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What is SAS?
SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is statistical software designed for data inspection and report writing. SAS runs on Windows, UNIX and can be downloaded into Mainframe too. This is an integrated software suite that enables us to perform statistical analysis by altering, managing, and retrieving data from a variety of 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 as RTF, HTML, and PDF documents).
SAS is a batch of a program that works together to reclaim them and to 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?
Being SAS Professional I can tell you why SAS. I would say, its bit tiny subject however very Unique, competitive and leading within the analytics world. SAS is the main statistic tool certified by the FDA, IIRC.SAS is Statistical Analysis System i.e. a collection of software program tools created by SAS Institute. SAS programming has numerous applications like 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 then Python. It is an ever-evolving technology according to industry needs is one major factor in its favour.
SAS Job Profiles
Below are some of the job profiles you can take up as a SAS professional:
- SAS Analyst
- SAS Programmer
- Customer Analytics Manager
- Decision Analyst
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 in-built modules which are designed for various analytics and reporting purposes. See some of the common SAS modules or components.
1
BASE SAS
It is the most common SAS module. It is used for data manipulation such as filtering data, selecting, renaming or removing columns, reshaping data etc.
2
SAS/STAT
It runs popular statistical techniques such as Hypothesis Testing, Linear and Logistic Regression, Principal Component Analysis etc.
3
SAS/ACCESS
It lets you read data from databases such as Teradata, SQL Server, Oracle DB2 etc.
4
SAS GRAPH
You can create simple and complex graphs using this component.
5
SAS/ETS
You can perform time series forecasting such as ARIMA, Exponential Smoothing, Moving Average etc. using this module.
SAS tutorials for Beginners
The following articles are designed for beginners who have no programming background or new to SAS programming language. You will learn the fundamentals of SAS and how you can develop and run your first SAS program.
- Introduction to Base SAS Programming
- History of SAS
- How to learn SAS Programming online for free?
- SAS on Demand
Base SAS Tutorials
These posts are designed to cover all the topics of Base SAS certification. It includes an explanation of topics on data structures, data management, data analysis and report generation.
- Getting Data in SAS
- Importing Data using PROC IMPORT
- Working with SAS Libraries
- Data Set Options
- SET Statement
- Variable Conversions in SAS
- IF-Then-Else Statements
- Loops
- WHERE Statement in SAS
- Character Functions
- Numeric Functions
- Compare Function
- Compress Function in detail
- Comparison Operator
- Automatic Data Step Variables
- Formats and Informats
- Retain Statement
- Date Formats
- Proc Sort
- Proc Print
Advanced SAS: Proc SQL
The following lessons are intended for people who are new to SQL programming language. PROC SQL is an advanced SAS procedure that helps to run SQL queries to manage and manipulate data. It includes Introduction of SQL with examples, PROC SQL Joins, conditional statements and useful tips and tricks of SQL etc.
Advanced SAS: SAS Macros
SAS Macro is used to automate the repetitive tasks i.e. tasks that you perform very frequently (every day or more than once in a day). It includes useful tips and tricks of SAS Macro programming and outlines real-world examples of automation with SAS Macros.
SAS Advanced Programming Concepts
- Creating User-Defined Formats – Proc Format
- SAS Picture Formats
- Table Lookup Techniques in SAS
- SAS Arrays
- Creating a Single Observation from Multiple Records-(SAS data step and Arrays)
- Proc Transpose
- Proc Rank
- Combining SAS Data Sets Vertically
- Index in SAS
- Fuzzy Matching in SAS
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 modelling with SAS etc. It will help you to generate insights out of data using statistical techniques.
Statistics Tutorials
- Descriptive Statistics in SAS
- Central Limit Theorem
- Confidence Interval for the population mean
- Basics of hypothesis testing
- How to choose a statistical testing
- Proc TTEST
Other Topics
SAS Certification Questions and Answers