SAS Functions by Example - Softcover

Ronald P. Cody

4.86

7 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590473787 ISBN 13: 9781590473788

Publisher: SAS Publishing, 2004

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Ron Cody's SAS Functions by Example is a must-have reference for anyone who writes programs in Base SAS. From ABS to ZIPSTATE, more than 180 of the most useful SAS language functions are clearly defined and illustrated with fully annotated working programs. Written as both a reference manual and an instructional guide, this book contains many helpful features, including functions arranged by category; coverage of 48 functions that are new for SAS 9.1; a tutorial on Perl regular expressions; extensive sample programs featuring each of the functions; tips to show you novel ways to use functions or to use several functions together to achieve the result you want; a list of programs; an alphabetic list of all the functions in the book; and a comprehensive index of functions and tasks. Beginning and seasoned SAS users will benefit from this comprehensive and useful reference guide to SAS functions!

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About the Author:

Ron Cody, Ed.D., is a professor and researcher at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey as well as a national instructor for SAS Institute Inc. A SAS user since 1977, Ron has the extensive knowledge and innovative style that have made him a popular presenter at local, regional, and national SAS conferences. He has authored or coauthored numerous books such as SAS Programming by Example; Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language, Fourth Edition; The SAS Workbook; The SAS Workbook Solutions; Cody's Data Cleaning Techniques Using SAS Software and Longitudinal Data and SAS: A Programmer's Guide as well as countless articles in medical and scientific journals.

Review:

Ron Cody makes functions, both old and new, easy to understand. He starts with the purpose of a function and follows up with a short SAS program to display how and when it can be used. The format used in this handbook makes finding a particular function and learning its use by example easy. Similar functions and Call routines are treated as a group. First there is an explanation of the appropriate use for each. Then a sequence of sample programs demonstrates how they differ. Dates are often key variables in the programming world. Date and time functions are covered in detail and excellent examples for each function are included. This is truly a handbook to have handy, when you want to choose right function for a task and use it correctly. --Karol Katz, Dept. of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University

I was particularly impressed with two areas of this book: The examples pose problems that every programmer has faced and the solutions address those problems using both traditional approaches and novel strategies. Programmers in their early stages often don't recognize the benefits of using functions. Ron has presented the examples in a way that allows programmers to consider functions from the angle, 'Ok I've got this same problem. How can functions help me treat it?' The text explanation with accompanying code makes it a snap to apply the techniques to your own programs. The examples don't let you assume what the outcome will be and Ron alerts you to any side-effects or unexpected results. Programmers in later stages of development often rely on the same traditional bag of functions, supplemented with lots of work-around code. These professionals will find relief using 'alternative therapies' like Perl expressions and new v9 functions presented in the book. In the old days, data was usually entered by trained personnel using set protocols. Today programs need to be able to accept data entered by untrained users from web-forms. This has resulted in a plague of bad data. Ron's book provides a function Rx for almost every conceivable data entry malady. I've been programming in SAS for about 15 years and found myself saying over & over again 'I didn't know about that function, I can use that!' --Jeanne Spicer, Social Science Research Institute, Penn State University

Ron Cody has done a great job of putting together a SAS Functions "cookbook" that will be a big time saver when trying to easily use and transform your data. There are examples for every function and each is well-explained and easy- to-follow. The author is well experienced in many types of data and programming languages. For example, in chapter 2 he concentrates on Perl expressions and chapter 12 is devoted to trigonometric functions. This book would appeal to beginning and seasoned SAS programmers, as it is very difficult to remember how to use every function you'd need to complete assignments. Just like it would be very hard to remember the details of all your favorite recipes, this book is a similar reference. --Diane Marie Goldschmidt, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of CT

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