Getting Started with SAS

What is SAS?

SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is software for data inspection and report writing. SAS runs on Windows and UNIX and can be downloaded into Mainframe too.

This integrated software suite enables us to perform statistical analysis by altering, managing, and retrieving data from various sources to develop a software solution.

It provides a graphical point-and-click user interface for non-technical users and more advanced options through the SAS language (A computer programming language used for statistical analysis that can read data from common spreadsheets and databases and outputs the statistical analysis result in tables, graphs, and RTF, HTML, and PDF documents).

SAS is a batch of programs that work together to reclaim and reserve data values, reform data, evaluate complex and single exponential analyses, and generate reports. These programs have DATA steps, which retrieve and manipulate data, and PROC steps, which analyze the data.

Why SAS?

As a SAS professional, I can explain why SAS I would say it’s a bit of a tiny subject but very unique, competitive, and leading within the analytics world. SAS is the main statistical tool certified by the FDA and IIRC. SAS is a Statistical Analysis System, i.e., a collection of software program tools created by the SAS Institute.

SAS programming has numerous applications, including the analysis of multivariates, predictive analysis, management of data, and business intelligence. Statistics show that 70% of analytics jobs are in SAS programming, followed by R and Python. It is an ever-evolving technology according to industry needs, which is one major factor in its favor.

SAS Job Profiles

SAS Job Profiles
SAS Job profiles

Below are some of the job profiles you can take up as a SAS professional:

SAS Analyst

In contrast to a SAS programmer, a SAS analyst is a business or financial risk analyst who uses SAS software products as his or her main tools for analysis. SAS analysts collect and analyze data to find patterns and outliers that can be used to predict future trends and estimate costs for an organization. They may also involve pre-sales analysis, working with clients, and giving them help.

SAS Programmer

A SAS programmer’s work involves designing, developing, evaluating, and modifying SAS (Statistical Analysis Software) programs to analyze and evaluate data. They analyze the correctness and consistency of the data and create data listings and other essential reports for use in clinical studies and study reports.

Customer Analytics Manager

Customer Analytics Manager increases the lifetime value of customers by making smarter use of insights. They are responsible for the delivery of critical predictive and descriptive models. Additionally, they Define and practice data science techniques that are on par with the best in the world to guarantee that the insights gained are accurate, reliable, and repeatable.

Decision Analyst

As a decision analyst, you devise a method for locating a solution to the problem that can be shown conclusively using mathematics and make use of predictive analysis to demonstrate to your customer why the decision you are recommending is, in fact, the one that will provide a solution to his or her issue in the most effective manner that is now imaginable.

There is a huge scope of SAS for fresher. Banks are heavily using SAS, as are Insurance & other Financial Services companies like HSBC, Citi, JP Morgan, & Wells Fargo. So it’s sensible to grab the opportunity if you get it by some means to learn and work on SAS technology.

SAS Modules

When you install SAS software, it has several built-in modules designed for various analytics and reporting purposes. See some of the common SAS modules or components.

SAS Modules
SAS Modules

BASE SAS

It is the most common SAS module. It is used for data manipulation such as filtering, selecting, renaming or removing columns, reshaping data, etc.

SAS/STAT

It runs popular statistical techniques such as Hypothesis Testing, Linear and Logistic Regression, Principal Component Analysis, etc.

SAS/ACCESS

It lets you read data from databases such as Teradata, SQL Server, Oracle DB2, etc.

SAS GRAPH

You can create simple and complex graphs using this component.

SAS/ETS

This module can perform time series forecasting such as ARIMA, Exponential Smoothing, Moving Average, etc.

SAS tutorials for Beginners

This course will teach you the basics of using the SAS statistical software. The objective here is to familiarize you with the SAS application and its structure so that you can start building programs to handle and analyze the data you have collected.

The following articles are designed for beginners who have no programming background or are new to the SAS programming language. You will learn the fundamentals of SAS and how to develop and run your first SAS program.

  1. Introduction to Base SAS Programming
  2. History of SAS
  3. How to learn SAS Programming online for free?
  4. SAS on Demand

Base SAS Tutorials

These posts are designed to cover all the topics of base SAS certification. It includes an explanation of data structures, data management, data analysis, and report generation topics.

