Useful SAS Web Links

Presented by Michael Davis

Health Market Science

At PhilaSUG Meeting held on June 17, 2008

hosted by The Hartford Customer Services Group

Topics to be Covered

How to navigate SAS Support site

Documentation
Notes and samples
Submitting questions to SAS Tech Support
Focus Area and Forums
SAS Training
SAS Books
Using SAS-L Listserv for unofficial answers
Mining SAS conference proceedings
SUGI/SGF
Regional/Special Interest
Other web sites of interest to SAS users
PhilaSUG and other local SAS user groups
Regional SAS User Groups
SCONSIG.com and other specialized sites
support.sas.com

A portal for help in using SAS software (vs marketing info)

Site updated in October 2007 (breaking links, dropping features)
Knowledge Base contains documentation, papers, samples,
SAS Notes and Focus Areas
Support allows one to submit a problem, check track status, and
read/post to discussion forums
Learning Center is the link to the bookstore and training
Community is the link to user groups, conferences, web
seminars, discussion forums, and sasCommunity.org (wiki)
Tip: Google <key words> site:sas.com
support.sas.com
Product Documentation – Release 9.1.3

Link to Release 9.1.3 is

http://support.sas.com/onlinedoc/913/docMainpage.jsp
SAS Procedures
Find procedures across products alphabetically
Cut & paste from Examples to save typos
Task … Statement section often point to needed feature(s)
Base SAS
See SAS Language Reference: Dictionary for help with data set options,
formats, functions, and statements
See online manuals for SQL programming, macro language, ODS, and
running SAS under windows (SAS Companion)
Other Tips
Use Search dialog when clueless
Use PDF manual when printing a section
Procedures Documentation
Product Documentation – Release 9.2

Link to Release 9.2 is http://support.sas.com/cdlsearch?ct=80000

Click on a topic (e.g. SAS Reference)
Click on a subtopic (e.g. Functions)
Click on a book (e.g. SAS Language Reference: Dictionary)
Choose to view in HTML or as a PDF
Expand tree on left to drill to topic of interest
Most of the topics of interest to programmers can be found under
SAS Reference
Samples and SAS Notes

Samples and Notes are now intertwined into a Knowledge Base

http://support.sas.com/kb
No more Tech Support FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Tips for Searching Samples and SAS Notes
Select Samples, Usage Notes, and/or Product Notes
Browse by suggested topics, then refine result
Use drop-down filters to winnow results
Other search tips
Use minus, “-”, to exclude search terms
Prefacing terms with “title:” restricts search to title
Enclose terms in quotes to return exact phrases
search KB for “pipe” samples
Submitting Problems via the Web

Why use web instead of phone?

Submit problems when SAS Tech Support phones closed
Get best consultant for your question
Consultants can work on problem during phone duty

Link is http://support.sas.com/ctx/supportform/index.jsp
Site number changes for Release 9.2
Phone # is prefixed by country code (+1)
“Check Problem Status” links to Tracks system

Encapsulate your problem before sending

Faster resolution If your problem can be replicated by SAS
Supply data through DATALINES (CARDS) or SASUSER sample data
Strip out non-relevant portions before send
Your problem may go away when non-relevant code is removed !
SAS Focus Areas

Created by SAS R&D to share information about both new and

existing products. Link is http://support.sas.com/rnd/
Mostly a mechanism to “push” papers, sample, code, and tips
about a product or subject to users
At the bottom of each page is a mailto: link to send comments
and questions back to that R&D area
Base SAS covers DATA Step, ODS, SAS®9 features, FAQs (frequently
asked questions, also in SAS Notes)
Other focus areas include Data Visualization, Migration, Scalability,
Statistics, and SAS AppDev Studio
Sending mail to ods@sas.com is an alternative to posting questions to
R&D about ODS if the question relates to obscure ODS features
The mailto: link is also a good alternative if you are having problems with
an experimental feature of SAS
Web section, which covered SAS/IntrNet is gone. See
http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/intrnet
SAS Discussion Forums

