SAS Support Communities

THE RUNDOWN In this month’s edition of our SAS ® Viya ® email series, you’ll find a new landing page in the SAS Viya platform, five new steps in SAS Studio and column annotations in SAS Information Catalog. Plus, in David’s Tip of the Month, learn how to use the SAS extension for Visual Studio Code to connect to SAS Viya.   This one’s not a new feature but is a new productivity study you’ll want to check out. The Futurum Group revealed that SAS Viya helped data and AI teams execute the life cycle of collecting data, building models and deploying decisions 4.6x faster than a leading commercial platform and non-commercial open source environment. If you thought you were more productive with SAS Viya, you were right!   NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Viya New feature: New landing page Description: A new landing page for SAS Viya enables you to get a quick intro to all the applications, customize the look and feel of the platform, and dive right into the most relevant tools for you. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: Five new steps Description: Five new steps have been added: Recode Values Step(Transforming Data), Hierarchical Clustering Step and K-Means Clustering Step (Statistics), Aggregate Loss Models Step (Econometrics) and Standardize Data Step (Preparing Data). Learn more.    Product: SAS Information Catalog New feature: Column annotations Description: You can now add notes to individual columns inside the Column Analysis tab of a table. Learn more.    SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Column annotations Data owners usually have a lot of implicit knowledge about specific columns in a data set. The new annotations feature inside SAS Information Catalog enables you to add notes to a specific column that provides more in-depth information about the column. For example, you could give processing information, provide historical context around values or even dive into treatments for specific scenarios like outlier handling. Learn more.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS The SAS extension for Visual Studio Code is a great way to connect to SAS Viya if you’re a heavy coder. You can find and install it by searching for SAS in the Extension Marketplace or by using this link.   Once installed, you will be asked to create a connection profile by selecting SAS Viya and entering the URL of your SAS Viya server. For everything else, you can just hit Enter to accept the defaults. You will be prompted to sign in, which opens your SAS Viya environment, and you need to copy the displayed code back into VS Code.   Now you are all set up to start using SAS content, the SAS library explorer and of course write SAS code with full syntax highlighting, autocompletion and annotations. ... View more

THE RUNDOWN In this month’s edition of our SAS Viya email series: Option table control has been added to SAS Studio; side-by-side view for interactive windows is now available in SAS Visual Text Analytics; and eight new steps were added to SAS Studio. Plus, learn about accessibility and keyboard shortcuts in David’s Tip of the Month. Is this email helpful? Tell us what you think.    NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Studio New feature: Option table control Description: Use the option table control to create a repeatable group of controls that is displayed in the user interface as a table. These controls can be used in an option table numeric field, text field or static drop-down list. Learn more.   Product: SAS Visual Text Analytics New feature: Side-by-side view for interactive windows Description: A new side-by-side view is available in the interactive windows for the Concepts, Text Parsing, Topics and Categories nodes. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: Eight new steps Description: Eight new steps have been added: Lookup Step (Integrating Data), Equivalence Tests Statistical Power Step and Multiple Regression Statistical Power Step (Generating Statistics), Assess Model Step (Managing Models), Transform Columns Step (Preparing Data), Forest Step and Robust Principal Component Analysis Step (Machine Learning), and Community Detection Step (Optimization & Network Analysis). Learn more.    SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Option table control The new option table control enables you to define full table structures within your custom step interface for the end users to interact with. You could build small data entry applications with this or provide complex configuration options for advanced usage scenarios, like custom API integrations or complex modeling algorithms. Learn more.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS Looking at SAS documentation is always a good idea, but today, I want to tell you about a special section where you can find the documentation for the interfaces (think SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Model Studio, etc.). In the menu, you’ll find a section called Accessibility, where you’ll find guidance on how to improve your experience using the SAS interfaces. Even if you do not have any special accessibility needs, it is worth checking out this page as many interfaces have additional keyboard shortcuts that can be helpful. One of my favorites is using page up/down keys with table objects in SAS Visual Analytics.             ... View more

This SAS how to tutorial shows you how to set up an autoexec file to execute code each time a SAS Viya Workbench starts.   ... View more

This tutorial shows you how to connect SAS Viya Workbench with GitHub to collaborate on code development, track changes, and manage version control efficiently among distributed teams.   ... View more

