Details, Details: Updates to The Little SAS Book

Earlier this year we quietly updated The Little SAS Book, Sixth Edition.  While these changes didn’t get a lot of attention, they are, in our opinion, critical to keeping The Little SAS Book useful and accurate. This is especially important for beginners who can’t be expected to know the history of SAS software or how it is evolving.

The updates include countless small changes, but mostly fall into a few broad categories:

• References to SAS University Edition have been deleted.  When we wrote the Sixth Edition not so long ago, we had no way of knowing that SAS University Edition would soon be relegated to the great bit-bucket in the sky.  As of August 21, 2021, SAS University Edition is no longer supported by SAS Institute.  Microsoft forced this change when they stopped supporting virtual machines in which SAS University Edition ran.  Fortunately for people learning SAS, there is another option: SAS OnDemand for Academics is a cloud-based version of SAS that is free for non-commercial use.

• We also clarified discussions of data set names, filenames, and paths.  The SAS language is not sensitive to case.  This is still true.  What is less obvious is that some parts of  SAS programs are not technically part of the SAS language. Filenames and paths, and even data set names, depend on your operating environment.  This doesn’t matter much if you are using an operating environment (such as Windows) that is also case insensitive. But it can matter a lot in operating environments (such as UNIX and Linux) that are sensitive to case.  It is possible to run SAS and not know which operating environment you are using. For example, SAS OnDemand for Academics runs on UNIX even if you are accessing it from another type of computer such as a Windows PC. So we took a hard look at the way we describe data set names, filenames, and paths and reworded them for clarity.

• While we were making changes, we couldn’t resist another small one.  We added the very useful SCAN function to our table of character functions in Section 3.4.  There was just one small problem. Because there was no surplus space, we had to  remove something else to make room for SCAN.  That’s why the ANYALNUM function is now gone. However, this section still includes ANYALPHA, ANYDIGIT, and ANYSPACE so the ANY family of functions is still well represented.

So how can you know if your copy of the Sixth Edition is the original version or the updated one? One easy way is to check the index to see if it includes an entry for the SCAN function.

A more technical way is to look at the back of the title page where the copyright notices appear. Near the bottom of the page, if it says

“October 2019”

then you have the original version. If it says

“Originally published October 2019 Revised March 2022”

then you have the updated version.

It’s in the Details: Keeping The Little SAS Book Accurate

The Little SAS Book, Sixth Edition is now a year old.  I have already written posts about What’s New in this edition, and the very cool XLSX LIBNAME engine.  So what more is there to say?  A lot, it turns out.  The Sixth Edition was our biggest rewrite since the Second Edition introduced the new (at the time) Output Delivery System. This post covers a few of the changes you probably didn’t notice:

• Default output has changed. You probably are aware that the default output has long been HTML (or SASREPORT in Enterprise Guide).  What most SAS users don’t know is that technically it was HTML4, but is now HTML5 (including in Enterprise Guide).  A few years ago, the default changed from HTML3 to HTML4.  If you didn’t notice the change from 3 to 4, then you probably won’t care about the change from 4 to 5 either. But it was a big deal to us because HTML4 stored images in separate files while HTML5 embeds images in the same files as text. This required us to completely rewrite section 8.12 with its discussion of saving graphics output. That complicated our lives, but it simplifies life for you if you use SAS to create HTML pages with graphics.  No more need to worry about links to your graphics files; now your graphics will be saved inside your HTML pages.

• Footnotes are gone (except the few ones under tables and chapter quotes).  In an effort to maximize readability, we worked important information into the text and deleted the rest.

• Default ODS style for PDF output has changed from PRINTER to PEARL.

• Some built-in styles have disappeared entirely including one we used a lot, D3D.  To see the current built-in styles on your system, run this: PROC TEMPLATE; LIST STYLES; RUN;

• ODS HTML statement requires PATH= in some situations when it didn’t before.  It’s complicated so just include a PATH= option, ok?

• PROC REPORT no longer requires the NOWINDOWS option to avoid opening a Report window.

• Some ODS style attribute options have new names.  For example, the option FONT_SIZE= has changed to FONTSIZE=, and BACKGROUND= changed to BACKGROUNDCOLOR=.  The old option names still work, but the new ones are considered more correct.

• There is a new way to make suggestions for the SASware Ballot.  Instead of emailing your ideas, you submit them on SAS Communities.

