By-group processing is part of the game when we work with data in SAS. The usual approach for most SAS programmers goes as follows: Sort the data. Use the By Statement in the Data Step or procedure. Perhaps use first – and last dot notation in the data step to...
Last week, I wrote about how to Use Arrays To Look Up Data In SAS. There are numerous ways to combine data sets and look up data from multiple sources in SAS. Therefore it is essential to know the different approaches and when to use them. Today, I demonstrate how to...
Two heads think better than one. This is often true in the real world. However, in SAS it is more true to say that several heads think faster than one. This post shows you how to split processes to several threads to decrease wall clock time and increase performance...
When you want to sort a SAS data set, PROC SORT is the obvious procedure choice. In most cases it is also the most efficient. However, alternatives do exist. In this post, I will present example code of three alternatives to the SORT Procedure. Furthermore, I will...
Most SAS users know how to sort data with PROC SORT. Fewer users know how this sorting affects the meta data that contains sorting information on the data set. In this post I will introduce two very important pieces of meta data information. The SORTED and VALIDATED...
I prefer the Data Step over PROC SQL. However, some applications are solved with much simpler code in PROC SQL. In those cases, I have to force myself on to the SQL side. Such a situation arises in the blog post Select By Group Conditional On Observation. The Data...