THE RUNDOWN In this month’s edition of our SAS Viya email series: Edit CAS tables in SAS Visual Analytics; there are four new computer vision procs in SAS Machine Learning; and seven new steps were added to SAS Studio. Plus, learn how to quickly get help when you’re working in your SAS software from David’s Tip of the Month.   NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Visual Analytics New feature: Edit the source table Description: View and edit CAS tables within SAS Visual Analytics as a report builder. You can add new rows, delete existing ones, change the cell-level data and more! Learn more.    Product: SAS Machine Learning New feature: Four new computer vision procs Description: These new procs allow you to perform the following analyses on images: annotations, comparisons, quantitative analysis and comprehensive statistical overview. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: Seven new steps Description: Seven new steps have been added – one in Examine Data, two in Machine Learning, three in Optimization & Network Analysis and one in Text Analytics. Learn more.    SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Edit the Source Table Imagine you find a critical data quality error in your data set that you need to fix, or you may want to change input variables for control tables. This new feature allows you to do that directly within SAS Visual Analytics when this capability is enabled for your user. You will need write access to the CAS library (caslib) to start editing tables, create new rows, delete outdated ones or update individual cells. Learn more.   TIP OF THE MONTH   Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS Have you ever been in SAS Studio and wanted to look up an example usage of a step? Or maybe you are working in SAS Model Studio and want to learn more about a specific modeling node. It’s easy! Just click on the question mark in the application banner and select the Help Center to be taken directly to the product-specific SAS documentation.    ... View more

NEWS YOU CAN USE In this month’s edition of our SAS Viya email series: Model cards are here in SAS Model Studio, you can try out the A/B test nodes in SAS Intelligent Decisioning, we’ve released a REST-API for the glossary inside SAS Information Governance and four new steps have been added to SAS Studio. Plus, learn how to become a more efficient developer with SAS Viya in David’s tip of the month.    NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Model Manager New feature: model cards Description: Just like a nutrition label for your model, a model card details an AI model’s training data, development process, accuracy, model drift, related fairness assessments and governance details. This transparency helps identify the model’s strengths and limitations, promoting trust and encouraging responsible and ethical use by all stakeholders. Learn more.    Product: SAS Intelligent Decisioning New feature: A/B test nodes Description: You can use an A/B test node to direct input records into a champion path or a challenger path for testing. Each path includes one or more objects such as rule sets, treatment groups, models or other objects. Learn more.   Product: SAS Information Governance New feature: glossary REST-API Description: The glossary inside of SAS Information Catalog now has a REST-API that can be leveraged to programmatically interact with both Terms and Term Types. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: four new steps Description: Four new steps have been added, two in Machine Learning (Automated Feature Engineering step and Support Vector Machine step) and two in Optimization & Network Analysis (Cycle Detection step and Reach Network step). Learn more.   SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Model cards One practical way to put model cards to work is using them to understand the specific problem the model is designed to address, its limitations and out-of-scope use cases. For example, if a model exists and you’re wondering if you can use it on data from children, you can consult the model usage section and see that the model should not be applied to patients younger than 26. This helps product managers, developers and executives make informed decisions about which models to deploy for specific applications, understand potential risks and ensure responsible AI practices. Learn more.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS Have you ever wondered how you can become a more efficient developer with SAS Viya? Well, here is a one-stop shop for you! developer.sas.com is here and it is an amazing resource to help you quickly find relevant REST-APIs, open-source integration, SAS programming documentation, use cases and so many more awesome features to help you build projects faster in SAS Viya than ever before. Check it out! ... View more

This tutorial shows you how to build and evaluate machine learning models in SAS Viya Workbench using optimized SAS Procedures.   ... View more

This tutorial shows you how to build and evaluate machine learning models in SAS Viya Workbench using optimized SAS models available in the sasviya.ml Python package.   ... View more

This tutorial guides you through the essential steps to get started using SAS Viya Workbench, a dynamic self-service platform designed for analytical development, data engineering, and AI and machine learning model building.   ... View more

This tutorial shows you how to utilize the power of SAS notebooks to seamlessly execute SAS SQL within the SAS Viya Workbench environment.   ... View more

This tutorial shows you how to harness the power of Python to execute SQL queries seamlessly within SAS Viya Workbench.   ... View more

NEWS YOU CAN USE In this month's edition of our SAS Viya series: dynamic parameters added to SAS Visual Analytics, tag and report associated items in SAS Intelligent Decisioning, and 10 new steps and a copy path enhancement in SAS Studio. Plus, learn how to change the way the SAS log behaves and is displayed in SAS Studio in David's tip of the month. Happy reading!   NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Visual Analytics New feature: Dynamic parameters Description: Dynamic parameters enable you to have expressions as the value of a parameter instead of just a static column. Learn more.   Product: SAS Intelligent Decisioning New feature: Associated items Description: Display a list of all decision items that have been tagged with a specific tag and export it as a PDF. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: 10 new steps and copy path enhancement Description: Ten new steps have been added across the statistics, prepare data, and optimization and network analysis categories. The context menu in the explorer pane has been extended to include the option to copy a file/folder path to the clipboard. Learn more.   SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Dynamic parameters You can create more sophisticated and dynamic reports, leveraging expression-based parameters to handle complex calculations and scenarios that were previously challenging. For example, you can have a "TotalSales" parameter. This parameter value remains constant regardless of interactions with other dashboard elements, providing a stable reference point for users that can be used in a table or gauge display as a target KPI.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS Did you know you can change how the SAS log is displayed and behaves in SAS Studio? One of my favorites is adding error and warning icons to the code tab gutter (that is the area in the code where you see the line numbers). When you hover over the icon, you see the log message, and clicking on it takes you directly to that location inside of the log. This helps me improve my speed when debugging my code.   You can find this and many more settings using the options menu (1), selecting preferences (2), going to code and log (3), and selecting the display error and warning icons in the code tab gutter (4).   For an example, see the screenshots below. Learn more.     ... View more

