1. YET ANOTHER TIPS, TRICKS, TRAPS, TECHNIQUES PRESENTATION: A Random Selection of What I Learned From 15+ Years of SAS Programming John Pirnat Kaiser Permanente Oct 15, 2009

2. 2 ARE THESE EQUIVALENT? data allschools1; set school1 school2; keep id lname fname; run; #1 #2 data allschools2 (keep = id lname fname); set school1 school2; run; #3 data allschools3; set school1 (keep = id lname fname) school2 (keep = id lname fname); run;

3. 3 EXAMPLE OF WHY HOW YOU WRITE THE CODE MIGHT MATTER: data school1; input id 8. region $1. lname $25. fname $10. pass_math $1. pass_eng $1. pass_span $1.; datalines; 72186 4Mouse Minnie YYN 51682 8Duck Donald NNN 368882 2Hall Annie YYY 45111 2Sawyer Tom NYN ; run; data school2; input id 8. region 8. lname $25. fname $10.pass_math $1. pass_eng $1. pass_span $1.; datalines; 46631 3 Lane Lois NYN 866322 7 Mouse Mickey YYN 63358 6 Kent Clark NYY 42643 1 Bunker Edith YYY ; run;

4. 4 CODE #1 99 data allschools1; 100 set school1 school2; ERROR: Variable region has been defined as both character and numeric. 101 keep id lname fname; 102 run; NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors. WARNING: The data set WORK.ALLschoolS1 may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 3 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.01 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds

5. 5 CODE #2 105 data allschools2 106 (keep = id lname fname); 107 set school1 school2; ERROR: Variable region has been defined as both character and numeric. 108 run; NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors. WARNING: The data set WORK.ALLschoolS2 may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 3 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds

6. 6 CODE #3 110 data allschools3; 111 set school1 (keep = id lname fname) 112 school2 (keep = id lname fname); 113 run; NOTE: There were 4 observations read from the data set WORK.school1. NOTE: There were 4 observations read from the data set WORK.school2. NOTE: The data set WORK.ALLschoolS3 has 8 observations and 3 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.01 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds

7. 7 IN CODE #3 EXAMPLE, ONLY THE COLUMNS IN THE KEEP COMMAND ARE BEING LOADED INTO PROGRAM DATA VECTOR (PDV) IN CODE #1 AND #2 EXAMPLES, ALL COLUMNS OF THE TWO SCHOOL DATASETS ARE BEING READ IN THE PDV, BUT ONLY COLUMNS INCLUDED IN KEEP STATEMENT ARE READ TO THE OUTPUT DATASET

8. 8 DON’T “FREQ” OUT proc freq data = school1; tables pass_math pass_eng pass_span /out = grade_results; run; proc print data = grade_results; run; The SAS System pass_ Obs span COUNT PERCENT 1 N 3 75 2 Y 1 25

9. 9 USE ODS INSTEAD proc freq data = school1; tables pass_math pass_eng pass_span; ods output OneWayFreqs = grade_results; run; proc print data = grade_results; var pass_eng pass_math pass_span frequency percent ; run; SAS DATASET NAME ODS TABLE NAME

10. 10 YOU CAN BE TOO CLEVER IN YOUR CODE data school1; input schoolid 8. lname $25. fname $10. pass_math $1. pass_eng $1. pass_span $1.; datalines; 72186 Mouse Minnie YYN 51682 Duck Donald NNN 368882 Hall Annie YYY 45111 Sawyer Tom NYN ; run; data school2; input id 8. lname $25. fname $10. pass_math $1. pass_eng $1. pass_span $1.; datalines; 46631 Lane Lois NYN 866322 Mouse Mickey YYN 63358 Kent Clark NYY 42643 Bunker Edith YYY ; run;

11. 11 lname fname id schoolid Mouse Minnie 72186 72186 Duck Donald 72186 51682 Hall Annie 72186 368882 Sawyer Tom 72186 45111 Lane Lois 46631. Mouse Mickey 866322. Kent Clark 63358. Bunker Edith 42643. HUH? data allschools; set school1 school2; if id =. then id = schoolid; run; proc print data = allschools noobs; var lname fname id schoolid; run;

12. 12 “When variables are read with a SET, MERGE, or UPDATE statement, the SAS System sets the value to missing only before the first iteration of the DATA step…Thereafter, the variables retain their values until new values become available …” -SAS® Language Reference Version 6 First Edition

13. 13 ONE WORKAROUND: data allschools; set school1 (rename = (schoolid = id)) school2; run; proc print data = allschools; var lname fname id; run; Obs lname fname id 1 Mouse Minnie 72186 2 Duck Donald 51682 3 Hall Annie 368882 4 Sawyer Tom 45111 5 Lane Lois 46631 6 Mouse Mickey 866322 7 Kent Clark 63358 8 Bunker Edith 42643

14. 14 1. TS486 – Quick Reference Guide to SAS Functions Informats Formats Updated at: http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/TS_486_Functions,_Informats,_ and_Formats data school1; input id 8. region $1. lname $25. fname $10. pass_math $1. pass_eng $1. pass_span $1.; datalines; 72186 4Mouse Minnie YYN 51682 8Duck Donald NNN 368882 2Hall Annie YYY 45111 2Sawyer Tom NYN ; run; 2. =: QUICK HITTERS:

