SAS Tips | Published Tips

Getting Started with PROC SQL

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

SQL is a powerful addition to any SAS programmer's toolset. It's common knowledge that SQL helps make code run more efficiently (especially with large datasets). However, SQL, has more advantages than that. There are s

1 Vote(s)

Simple Way to Create CSV files (with ODS)

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

It's fairly common that I need to process SAS data and then send an extract of the data for review to another team. That team is often NOT a SAS-experienced team, and so want to see the data in a format more familiar to them.

1 Vote(s)

Using SQL to simplify finding the closest match

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

One of the most complicated tasks to execute with a SAS data step is to match to the "closest" match. It takes several data steps, a few sorts and a lot of complicated if..thens and maybe some arrays. The whole process can b

1 Vote(s)

Increasing your PROC FORMAT skills

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

You can't work with SAS for very long without encountering at least the basic aspects of formats and their use. Eventually, you will use PROC FORMAT to create basic formats for displaying data correctly. But there is SO much

1 Vote(s)

Be Vigilant When Using the LAG() Function to Work with Data over Time

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

When we need to know the value from some previous observation to make a calculation in the current observation, there are two ways to do this in a DATA step. We can use the RETAIN function or the LAG function. My preference

1 Vote(s)

Displaying Multiple Graphs Per Page

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

Unless you are willing to accept all the default layout details, graphs are rarely simple to create in SAS. But getting more than one graph on a page turned out to be simpler than I expected. Especially with the help of the two pa

1 Vote(s)

Try to LAG() with value being created

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

The code below is meant to calculate the cumulative days of exposure to drug at a specific dose (in this example at 4.5g). The code does not work as expected. The EX4_5L is missing on all records.

1 Vote(s)

How to Sum Across Time Without Using Proc Transpose

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

I need to count the number of records from TC which will satisfy the below condition. Does anyone know how to do this without using transpose?

Select all records from TC, where EX.EXSTDTC <= TC.TCDTC <= EX.EXENTC. Then sum

1 Vote(s)

Superscripts in ODS PDF in V9.2

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

With my recent upgrade to SAS v9.2 I discovered, much to my horror, that there was a glitch in ODS PDF that causes lines with a superscript to be double-spaced! My reports contain a lot of superscripts.
The issue report at SA

1 Vote(s)

Finding the format catalog in your environment

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

Working in an old client's new programming environment, and suddenly nothing is where I expect it to be. The formats were causing me a great deal of grief. I kept adding them to the format catalog but then they were never av

1 Vote(s)

Which to Choose, Macro or Array

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

Given a situation where we need to perform the same operation on multiple variables in a dataset, for example, suppose I have 20 variables, call them ratio1, ratio2, ratio3, etc. And I need to convert all the ratios to percentages

1 Vote(s)

Macro to parse character string into even parts

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

Sometimes multiple pieces of information are stored in a single variable. Often it becomes necessary to separate the information into the constituent parts. Sometimes we have a delimiter with which to do this, but sometimes the va

1 Vote(s)

Hash Code Basics - Quick and Efficient Lookups and Merges

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

Hash code is the new, cool thing for creating efficient code when working with very large datasets. Hash code can be used in a myriad of ways, the most common of which is to lookup information from one dataset to use in another or

1 Vote(s)

How to Determine if a Variable exists in a dataset

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:41:22 PDT

If we just need to know if a variable exists in a dataset, we can open the dataset and look for it. If we are feeling fancy, or frustrated trying to find it, we can use a PROC CONTENTS. But sometimes we need to know if a var

1 Vote(s)

Commenting/Uncommenting Chunks of Code with a Single Keystroke

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:24 PDT

This great tip originated in the SAS Training Report
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In the PC version of SAS using the Enhanced Editor, you can comment and un-comment lararge chunks of c

1 Vote(s)

Frequent blogs of information helpful to new SAS users

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:24 PDT

This website provides a lot of useful information for anyone just starting to learn SAS. It's all presented in an easy to understand fashion. Emphasis is also given on helping a newbie focus their learning efforts on those e

1 Vote(s)

When SAS Crashes Don't Despair, Check the Autosave File

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:24 PDT

Whenever interactive SAS is running on a PC, it automatically creates autorecover versions of your program files periodically. On Windows XP and before in a default SAS install, this auto-recover file can be found at:
C

1 Vote(s)

Macro to standardize the report layout in PROC REPORT (RTF version)

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:24 PDT

The attached file below, contains a simple macro that establishes the footnotes, titles, page orientation, ODS template, etc for creating an RTF file from PROC REPORT.

