SAS for Data Analysis: Intermediate Statistical Methods (Statistics and Computing)

This book is intended for use as the textbook in a second course in applied statistics that covers topics in multiple regression and analysis of variance at an intermediate level. Generally, students enrolled in such courses are p- marily graduate majors or advanced undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines. These students typically have taken an introductory-level s- tistical methods course that requires the use a software system such as SAS for performing statistical analysis. Thus students are expected to have an - derstanding of basic concepts of statistical inference such as estimation and hypothesis testing. Understandably, adequate time is not available in a ?rst course in stat- tical methods to cover the use of a software system adequately in the amount of time available for instruction. The aim of this book is to teach how to use the SAS system for data analysis. The SAS language is introduced at a level of sophistication not found in most introductory SAS books. Important features such as SAS data step programming, pointers, and line-hold spe- ?ers are described in detail. The powerful graphics support available in SAS is emphasized throughout, and many worked SAS program examples contain graphic components.

This book is an integrated treatment of applied statistical methods, presented at an intermediate level, and the SAS programming language. It serves as an advanced introduction to SAS as well as how to use SAS for the analysis of data arising from many different experimental and observational studies. While there are many introductory texts on SAS programming, statistical methods texts that solely make use of SAS as the software of choice for the analysis of data are rare. While this is understandable from a marketability point of view, clearly such texts will serve the need of many thousands of students and professionals who desire to learn how to use SAS beyond the basic introduction they usually receive from taking an introductory statistics course. More recently, several authors in statistical methodology have begun to incorporate SAS in their texts but these books are limited to more specialized subjects.

Many of the standard topics covered in statistical methods texts supplemented by advanced material more suited for a second course in applied statistics are included, so that specific aspects of SAS procedures can be illustrated. Brief but instructive reviews of the statistical methodologies used are provided, and then illustrated with analysis of data sets used in well-known statistical methods texts. Particular attention is devoted to discussions of models used in each analysis because the authors believe that it is important for users to have not only an understanding of how these models are represented in SAS but also because it helps in the interpretation of the SAS output produced.

Mervyn G. Marasinghe is Associate Professor of Statistics at Iowa State University where he teaches several courses in statistics and statistical computing and a course in data analysis using SAS software. A former Associate Editor of the Journal Computational and Graphical Statistics, he has used SAS software for more than 30 years.

William J. Kennedy is Professor Emeritus of Statistics at Iowa State University. A Fellow of the American Statistical Association and former Editor of The American Statistician and Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, he is coauthor of the book entitled Statistical Computing.