SAS Programming: A Beginner Tutorial

SAS programming, created at North Carolina State University in the 1970s, was used to analyze agricultural research data. Now, it is preferred by 60% of programmers worldwide due to its suitability for statistical data analysis.

This blog will walk you through the details of SAS, and also enlighten you about its history, tools, features, and architecture.

What is SAS Programming?

It refers to the Statistical Analysis System which is used for reporting, management, and analysis of data. There are a lot of industries that take benefits from it like finance, healthcare, and marketing. It is a popularly used software that has been helping industries with a variety of tasks.

SAS also allows you to analyze and manipulate data, perform statistical analysis, and make repetitive decisions automated. This not only saves time but provides a greater vision and allows the users to be more creative with visualization and reports.

In the upcoming sections of this blog, we will discuss more about SAS functions and why they prove to be popular. You can also enroll yourself in this online SAS Programming course to grasp a better understanding of the subject. 

History of SAS

SAS was developed in 1970 at N.C. University by Jim Goodnight and John Shall. It was designed initially for agricultural research, but later it expanded to predictive analysis, data management, and BI.

Ever since it has been a trustworthy platform used by a number of industries. The professionals are choosing to work with SAS as it provides them with a convenient way of handling vast sets of data beneficial for the industry. It is most helpful to companies for data analysis techniques.

Features of SAS Programming

The following points explain the features of SAS programming:

• Data Manipulation: SAS provides a comprehensive set of data manipulation techniques. It allows you to read, write, and modify data in various formats such as text files, spreadsheets, and databases. 
• Data Analysis and Statistical Modelling: It is a rich collection of statistical procedures for data analysis. It includes descriptive statistics, regression analysis, time series analysis, survival analysis, and more that allow you to perform complex analyses and generate meaningful insights.
• Data Visualization: SAS provides tools for creating graphical representations of data. You can generate a wide range of plots, charts, and graphs to visually explore and communicate your data.
• Data Integration: SAS integrates well with various data sources and formats. It supports importing and exporting data from popular databases, spreadsheets, and other statistical software.
• Reporting and Output Delivery: SAS allows you to generate reports and output in various formats such as HTML, PDF, Excel, and RTF. You can customize the appearance and layout of reports. 
• Quality Control: SAS offers features for data validation, cleaning, and quality control. You can identify missing values, outliers, and inconsistencies in your data. SAS Data Quality provides functions and techniques for data profiling, cleansing, and standardization.
• Industry-Specific Solutions: It offers industry-specific solutions for sectors such as finance, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications. These solutions provide specialized functionality, data models, and analytical capabilities tailored to the specific needs of each industry.
• Extensibility: It is extensible, allowing you to integrate custom code and procedures. You can write and execute SAS code, and SAS macros, and integrate them with other programming languages.

SAS Architecture

Now that you know what is SAS, let us get to the detailed description of its architecture. It is mainly divided into three parts, namely, client tier, middle tier, and back tier. All of these are explained in the points below:

• Client Tier: The application is installed by the user in this tier, making it firewall-friendly. It is the starting point of the SAS programming architecture, consisting of the components that are used to view the portal and its content. It also consists of a web browser useful for interacting with the portals over HTTP protocols.

• Middle Tier: This tier offers centralized point access for any information.  All the access provided is controlled by the components that usually operate this tier. It makes security rules easier to enforce. The following functions are hosted by the middle tier:

1. SAS Information Delivery Portal Web Application
2. Servlet Engine
3. Web Server

• Back Tier: This is the last tier in SAS architecture and encompasses the components that are reliable for storing data, processing the data, and computation. It is considered the area where the data and computation server runs. It includes key components, such as SAS Metadata Server, SAS Object Spawner, and SAS Workspace Server.

Uses of SAS 

There are a variety of applications where SAS is used and provides a powerful suite of various analytical tools. The following are some of the key uses:

• It provides a huge range of data integration techniques by allowing users to extract and load different kinds of data.
• It makes data management easier and more efficient. 
• It enhances the statistical approach and analysis and makes it more comprehensive and descriptive. 
• It is helpful in risk management, healthcare analysis, financial analysis, predictive analysis, and business intelligence.
• It is predominantly helping a variety of sectors and has been a valuable tool in all the domains that take benefit from it. 

Samples SAS Program

Every SAS program consists of three necessary steps. They are as follows:

• DATA Step: It loads the data set into the SAS memory and finds the correct variables associated with it. 
• Proc Step: It performs specific analysis on the data set to produce results. On the basis of this step, reports are prepared. 
• OUTPUT Step: It displays the resultant data or the data from the data set with conditional output statements. 

Now, let us look at some samples to understand it better.

Sample 1

Here is a sample SAS program that reads a dataset, calculates some basic statistics, and generates a summary report.