15. 15 data test1; set school1; if lname =: 'M'; run; proc print data = test1 noobs; var lname; run; lname Mouse data test2; set school1; if lname>=: 'M'; run; proc print data = test2 noobs; var lname; run; lname Mouse Sawyer

16. 16 data test3; set school1; if lname<=: 'M'; run; proc print data = test3 noobs; var lname; run; Lname Mouse Duck Hall

17. 17 OFFBEAT MACRO USES %macro skip; Lotsa comments /* */ in code %mend; Use when debugging program and don’t want to run heavily commented code Let %abc = Big chunk of code that you will repeat often ;

18. 18 AND THEN THERE IS PROC IMPORT How many of you receive spreadsheets like this? SOUTHLAND SCHOOL IDLNAMEFNAME PASS_ MATH PASS_E NG PASS_ SPAN 38793NEWMAN NNN 5763GEKKOGORDONYYY 414452SPAULDINGGEOFFREYYYN 916547O'HARASCARLETTNNY 43256MARPLEJANEYNY 602345CHARLESNORANYY 402395MASONPERRYYYY

19. 19 proc import datafile = 'P:\My Documents\CO DAY 2009\SOUTHLAND SCHOOL.xls' out = school3 dbms = excel replace; run; proc print data = school3; run;

20. 20 CORRECTION ATTEMPT 1 proc import datafile = 'P:\My Documents\CO DAY 2009\SOUTHLAND SCHOOL.xls' out = school3 dbms = excel replace; mixed = yes; run; proc print data = school3; run; INSERT MIXED COMMAND

21. 21 TO GET MIXED RESULTS BEYOND 8 OBS NEED TO ADJUST YOUR WINDOWS REGISTRY – I WOULDN’T TRY IT EVEN IF I COULD CORRECTION ATTEMPT 2 proc import datafile = 'P:\My Documents\CO DAY 2009\SOUTHLAND SCHOOL NEW.xls' out = school3 dbms = excel replace; mixed = yes; run; proc print data = school3; run;

22. 22 THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL – ANOTHER PROC IMPORT EXAMPLE proc import datafile = 'P:\My Documents\CO DAY 2009\ACCEPTED_PROCEDURES.xls' out = procedures dbms = excel replace; run; data patients; input id 8. lname $25. fname $10. procedure 8.; datalines; 72186 Mouse Minnie 99201 51682 Duck Donald 99204 368882 Hall Annie 45111 Sawyer Tom 99402 ; run; proc sql; select id, lname, procedure from patients where procedure in (select procedure from procedures); quit;

23. 23 id lname procedure 72186 Mouse 99201 51682 Duck 99204 368882 Hall. WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? SPREADSHEET “ACCEPTED PROCEDURES” CONTAINED BLANK CELLS IN “PROCEDURE” COLUMN

24. 24 WORKAROUNDS: 1. Use DDE cf. www.lexjansen.com and search on “DDE”www.lexjansen.com 2. Save EXCEL spreadsheet in CSV or tab-delimitted format and input into SAS through your code 3. Put criteria in code to ensure you input what you really desire

25. 25 QUICK REPORT TIPS FOR THE HARD-TO-SATISFY CLIENT FOR ASSEMBLING SUMMARY DATA FROM VARIOUS DATASETS INTO A SPECIFIED LAYOUT SCHOOL EXAMPLE: DISTRICT SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WANTS COUNTS AND PERCENTAGES FOR PASSING MATH IN A SPREADSHEET IN A LAYOUT ONLY HE/SHE WOULD COME UP WITH %macro pass(num); %global tot&num pass&num; proc sql; select count(*) into :tot&num from school&num; quit; proc sql; select count(*) into :pass&num from school&num where pass_math = 'Y'; quit; %mend; CREATING MACRO VARIABLE IN PROC SQL SAVE MACRO VARIABLES OUTSIDE MACRO

26. 26 %pass(1); %pass(2); %pass(3); run; data _NULL_; file 'P:\My Documents\CO DAY 2009\MATH COUNTS.txt'; pct1 = &pass1 / &tot1; pct2 = &pass2 / &tot2; pct3 = &pass3 / &tot3; retain t '09'x; if _N_ = 1 then put "MATH PASS RESULTS" / / "SCHOOL" t "STUDENTS" t "NUMBER PASSED" t "PERCENT PASSED" / "SCHOOL1" t "&tot1" t "&pass1" / t t t pct1/ "SCHOOL2" t "&tot2" t "&pass2" / t t t pct2 / "SOUTHLAND SCHOOL" t "&tot3" t "&pass3" / t t t pct3; format pct1 pct2 pct3 percent10.2; options missing = 0; run; TAB DELIMITTED

27. 27 AFTER BRINGING INTO EXCEL AS TAB-DELIMITTED AND SOME MANUAL ADJUSTMENTS TO COLUMN WIDTH: CLIENT GETS DATA IN LAYOUT HE/SHE DESIRES