• Ellis Island National Monument merged with Statue of Liberty National Monument.  Also Hawaii Volcanoes National Park lost one of its museums.  (The Jaggar Museum was damaged by the eruption of Kilauea.)  We updated our data accordingly.

• The SAS family grew.  The number of SAS installations increased from 60,000 sites in 134 countries to 83,000 sites in 147 countries.

I admit that most of these are minor changes for most SAS users, but we pride ourselves on impeccable attention to detail because for programmers sometimes the details matter very much.

Are you good at debugging SAS code?

I have always believed that good debuggers are good coders for the simple reason that once you understand a bug, you will be better able to avoid it in the future. You can test your debugging skills with this blog I wrote for SAS Press.

 

Happy Birthday SAS Press!

Do a little time travel with this short video showing highlights from the last 30 years for SAS Press and the tech world.

Accessing Excel Files Using LIBNAME XLSX

If you have been using SAS for long, you have probably noticed that there is generally more than one way to do anything. The Little SAS Book has long covered reading and writing Microsoft Excel files with the IMPORT and EXPORT procedures, but for the Sixth Edition we decided it was time to add two more ways: The ODS EXCEL destination makes it easy to convert procedure output into Excel files, while the XLSX LIBNAME engine allows you to access Excel files as if they were SAS data sets.

With the XLSX LIBNAME engine, you can convert an Excel file to a SAS data set (or vice versa) if you want to, but you can also access an Excel file directly without the need for a SAS data set. This engine works for files created using any version of Microsoft Excel 2007 or later in the Windows or UNIX operating environments. You must have SAS 9.4M2 or higher and SAS/ACCESS Interface to PC Files software. A nice thing about this engine is that it works with any combination of 32 bit and 64 bit systems.

The XLSX LIBNAME engine uses the first line in your file for the variable names, scans each full column to determine the variable type (character or numeric), assigns lengths to character variables, and recognizes dates and numeric values containing commas or dollar signs. While the XLSX LIBNAME engine does not offer many options, because you are using an Excel file like a SAS data set, you can use some standard data set options. For example, you can use the RENAME= data set option to change the names of variables, and FIRSTOBS= and OBS= to select a subset of rows.

Reading an Excel file as is 

Suppose you have the following Excel file containing data about magnolia trees:

With the XLSX LIBNAME engine, SAS can read the file, without first converting it to a SAS data set. Here is a PROC PRINT that prints the data directly from the Excel file.

* Read Excel spreadsheet using XLSX LIBNAME;
LIBNAME exfiles XLSX ‘c:\MyExcel\Trees.xlsx’;
PROC PRINT DATA = exfiles.sheet1;
   TITLE ‘PROC PRINT of Excel File’;
RUN;

Here are the results of the PROC PRINT. Notice that the variable names were taken from the first row in the file.

Converting an Excel file to a SAS data set 

If you want to convert an Excel file to a SAS data set, you can do that too. Here is a DATA step that reads the Excel file. The RENAME= data set option changes the variable name MaxHeight to MaxHeightFeet. Then a new variable is computed which is equal to the height in meters.

* Import Excel into a SAS data set;
DATA magnolia;
SET exfiles.sheet1 (RENAME = (MaxHeight = MaxHeightFeet));
MaxHeightMeters = ROUND(MaxHeightFeet * 0.3048);
RUN;

Here is the SAS data set with the new variable:

Writing to an Excel file 

It is just as easy to write to an Excel file as it is to read from it.

* Write a new sheet to the Excel file;
DATA exfiles.trees;
   SET magnolia;
RUN;
LIBNAME exfiles CLEAR;

Here is what the Excel file looks like with the new sheet. Notice that the new tab is labeled with the name of the SAS data set TREES.

Another nice thing about the XLSX LIBNAME is that it only locks a spreadsheet while SAS is accessing it. So generally speaking, it’s not necessary to issue a second LIBNAME statement to clear the libref. However, I did find, when I ran this in SAS Enterprise Guide, that I could not open the Excel spreadsheet unless I cleared the libref. So you can probably skip the LIBNAME CLEAR statement if you are using Display Manager or SAS Studio.

The XLSX LIBNAME engine is so flexible and easy to use that we think it’s a great addition to any SAS programmer’s skill set.