/* Step 1: Data Import */
data mydata;
  input Name $ Age Height Weight;
  datalines;
John 25 175 70
Mary 30 160 55
Bob 22 180 80
Alice 28 165 62
;
run;

/* Step 2: Calculate Statistics */
proc means data=mydata;
  var Age Height Weight;
run;

/* Step 3: Generate Summary Report */
proc print data=mydata;
run;

The above program creates a dataset called “mydata” and inserts sample data in it using the “datalines” statement. Then, using the “proc means” procedure, basic statistics are calculated. Finally, the “proc print” procedure displays the contents of the “mydata” dataset in the SAS log.

Sample 2

The following is the SAS program to create a bar chart using the sample data to display the sales data for each product.

/* This is a SAS program example */
/* Step 1: Data Import */
data sales;
  input Product $ Sales;
  datalines;
Product_A 1000
Product_B 1500
Product_C 800
Product_D 1200
;
run;

/* Step 2: Create a Bar Chart */
proc sgplot data=sales;
  vbar Product / response=Sales datalabel;
  title "Product Sales Bar Chart";
run;

The above program creates a dataset “Sales” and inserts sample data representing sales for four different products. The “proc sgplot” procedure will create a vertical bar chart “vbar”. The “Product” variable is plotted on the x-axis, and the “Sales” variable determines the height of the bars. The “datalabel” option will add the data labels to the bars. The “title” statement will add the title to the chart.

Sample 3

Here is a simple SAS program to calculate and display the sum of two numbers.

/* This is a simple SAS program example */
data numbers;
  input num1 num2;
  datalines;
5 7
10 15
3 2
;
run;

data sum_result;
  set numbers;
  sum = num1 + num2;
run;

proc print data=sum_result;
  title "Sum of Two Numbers";
run;

The above program first creates a dataset with the name “numbers” and inserts sample data representing a pair of numbers. Then, a new dataset is created, “sum_result”. Here, the variables, “num1” and “num2” are calculated for each pair of numbers, and the result is saved in the variable “sum”. The “proc print” command will display the data saved in “sum_result”, i.e., sums of pairs of numbers.

SAS Tools

The SAS foundation tools that are available as individual software modules and also serve as the foundation of other SAS solutions or suite components are as follows:

• SAS Enterprise Guide: It is an application that provides the user with a GUI to access SAS.
• BASE SAS: It is a fourth-generation programming language both flexible and extensible and is used to access, transform, and report data. 
• SAS Studio: It provides a web browser-based programming environment for fast and easy interaction with SAS code.
• SAS Grid Manager: It provides better management across a virtual pool of resources in a distributed environment. It provides features such as enterprise job scheduling, parallel application workloads, and workload balancing.

SAS Product Suite

The SAS product suite is a collection of SAS products. Some of the popular products are as follows:

•  SAS/STAT: The component is used to perform statistical analysis. Other types of analysis done through it include multivariate analysis, regression, variance analysis, mixed model analysis, etc.
•  SAS/ETS: It is used to conduct econometric and time series analysis.
•  SAS/GRAPH: This component aids the user in presenting results in an optimized format through graphs and presentations. 
•  SAS/INSIGHT: This component is recommended for the task of data mining.
•  SAS/IML: This IML or Interactive Metric Language tool helps you to translate mathematical formulas into an innovative program. 
• SAS/QC: It is used for quality control.

SAS Libraries

A SAS library is a collection of SAS files or datasets in the same folder or directory. Their implementation depends on the operating system of the user. You can use both the default libraries as well as create your own. Some of the default SAS libraries are Webwork, Work, SAShelp, and SASuser. 

The SAS libraries are of the following two types:

• Temporary Library: Files in it are located in temporary storage. Because of this, they last only for the current SAS session and are deleted when the session ends. 
• Permanent Library: Files here are stored permanently until the user deletes them. To store a file permanently in a SAS library, you should specify a library name other than “Work”.

These two types of libraries are created in either of the two modes, dependent or independent. In the dependent mode, the SAS files can be shared with other libraries. In the independent mode, the SAS files cannot be shared with other libraries.

Advantages and Disadvantages of SAS Programming

Now that you know what is SAS programming, let us talk about its advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• SAS has an easy syntax that is comparatively easier to understand.
• It possesses the ability to handle vast amounts of data.
• It is a secure system.
• It makes statistical computing effortless for users who are not acquainted with programming

Disadvantages:

• It is not cost-effective.
• You cannot use it properly without a license.
• It does not offer algorithms used in it for common use.
• It can have strong competition from alternative open sources.

Conclusion

This blog descriptively talks about SAS programming. It is a Statistical Analysis System used for reporting, management, and analysis of data. It allows you to analyze and manipulate data, perform statistical analysis, and make decisions automated, which is helpful for all the fast-paced sectors.

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