Papers, et cetera

Susan J. Slaughter has made over 100 presentations at local, regional, and international SAS users group meetings. Her favorite papers (and associated stuff) are collected here.

Click the title of an item to download it.

SAS Essentials Course

I created this SAS Essentials Course for people who are new to SAS.  These three one-hour presentations are designed to give both a broad overview and a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of SAS.  Each presentation has a matching quiz that you can use to test your knowledge.  Download the slides and corresponding quizzes here:

How SAS Thinks: SAS Basics I

Quiz for How SAS Thinks: SAS Basics I

Introduction to DATA Step Programming: SAS Basics II

Quiz for Introduction to DATA Step Programming: SAS Basics II

Introduction to SAS Procedures: SAS Basics III

Quiz for Introduction to SAS Procedures: SAS Basics III

 Macros

SAS Macro Programming for Beginners  This paper explains how SAS macros work, written for people who are new to macros and people who have used macros but never quite understood them.

Debugging SAS code

Errors, Warnings, and Notes (Oh My): A Practical Guide to Debugging SAS Programs  This is one of my favorite papers. The topic is serious, but we had fun writing it.

Reporting

Turning Raw Data into Polished Reports  Rhyme and Reason: We’re pretty sure this is the only SAS paper ever based on The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. This paper takes you from basic detail reports to customizing reports with the Output Delivery System.

ODS Graphics

Graphing Made Easy with SGPLOT and SGPANEL Procedures  One of the great features introduced with SAS 9.2 is ODS Graphics.  This paper covers the two most important SG procedures: SGPLOT and SGPANEL.  The paper includes a concise reference of syntax that you may want to keep on your desk whenever you write SG procedure code. Other topics covered include changing the appearance of plots (features such as colors and symbols), changing ODS styles and destinations, and options for controlling and accessing individual graphs.  This is the version of the paper was presented at SAS Global Forum 2015.

Handout for Using PROC SGPLOT for Quick High-Quality Graphs  This is the handout for the hands-on workshop presented at Western Users of SAS Software 2014. Follow the step-by-step instructions for an introduction to PROCs SGPLOT and SGPANEL. (Note that you also need the data sets available below.)

Tables of Syntax for Using PROC SGPLOT for Quick High-Quality Graphs  This is the black and white version of the syntax reference that was handed out at the workshop.  There is a prettier color version of this table in the paper.

Data for Using PROC SGPLOT for Quick High-Quality Graphs  This zipped file contains the SAS data sets used in the paper and hands-on workshop. These data sets contain data from the Olympics.  Using these data, you can run the examples yourself.  To get the file, you must have a Dropbox account. If you don’t already have a Dropbox account, then you can get one for free.  Log in, then click the link in this paragraph, and click the Download button that appears.

SAS Studio

SAS Studio: A New Way to Program in SAS  SAS Studio is an interface for SAS that runs in your internet browser.  SAS Studio is included with Base SAS. It is designed primarily for programmers, but with point-and-click features.  SAS Studio is the default interface for SAS OnDemand for Academics which is a free, cloud-based version of SAS and is available to anyone for non-commercial use.  SAS Studio can also be installed on your PC (called SAS Studio Single-User) or on a server, but it still runs in a browser. This paper covers the fundamentals of writing SAS code using SAS Studio.

Enterprise Guide

Writing Code in SAS Enterprise Guide  If you are a SAS programmer who has avoided using SAS Enterprise Guide because you think it’s only good for point-and-click, then this paper is for you. You may be surprised to learn that SAS Enterprise Guide offers programmers many advantages over Display Manager.

Introduction to Summary Tables in SAS Enterprise Guide  The point-and-click version of PROC TABULATE makes it really easy to create the perfect report.  Arrange your columns and rows, and then change fonts, formats, and colors without writing a line of code.  Winner of the Best Contributed Poster award at SUGI 2005.  This is the hands-on workshop version of the paper.

Point-and-Click Style Editing in SAS Enterprise Guide  This paper shows how you can easily create custom styles for HTML reports. (No messing with PROC TEMPLATE required!) Then you can use your new styles either in SAS Enterprise Guide or in SAS code you write in Display Manager. Applies to all versions of Enterprise Guide.

Resumes

Your Resume—Selling Yourself Using SAS  You want your resume to be brief, but impressive.  This highly creative paper, co-authored with Rebecca Ottesen, suggests ways to use SAS graphics and reporting to summarize and visualize your work and education with examples for recent graduates and people with more years of experience.

Social Networking

Social Networking and SAS: Running PROCs on Your Facebook Friends  This paper, co-authored by Chris Hemedinger of SAS-for-Dummies-fame, describes how to use SAS and SAS Enterprise Guide to extract data from social network sites using published APIs, with Facebook and Twitter as examples, and then analyze the results.

All documents on this site are copyrighted by their respective authors.