For more about the XLSX LIBNAME engine, I recommend this blog by Chris Hemedinger.

The Little SAS Book 6.0: What’s New

Six editions is a lot! If you had told us, back when we wrote the first edition of The Little SAS Book, that someday we would write a sixth; we would have wondered how we could possibly find that much to say. After all, it is supposed to be The Little SAS Book, isn’t it? But the developers at SAS Institute are constantly hard at work inventing new and better ways of analyzing and visualizing data. And some of those ways turn out to be so fundamental that they belong even in a little book about SAS.

Interface independence

One of the biggest changes to SAS software in recent years is the proliferation of interfaces. SAS programmers have more choices than ever before. Previous editions contained some sections specific to the SAS windowing environment (also called Display Manager). We wrote this edition for all SAS programmers whether you use SAS Studio, SAS Enterprise Guide, the SAS windowing environment, or run in batch. That sounds easy, but it wasn’t. There are differences in how SAS behaves with different interfaces, and these differences can be very fundamental. In particular, the system option that sets the rules for names of variables varies depending on how you run SAS. So old sections had to be rewritten, and we added a whole new section showing how to use variable names containing blanks and special characters.

New ways to read and write Microsoft Excel files

Previous editions already covered how to read and write Microsoft Excel files, but SAS developers have created some great new ways. This edition contains new sections about the XLSX LIBNAME engine and the ODS EXCEL destination.

More PROC SQL

From the very first edition, The Little SAS Book always covered PROC SQL. But it was in an appendix and over time we noticed that most people ignore appendices. So for this edition, we removed the appendix and added new sections on using PROC SQL to

• Subset your data
• Join data sets
• Add summary statistics to a data set
• Create macro variables with the INTO clause

For people who are new to SQL, these sections provide a good introduction; for people who already know SQL, they provide a model of how to leverage SQL in your SAS programs.

Updates and additions throughout the book

Almost every section in this edition has been changed in some way. We added new options, made sure everything is up-to-date, and ran every example in every SAS interface noting any differences. For example, PROC SGPLOT has some new options, the default ODS style for PDF has changed, and the LISTING destination behaves differently in different interfaces. Here’s a short list, in no particular order, of new or expanded topics in the sixth edition:

• More examples with permanent SAS data sets, CSV files, or tab-delimited files
• More log notes throughout the book showing what to look for
• LIKE or sounds-like (=*) operators in WHERE statements
• CROSSLIST, NOCUM, and NOPRINT options in PROC FREQ
• Grouping data with a user-defined format and the PUT function
• Iterative DO groups
• DO WHILE and DO UNTIL statements
• %DO statements

Even though we have added a lot to this edition, it is still a little book.  In fact, this edition is shorter than the last—by twelve pages! We think this is the best edition yet.

Now Available: The Little SAS Book, Sixth Edition

I am excited to announce that the sixth edition of The Little SAS Book is now available. We spent over a year rewriting and updating, and this may well be the best edition yet.

You can download a sample chapter or purchase e-book versions (PDF, EPUB or Kindle) by visiting SAS Press’ site.

If, like me, you like to be able to flip the pages and make notes in the margin, then you can get a hard copy (in paperback or hardback!) from Amazon.

Tips for Learning SAS

New to SAS?  Here are tips from the translator of The Little SAS Book, Fifth Edition.

Hongqiu Gu, Ph.D. works at the China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases at the National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Neurological Diseases at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University.

He shared these important tips to learn SAS well:

1.  Read SAS Documentation

I have not counted the number of SAS books I have read; I would estimate over 50 or 60.  The best books to give me a deep understanding of SAS are in the SAS Documentation, including SAS Language Reference Concepts, SAS Functions and CALL Routines Reference, SAS Macro Language Reference, and so on.  There are lots of excellent books published by SAS Press, and usually they are concise and suitable for quick learners.  However, when I realized that SAS could give me a powerful career advantage, I needed to learn SAS systematically and deeply.  I believe the SAS Documentation provides the most authoritative and comprehensive learning materials.  Besides, the updated SAS Documentation is free to all readers.

2.  Use the SAS Help and Documentation frequently

No one can remember all the syntaxes or options in SAS.  However, don’t worry, SAS Help and Documentation is our best friend.  I use the SAS Help and Documentation quite often.  Even as an experienced SAS user, there are still many situations in which I need to ask for help from SAS Help and Documentation. Every time I use it, I learn something new.

