday, April 16, at 10:00 a.m. ET. Register for the event and receive an invite to a Microsoft Teams meeting and a calendar event. On game day, join the Teams meeting and access the game here. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​User group news Registration is open for PharmaSUG 2025 There will be some exciting things June 1-4 in San Diego: 2.5 days of live presentations, hands-on training, e-posters and panel discussions, pre- and post-conference in-person training seminars, Sunday night opening session, and networking opportunities during the conference. Register by Friday, March 28 to receive the early registration rate! Save the date for regional user groups WUSS: Sept. 3-5 in Universal City, CA The WUSS conference committee is hard at work planning an even bigger and better in-person WUSS 2025 conference with all the top-notch technical content for which WUSS is known, along with plenty of opportunities for professional networking. SESUG: Sept. 22-24 in Cary, NC SESUG 2025 will be held at the beautiful headquarters of SAS. The Call for Abstracts is currently open. Learn more about submitting your proposal. MWSUG: Oct. 5-7 in Cincinnati, OH Details will be coming soon. Be sure to visit the updated website to stay in the loop. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Upcoming learning events (Each is one hour and complimentary.) Creating PowerPoints With SAS Join this webinar at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., April 3 to learn how to render SAS results into Microsoft PowerPoint format. You will learn how to: Use SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) code. Modify result formats in SAS Enterprise Guide. Create PowerPoint outputs in SAS Studio. Add stored processes and tasks in PowerPoint with SAS Office Analytics. How can I read and write ZIP files with SAS Programming? Join this webinar at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., April 10 to learn the methods SAS offers for working with ZIP files. You will learn how to: Use the FILENAME ZIP method to read and write content in ZIP files. Discover what files and folders exist within a ZIP archive and read data files directly within the DATA step. Read and create gzip (GZ) files, a special form of compressed file typically used on Unix file systems. Consider limitations and cautions when using ZIP files in SAS. Drive email campaigns based on website and mobile app behavior Join this webinar at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., April 15 to learn how to use SAS® Customer Intelligence 360 to drive marketing results. You will learn: The value of linking email, web and mobile app activity through demonstrated use case examples. Best practice approaches to setting up activity observations and using the insights to create marketing activity. How to monitor results and understand performance statistics. What’s new in SAS®9 M9 Join this webinar at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., April 22 to learn about a number of updates to the SAS platform as part of our continuing support for SAS®9 users. You will learn about the SAS 9.4 M9 updates including: SAS 9.4 supported operating systems. Security enhancements. Updated third-party components. 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Want to know all of the latest announcements and what’s new in SAS Viya?   In this SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we’re packing our bags and heading to Orlando to showcase the latest from SAS Innovate 2025 – SAS’ premier data and AI conference for data scientists, statisticians, data engineers, analysts, developers and C-level leaders.   We’ll be covering what’s new on topics such as SAS Data Maker, SAS Models, Agentic AI and more.   You’ll also get up to speed on the SAS Hackathon, Quantum AI, SAS Viya Workbench and AI governance.   Plus, you’ll hear about a new partnership between SAS and Epic Games!   If you weren’t able to join us at SAS Innovate in person, register for a complimentary Digital Pass to watch keynotes, breakout sessions, demos and more. Visit https://www.sas.com/digitalpass. ... View more

In this month's SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we focus on SAS Intelligent Decisioning, showcasing how to make faster decisions without compromising on governance. Our experts discuss fairness monitoring in SAS Model Manager, and Custom Windows in SAS Event Stream Processing. Additionally, we highlight new features such as data documentation in SAS Information Catalog, new sharing options in SAS Visual Analytics, and SAS Studio steps including quantile regression and tests of proportions. ... View more

Welcome to the first SAS Viya Release Highlights Show of 2025! In this episode, you'll learn about the latest features in SAS Viya 2024.12 and 2025.01. Then, this month’s expert explains how to integrate Causal AI into your business decisions, highlighting its deeper level of explainability and bias reduction. You'll also see new features across SAS Viya, including edit tables in view mode in SAS Visual Analytics, Annotations for Columns in SAS Information Catalog, Decision tree node details in SAS Visual Analytics, Workflow association in SAS Intelligent Decisioning, and new steps in SAS Studio. ... View more