  1. Working with SAS libraries Published February 16, 2019
  2. SAS Tutorials – Basics of SAS Programming Published September 16, 2019
  3. History of SAS software Published October 18, 2019
  4. Methods to Import data into SAS Published November 19, 2019
  5. Data set Options in SAS Published November 25, 2019
  6. How to learn SAS Programming online for free? Published December 2, 2019
  7. SAS Numeric functions and Operators Published December 7, 2019
  8. Exploring the SET Statement in SAS Published December 8, 2019
  9. How to convert Characters to Numeric in SAS & Vice Versa Published December 21, 2019
  10. Using RETAIN in SAS to remember values Published January 11, 2020
  11. Proc Sort Options in SAS Published January 26, 2020
  12. IF THEN ELSE SAS statements Published March 4, 2020
  13. SAS on demand for Academics – Complete Guide for using SAS on the cloud. Published March 6, 2020
  14. Ultimate Guide to SAS Formats and Informats Published March 12, 2020
  15. SAS date formats: How to display dates correctly? Published April 24, 2020
  16. How to use compress function in SAS? Published May 23, 2020
  17. The Ultimate Guide To SAS Character Functions Published May 23, 2020
  18. Using PROC RANK for ranking variables Published May 31, 2020
  19. SAS Loops Explained Published June 1, 2020
  20. Automatic Variables in SAS Published June 12, 2020
  21. 4 Little Tricks To Achieve The Best Results In PROC PRINT SAS. Published June 22, 2020
  22. Comparison operator in SAS – The =: Operator Published June 29, 2020
  23. Using the Compare function in SAS for comparing strings Published June 30, 2020
  24. 4 Functions for fuzzy matching in SAS Published July 6, 2020
  25. Mastering WHERE Statement in SAS Published July 17, 2020
  26. Ten Quick Uses of Proc Datasets Published July 18, 2020
  27. PROC IMPORT in SAS: A Complete Guide Published July 30, 2020
  28. SAS Missing Values: Everything You Need to Know Published August 6, 2020
  29. Length and Precision of SAS Variables Published August 7, 2020
  30. Date Functions in SAS – The Definitive Guide Published August 12, 2020
  31. SAS Generation Datasets Published August 15, 2020
  32. Date Interval Functions – INTNX and INTCK in SAS Published August 22, 2020
  33. Column Input in SAS Published September 11, 2020
  34. The Ultimate Guide to SUBSTR in SAS Published September 30, 2020
  35. Length functions in SAS: LENGTH / LENGTHN / LENGTHC / LENGTHM. Published October 24, 2020
  36. The SAS Index Function Explained Published November 8, 2020
  37. How to use the SAS SCAN Function? Published November 10, 2020
  38. SAS Proc Contents Tutorial Published December 14, 2020
  39. How to save a log file in SAS? Published December 18, 2020
  40. Default Sorting Order of Characters in SAS Published January 12, 2021
  41. How To Specify List Of Variables In SAS? Published May 30, 2021
  42. 8 Ways to Calculate Column Total in SAS Published June 19, 2021
  43. The Yearcutoff System Option in SAS Published July 27, 2021
  44. Introduction to Clinical SAS Programming Published February 12, 2022
  45. SAS Loops – Understanding Leave and Continue Published September 2, 2022
  46. Select Statement in SAS Published September 3, 2022
  47. How to convert Character date to SAS Date? Published September 10, 2022
  48. How to Concatenate strings in SAS Published January 16, 2023
  49. Using LIBNAME XLSX to read and write Excel files Published April 6, 2023

Getting Started With PROC SQL

The following lessons are intended for people new to the SQL programming language. PROC SQL is an advanced SAS procedure that helps to run SQL queries to manage and manipulate data. It includes an Introduction to SQL with examples, PROC SQL Joins, conditional statements and useful tips and tricks of SQL, etc.

Automate your work with SAS Macros

SAS Macro is used to automate repetitive tasks, i.e., tasks that you perform very frequently (every day or more than once a day). It includes useful tips and tricks for SAS Macro programming and outlines real-world examples of automation with SAS Macros.