3.  Solve SAS related questions in SAS communities

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.  Answering SAS related questions is a good way to practice.  Questions can come from daily work, from friends around you, or from other SAS users on the web.  From 2013 to 2015, I spent a lot of time in the largest Chinese SAS online  community answering SAS related questions and I learned many practical skills in a short period.

4.  Make friends with skilled SAS programmers

Learning alone without interacting with others will lead to ignorance.  I have learned a lot from other experienced SAS users and SAS developers.  We share our ideas from time to time, and benefit a lot from the exchange.

 

 

The Little SAS Book in China

Recently The Little SAS Book reached a major milestone.  For the first time ever, it was translated into another language.  The language in this case was Chinese, and the translator was Hongqiu Gu, Ph.D. from the China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases at the National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Neurological Diseases at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University.

To mark this achievement, I asked Hongqiu a few questions.

Susan:  First I want to say how honored I am that you translated our book.  It must have been a lot of work.  Receiving a copy of the translation was a highlight of the year for me.  How did you learn SAS?

Hongqiu:  How did I learn SAS?  That is a long story.  I had not heard of SAS before I took an undergraduate statistics course in 2005.  The first time I heard the name “SAS,” I mistook it for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).  Although the pronunciations of these two words are entirely different for native English speakers, most Chinese people pronounced them as /sa:s/.  At that time, I was not trying to learn SAS well, and I simply wanted to pass the exam.  After the exam, all I had learned about SAS was entirely forgotten.  However, during the preparation of my master’s thesis, I had to do a lot of data cleaning and data analysis work with SAS, and I began to learn SAS enthusiastically.

Susan:  Why did you decide to translate The Little SAS Book?

Hongqiu:  Although I highly recommend the SAS Documentation for learning SAS, most beginners need a concise SAS book to give them a quick overview of what SAS is and what SAS can do.  There is no doubt that The Little SAS Book is the best one as the first SAS book for SAS beginners.  However, it was not easy for a Chinese SAS beginner to get a hardcopy of The Little SAS Book because it was not available in the Chinese market and the price was too high if they shopped overseas.  Another barrier is the language.  Most beginners still want an elementary book in their mother language. Besides, lots of R books had been introduced and translated into Chinese.  Therefore, I believed there was an urgent need to translate this book into Chinese.  So I tried several times to contact SAS press to get permission to translate it into Chinese, but no reply.  Things changed when manager Frank Jiang from SAS China found me after my book, The Romance of SAS Programming, was published by Tsinghua University Press.

Susan:  How long did it take you to translate the book?

Hongqiu:  First, I must state that the Chinese version of The Little SAS Book is a collaborative work.  Manager Frank Jiang from SAS China together with managing editor Yang Liu from Tsinghua University Press did much early-stage work to start this project.  We began the translation in early April 2017 and finished the translation in July 2017.  After that, we took more than three months to complete the two rounds of cross-audit to make sure the translation was correct and typo errors were minimized.

Members of the translation team include Hongqiu Gu, Adrian Liu, Louanna Kong, Molly Li, Slash Xin, Nick Li, Zhixin Yang, Amy Qian, Wei Wang, and Ke Yang.

Members of the audit team include Silence Zeng, Mary Ma, Wei Wang, Jianping Xue, and Sikan Luan.

Susan:  What was the hardest part of translating it?

Hongqiu:  The book is written in plain English and easy to understand.  We did not find any particular part that hard to translate.

Susan:  Are there a lot of SAS users in China?

Hongqiu:  There are a lot of SAS users in China.  I’ve no idea what the exact number of SAS users in China is.  With the increasing need for SAS users in medicine, life science, finance and banking industries, SAS users will become more and more prevalent.

Susan:  Thank you for sharing your experiences.  Perhaps someday we can meet in person at SAS Global Forum.

A Little Advice: How to Be a Top SAS Programmer

Recently I was honored to be interviewed by Mamadou Dakouo for his company DataSteps.

 

I was asked three questions:

• How did I learn SAS?
• What advice do I have for someone who wants to become a “top SAS programmer?”
• What is my favorite SAS procedure?

My answers were

• In graduate school
• Be a self-starter
• PROC FORMAT (runner-up: PROC SGPLOT)

For the details you can watch the 6 minute video.