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This paper presents a set of programming guidelines and conventions that can be considered in developing code to ensure that it is clear, efficient, transferable and maintainable. These are not hard and fast rules but they are generally accepted good programming practices. These techniques can be used in all types of SAS® programs, on all platforms, by beginners and experts alike. SAS ® PROGRAM EFFICIENCY FOR BEGINNERS Guidelines for Coding of SAS® Programs

2009 November - Looping the loop with DO loops October - The Use and Abuse of the NODUPKEY option in the SORT Procedure September - Comparing all datasets in one directory against all the datasets in a second dataset, using CALL EXECUTE August - Selecting data for a particular month July - I am missing a '0' in front of my day value, can SAS still read it okay? (or can SAS read a text date of '6JUN2009' correctly) June - Prefixing a value with '+' or '-' May - Why use dataset variable labels? April - More on using a FORMAT to merge data March - Delete all datasets in a library, except ... February - Getting rid of the message "NOTE: BASE data set does not exist. DATA file is being copied to BASE file." January - SUM(OF variables) 2008 December - Making a copy of a SAS dataset, Part 2 November - How would I set only character or numeric variables of an observation to missing? October - Making a copy of a SAS dataset, ...

A many-to-many match-merge is more complicated. When we try to do many-to-many merge that means both the data sets have multiple occurrences of BY variable values. Simple match-merge the two data sets using the BY statement is never OK… Because when we do, we get the following note in the log. "NOTE: MERGE statement has more than one data set with repeats of BY values." SAS Programmer always tries to avoid this message in the log file….because this message means that the resulting data set is probably not what we expected. Don’t be afraid that there is no way… you can do many-to-many merge using data step. A well known SAS Expert David Franklin points out a way to do many-to-many merge Many Thanks David! (Read his original post here ) NS8PO19P The Fundamentals of MERGE

Assessing SAS® Skill Level during the Interviewing Process Interviewing and assessing SAS Programmers SAS Technical Interview Questions SAS® Interview or “How to Get a Second Date Tips for Effectively Interviewing SAS Programming Candidates HIRE Power in the Pharmaceutical What’s a “Senior” SAS® Position? Hiring the Best SAS Programmers Quizzes and Solutions (source: http://www2.umdnj.edu ) by Ron Cody http://www2.umdnj.edu/codyweb/biocomputing/quizzes.html SAS Proficiency Test by Judy Loren Evaluating Sample Code for an Interview Assessing SAS Skill Level during the Interviewing Process

If you happen to be one of the unlucky programmers who lost the SAS code … because you didn’t save it. There is solution for that…. SAS System automatically takes the backup of the SAS code for every 10 minutes (default); Just look in the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\Programmer Name\Application Data\SAS\EnhancedEditor\ Note: Replace “ Programmer Name ” with your login user id of the System you are using; If you go the specified location above, you will see a copy of the unsaved version of the SAS code. It will be quick if you search files with the extension name ‘.$AS’ (extension for auto-saved SAS codes) If you want, you can also change the 10-minute time interval for Auto save…. Go to… Tools ► Options ► Preferences ► Edit. In the preferences dialog box, make sure to the change the time under Autosave every …. And click on OK ...

SAS OnlineTutor®: Advanced SAS®

How Can I Find a Time Format that Does Not Remove the Leading Zero e.g. Time5 (output printed as 09:36 instead of 9:36)? I have found an intersting solution to this problem in http://www.sas.com/ ; direct link (Suggested by Stephen Hoar, Lloyds TSB) There is currently no time format that puts leading zeros automatically in time values. But there are a number of ways of achieving this, below are some examples. Example 1: Create your own custom format using the following syntax. Then format your data values using the user defined format. proc format ; picture military other = '%0H:%0M:%0S' ( datatype =time) ; run ; data test; x= ' 9:36't ; format x military8. ; put x=; run ; x=09:36:00 Example 2: You can also use the TODw.d format which does write leading zeros, but the original value must be a SAS datetime value. To convert your time values to datetime values use the DHMS function. In the DHMS function insert the value: 0 date, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and then...

SAS Do Array Three SAS Programs that use Arrays

There is a set of SAS macros, converts a directory of transport files to a directory of SAS data sets and format catalogs (and vice versa). To see how to invoke the macros, look at the test following the last macro. The macros make the assumption that transport files created from data sets have the extension .xpt, and transport files created from format catalogs have the extension .xpf. %expfmts : This macro will convert an existing format catalog into a data set in transport format. % expdset : This macro will convert an existing SAS data set into a transport file. %impfmts : This macro will convert a transport CNTLOUT data set into a native format catalog. %impdset : This macro will convert a transport data set into a native SAS data set. %getnames : This macro will create a SAS data set consisting of a variable called FILENAME. There will be one observation for each file in the specified directory with the specified extension. Direct link: http://www.sas.co...