SAS Advanced Programming Concepts

In this section, you can learn Advanced SAS Programming. It includes many of the Base and Advanced tutorials which would help you to acquire more knowledge of data exploration and manipulation, predictive modeling using SAS along with some scenario-based examples for practice.

SAS Analytics

This section covers how to perform data exploration and statistical analysis with SAS. It explains how to perform descriptive and inferential statistics, linear and logistic regression, time series analysis, variable selection and reduction, cluster analysis, and predictive modeling with SAS, etc. It will help you generate insights from data using statistical techniques.

SAS Programs

Here is the collection of the SAS programs. These SAS programming examples will help you to learn various concepts in SAS.

  1. Generating sum of rolling data using the Lag function Published December 20, 2019
  2. Retrieve file size or last modified date of an external file in SAS Published February 16, 2020
  3. 5 techniques of finding paths or locations in SAS Published April 9, 2020
  4. Creating a single record from multiple records in SAS Published July 9, 2020
  5. Creating multiple observations from single observation in SAS Published July 11, 2020
  6. Generating Multiple Excel Files Published July 21, 2020
  7. Macro To check if a variable exists in SAS dataset Published July 22, 2020
  8. How to add leading zeros in SAS? Published July 31, 2020
  9. How to create folders using SAS? Published August 18, 2020
  10. How to Delete Macro Variables in SAS? Published September 23, 2020
  11. How to delete datasets in SAS? Published October 4, 2020
  12. Count of missing and nonmissing values for each variable in a SAS data set Published October 23, 2020
  13. How to sort an array in SAS? Published November 4, 2020
  14. How to Password protect SAS datasets ? Published December 22, 2020
  15. 5 ways to exit from a SAS data step or a Program Published January 11, 2021
  16. 4 Methods to find values in one table that are in another table Published January 17, 2021
  17. 8 Ways to count the number of observations in a SAS dataset and pass it into a macro variable Published January 21, 2021
  18. Removing dashes and parentheses from phone numbers Published January 25, 2021
  19. Changing the Case of All Character Variables in a Data Set Published January 25, 2021
  20. Randomly select character values for each observation Published February 1, 2021
  21. How to delete labels and formats from SAS variables? Published February 20, 2021
  22. How to Copy a file with SAS? Published March 9, 2021
  23. Generate all permutations of elements in SAS Published March 30, 2021
  24. Append records to an existing file in SAS Published March 30, 2021
  25. Determine the log of a variable in SAS Published March 31, 2021
  26. 6 methods to reorder Variables in SAS Data Set Published May 23, 2021
  27. 8 Ways to Calculate Column Total in SAS Published June 19, 2021
  28. How to Import multiple Excel files in SAS? Published July 17, 2021
  29. Check if a Specified Object Exists Published July 30, 2021
  30. How to check if string is numeric in SAS? Published August 10, 2021
  31. How to zip and Unzip files using SAS? Published August 22, 2021
  32. How to read zip files in SAS? Published August 28, 2021
  33. Creating a custom sort order in SAS Published August 29, 2021
  34. How to get today’s date in SAS? Published September 11, 2021
  35. Convert all character variables to numeric automatically Published September 26, 2021
  36. Get column value from column name Published October 19, 2021
  37. How to Round Numbers in SAS? Published December 6, 2021
  38. How to truncate Decimals in SAS? Published January 6, 2022
  39. How to Copy datasets in SAS? Published January 9, 2022
  40. How to Use Character Values on a Macro %DO Loop? Published August 23, 2022
  41. How to determine if the external file is empty in SAS? Published August 24, 2022
  42. How to Print Empty SAS dataset information to the output window? Published August 25, 2022
  43. How to Loop through Dates in SAS? Published August 28, 2022
  44. 5 Techniques for Quickly Removing Leading Zeros in SAS Published January 4, 2023
  45. How to Create a Quoted List Separated by Spaces in SAS Published February 16, 2023
  46. 7 Ways to Find Maximum Value in a Group with SAS Published April 5, 2023
  47. How to convert a Unix datetime to a SAS datetime Published April 30, 2023