Descriptive Statistics With Proc Univariate

Feel your data !

Before going to a battle, a warrior better know what he is fighting against and so a data analyst ! It is advised to know and feel the  data before carrying out analysis on it. It is the best practice to examine the data initially by using the Proc Univariate in SAS.

Spellbinding Proc Spell

Hidden Gems of SAS - 2

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, the is the largest possible adjective I could find while I got to learn about this hidden gem of SAS : PROC SPELL. Learn it and believe me if you ever need to work in text mining, it would make your life so easy.

The pic is no exaggeration for this SAS procedure!

Time Series Forecasting - Part 5

ARIMA using SAS

We have covered basics about time series and also the basic methods of forecasting. It is time to learn the most important and most widely used for time series forecasting : ARIMA.

It is not possible to write ARIMA in a single stretch, it being full of complication, hence we plan to write it in series of article.

Useful VTABLE in SAS

Hidden Gems of SAS - 1

SAS is such a powerful software and sometimes it surprises me a lot. It has occurred quite a times with me that I have written a long code or a macro for some task, but later got to know that using one of the hidden gems, the task can be completed quite easily. At Ask Analytics, we will try to unearth many of such gems sooner or later !!!

Time Series Forecasting - Part 4

Triple Exponential Smoothing - Excel : SAS : R

In the previous article of this series, we explained Double Exponential Smoothing method, also called Holt's method for time series forecasting. Now we are taking up TES also called Holt Winter's Method.
Once we are done with this article we are all set to learn ARIMA.

Time Series Forecasting - Part 3

Double Exponential Smoothing - Excel : SAS : R

In the previous article of this series, we described Single Exponential Smoothing method and its applicability.
Let's now learn the second method which is DES, its applicability and how to perform it in Excel, SAS and R.

Time Series Forecasting - Part 2

Single Exponential Smoothing - Excel : SAS : R

In the previous article of this series, we described basics about the time series and also enlisted the methods that can used for time series forecasting.
Let's now learn the methods one by one in details.

SAS Project 1 - Part 1

What's being imported in India?

For long many Ask Analytics students have asked to explain a real time case study and here we are with a very interesting one.

While the whole world is a after Twitter and Kaggle data, we are using an indigenous data, quite rich daily import and export statistics released for public by Government of India on one of its websites. Consider an objective of learning import profile of India.

We would learn several new thing during the course of project.

Create User Interface (UI) in SAS

How to  create a User interface SAS ? 

Often, People make a front end with Java, .Net, Python etc. and integrate SAS at back-end for processing. But people often are unaware of the fact that SAS also offers an in-built facility to create "very basic" UI . let's learn it and see if you can use it somewhere in your protect implementation.It is very simple and one might find it very useful in his/her project.

Hash Object Merging in SAS - Simplified

Hash Merging in SAS

Need to join two or more large tables and it is taking too much time to do so? Not to worry, Hash Object Merging is here to rescue !

Hash Object Merging is one of the most efficient methods of merging datasets in SAS. Though memory intensive, it is much more faster than regular merging with data step or SQL join in terms of CPU time.

Syntax is not that simple, but no harm in learning a new technique.

Mini Market Basket Analysis

An interesting interview question

Recently I appeared in several interviews and faced a variety of  SAS related questions and puzzles. One of those SAS puzzle / question was quite interesting, which I would like to share with you guys with its answer and SAS code !

Hope you get to learn something from the same.

A join called " Self join"

Recently, when I took quite a many interviews, one of the most commonly question I faced was "what is Self Join?".

I know the word "Self" explains it all, but let us try to understand it more explicitly!

Self join is something when a table is joined to itself. 

Okay! Let us now try to learn things through an example.

SAS Macros - Part 4 - A finishing touch to Macro

We have already covered most about Macros our previous articles.  This article has been written in order to give it a finishing touch.

Just to summarize, we are covering useful options %EVAL, %SYSFUNC, Concatenation of macro variables, Call Execute and  %Include and much more.

So are you ready for savoring this platter ?

SAS Macros - Part 3 - Loops and Conditions in Macros

Do Loop, If-Else- conditions in SAS Macros

We have already covered Global and Local Macro variables and Macros along with sample usages in our previous articles. Let's now learn looping and conditional executions in Macros.

A little complex though, but we have tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Missing Value Treatment

<<< Looking at the picture itself, I know, who comes to your mind ... Aishwarya Rai, Right ?  >>>

Do you know what have you done ? You have imputed a missing value. While you already know missing value imputation, why am I writing this article ? All right, then let me write on "How should missing value be imputed in data, statistically ?"

SAS Macros - Part 2 - Macro and Local Macro Variables

SAS Macros are as powerful as a dragon or an eagle, also they haunts SAS coders. Macros are used for automation purpose in a project; when you need to something repetitive, time and again, or your want to design a very complex algorithm in SAS, Macros are there to help you out.

I know these are little difficult to code, but if you imbibe the concept very well in a logical manner, believe me, you will find macros to be your best friend.

Dragons can also be "cute", you just need to control them.  Learn "How to train your dragon?"

SAS Macros - Part 1 - Global Macro Variables

SAS Macros are as powerful as a dragon or an eagle, also they haunts SAS coders. Macros are used for automation purpose in a project; when you need to something repetitive, time and again, or your want to design a very complex algorithm in SAS, Macros are there to help you out.

I know these are little difficult to code, but if you imbibe the concept very well in a logical manner, believe me, you will find macros to be your best friend.

Dragons can also be "cute", you just need to control them.  Learn "How to train your dragon?"

Frequency Analysis and Chi Square Test

For the purpose of Frequency Analysis, SAS has provided Proc Freq to us. The procedure is used to measure the number of occurrences or frequency of instances individually or in combinations.

The procedure is also used for performing Chi-Square test, which helps establishing the independence of two or more samples on the basis of frequency.

Let's understand it by an examples.

SQL in SAS

SQL and Excel are omnipresent ! I am stating from my experience in Analytics industry. Every analyst in his/her life time, sometime would need to write SQL query and/or deal with Excel. Well, exceptions are always there. It is, therefore, advised to learn SQL.

In SAS, Proc SQL is the procedure used to run SQL engine. Basic structure of SQL remains same with only few (positive) differences.

Are you ready to learn it ?

Proc Summary and Proc Means

Like Shawshank Redemption's stable  position in IMDB rating, following question has maintained its presence in SAS interviews'  FAQs list.

What is the difference between Proc Summary and Proc Means ?

 Since stone age, people are being asked this worthless question while there are several more important things to ask.