In my view, Display Manager commands didn’t get much attention of SAS programmers as they should be. It may be because... 1) SAS Documentation has very little information about how to use this facility. 2) Even Google searches aren’t helpful enough. Here is the list of Display Manager Commands I know… dm "log; clear; out; clear;" ; *Clears Output and Log Window; dm " vt work.dsn" ; *Opens the dataset DSN in a View table window; dm "vt &syslast" ; *Opens the dataset recently created; dm 'next viewtable:work.dsn; end; ' ; *Closes the VT window of DSN; dm 'keydef f12 submit' ; *Assigns the submit command to the F12 key ; *Assigns clear log and output commands to F2 Key; dm "keydef F2 'cle log; cle output; submit'" ; *applies detail view to explorer window; dm   "next explorer; detail" ; dm "next log; detail" ; *Opens the Log Window; dm "next output; detail" ; *Open...

Yesterday I came across a website BLINK7. It is a great site to browse and to get help to improve your SAS knowledge in Proc SQL and Base SAS. This website offers a lot of information in the form of sample codes and tutorials on different topics in SAS. SQL for SAS Programmers - Introduction What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language and was designed for development and maintenance within a Database Management System (DBMS). A DBMS consists of one or more tables of data, typically joined in a hierarchical fashion, and a series of programs for organizing the data. Typical tasks performed with SQL code include the following: Retrieve (or query) data from one or more data tables Manipulate data within existing tables Define new tables and create data within new table Alter existing table definitions Set permissions for different users to access existing tables The first part of this tutorial deals with using the PROC SQL statement to perform basic data extraction. Screenshots ...

Using the SAS Output Delivery System (ODS), you can create, customise, and manage HTML output in any operating environment by submitting programming statements. After creating HTML files, you can view them using Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or any Web browser that fully supports HTML 3.2. ODS gives you new formatting options and makes procedure output much more flexible. With ODS, you can easily create HTML, RTF, PCL, PS, XML, Latex and PDF output, an output data set of procedure results and traditional SAS listing output. Also, ODS stores your output in its component parts (data and table definition) so that numerical data retains its full precision. Procedure output is divided into components, or output objects. Depending on the procedure that you run you might have one or several output objects created. For example proc print would create just one output object but proc univariate would produce multiple output objects. ODS stores a link to each output object in the results...

*Creating a flag variable when a test variable meets certain criteria is very common for SAS programmer…. Many SAS programmers use the below code to assign a flag of 1 or 0 depending on of the test variable meets criteria or not.; *Ex:; *Create a test dataset; data test; input id age sex $; cards ; 1 25 Male 2 35 Female 3 29 Female 4 37 Male 5 32 Male ; run ; *Most programmers use the following code to assign avalue of 1 0r 0 to flag variable; data test1; set test; if sex= 'Male' then flag=1; else flag=0; run ; *Some programmers use the following code to do the same task; data test; set test; flag= ifn (sex= 'Male' ,1,0); run ; *You can write ....even simpler code than the above 2 dataset step methods.; data test2; set test; flag= 'Male' =sex; run ; *Or; data test3; set test; flag=sex= 'Male' ; run ; * Note : The above code does the same thing as the 1st and 2nd method; Cave...

Always, programmers need to summarize the demographics data and show it in a table and to do so they use Proc Freq procedure. Even though proc Freq calculates the Frequency exactly, it may not be the write procedure in all cases especially when data do not exist. Some times statistician wants to see all the data values on the CRF in the final table, even though there is no combination as such exists in the dataset. In this case we have to insert observations with 0 values. Here I will present you ….the different methods to insert a zero row. 1) Creating a Dummy Dataset and Concatenate the dummy dataset with the input dataset. 2) Proc Freq SPARSE option 3) Proc Means COMPLETETYPES Option 4) Proc Means COMPLETETYPES O ption with PRELOADFMT option. Dummy Dataset: Adv: Simple and doesn’t need any formats Caveat : Programmer has to know all the possible combinations Sparse Option: Lists all possible combinations of variable levels even when a combination does not occur. Syntax: p...

Direct Link: . philasug.org/Presentations/200811/SAS92.ppt Direct Link: http://www.sas.com/offices/NA/canada/downloads/presentations/Calgary2008/SAS9.2.pdf Direct Link: http://rtsug.org/ppt/Secosky_nov07.ppt philasug.org/Presentations/200811/SAS92.ppt" style="height: 45em;" width="100%"> http://rtsug.org/ppt/Secosky_nov07.ppt" style="height: 45em;" width="100%">

The Case Report Tabulation (CRT) is the collection of the annotated case report form (CRF), SAS® datasets, metadata, and source programs that comprise a portion of the NDA package submitted to the FDA. The FDA uses it when reviewing submissions. Review starts with the Define document which contains metadata describing the datasets, variables, and values. It is all tied together using internal and external hyperlinks, bookmarks, and destinations to make it easily navigable 1 . The CRT is essentially a collection of data and documentation for a study. It contains features such as bookmarks and links to allow reviewers to easily navigate the submission. For consistency, there are guidelines from FDA1 and CDISC defining the components though the guidelines are limited in scope. We need to create Define Document ( define.pdf or define.xml ) as a part of CRT. Each dataset is a single SAS transport file and, in general, includes a combination of raw and derived data. Each CRF domain (e.g., d...

