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Getting Started With SAS |
SAS is a commercial software for data manipulation and routine statistical analyses. The software can only be obtained if you are affiliated with an institution, a university or a company, that pays for a SAS license.
SAS is the standard software to clean, manipulate, and integrate data. Due to its data capabilities, everyone who works with data in industry needs to know more than a little bit of SAS. SAS newbies should keep in mind that SAS is a software with some programmical capability, not a true programming language. Over the years SAS has grown to incorporate a large number of statistical routines (called 'PROC's) and a variety of reporting and pseudo programming capabilities. These features are not easy to learn from the SAS User's Guide. Instead, you typically have to by a SAS reference book to learn the particular feature of interest.
Base SAS Certification Prep Guide All master's level analysts should get Base SAS certified as a marketable professional skill. Note that as a student, you will get a student rate for the exam. See http://support.sas.com/certify/creds/bp.html for more details. |
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Advanced Programming SAS Certification Prep Master's level analysts should further their SAS credentials by becoming certified as an Advanced Programmer. The SAS material covered in this certification is commonly used in the predictive analytics profession. See http://support.sas.com/certify/creds/ap.html for more details. |
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Learning SAS By Example by Ron Cody This book is part of SAS's "By Example" series. The book illustrates the most common tasks performed in SAS using examples. The book is a very effective learning text for the beginning SAS user. |
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The Little SAS Book by Delwiche and Slaughter This book is the original handy SAS reference. It was not that long ago that this book was the only condensed SAS reference available. The book is still handy, and every SAS programmer should probably have a copy of it within reach. |
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SAS Statistics By Example by Ron Cody This book is extremely useful book for the beginning SAS programmer who is trying to learn regression and statistical techniques related to regression. Cody outlines a number of basic statistical topics and illustrates them with examples. |
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Logistic Regression Using SAS by Paul Allison This book is a must have for the industry SAS modeler. In industry logistic regression becomes your jacknife, and you will want to know how to implement these ideas in SAS. |
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Survival Analysis Using SAS by Paul Allison This book provides a good overview of the survival analysis capabilities available in SAS. One important topic covered in this book is discrete time survival analysis (using logistic regression). The discrete time approach is frequently used in industry. |
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PROC SQL By Example by Howard Schreier SAS PROC SQL is the default standard software for accessing IBM DB2 databases at most companies. This book will teach you the basics of SQL programming by example. |
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PROC SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS by Kirk Lafler You typically need to understand more than the very basics of PROC SQL so here it is. You cannot analyze data if you cannot get it out of the data warehouse. |
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SAS Macro Programming Made Easy by Burlew This book provides a nice overview of the increased programming functionality that can be obtained by using SAS macro capabilities to parameterize your code and write functional subroutines. |
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Carpenter's Complete Guide to the SAS Macro Language by Carpenter Another reference for the SAS Macro language. In order to be an effective SAS programmer you will need to be able to use the SAS Macro language effectively. Either Burlew or Carpenter will help you understand how to use the SAS Macro language. |
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SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy by Burlew Hash Objects are an important advanced SAS programming technique if you are managing large data sets. If you already understand the basics of SAS and would like to add a useful tool to your existing programming capabilities, then Hash Objects would be a nice skill to add. |