Link: http://support.sas.com/forums/
Unlike SAS-L, SAS employees allowed to post to forums
New forums for SAS Procedures and SAS Macro Facility
One of the forums is devoted to Enterprise Guide
Most popular forums include ODS and Base Reporting
Unlike SAS Tech Support, conversation is public so avoid posting
proprietary information
SAS Discussion Forums
SAS Training

Top level link is support.sas.com/training

Search for scheduled public and Live Web courses at:
support.sas.com/training/us
Want to learn about SAS or Enterprise Guide for free?
www.sas.com/apps/elearning/elearning_courses.jsp?cat=Free+Tutorials
Want to experiment with SAS on your home computer?
support.sas.com/learn/le/index.html
How do I get to my local SAS office or see the courses offered at
my local SAS Office? support.sas.com/training/fyi
What is SAS-L?

A LISTSERV based world-wide SAS discussion group that is

“always open”
Can post and search posted messages to the group via e-mail or
via a web interface. Link: listserv.uga.edu/archives/sas-
l.html
Good for best practices and advice that falls outside the range of
topics that SAS Tech Support addresses
Examples: SAS interview questions, ways to read MS Office documents
into SAS, problem setting up pipes to read Zip, GZ archives
When posting problems, include platform, SAS version, SAS Log
messages, meaningful subject line, and sample data if possible so
problem can be replicated
SAS-related jobs are posted on SAS-L
Not a good venue for questions involving proprietary information
SAS-L Archives
Post About PharmaSUG Proceedings
sasCommunity.org

a global online SAS Community (Wiki) for SAS users

created by the SAS Global Users Group Executive Board
intended to be single entry point for SAS resources
can search entries via a Google appliance on the site
Can “watch” a page to be notified of changes
navigate via the main menu on the left
many SAS-related forums and blogs
Sasopedia is another way to find some of the links mentioned in
this presentation and more
Opportunity Registry has replaced the job referral binders at
SUGI/SGF
sasCommunity.org is a work-in-progress
remember that anyone can alter an entry!!!
Mining Conference Proceedings

Presentations at regional and SUGI/SGF SAS conferences have

been published as PDF documents for over a decade and are
freely available via the web
Good source of mini-tutorials and “how-to” information
Invited vs contributed presentations
Search SUGI and SGF (SAS Global Forum, formerly SAS Users
Group International) proceedings at:
http://support.sas.com/events/sasglobalforum/previous/online.html
Tip: check out contributed paper award winners
e.g. http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/forum2008/Awards07.pdf
Search SUGI/SGF and regional conference proceedings at:
http://www.lexjansen.com
SAS Authored Conference Presentations

Invited conference papers verses SAS Presents

SAS Technical Papers: support.sas.com/resources/papers
Focus area have SAS presentations organized by R&D or product
area: http://support.sas.com/rnd
Local SAS User Groups (LUGs)

Most local SAS user groups maintain a website:

Past and future meeting agendas and sign-up
Newsletters
Past presentations
Local SAS employment opportunities
Other useful links
Good example of LUG websites
http://www.philasug.org
http://www.hasug.org
User Groups on SAS Web site: support.sas.com/usergroups
Find groups, see upcoming meetings
Find [vertically oriented] special-interest user groups
Regional SAS User Groups

Raison d'être of regional user groups is their annual conference

and their websites reflect this narrow focus
NESUG also offers speaker-sharing funds
Membership in regional user groups is through affiliated LUGs
Primary source for learning about upcoming conferences
NESUG website has good FAQs section
Links to past conference proceedings on regional sites
Lex Jansen site can search past proceedings for single region
SCONSIG website

SAS Consultant Special Interest Group web site

Link: http://www.sconsig.com
Many features of interest to general SAS community
Information on SAS-L
List of SAS training companies
Book reviews
Tips and Techniques
Many links to SAS jobs and job searching
Some non-SAS related information and links
Some of the links are obsolete
SCONSIG.com web site
Conclusion

The web offers many resources for solving SAS problems and
learning how to use new SAS features
Available 24x7
Links often shift but with some persistence, you can find the
information that you seek or remember seeing

Questions or comments? Please forward them to:

mdavis@healthmarketscience.com
http://healthmarketscience.com
Telephone: 484-804-2703