The DLP (Data LifeCycle Plan) guides an organization and serves as a blueprint for how to create every type of data across all therapeutic areas and functional specialties. Howard describes the DLP as "an overall document that says here are the things you need to think about." In some DLPs, there might be more than 15 chapters, each controlled by a group of domain experts. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) typically cover process. DLPs, in contrast, are technical specifications about what happens to the data. Both SOPs and DLPs should be subject to similar governance. The DLP creates a framework for discussions that do occur on their own, but it forces them to an earlier stage of the process. Source: http://www.clinpage.com/article/cdisc_for_skeptics/C9 Here's a sample chapter of a DLP for demographic data from Kestrel Consultants, Inc.

Setting The Record Straight: The Future of ODM, SDTM and CDISC November 05, 2008 By Rebecca Kush, Frank Newby, David Iberson-Hurst, & Amanda J de Montjoie, CDISC When rumors increase, and when there is an abundance of noise and clamor, believe the second report. Alexander Pope, 1688–1744 In recent weeks, there have been a number of rumors about the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium CDISC standards and their continued use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These whispers suggest that the Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) standard is being replaced and that the Operational Data Model (ODM) should no longer be used. The rumors have caused confusion at best and fear of standards abandonment at worst. This is a second report—an attempt to clarify what’s happened and how the industry should move forward. CDISC, to state the obvious, is a global standards organization. While the FDA plays a vital role in the drug development industry in the U.S., there are other ...

Define.xml which generally describes what are we submitting to FDA .. like case Report Tabulations ( SAS datasets in XPT format, annotated CRF’s and the variables (metadata)) in a machine readable format….. In simple words it is .....Data and Metadata in Machine-Readable Format. It is considered as the standard process for submitting metadata to FDA and other regulatory bodies….

Though there are other Coding dictionaries available along with MedDRA (ex: COSTART and WHOART ), MedDRA dictionary is typically used in the US for Adverse Events coding. AE\ MedDRA coding is not the SAS programmers work; it is usually done by medical coder or database programmer. Coding basically involves a process of finding a dictionary term that matches the verbatim term reported on the CRF , and getting the other related dictionary derived variables useful for the analysis like System Organ Class ( SOC ), Preferred Term ( PT ) and Lowest Level Term ( LLT ), etc. Some times this process may take more time than expected, because Misspellings and other differences would delay the process of coding. In that case, person responsible for coding has to look for the dictionary term that which is the best possible match from the MedDRA dictionary. So the question here comes is what SAS programmer can do in this process. Here is the Answer…. SAS programmer has to work hard to make...

ABSTRACT: Code review is an essential step in the development of concise and accurate SAS® programs. It is a required verification step in performing validation in a regulated environment. This paper will present techniques and a macro that can be freely downloaded to automate this task. The %coderev macro will perform many of the common tasks during a code review including: 1. Spell checking headers and comments 2. Reviewing all input and output datasets of the program 3. Comparing defined macro variables versus macro variable usage 4. Checking for multiple macro calls that are not in a macro library 5. Evaluating hard code logic 6. Evaluating sort order of all datasets These tasks are normally performed by an independent reviewer instead of the original programmer. By automating the tasks, the code review process will ensure that the smallest mistake can be captured through reports to ensure the highest quality and integrity. What normally is a dreaded task can now be done with ease....

SAS Instructor Tip: Programming Featured Instructor: Cynthia Johnson How do I combine my SAS data sets and eliminate duplicate rows at the same time? SAS Instructor Cynthia Johnson responds ... SAS Instructor Tip: Programming Featured Instructor: Kent Reeve What happens when you forget the period on an informat when using formatted input? SAS Programming Tips[1] SAS/GRAPH Tip: Controlling the Graph Axis SAS Instructor Cynthia Zender shows you how to control the graph axis through a feature of using the AXIS statement. SAS ODS Tip: Creating Page X of Y Page Numbers SAS Instructor Cynthia Zender shows you how to use the SAS ODS ESCAPECHAR to create a "Page X of Y Page Numbers" SAS ODS Tip: Creating a Table of Contents SAS Instructor Cynthia Zender shows you how to create a table of contents using the CONTENTS= Option with ODS RTF and ODS PDF destinations. SAS ODS Tip: Controlling the Width of Cells SAS Instructor Cynthia Zender sh...