Lecture Notes 9/12/2006

Hands on running a program
(from the Getting Started with SAS article)

How to find the SAS Dictionary of Language Elements online (SDLEo)
(as referred to frequenty in the SAS Certification Essential Reading wikipage) Steps:
 * 1) Go to http://v9doc.sas.com
 * 2) click on SAS OnlineDoc 9.1.3 for the Web.
 * 3) click on Base SAS
 * 4) SAS Language Reference: Dictionary, then
 * 5) Dictionary of Language Elements.
 * The Language Elements we often use are:
 * Functions,
 * Formats, and
 * Informats.

Usually every SAS program has a datastep, and then several procedures.

The data step has several statements in it (each ending with a semi-colon). These are not procedures (PROCs) so statements are documented alphabetically in a reference separate from the Base and SAS/STAT Procedures guide.

Important statements for the beginner to know or linked to directly from the wikipage Concise Glossary for SAS

Kinds of SAS Files
SAS Files Overview

Importing an Excel spreadsheet
(one of the '12 Ways' to read SAS data)

Steps in SAS environment:(you can also see the '12 ways' to read SAS data above) Begin by File--Import Data, and choose Standard data source and then click NEXT. Use BROWSE to find your data and then click OK. To determine the SAS destination, choose WORK for the LIBRARY column and type the name of your data for the MEMBER column and then click NEXT then FINISH. You can now see your data is one of the contents in WORK of LIBRARIES.

Using INFILE
Be sure to experiment the following Options in your computer:(see examples in section 2)


 * FIRSTOBS
 * MISSOVER
 * FLOWOVER
 * TRUNCOVER
 * DELIMITER=