SAS TUTORIALS

Save the file
Now you are familiar with program editor window, log window, and output window. If you want to save the work you’ve done in a session, you’ll need to save the contents of each window separately. Usually, you only need to save the program; you can always run the program to get the log and output. To save a
program file, you’ll need first to make sure the program editor is the active window, then go to file and select save command. Similarly, you can save a log file when a log window is active, or an output file when the output window is active. You do not have to run the entire program every time you make a correction to your SAS program. Each SAS procedure is relatively independent of other procedures. As long as you have the dataset you need in this procedure in SAS, you can run only part of the program by highlighting the part of the program you want to run and then clicking the run button in the tool bars.


Missing values
a. Dots for missing observations. If your data set has missing values, you’ll need to specify them as adot in the SAS dataset.
b. What if data set does not have dots? You can add a dot to the corresponding missing value locations using a data step. For example, if you have two variables, X and Y, in your data set, and 10 observations. The ninth value of Y is missing. The following code with an if statement will do:

data a2; set a1;
If _n_ eq 9 then Y=.

c. Reading in data @@. You’ve already learned that when you input your dataset after a CARDS or DATALINES statement, every observation needs to be on an individual line. In case you want to make better use of the window and want to have more than one observation per line, @@ is the syntax that tells SAS where the end of one observation is. For example:

data b1;
input x y z @@;
cards;
1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5 6.5
;

It may be that your variables are data strings instead of numbers, for example gender or disease type. We call these variables categorical. In this case, SAS wants you to specify which variables are categorical by adding a $ sign right after the name of the variable in the input statement. Sample code follows:

data b1;
input state $ county $ name $ gender $ weight;
cards;
indiana tipp brown female 125
;

d. What if my Excel data file is not reading properly into SAS or not at all? If the Excel data file is not reading into SAS at all, most likely it’s because your Excel data file is open. The Excel file must be closed before you import it into SAS. There are other reasons that the Excel data file is not reading in properly. It could be that the data type of your Excel cells is not correctly defined. Inappropriate reading also happens when you do not have a header in the first row, since the import procedure takes the first row as header by default. However, this can be changed during the import procedure under options.
How do you know if SAS is reading your dataset correctly? Use the proc print procedure and see if the dataset in SAS is what you expected.

Exporting to Excel, Access, or SPSS (.txt, .xls, .prn)
Exporting a data set to Excel is the opposite procedure of the import process. If you go to FILE and then select EXPORT DATA, an export wizard window pops up. Then just follow the wizard through the following steps.
Step 1: Choose a data set that you created in the WORK library (where the SAS datasets are stored automatically by SAS). Click next button when you are done.
Step 2: Choose the file type you want to export to. Available types include Excel, Access, dBase, delimited file, and many others. Choose Excel 2000 and then click next.
Step 3: Type in the directory path where you want to save your data file in. If you are not sure of the path, click on the browse button and find the location. At this time, you may click on the OK button to finish the export. To export the data to Access, procedures are basically the same except that you need to choose Access type or SPSS in step 2 of the above exporting procedure.

How to use the help menu
The SAS help menu is helpful if you want to self-improve your knowledge of SAS procedures. There are two ways of getting SAS help. One is to go to the help menu and then SAS system help. Then go to the Index tab and type in the name of the procedure. SAS will give you the syntax of the procedure as well as
some examples. If you have a specific question, you can use the Search tab, and type in the key word of your question. The other way of getting help is go to the books and training and then online doc. Online doc is easier to browse.