NEWS YOU CAN USE In this month's edition of our SAS Viya Release Updates, you'll find out how to change the privacy level of a semantic type in the SAS Information Catalog, run SAS DATA step code directly in SingleStore, and check out the eight new steps added to SAS Studio. Plus, learn how to automatically add missing values in our tip of the month. Happy reading! NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Information Governance New feature: Review and manage semantic types. Description: Through the new classifications UI inside of SAS Information Catalog, authorized users can change the information privacy level of a semantic type. Learn more.   Product: SAS Viya with SingleStore New feature: Run DATA steps directly in SingleStore. Description: SAS Viya with SingleStore is now able to run SAS DATA step code directly in SingleStore. Learn more.   Product: SAS Studio New feature: Eight new steps in SAS Studio – from preparing data to machine learning. Description: The latest release of SAS Studio Analyst and SAS Studio Engineer gives you eight new steps ranging across the different capabilities of SAS Viya. Learn more.   SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Review and manage semantic types Depending on your organization's needs, you might need to increase or decrease the sensitivity of personal identifiable information (PII) within your SAS Viya environment. Now you can change the default classifications inside SAS Information Catalog, and the corresponding flags that appear on a table level inside of SAS Information Catalog and SAS Visual Analytics will change accordingly. This allows you to easily control the privacy level of data.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS As you are building your decisions, you are continuously adding more and more elements to them. You might be pulling in a prebuilt rule set, or you might be adding a model to the decision that a data scientist built. Along the way, you may have to add more and more missing variables, which can feel a bit cumbersome. That is a perfect opportunity to go into the SAS Intelligent Decisioning application settings and check the box to automatically add missing variables for you.   Learn more.       ... View more

NEW VIYA FEATURES Check out these new features and what they mean for you. Product: SAS Model Studio New feature: Calculate TreeSHAP values Description: Enhancement to the Score Data Node: New property Calculate TreeSHAP values under Output Data. This can calculate the SHAP values for Forest or Gradient Boosting models for all observations. Learn more.   Product: SAS Intelligent Decisioning New feature: Add, manage and report on tags Description: You can use the tag management category view to create and manage the list of tags that can be associated with SAS Intelligent Decisioning objects. Learn more.   Product: SAS Enterprise Guide New feature: Enterprise Guide integration with SAS Viya 4 Description: SAS Enterprise Guide version 8.4 can now connect to SAS Viya 4. Learn more.   SPOTLIGHT USE CASE Enterprise Guide integration with SAS Viya 4 All current SAS Enterprise Guide users can now run their SAS programs on SAS Viya 4. In addition to not having to recode, this allows users to benefit from a modern cloud-based platform to create new projects and gain cloud computing efficiencies. By distributing certain processing onto the SAS Cloud Analytics Services (CAS), SAS Enterprise Guide users can now take full advantage of the scalability and state-of-the-art analytics in Viya. Tune in Tuesday, May 7 at 10 a.m. ET to learn more about SAS Enterprise Guide integration with SAS Viya 4 in our Ask the Expert webinar.   TIP OF THE MONTH Brought to you by David Weik Senior Pre-Sales Solutions Architect, SAS I'm sure you are familiar with keyboard shortcuts in SAS Studio. Using F3 to run your SAS code has been around forever and I sometimes forget that we even have a run button. But did you know that there are actually many more keyboard shortcuts available in SAS Studio? The shortcuts available are also not just related to the code editor, but also for general navigation around SAS Studio and of course there is a shortcut to see all of the shortcuts (CTRL+F9).    You can also remap and assign additional shortcuts via the Options (1) > Manage keyboard shortcuts (2). Here is my favority funcationality that doesn't have a default keyboard shortcut assigned: Display Syntax Help (without autocomplete). You can search for it or find it under SAS - Coding section. I assigned it the keyboard combination CTRL+ALT+A, hitting that while on any SAS keyword brings up its Syntax Help pop up.     ... View more