1 Vote(s)

How I Almost Destroyed a SASHELP File

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

I thought I was so smart. I learned that the titles and footnotes established in a SAS session are stored in the SASHELP.VTITLE SAS view. And I thought, how cool would it be if I could control the titles and footnotes direct

1 Vote(s)

Getting Started with HashTags

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

Hashtags are all the rage in SAS lately. And for good reason, they can be used to significantly reduce program runtime when the goal is merging data. All the rage or not, since I usual

1 Vote(s)

Why ERROR: Key Not Found in Hashtags

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

This is the code I'm using:

data lb1;
set sdtm.lb(keep=STUDYID SUBJID USUBJID LBSEQ LBCAT LBSCAT LBTESTCD LBTEST LBDTC LBDY
&nb

1 Vote(s)

Resources for Teaching SAS

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

SAS provides a whole host of resources for the professor who teachs SAS as part of his/her curriculum. The resources include the full text from SAS training courses, as well as the full set of slides used. Also includes acce

1 Vote(s)

FREE SAS Training for High School Teachers -- and Curriculum too

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

SAS provides week-long workshop FREE for high school teachers. The workshop teaches the fundamentals of SAS. And also helps the teachers develop strategies for integrating SAS into their curriculum, to give their students a

1 Vote(s)

New ORDER= options for PROC CONTENTS in v9.2

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

SAS v9.2 has new options available for the ORDER= on the PROC CONTENTS. Instead of having just ORDER=VARNUM, which sorts the output by the order of the variables in the dataset. There are 3 new options, ORDER=COLLATE, ORDER=

1 Vote(s)

Converting labs from conventional to SI units

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

As a SAS programmer in pharma, part of my job involves taking lab values as recorded in the data and standardizing either to conventional or SI units. Most clients have this information included as part of their data extract and m

1 Vote(s)

Resources for Self-Teaching SAS for $0

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

SAS is an excellent skill to have for a whole variety of fields and careers. Acquiring those skills can be expensive. I highly recommend the SAS Programming Essentials course as an excellent way to get up and running quickly

1 Vote(s)

Creating Formats from a Dataset

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

The attached is an excellent paper from SAS Global Forum 2007, by Wendi L Wright. It covers all the relevant details for creating formats AND/OR informats from a dataset using the CNTLIN option on PROC FORMAT. It begins with

1 Vote(s)

How to Get the Effect of a Descending Sort with an Index

aywconsulting — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:20:23 PDT

Working on a long-term pharma study, the lab dataset began getting exceptionally large around the 2 year mark. While efficiency isn't always a major concern in pharma programming, for this project we had to go back and build in efficien

1 Vote(s)

EMEA Call for Comments on Guidance for Missing Data

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:06:03 PDT

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) published draft guidance on 23Apr2009 for the handling of missing data in clinical trials. They are soliciting comments with a deadline of 31Oct2009. See the emea missing data.pdf file be

1 Vote(s)

Deleting all datasets in a library

aywconsulting — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:06:03 PDT

Sometimes we would really like to clean up our work space, our virtual work space in SAS that is. Sometimes its necessary to start with an empty directory before running a set of code. PROC DATASETS provides a simple way to

1 Vote(s)

Macro to standardize the report layout in PROC REPORT (PDF version)

aywconsulting — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:06:03 PDT

The attached file below, contains a simple macro that establishes the footnotes, titles, page orientation, ODS template, etc for creating a PDF file from PROC REPORT.

Using a macro of this type has three main advantages:

1 Vote(s)

Macro to parse elements in a text string based on a delimiter

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:06:03 PDT

Sometimes we have text values in a string in a variable and we need to have those values parsed into individual variables. For example, I may have a record that indicates the subject received doses at 10mg, 20mg, and 30mg. T

1 Vote(s)

SAS Samples34626: How to rearrange tables using PROC DOCUMENT

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:50:45 PST

This sample shows how to use ODS and PROC DOCUMENT to rearrange the order of tables generated by a SAS procedure.

8 Vote(s)

SAS Samples34616: Creating a Simple Calculator Using the Java Object and the DATA Step Component Interface

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:50:45 PST

This sample demonstrates how to use the Java Object and the DATA Step Component Interface to implement a basic calculator.

11 Vote(s)

SAS Samples25402: Demonstrates Custom ODS Styles with a Hyperlink

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:50:45 PST

Numerous style changes and the use of flyover, preimage, and url=.

18 Vote(s)

SAS Samples25078: Retrieve the number of observations in a dataset

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:46:24 PST

This sample uses %SYSFUNC along with the ATTRN function to retrieve the number of observations from the SAS data set lo

17 Vote(s)

Website of an Original SAS Programmer

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:19:16 PDT

This website (www.codecraftersinc.com) belongs to one of the "original" SAS programmers, where "original" is defined as one of a very few (< 10) people who have been using SAS for 25 or more years. The site offers a wealth of i

1 Vote(s)

UCLA Statistical Computing Seminars (including SAS)

aywconsulting — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:18:46 PDT

UCLA has made available a whole host of seminars (aka training materials) on statistical computing

10 Vote(s)

Avoiding Truncation When Importing Excel Files with LIBNAME

aywconsulting — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:55:24 PDT

When reading Excel files into SAS using the LIBNAME option, sometimes the contents of cells may

3 Vote(s)

Avoiding Truncation When Importing Excel Files with PROC IMPORT

aywconsulting — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:35:18 PDT

When reading data into SAS from an Excel file using PROC IMPORT sometimes the contents of cells are truncated. This

3 Vote(s)