SAS stands for Statistical Analysis Software. SAS is used all over the world in almost 118 countries. SAS is the name of the company and it is also the name of the software. SAS started in 1970 as statistical analysis software, but it did not stop there. In the mid 1980’s, it added graphics, online data entry and compiled the C programming as well. In the 1990’s, SAS added tools like visualizing data, administering, storing data warehouses, and building interfaces to the World Wide Web, etc. SAS software is used to solve complex business problems. SAS software is used by companies in many fields, including aerospace, automotive, banking, communication, education, healthcare, govt. insurance, life sciences, etc. Much of the software is either menu driven or command driven. Like the other programming software, SAS has its own language that can control the program during its execution. SAS software has a very important statement which states that every SAS statement ends with a semicolon.
The professionals at Statistics Solutions are experts in Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) and have helped thousands of doctoral candidates, masters candidates and researchers. Contact Statistics Solutions today to learn how we can help you.
SAS Window:
SAS has the following main windows:
- Editor window
- Log window
- Output window
- Results window
- Explorer window
In editor window, we write the program. Log window will show the program log file. In log file, we can check the errors, and after correcting errors, we can run the program again. Output and the result window will show the output. Explorer window library is the place where all the created files, as well as the inbuilt of SAS, are located. All SAS programs run in two parts. The first part is the data step and the second part is the proc step. In the data step, we can create new data sets and we can modify the existing data sets. In the proc step, we can perform all analysis. For example, if we want to add a constant value in an x variable, then we can use the data steps as follows:
- Data = ABC;
- Set work. New;
- X= age+9;
- Run;
By running this statement, SAS will create a new variable with the name x, and will add 9 years of age in each case. If we want to run analysis on this data, then we have to execute proc statement as follows:
- Data = ABC;
- Set = work. New;
- Proc descriptive data= work. New;
- Run;
By running this statement, SAS will calculate all the descriptive statistics for data ABC. SAS statement is not case sensitive. We can write SAS statement in lower case, upper case, or a mix of the lower and upper cases. But SAS is sensitive with special characters such as $, %, #, @, etc.
SAS is so powerful that it can understand any type of data and it can access data from any software and any format. Logical operation can also be performed in SAS by using if –then the statement. SAS runs all statements in a loop, step by step, and executes the program very quickly. ODS procedure is used to take the output in other formats. Examples of this include HTML, RTF, excel, etc. We can also make macro from the SAS program and we can use this macro in the future.
